Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell is the 6th man to walk on the moon. Personal insights experienced during his moon missions prompted Mitchell to found the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973 in order to study the further reaches of human potential.

DiCarlo: Transformation. Literally, the term means to change form, but how would you define it?

Mitchell: Perhaps the process that we are talking about here is more what the Greeks meant by the term "metonia", or change of mind. Might as well call it a change of heart. It is a change in our subconscious thinking-a change in perspective in modern terminology.

DiCarlo: You have stated the following as you and your Apollo crew were coming back from the moon: "I suddenly realized it's all one, that this magnificent universe is a harmonious, directed, purposeful whole. That we humans, both as individuals and as a species are an integral part of the ongoing process of creation." Would you say in your own growth process that moment of recognition in the deep of space was kind of a turning point for you, a trigger.

Mitchell: Well, the trigger was the space flight, and the opportunity to see the universe from the perspective of floating in outer space. I've been philosophic, searching for answers since my adolescent days, and I had long recognized that which I was learning from science and that which I had been taught, like religion, were in conflict. The conflict had been swept under the rug, but nevertheless there was a conflict. Resolving the conflict has been a deep avocational interest of mine for all those years.

Seeing things from the perspective of outer space, I more deeply recognized, that our science was incomplete and flawed, and our cultural cosmologies, based upon our religious cosmologies, were archaic and flawed. Seeing the planet against the backdrop of infinite space was the real trigger for this recognition.

DiCarlo: What would you see is the perspective you now have of yourself, our species, and the world in which we live as a result of your outer and inner experiences?

Mitchell: I'll quote Buckminster Fuller whom I just re-read not too long ago. "When you want to understand the human condition" someone asked Fuller, "where do you start?" He said, "You start with the universe." And that's exactly where you have to start. You start with the question, "What kind of a universe are we in that brought us to this point where we are now? What are the processes involved? And how have those processes spawned this little civilization on this planet, in this little solar system, in this rather average galaxy, which is only one of billions of galaxies. The universe is about 15 billion years old.

In the past our Newtonian physics has taught us that it is a mechanistic, energy/matter universe, created full blown and set in motion by diety and going on inexorably toward wherever diety had in mind. The view that seems to be emerging from frontier science is this: We live in an intelligent, self-organizing, self-learning, evolving, participatory, creative universe. And that humankind is not simply a species of creatures just along for the ride. All life (and matter) is connected in a creative, participatory fashion.

DiCarlo: So that would be the essence of the new paradigm as you see it?

Mitchell: Yes.

DiCarlo: Regarding IONS. Why did you found it and what is its mission and scope?