'We're living a Lie': Astronaut reveals shock realization after viewing Earth from Space

Former NASA astronaut Ron Garan (photo) returned to Earth after spending 178 days in space with a profoundly changed worldview.

Garan now believes many of the planet's issues could be addressed if more people experienced what scientists call the "overview effect."

Garan, who traveled more than 71 million miles in a total of 2,842 orbits, realized that Earth is more fragile than he initially thought.

“When I looked out of the window of the International Space Station, I saw the paparazzi-like flashes of lightning storms, I saw dancing curtains of auroras that seemed so close it was as if we could reach out and touch them and I saw the unbelievable thinness of our planet's atmosphere. In that moment I was hit by the sobering realization.”

Ronald came to the understanding that every living thing on Earth was being kept alive by a very thin layer and people don’t realize just how connected we all are.

“I saw an iridescent biosphere teaming with life, I didn't see an economy, but since our human-made systems treat everything including the very life-support systems of our planet as the [...] subsidiary of the global economy, it's obvious from the vanish point of space that we're living a lie,” he added.

Ronald has urged people to shift their thinking for the overall benefit of humanity and move from thinking “economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy”.

This new perspective has led Garan to believe that humanity needs to rethink its priorities. "We need to move from thinking economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy. That's when we're going to continue our evolutionary process," he stated.

He emphasized that the world is paying a "high price" for humanity’s flawed perspective, which is evident in our failure to address global problems.

"We're not going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality," Garan noted in a video posted to Big Think.

In an interview with Big Think, he explained: “We keep trying to deal with issues such as global warming, deforestation, biodiversity loss as stand alone issues when in reality they’re just symptoms of the underlying root problem and the problem is, that we don’t see ourselves as planetary.

Garan is not alone in experiencing this change of perspective. William Shatner, best known for his role as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek series, noted after his visit to space, "It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered." He described the contrast between the "vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below" as overwhelming and filled with sadness.

"Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna… things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind," Shatner lamented.

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