GK: What went on inside you on your flight to the moon with Apollo 14? What was it like to leave the earth behind, your home planet?

EM: Well, the comments of the observation of Earth from space and philosophic insights that I obtained, were on the way home after the mission on the moon had been completed. And there was ample time look at Earth and be contemplative and be philosophic. But the precise configuration the spacecraft was in, allowed a panoramic view of the heavens. We were rotating to keep thermal balance on the spacecraft. Thus we could see the Earth, the moon, the sun, the entire panoply of stars appear in the cabin window every two minutes, and that was a very powerful experience. What it caused for me was a deep insight, called an epiphany, in which I experienced an exhilaration. I realized, the molecules of my body and the molecules of my spacecraft had been manufactured in some ancient generation of stars. And suddenly, instead of intellectual knowledge, it became a very personal visceral experience. Sometime later, after I had done research in the literature, I discovered that the ancients in India had described this experience in the Sanskrit several hundred years ago and it was called samadhi. It is described as the experience of seeing things visually and individually in their separateness, but experiencing them inwardly and viscerally as a unity and accompanied by a bliss or ecstasy. It was a very powerful, powerful experience that caused me then to spend these last 35 years, doing research in the nature of consciousness because I realized, that was something we in science not only did not understand, but had completely avoided as an object of inquiry.

GK: Was erwarteten Sie auf dem Mond? Sie waren vorbereitet. Wurden Ihre Erwartungen erfüllt?

EM: Nun unsere Erwartungen – wir hatten eine Mission und unser Auftrag war, Wissenschaftler zu sein. Auf speziell unserem Flug waren wir die erste Mission, die vorrangig einen wissenschaftlichen Auftrag hatte. Die früheren Missionen betrafen den Einsatz, um sicher zu stellen, dass wir den Job machen, dort sicher hinkommen und präzise landen konnten. Unser Job war, das zu tun und dann Mondwissenschaft zu betreiben. Es wurde erwartet, dass wir die Augen und Ohren der Wissenschaftler auf der Erde sind und dass wir die Daten sammelten, die sie wünschten, um dabei zu helfen, die geologische Beschaffenheit des Mondes und die Mondoberfläche zu verstehen. Den Ursprung des Mondes und wie er mit dem Ursprung der Erde in Zusammenhang steht. Das war die Mission.

GK: What did you expect on the moon? You were prepared. Were your expectations fulfilled?