On earth, we have struggled for centuries to understand the dynamics of life and how everything relates with everything else. For those who have had the pleasure of going into space and experiencing life away from earth, there’s a phenomenon called The Overview Effect that has many astronauts asking the same basic questions from a different perspective.

A recent short documentary by the Planetary Collective shows several astronauts discussing their experiences, telling of some of the conclusions they came to as a result, and expanding on the questions that came to mind due to the perspective-bending events that occurred during and after their walks amongst the stars. The general responses were built around the awe that filled them during their travels.

Ron Garan, a veteran of the space shuttle and International Space Station missions, described seeing the earth from space like this:

“It really does look like this beautiful oasis out in the middle of nothingness, and if you had a chance for your eyes to adjust so you can actually see the stars and the Milky Way, it’s this oasis against the backdrop of infinity.”

Here is the video itself followed by 15 stunning images from it. The contention by some of the astronauts and possibly of the video in general is that eastern religions seem to “get it” better than western religions or science. I disagree with the premise, but the visuals and hearing how the experiences affected the astronauts still gives value to documentary as a whole.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/55073825[/vimeo]