Only 12 men have walked the still and dusty surface of the moon. Most came back indelibly marked by the experience. They all thought that one day, their experience of exploring the moon would be shared by many others. So far, they remain the only oracles. For some ... the vision of the Earth rising on the horizon or the vast sea of stars in blackness of space forever altered their vision of the world. Edgar D. Mitchell went to the moon in 1971 [on Apollo 14] as a scientist and an adventurer, but the trip also launched him into a journey of exploration of the mind and consciousness. During the trip, Dr. Mitchell tried to make contact with others on earth through telepathy. What it did for me is really force me to get out of the trees and look at the forest," he said, "to get a picture of the universe from a totally different perspective and then start to question our conventional ways of looking at ourselves, our place in the universe, our place in life, what it's all about." He was exhilarated and humbled by the connection between mankind and the cosmos. "For me it was the beginning of unitary thinking," said Dr. Mitchell. "To think that the molecules of my body were manufactured in the same furnace as those stars in those galaxies billions of years ago." A year after after his return, he left NASA and later founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization in Northern California devoted to the study of consciousness, and of how we fit into the universe. Today, Dr. Mitchell ... spends much of his time lecturing and participating in conferences of his 40,000-member strong institute.