Space Psychology and the Overview Effect

Celestial Citizen

On today's episode, we’ll be discussing the psychology of space travel, how the Overview Effect can help promote mental health, and the role that virtual reality and multisensory experiences will play in expanding worldviews.
Today, we are joined by Dr. Annahita Nezami, a chartered psychologist, author, and founder of Overview Effect Therapy and EarthscapeVR. She is a systems thinker advocating for positive social change and has dedicated her professional career to researching the science and therapeutic value of salutogenic experiences like the Overview Effect.
Her areas of interest include space health, eco psychology, neuroscience, stress, trauma, performance, and altered states of consciousness. Annahita serves as an advisor to multiple organisations and was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). She has been a guest lecturer at various establishments such as Kepler Space Institute, Deakin University, Central St Martin’s, and University College London (UCL), invited to talk about mental health and the Overview Effect on BBC Radio 4 and TEDx. She is an active researcher and published papers and articles with Springer and other media outlets.
Several years ago Annahita interviewed NASA astronauts to investigate the therapeutic benefits of the Overview Effect, as part of her doctoral research. She soon realised that the experience offers comparable results to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and nature-based experiences in promoting eco-transcendence and eudaemonic well-being. After completing her doctoral studies, Annahita co-founded EarthscapeVR (formally VROE), where she helps create evidence-led Extended Reality (XR) multisensory experiences based on the Overview Effect. The XR programs can be utilised as an adjunct to psychotherapy, workshops, or as a standalone well-being tool for individuals, groups, and organizations.
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