More than 100 billion people have walked the face of the Earth. Twelve have walked on the moon. One of those was Edgar Mitchell.
On January 31, 1971, Navy Captain Dr. Edgar Mitchell embarked on a journey into outer space, resulting in his becoming the sixth man to walk on the moon. The Apollo 14 mission was NASA's third manned lunar landing. This historic journey ended safely nine days later on February 9, 1971. It was an audacious time in the history of mankind. For Mitchell, however, the most extraordinary journey was yet to come.
What he did not mention to NASA or the press was his transformative experience in the Apollo 14 command module during the long journey back to earth. Up to this point, the astronauts had been busy, minute by minute. But now, in the quiet of the command module, drifting silently in lunar orbit, he found himself gazing out the window at the celestial panorama unfolding before him.
Mitchell's upbringing had ingrained him with theories about religion and the Bible that eventually became too dogmatic for his prying scientific mind. From his perspective, the Bible had been used more as a basis for war than peace, and one he could no longer accept at face value. But his journey to the moon had molded his lack of belief into something new. "This is a sight that bores deep into the soul and shakes the foundation of your being."
Mitchell had an awakening—a feeling that there was a greater being, a guiding hand, and that science and spirituality were not two different dimensions of reality. They were, in fact, one and the same. This transforming experience sent him on a search for what he now saw as a more likely truth: the presence of a cosmic conscience and order in the universe—a Divine Mind controlling every fabric of our being, from our mental molecules to the vast empires of the universe.
His journey toward the intersection of science and spirituality would consume the rest of his life.
