In February, 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell experienced the little understood phenomenon sometimes called the "Overview Effect"; He describes being completely engulfed by a profound sense of universal connectedness; Without warning, he says, a feeing of bliss, timelessness, and connectedness began to overwhelm him; He describes becoming instantly and profoundly aware that each of his constituent atoms were connected to the fragile planet he saw in the window and to every other atom in the Universe; He described experiencing an intense awareness that Earth, with its humans, other animal species, and systems were all one synergistic whole; He says the feeling that rushed over him was a sense of interconnected euphoria; He was not the first—nor the last—to experience this strange "cosmic connection";

Rusty Schweikart experienced it on March 6th 1969 during a spacewalk outside his Apollo 9 vehicle: "When you go around the Earth in an hour and a half, you begin to recognize that your identity is with that whole thing; That makes a change…it comes through to you so powerfully that you're the sensing element for Man;" Schweikart, similar to what Mitchell experienced, describes intuitively sensing that everything is profoundly connected;

Their experiences, along with dozens of other similar experiences described by other astronauts, intrigue scientists who study the brain; This "Overview Effect", or acute awareness of all matter as synergistically connected, sounds somewhat similar to certain religious experiences described by Buddhist monks.

This is interesting.  There could be several contributing factors:

1. Because an astronaut is separated from the human population more than usual, he or she isn't bogged down by some of the lower vibrational patterns as much as usual.
2. Because they experience zero gravity, they aren't bogged down by their bodies as much.
3. They have an experience that is so different than what people usually experience,  their usual associative processes become less active and they are more able to consider things with a child like wonder.

fitting term "overview effect" if sitting out in space looking at the Earth is not an overview, I wouldn't know what that is...I never thought about it much, but this is a neat article, it's like their disconnection brought to sense awareness their connectiveness to even an atom.

opposites, duality. the opposite brings up to the fore of the mind the contrast of the polarity of thought.
like when Bruce thought small, everything got large out there. when he thought far away, things closed in. reverse polarity concept when traveling outside the box.

Alysia,

I have also read about this and this experience was very much what I experienced during my NDE,

He changed from a very material minded person into a believer in God and that the Universe was not just some chance happening. He became a dedicated Christian I believe

Alan