Astronaut who spent 178 days in space says humanity is living 'a big lie'

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Ron Garan says things appear different when you see Earth hanging in darkness in space. (Photo: Ron Garan/ Instagram) Photograph:(Instagram)


Former NASA astronaut Ron Garan says that after looking at Earth from space, he realised that humanity is living a big lie 

A former NASA astronaut says humans are living "a big lie". Ron Garan, who spent 178 days in space, witnessed a shift in his perspective about our existence on Earth, saying that "we’re paying a very high price". 

Garan is not only an astronaut but also a fighter pilot and a social entrepreneur. He has spent time on a space shuttle, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and the International Space Station. Looking down on Earth, he says he was hit by a 'sobering realisation'.

In an interview with Big Think, Garan said that people on Earth treat the "life-support systems of our planet as the subsidiary of the global economy". Every human-made system is treated that way, he said. 

I saw an iridescent biosphere teaming with life. I didn't see an economy, but since our human-made systems treat everything including the very life-support systems of our planet as the subsidiary of the global economy, it's obvious from the vanish point of space that we're living a lie," he said.

He says that after he returned from space, his perspective changed due to the 'Overview Effect'. Things started appearing differently to him after he saw how Earth was hanging in the darkness of space. 

"The Overview Effect describes the shift that astronauts have when they see the planet hanging in the blackness of space," Garan said. "There's this lightbulb that pops up when we realize how interconnected and interdependent we all are," he added.


Humanity is 'floating in darkness'

Humanity faces a lot of problems on Earth - wars, hunger, poverty and more. Countries are fighting with each other for territory, the rich are busy filling their vaults and more. The problems, Garan says, continue to remain because humanity does not see the "actual picture". 

"Part of the reasons we're not solving the problems is because we don't have the right perspective, we're not addressing things in the reality of the situation," Garan says.

"We think we know the whole picture, when in reality we see a very very small representation," he added.

This is why, Garan says, "We're paying a really high price right now, as a civilisation."




Read original story on WION 


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