Phil Brown posted the other day on the Overview Effect, defined here:

The Overview Effect is the experience of seeing the Earth from a distance, especially from orbit or the Moon, and realizing the inherent unity and oneness of everything on the planet. The Effect represents a shift in perception wherein the viewer moves from identification with parts of the Earth to identification with the whole system. – Frank White, author of The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution.

Phil’s link to a Live Science.com blog by Dave Brody has an amazing quote from astronaut Ed Mitchell who went to the moon with the Apollo 14 mission. Mitchell said,

And then, without warning: an overwhelming feeing of bliss, timelessness, connected-ness… He suddenly and deeply felt the understanding of his constituent atoms as having been born in the fires of ancient supernovas. He saw Earth and it’s people and all it’s other species and systems as a unified integrated synergistic whole. He felt good; ecstatic actually…

But that’s not all –

20 years ago, author Frank White collected, sifted, polished and curated the observations of 30 astronauts and cosmonauts. But these weren’t science observations or notes about the spacecraft hardware. They were reports of this specific, marked psychological shift – common to all these space travelers – immediately and profoundly broadening these hard-boiled guys’ perspectives.

Phil wisely concludes,

Doesn’t the study of astrology produce an Overview Effect? In astrology, we come to understand the cosmic connections of our own lives. I mean, if we are each connected to Pluto, Uranus, Chiron, not to mention our own Moon, what a stunning and mind-boggling overview that is! Perhaps a part of astrology’s power lies in the fact that once we see the overview—the whole solar system is manifesting in each one of our individual lives—it forever transforms our awareness of what it means to be a human on Earth.

I would add that this “Overview Effect” is an experience of Neptune which occurs when we are able to surrender the boundaries of our practical and mundane reality and experience oneness with the larger whole. In letting go of those boundaries we delve into the mystical expansion of our spirit into wholeness and see the greater magic of life — on earth or anywhere else.