The Lunar Effect
By Florence Madden
One of the pre-suppositions of NLP which I have found has the greatest ‘stickability’ with delegates on courses is that:
Everyone has a different map of the world
This is easy to say, easy to see the logic in……….not always so easy when our thinking in stuck firmly in our map !
Just before Christmas I watched a re-run of the film ‘Apollo 13’ and it reminded me of an article I read by Steve Taylor:
The Lunar Effect: The Psychology of Space Travel
Why does space travel bring about psychological transformation?
I had never heard of the ‘Lunar Effect’ before ……in essence it is how the experience of space travel has had a profound life changing effect on astronauts, in how they see their world and their place in it. Steve Taylor summarises what he sees are the 4 key reasons for this:
- After seeing the fragility of the earth in space, astronauts no longer take anything for granted. They are always aware of how lucky they are to be alive.
- The enormity of space gives them a wider sense of perspective, so that they aren’t so affected by trivial worries.
- For the same reason, they have become less egocentric, less focused on their own desires and needs.
- Seeing the universe stretching endlessly around them gives them a sense of meaning and connection which has never left them, a sense of being part of a unity.
It left me wondering what on Earth could we do to give ourselves such a fresh perspective (assuming we don’t have $200,000 for a trip on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic) ?
