“Edgar Mitchell’s ‘dyadic model’ is a breakthrough in the scientific under- standing of reality.” —Dr. Ervin Laszlo, founder and president of international think tank The Club of Budapest, and author of Science and the Akashic Field “Originally scheduled for the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, Mitchell, as told in this smooth blend of autobiography and exegesis, journeyed to the Moon in 1971 (and generated great controversy over ESP experiments he con- ducted on the flight). Within a few years, he had left NASA and founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, aimed at the systematic study of the na- ture of consciousness. At the institute, he came to some fascinating con- clusions, detailed here and based on principles of resonance, regarding a possible natural explanation for psychic powers. Mitchell isn’t afraid to go out on a limb; his contention that the universe ‘intended’ to evolve to higher levels, for example, goes against mainstream Western science. He grounds his ideas in data and reason, however, making this a strong offer- ing for those who enjoy the books of Larry Dossey, Ken Wilber, and others pushing the envelope of the science/spirit paradigm.” —Publishers Weekly “Apollo 14 astronaut Mitchell offers a vision in which technology and intu- ition are harmonized in pursuit of a more advanced consciousness. When Mitchell was hurtling back to Earth after walking on the moon in 1971, he had a profound sense that all things are interconnected, and that the uni- verse is an intelligent process with which we need to link up. Mitchell tells how, while returning to Earth, he carried out a private ESP experiment that seemed to yield positive results. Mitchell concludes that our own con- sciousness and beliefs are profoundly part of reality. A stimulating attempt to reinvent the wheel.” —Kirkus Reviews “Profound and articulate...Edgar Mitchell has really dug into the main paradoxical issues [of science and religion] and comes up with a resolving viewpoint. An inspiring piece of literature.” —Harold E. Puthoff, PhD, physicist at the Institute for Advanced Studies, and coauthor of Mind Reach “Edgar Mitchell is not a mere astronaut technician, but a many-faceted cosmic adventurer who also probes the nature of divinity. He ushers in new concepts challenging science and religion, and makes us think differ- ently and more appreciatively about life on this planet. And not only Edgar Mitchell is the explorer in this book—so are we. The Way of the Explorer is an awesome educational experience.” —The Reverend Canon William V. Rauschter, MD; Rector, Christ Church, Woodbury, New Jersey; and Honorary Canon of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Trenton THE WAY EXPLORERof the This page intentionally left blank THE WAY EXPLORERof the Revised Edition Apollo Astronaut’s An Journey Material MysticalThrough theWorlds and Dr. Edgar Mitchell Dwight Williams with New Page Books A Division of The Career Press, Inc. Franklin Lakes, NJ Copyright © 2008 by Edgar Mitchell All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permis- sion from the publisher, The Career Press. THE WAY OF THE EXPLORER EDITED AND TYPESET BY KARA REYNOLDS Cover design byHoward Grossman/12e Design Printed in the U.S.A. by Book-mart Press To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-848- 0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press. The Career Press, Inc., 3 Tice Road, PO Box 687, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 www.careerpress.com www.newpagebooks.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mitchell, Edgar D. An Apollo astronaut’s journey through the material and mystical worlds / by Edgar Mitchell with Dwight Williams. — Rev. ed. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-56414-977-0 ISBN-10: 1-56414-977-3 1. Mitchell, Edgar D. 2. Astronauts—United States—Biography. 3. Religion and science. 4. Project Apollo (U.S.) I. Williams, Dwight Arnan. II. Title. TL789.85.M57A3 2008 629.450092--dc22 [B] 2007035249 To my persistent and devoted colleagues of many nations and diverse disciplines who seek to unravel the myths, paradoxes, mysteries, and dogma of the past in order to reveal a path in the modern age toward a sustainable world order. This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments To name individually all who have contributed to this work would re- quire a separate volume. Each person I have met—critic or ardent supporter— has been my teacher. I am grateful for the lessons, even those I did not willingly choose. I wish to thank those who had faith in an idea that led to the founding of the Institute of Noetic Sciences: Henry Rolfs (deceased) and Zoe Rolfs, Richard Davis (deceased), Judith Skutch Whitson, Paul Temple, Phillip Lukin (deceased), and John White. And those who came a bit later to carry the idea further: Osmond Crosby, Brendan O’Regan (deceased), Diane Brown Temple, Willis Harman (deceased), Winston Franklin (deceased), Barbara McNeill, and the many (and growing) dedicated directors, offic- ers, and staff. The institute is now recognized, and its agenda studied in more than 30 nations globally. Those who assumed the leadership to carry the ideas to Canada, South America, Europe, and Africa are gratefully acknowl- edged: in Canada, Diana Cawood; in Brazil, Tamas Makray; in Argentina, Ana de Campos and Ana Lia Alvarez; in England, Ian and Victoria Watson; in Norway, Jonathan Learn; in Nigeria, Hafsat Abiola—to name just a few. Thank you all for your confidence. Particularly I wish to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of my friend and close associate, Robert Staretz, who has read, reread, ed- ited, made suggestions, and otherwise contributed significantly to this work. Thank you, Bob. This page intentionally left blank Contents View From the Velvet Blackness: An Inspiration -1- 15 Sea of Grass: The Early Years -2- 23 -3- 29 Sea of Sky: Preparation -4- 39 -5- 47 -6- 53 Into the Vacuum: The Mission -7- 61 -8- 67 -9- 73 Down and In: The New Journey -10- 81 -11- 89 -12- 95 -13- 101 -14- 111 11 Invisible Realities -15- 123 -16- 133 -17- 141 -18- 145 A Dyadic Model: Interconnections -19- 157 -20- 163 -21- 169 -22- 179 -23- 185 -24- 189 Portraits of Reality: Interpretation and Paradox -25- 197 -26- 205 -27- 215 Synthesis -28- 227 -29- 237 Toward the Future -30- 245 Epilogue 253 Notes 257 Bibliography 263 Index 275 About the Author 287 View From the Velvet Blackness An Inspiration This page intentionally left blank 1 In January of 1971, I boarded a spacecraft and traveled to an airless world of brilliant clarity. The soil there is barren and gray, and the horizon always further than it appears. It is a static world that has only known silence. Upon its landscape human perspective is altered. During the 15 years prior to the moment my friend Alan Shepard and I opened the door to the lunar module and descended the ladder to the dusty surface of the moon, my days had progressed more or less as I’d planned. But this wasn’t the achievement of an individual, a space agency, or even a country. This was, rather, the achievement of our species, our civilization. Life had come a long way since it first sprang from the Earth’s rock and water. And now, hundreds of thousands of miles away on that small blue and white sphere, millions of human beings were watching two men walk about the surface of another world for the third time in our history. These were momentous days, extraordinary for their audacity, extraordinary for the coordination of minds and skills that made them possible. A lot of hard work by some of the most brilliant men and women on the planet had culminated in making us a space-faring species. But what I did not know as Alan and I worked on that waterless world, in a mountainous region known as Fra Mauro, was that I had yet to grasp what would prove most extraordinary about the journey. It wasn’t until after we had made rendezvous with our friend Stu Roosa in the Kittyhawk command module and were hurtling Earthward at several miles per second, that I had time to relax in weightlessness and contem- plate that blue jewel-like home planet suspended in the velvety blackness from which we had come. What I saw out the window was all I had ever known, all I had ever loved and hated, all that I had longed for, all that I once thought had ever been and ever would be. It was all there suspended in the cosmos on that fragile little sphere. What I experienced was a grand 15 16 The Way of the Explorer epiphany accompanied by exhilaration, an event I would later refer to in terms that could not be more foreign to my upbringing in west Texas, and later, New Mexico. From that moment on my life would take a radically different course. What I experienced during that three-day trip home was nothing short of an overwhelming sense of universal connectedness. I actually felt what has been described as an ecstasy of unity. It occurred to me that the mol- ecules of my body and the molecules of the spacecraft itself were manu- factured long ago in the furnace of one of the ancient stars that burned in the heavens about me.