Conference To Examine Impact of Civilian Space Travel on U.S. Culture, Economy and Global Relations

The telephone, personal computers, the Internet. Each of these technological innovations deeply altered our culture. Civilian space travel, which is less than two years away, has the potential to trigger even broader changes, and a leading group of scientists, experts in space flight, and visionary leaders will meet in Washington D.C. on July 18 at the first annual conference on the "Overview Effect" to discuss the impact this phenomenon will soon have on the way we think, live, work and interact, both here in the United States and globally.

The conference, which will be held at the Doubletree Hotel in Crystal City, in Arlington, Virginia, (adjacent to National Airport), has been organized by the World Space Center in collaboration with the Space Frontier Foundation to examine the potential social and economic impact of mass space travel. Of primary concern is the impact of the Overview Effect -- a profoundly transformative phenomenon experienced by several of the astronauts during space flight. According to author Frank White, The Overview Effect, "is the experience of seeing the earth from a distance...and realizing the inherent unity and oneness of everything on the planet. The Effect represents a shift in perception...from identification with parts of the Earth to identification with the whole system."

The conference will include White, a Rhodes Scholar and author of "The Overview Effect, Space Exploration and Human Evolution" and astronaut Edgar Mitchell, sixth man on the moon and founder of The Institute of Noetic Sciences.

The event will be webcast live via http://ustream.tv/Overview_Effect.

"We hope to engage the energies of people around the world in preserving our planet and exploring the universe by extending understanding of The Overview Effect," said White. "We would like to see 'overview thinking' permeate every aspect of our society."
The astronauts have often spoken of how profoundly they have been affected on emotional, intellectual, philosophical and spiritual levels while in space and White coined this experience as The Overview Effect in his book of the same name. Many astronauts have predicted powerful effects on every aspect of earth life when The Overview Effect begins reaching the masses through civilian space flight.

This is much closer in time than many people realize. Consumer space tourism is scheduled to begin in as little as 24 months. The first privately owned space station is being built in orbit at this time. Visionary business leaders, such as Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Galactic Spacelines, have already begun building space fleets, and are engaged in the initial stages of building marketing organizations for commercial space flight.

The emerging commercial space industry predicts tens of thousands of people will travel in space in the next 10 to 20 years, with stays at orbiting hotels, or while working at such hotels. Other space travelers will be living and working on orbiting solar power arrays, moon and asteroid mines and other commercial space business-related stations.

Perhaps even more immediately influential will be the co-emergence of incredible new space simulations, immersive 3-D movies and "Matrix-like" virtual reality and immersive telepresence technologies that will bring the reality of space to earth with a yet undreamed of sense of presence.

Conference Speakers include:

* Frank White (Keynote) - Author of "The Overview Effect," Houghton Mifflin, 1987, AIAA, 1998.
* Edgar Mitchell - Sixth man on the Moon and founder of The Institute of Noetic Sciences.
* Barbara Marx Hubbard - Associate of Buckminster Fuller, founder of the Harvest Moon Project and 1984 Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States.
* Andrew Newberg - Director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for the Study of The Mind and Spirituality. Author of "Why We Believe What We Believe."
* Douglas Trumbull - Oscar winning photographic effects supervisor (2001, Close Encounters, Blade Runner) and director (Silent Running, Brainstorm). Created