The story continues with these quotes from The Way of the Explorer:
"Once I had returned from the moon and experienced that strange insight, I understood that this phase of my life was drawing to a natural close. Perhaps, similar to the American public in 1971, I had enough as well
Somehow my attention was drawn down and in, deep into that vast realm of infinitely small spaces. The private experience of expansiveness I had felt during our return from the moon in particular drifted into focus. There had to be some significance to it, something more than could be explained as mere elevated emotion, heightened awareness, or mountaintop experience, though I frequently used the latter term to describe it myself. The experience was too intense, too complete in its alteration of my sensibilities. It was somehow defining, but I was simply left puzzled in its aftermath. Something extraordinary had happened, and I didnt know what it was. As Congressional funding for the Apollo program ran dry and the lunar missions drew to a close in the early 1970s, I turned my attention to the larger related question about the basic nature of this consciousness we humans enjoy. The most neglected fields of consciousness studies lay in the realms of the mysterious states of mind that allow for epiphany and the psychic event. I read, groping in a way, for a satisfactory explanation. I knew there was something worthy of serious investigation if the issue was approached in a manner different from the traditional. The reason for my brash certainty was simply founded: if the phenomenon of psychokinesis, as reported in the worlds religious and mystical literature, had any validity at all, then the scientific doctrine of
epiphenomenalism was a flawed concept.
Epiphenomenalism is the understanding that consciousness is merely a byproduct of physiological process, that it is secondary - consciousness having no power to influence physiological processes, because it is the result of the evolution of our corporeal bodies. Epiphenomenalism is also mainstream scientific dogma. My experience on the way home from the moon seemed to suggest otherwise.
The term epiphany, in the connotation of an intuitive insight, is certainly descriptive of what I experienced, as is the Greek word metanoia, which implies a change in thinking, even a new direction. But neither word individually, nor together, adequately described the event itself. They seemed to surround the meaning without actually touching it. In the vague chaos of everyday life, ideas come to you in the middle of the night, in the shower, in dreams. Sometimes they are pulled together, and made whole. They are lifes little everyday epiphanies. Sometimes they can shape and alter a life forever.
During the weeks and months that followed the moonshot, I read literature on the nature of religious experiences, as well as the very limited scientific offering outside of religious and scientific writing that dealt with the nature of human consciousness. I also met with renowned psychics and highly intuitive men and women to discuss what it was they experienced during moments similar to what I experienced. After a few weeks into this work I knew I was on to something, though I still didnt know precisely what. At times I felt as though I was on the precipice of resolving a grand mystery. A classic book of case studies of spontaneous expansive experiences written in 1901 by Dr, R. M. Bucke , entitled Cosmic Consciousnes*, set the tone for my own inquiries. Epiphany, I became certain, is a latent event in every individual. Where mystics have believed the more startling insights to be a supernatural phenomenon, I was reasonably sure it was entirely natural, even normal, perhaps an emergent characteristic of ongoing evolution. And thats what occurred, I believe, while on that fateful journey from the moon. I became quite sure of this. Yet I couldnt honestly describe it as a religious experience.
I began infinitely hopeful that the methods of science would eventually provide the answers, and with only two fundamental assumptions. The first was that we were dealing with events likely explainable by natural processes, and second, that all human experience is valid, or real to the percipient. Only the interpretation or meaning given to the experience is subject to question. If supernatural or paranormal events were actually involved, that would emerge in due course. The vehicle for this project would be a nonprofit foundation that would allow me to function as an independent scholar, Academia wouldnt be very receptive to these interests, but I knew these were issues naturally requiring a multidisciplinary approach. Thus, the Institute of Noetic Sciences** was conceived,
Weve evolved from a primitive species with limited knowledge with which to fashion tools, to a civilization capable of building machines capable of splitting the atom. Yet our civilization is still in its chronological infancy; in geologic time, just a few years out of the trees. As a species we seem yet juvenile, lacking in vision, unprepared for our own evolution, even blind as to the direction were evolving. In this respect we lack any thoughtful, consensus judgment to guide our conscious volition, because we are still uncertain as to whether we actually possess volition at all, if one accepts the accounts of Western philosophy, theology, and science.
Late in 1972 I began taking such thoughts more seriously when a strange series of events occurred in rapid succession. Oddly enough, all of this happened just as I was preparing to leave NASA and about to open the doors to the institute. These were not events that I would consider mere serendipity, but rather events governed by the mysterious cadence of synchronicity.
In the fall of that year I traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas, to speak to a group at a convention one of my first engagements of the sort. It promised to be a special occasion, as my mother was going to drive from her residence in Oklahoma to meet me. At the time she was having severe difficulty with her eyesight as a result of glaucoma, and without her glasses was legally blind. Through the years her glasses gradually grew thicker, as she considered corrective surgery too risky. And now she really could not see without them.
During the conference I met several remarkable men and women, one of whom was a man named Norbu Chen. Norbu was an American who had studied the earliest form of Tibetan Buddhism, a form that was liberally infused with ancient Tibetan Shamanistic practice. He was a small man of quick movements, graying beyond his years, inscrutable, and always in the midst of controversy. He also purported to be a healer. One evening after an entire day of speech-making, I introduced Norbu to my mother, who was at the time in her early 60s. My interest was twofold. I wanted to find out whether Norbu Chen was real or just talk, and to help my mother if that was possible, though I was skeptical. Making no promises, he merely suggested that we try, and see what would happen. I was intensely curious, and my mother was at least a good sport about the whole thing. She agreed that something good might come of it.
The following day Norbu and I met my mother in the seclusion of my suite where he asked her to sit in a chair, remove her thick glasses, and relax. I watched from across the room as this strange Asian-trained man did what he claimed to have done for so many years. Then I witnessed my mother settle deeply into a relaxed state. After placing himself in a meditative trance (he claimed) through singing his strange mantra, his hands floated over my mothers head, pausing over the eyes, There seemed to be an unspoken acceptance on her part, a silent trust in this man she had never met until this weekend.
After a few minutes of this, Norbu gently announced that he was finished and suggested she go to bed, sleep well, and treat herself kindly, as though she had been through major surgery. His prescription for nourishment was grape juice and broth. As I sat there in the chair observing, there was the hope that Id just witnessed the extraordinary. I wanted something to have happened, but at the same time I tried to be the detached, clinical observer,.and not let my expectations soar. In any case, I didnt have to wait long for the results. At 6 oclock the following morning my mother came rushing to my room, exclaiming, "Son, I can see, I can see!"
Without pausing to let me come to my senses, she proceeded to demonstrate her claim by reading from her thumb-worn bible with glasses in hand. Then once again she said more quietly. "Praise the Lord, I can see!" Dropping her glasses to the floor, she ground the thick lenses into shards under the heal of her shoe. Needless to say, I was impressed.
I am not, by this account, nor with any other anecdotal story, attempting to convince the doubtful. That can only happen when the open-minded skeptic sets out for himself or herself to view (or better, to experience) such peculiar phenomena (at least peculiar to the Western mind), and conducts a careful investigation, unbiased by traditional interpretations. This wasnt science, but as far as I was concerned, it indicated where I personally needed to probe more thoroughly. All I can sat is that it absolutely did happen in just this way.
Afterward I experienced the deep-down astonishment that arises from witnessing the extraordinary. This was an event I couldn't explain, but I couldn't deny it either. I knew my mother's reaction was authentic, and
she hadn't been duped about her own sight. She proceeded to drive home alone, several hundred miles, without her glasses."
Notes:
**Dr. Mitchells Institute of Noetic Sciences is headquartered at Petaluma, Californie. Their website is [
noetic.org].
*The important 1901 book Cosmic Consciousness by Richard M. Bucke, MD has now been re-published. Many pages and reviews may be read at:
[
www.amazon.com]
About Dr. Bucke: [
en.wikipedia.org]