Shaun Gallagher, the Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence in Philosophy, brought a humanities component to the “Space, Science and Spirituality” study on the experiences of awe, wonder, curiosity and humility reported by astronauts after traveling in space.
“When I looked back and saw that tiny Earth, it snapped my world view. Here we are, on kind of a physically inconsequential planet, going around a not particularly significant star, going around a galaxy of billions of stars that’s not a particularly significant galaxy — in a universe where there’s billions and billions of galaxies. Are we really that special? I don’t think so.”
— Astronaut Bill Anders
religious, most subjects reported some sort of response. “They started to think about the value of human life, looking at the planet and how fragile it is,” Gallagher says. “They talked about the fragility of the atmosphere. Many of them talked about ecological concerns and ethical concerns, but also all the hungry people down on Earth and how there aren’t a lot of political borders they can see from space and what is keeping us apart, that kind of thing.” Three U of M graduate students in philosophy assisted with conducting interviews for the study. The interviewers used special techniques to help the participants recall the event as they originally experienced it. “The aim was to try to gauge their immediate reaction to the simulator rather than any thoughts they had about it after reflection,” says U of M graduate student Chris Lucibella. A high percentage of the subjects reported strong reactions to the simulator, he says. “It definitely seems that people experience a degree of awe or wonder from seeing the Earth shrinking behind them, even in a simulated environment.” W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U
Benjamin Aguda, a U of M PhD candidate, found the results were across the board. “I didn’t notice much regularity as far as how people interpreted their experiences. I did see awe in many people, but it seems that the expectations that people bring into the simulation with them are the major factor in how they react to it. Religious people talked about God, non-religious people talked about their families, scientific-type people talked about the universe, conscientious people talked about the Earth or humanity as a whole. I didn’t see any nonreligious people becoming religious or anything like that.” The findings could have many applications, Gallagher says. Psychologists may use the results to study problems that might arise during long-term space travel and determine who might be best suited for an extended flight. The study could prove to be a new initiative for space tourism as well. “One application might be therapeutic,” he adds. “We might be able to put someone in a simulator and give them experiences of awe and wonder. That might be an interesting treatment for depression.” Gallagher’s study wraps up later this year. FA L L 2 013
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