July 28, 2008 \u2014<\/strong> <\/p>\nOf the more than 6 billion people in the world, only 12 have ever
\nset foot on the moon, providing them the unique opportunity to peer at
\nthe Earth from hundreds of thousands of miles away.
\nFor many, the experience appears to have changed them. The select group
\nhas returned to regular life and dispersed into a wide array of
\ncareers, spiritual and philosophical leanings, and apparent perceptions
\nof the world they temporarily gazed at from space.
\nMost recently, NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell, a member of the Apollo 14
\nmission that landed on the moon in 1971, elaborated on his own fluid
\nthoughts on the universe, arguing that alien visits to Earth have been
\ncovered up by governments for more than 60 years.
\n"I happen to be privileged enough to be in on the fact that we have
\nbeen visited on this planet and the UFO phenomenon is real," Mitchell
\nsaid on Britain’s Kerrang Radio last week.
\n"It has been covered up by governments for quite some time now," added
\nMitchell, who grew up in Roswell, N.M., the location of the
\ncontroversial 1947 incident in which some believe the U.S. military
\ncovered up the crash scene of an alien spacecraft.
\nOther moon-walkers have admitted to changing after being launched into
\nouter space — some becoming more open-minded about the possibility of
\nextraterrestrial life, others more spiritual, and some choosing to
\nchange career paths all together.
\nAlan Bean, who flew the second moon landing on Apollo 12 in 1967, became a painter after returning to Earth.
\nSpeaking in British filmmaker David Signton’s 2007 documentary "In the
\nShadow of the Moon," astronaut Gene Cernan, who made the last
\nmoon-landing in 1972, said he became a believer in the idea of a
\ngreater power after traveling to outer space.
\n"I felt that the world was just too beautiful to have happened by
\naccident. There has to be something bigger than you and bigger than
\nme," said Cernan in the documentary.
\n"And I mean this in a spiritual sense, not a religious sense," said
\nCernan. "There has to be a creator of the universe who stands above the
\nreligions that we ourselves create to govern our lives."
\nPerhaps the saddest transformation was that of Buzz Aldrin, who made
\nthe first moon landing with Neil Armstrong in 1969, and later suffered
\nfrom severe depression and alcoholism, both of which he wrote about
\nextensively in his memoir "Return to Earth."
\nSpace historians and other former astronauts told ABCNews.com that
\nwhile Mitchell’s case may be extreme, those who travel into the galaxy
\nsometimes return with an altered view of the universe — and perhaps
\neven about its inhabitants. <\/p>\n
Do Space Travels Change Astronauts?<\/h4>\n
"There is some evidence that astronauts are changed by going into
\nspace," said Mike Neufeld, the chair of the space history division at
\nthe National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. <\/p>\n
Neufeld noted that while Mitchell’s beliefs in extra-terrestrial life
\nhave certainly come to light over the years, the former moon-walker had
\nalways been interested in the paranormal.
\n"He was interested in ESP before he was ever launched — he conducted an ESP experiment on Apollo 14," said Neufeld.
\nCalls and e-mails sent to Mitchell by ABCNews.com were not immediately returned.
\n"There’s nothing negative you can say about Mitchell or his Apollo 14
\nmission," said Neufeld. "But his involvement with ESP and his work
\nsince has always made him some sort of an outsider." NASA’s response to
\nMitchell’s claims have been limited.
\n"NASA is not involved in any sort of cover-up about alien life on this
\nplanet or anywhere else in the universe," NASA Headquarters spokesman
\nDavid Steitz said today. "Dr. Mitchell is a great American, but we do
\nnot share his opinions on this issue." <\/p>\n
‘Things Pale in Comparison’<\/h4>\n
Former astronaut John Herrington, who made three space walks in 2002 on
\nthe last space shuttle mission before the Columbia accident, told
\nABCNews.com that his experience as an astronaut definitely affected his
\nperspective on the universe.
\n"You see the world from a different perspective — you have a much
\ngrander view," said Herrington. "It does fundamentally change the way
\nyou look at the world."
\nHerrington said that he can also understand the depression that some encounter upon arriving back on earth.
\n"In anything that you put an incredible amount of effort into, a lot of
\ntimes you come back from it and things pale in comparison," said
\nHerrington. "There’s a little depression, a little let-down."
\n"You worked hard and now the experience is over," added Herrington.
\nFor Mitchell, the four decades back on Earth have done nothing to sway his belief in extraterrestrial life among the stars.
\n"There’s not much question at all that there’s life throughout the
\nuniverse — we’re not alone in the universe at all," he said last week.
\n"It is a real phenomenon."\n<\/div>\n
\nCopyright \u00a9 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"mitchell\"](\"http:\/\/a.abcnews.com\/images\/US\/mitchell_moon_080725_mn.jpg\")
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