Space Zen, The Overview Effect

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Edgar Mitchell an Apollo 14 astronaut experienced a profound and little understood phenomenon, a sort of space zen.   In February 1971, Apollo 14 had taken off and Edgar was in space, and looking back on earth he described feeling completely engulfed by a profound sense of universal connectedness.  He had become instantly and profoundly aware that each of his atoms were connected to the small planet he saw in the window and to every other atom in the Universe.  He described experiencing an intense awareness that Earth, with its humans, and other animals,  were all one systematic whole, a sense of interconnected euphoria.
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Because Edgar was not the first or the last astronaut to experience this feeling of wholeness, Andy Newberg a neurologist has done some research in to the matter and he found that there is a neurological difference within the brain between someone who has experienced this space zen, and someone who has not.  Presently Andy is preparing a brain scanner to go up with the next space exploration to study (live) what happens within once the mind enters space.