Brian O'Leary
Encyclopedia
Brian Todd O'Leary was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 scientist, author, and former NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

. He was a member of the sixth group of astronauts selected by NASA in August 1967. The members of this group of eleven were known as the scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...

-astronauts, intended to train for the Apollo Applications Program
Apollo Applications program
The Apollo Applications Program was established by NASA headquarters in 1968 to develop science-based manned space missions using surplus material from the Apollo program...

 - a follow-on to the Apollo Program, which was ultimately canceled. In later life he became an advocate of utilizing exotic energy sources to resolve humanity’s energy problems.

Personal

O’Leary was born and raised in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, and credits a teenage visit to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 with inspiring the patriotism that drove his efforts to become an astronaut. Climbing the Matterhorn
Matterhorn
The Matterhorn , Monte Cervino or Mont Cervin , is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Its summit is 4,478 metres high, making it one of the highest peaks in the Alps. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points...

, running the Boston Marathon
Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by the U.S. city of Boston, Massachusetts, on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897 and inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest...

 and becoming an Eagle Scout were among his pre-astronautic activities. O’Leary had two children.

Education

O’Leary graduated from Belmont High School
Belmont High School (Belmont, Massachusetts)
Belmont High School is a four-year public high school in Belmont, Massachusetts. It was built in 1970 at a cost of $9 million. The school had 1,170 students enrolled and a student/teacher ratio of 16:1 in the 2004-05 school year....

, Belmont, Massachusetts, in 1957; received a bachelor of arts degree in physics from Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

 in 1961, a masters of arts in Astronomy from Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 in 1964, and a doctor of philosophy in astronomy from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967.

Organizations

O’Leary became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...

 in 1975. Other organizations are: 1970-1976, secretary of the American Geophysical Union’s
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...

 Planetology Section; 1977, team leader of the Asteroidal Resources Group, NASA Ames Summer Study on Space Settlements; 1976–1979, member of the nominating committee of the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences
Division for Planetary Sciences
The Division for Planetary Sciences is a division within the American Astronomical Society devoted to solar system research. It was founded in 1968. The first organizing committee members were: Edward Anders, L. Branscomb, J. W. Chamberlain, R. Goody, J. S. Hall, A. Kliore, M. B. Elroy, Tobias...

; 1983–1985, chairman of the board of directors of the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Space
Institute for Cooperation in Space
The Institute for Cooperation in Space no longer exists.The Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, ISCOS, now exists as a Foundation focused on educating about the Outer Space Security and Development Treaty of 2011 ready to be signed and ratified into law. Founded by Dr...

; 1990, founding board member of the International Association for New Science; 2003 founding president of the New Energy Movement; 2007-, Fellow, World Innovation Foundation.

Astronaut program

While attending graduate school in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, O’Leary published several scientific papers on the Martian atmosphere. O’Leary’s Ph.D. thesis in 1967 was on the Martian surface. Soon after completing his Ph.D. thesis, O'Leary was the first astronaut specifically selected for a potential manned Mars mission when it was still in NASA's program plan projected for the 1980s as a follow-on to the Apollo lunar program. O’Leary was the only planetary scientist-astronaut in NASA’s astronaut corps during the Apollo program. O’Leary resigned from the astronaut program in April 1968, and cited several reasons for resigning in his The Making of an Ex-Astronaut, which included the cancellation of the Mars program in early 1968.

Academic career

After O’Leary’s resignation from NASA, Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...

 recruited him to teach at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 in 1968, where he researched and lectured until 1971. While teaching at Cornell, he studied lunar mascons. O’Leary subsequently taught astronomy, physics, and science policy assessment at several academic institutions, including the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (1971–1972) Hampshire College
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...

 (1972–75) and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 (1976–1981).

O’Leary was a member of the Mariner 10
Mariner 10
Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on November 3, 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. It was launched approximately two years after Mariner 9 and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program...

 Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

-Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...

 TV Science Team. The team received NASA’s group achievement award for its participation.

O’Leary authored several popular books and more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles in the fields of planetary science
Planetary science
Planetary science is the scientific study of planets , moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation,...

, astronautics
Astronautics
Astronautics, and related astronautical engineering, is the theory and practice of navigation beyond the Earth's atmosphere. In other words, it is the science and technology of space flight....

, and science policy. He was one of the more visible scientists who participated in Gerard K. O'Neill and the L5 Society
L5 Society
The L5 Society was founded in 1975 by Carolyn and Keith Henson to promote the space colony ideas of Dr Gerard K. O'Neill.The name comes from the and Lagrangian points in the Earth-Moon system proposed as locations for the huge rotating space habitats that Dr O'Neill envisioned...

's plans for an orbiting city. O’Leary suggested that Earth-approaching asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

s and the moons of Mars would be the most accessible space-based resource for space colonies. O’Leary was among the earliest to coordinate observations and interpretations of stellar occultations by planetary satellites and asteroids. O’Leary also wrote and edited popular books on astronomy and astronautics. During the 1970s and 1980s, O’Leary was a regular contributor to the magazines Omni
Omni (magazine)
OMNI was a science and science fiction magazine published in the US and the UK. It contained articles on science fact and short works of science fiction...

, Science Digest
Science Digest
Science Digest was a monthly American magazine published by the Hearst Corporation from 1937 through 1986. It initially had an 8 x 5 inch format with about 100 pages, and was targeted at persons with a high school education level...

, New Scientist
New Scientist
New Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...

, Astronomy
Astronomy (magazine)
Astronomy is a monthly American magazine about astronomy. Targeting amateur astronomers for its readers, it contains columns on sky viewing, reader-submitted astrophotographs, and articles on astronomy and astrophysics that are readable by nonscientists....

, and Sky and Telescope.

Political activities

O’Leary became politically active early in his career. He participated in a demonstration in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 in 1970, to protest the war in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

. Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 administration officials invited O’Leary and his fellow Cornell professors into the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 to present their grievances and their meeting appeared as the lead story of CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....

 on May 9, 1970. O’Leary was Morris Udall’s energy advisor during his 1975-1976 campaign for U.S. president, and served under Udall as a special staff consultant on energy for the U.S. House Interior Committee subcommittee on energy and the environment in 1975-1976. O’Leary advised other U.S. presidential candidates, including George McGovern
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....

, Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...

, Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...

, and Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....

.

During those years, he also immersed himself in several controversies relating to NASA’s objectives, including its manned lunar landings, the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

, and the weaponization of space. O’Leary promoted a joint manned mission to Mars between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. O’Leary twice traveled to the Soviet Union in the late 1980s to promote the peaceful exploration of space. O’Leary participated in a peace cruise along the Dnieper River
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...

 in the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 with the first Westerners to visit the area in decades.

Moon landing controversy

O'Leary once stated that it was "remotely" possible some footage from the Apollo moon missions could have been created in a studio environment to avoid embarrassment on NASA's part. This started a controversy over O' Leary's beliefs whether the moon landings were real or not. In March 2001, O'Leary appeared briefly in Fox TV's "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon," stating that "I can't say for sure 100%, whether these men walked on the moon. It is possible that NASA could have covered it up, just in order to cut corners, and to be the first to allegedly go to the moon." This has been a question of many hoax advocates for years but O' Leary remained quiet about the Moon program saying that he had "no interest" in rejoining the debate.

Alternative Beliefs

A remote viewing
Remote viewing
Remote viewing is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target using paranormal means, in particular, extra-sensory perception or "sensing with mind"...

 experience in 1979 and a near-death experience
Near death experience
A near-death experience refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution;...

 in 1982 initiated O’Leary’s departure from orthodox science. After Princeton, O’Leary worked in the space industry at Science Applications International Corporation
Science Applications International Corporation
SAIC is a FORTUNE 500 scientific, engineering and technology applications company headquartered in the United States with numerous federal, state, and private sector clients...

 in Hermosa Beach, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, beginning in 1982. O’Leary refused to work on military space applications, which resulted in losing his position there in 1987.

Beginning in 1987, O’Leary increasingly explored unorthodox ideas, particularly the relationship between consciousness and science, and became widely known for his writings on “the frontiers of science, space, energy and culture.” He lectured extensively since the 1980s on science and consciousness, in places such as the Findhorn Foundation
Findhorn Foundation
The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain....

, Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute is a residential community and retreat in Big Sur, California, which focuses upon humanistic alternative education. Esalen is a nonprofit organization devoted to activites such as meditation, massage, Gestalt, yoga, psychology, ecology, and spirituality...

, Omega Institute, Unity Church
Unity Church
Unity, known informally as Unity Church, is a religious movement within the wider New Thought movement and is best known to many through its Daily Word devotional publication...

es, Religious Science
Religious Science
Religious Science, also known as Science of Mind, was established in 1927 by Ernest Holmes and is a spiritual, philosophical and metaphysical religious movement within the New Thought movement. In general, the term "Science of Mind" applies to the teachings, while the term "Religious Science"...

 churches and Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres
The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres is a non-profit organization named after Swami Sivananda and founded by his disciple Swami Vishnu-devananda...

. He extensively traveled internationally during his investigations, which included visiting scientific laboratories and mystics such as Sathya Sai Baba
Sathya Sai Baba
Śri Sathya Sai Baba , born as Sathyanarayana Raju was an Indian guru, spiritual figure, mystic, philanthropist, and educator. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi, a spiritual saint and miracle worker who died in 1918 and whose teachings were an eclectic blend of Hindu and...

. In the mid-1990s, O’Leary began to write about his investigations regarding innovative technologies that allegedly utilize energy sources that science does not currently recognize (also called new energy), and how those technologies can transform the planet and the human journey. O’Leary believed there is an extraterrestrial presence on Earth, its relationship to those potentially transformative technologies, and their conjoined organized suppression. O’Leary also participated in the Face on Mars issue.

In 2003, O’Leary founded the New Energy Movement. Shortly after his new energy colleague Eugene Mallove
Eugene Mallove
Eugene Franklin Mallove was a science writer, editor and publisher of the magazine Infinite Energy, founder of the non-profit New Energy Foundation, a strong proponent of cold fusion, and a supporter of research into that and related exploratory alternative energy topics, some of which are...

 was murdered in 2004, O’Leary moved to Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, where he resided for the rest of his life. He continued to travel and publicly lecture on the subject of new energy and planetary healing. In 2007, O’Leary presented a paper titled, "Renewable and Unconventional Energy for a Sustainable Future: Can We Convert in Time?", at the International Energy Conference and Exhibition in Daegu
Daegu
Daegu , also known as Taegu, and officially the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea, the fourth largest after Seoul, Busan, and Incheon, and the third largest metropolitan area in the country with over 2.5 million residents. The city is the capital and principal city of the...

, S. Korea. With his artist wife Meredith Miller, in 2008 he co-established the Montesueños Eco-Retreat in Vilcabamba
Vilcabamba, Ecuador
Vilcabamba is a village in the southern region of Ecuador, in the Loja province, about from the city of Loja. The etymology of the “Vilcabamba” apparently derives from the Quichua “huilco pamba.” Huilco denotes the sacred trees, Anadenanthera colubrina, that inhabit the region and pamba is a...

, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, which is devoted to “peace, sustainability, the arts and new science.” In 2009, O’Leary published the Energy Solution Revolution. In 2010, O’Leary published “The Turquoise Revolution”.

Death

O'Leary contracted skin cancer in his 60s, which he successfully treated with an alternative methodology involving a substance called Cansema
Cansema
Cansema is a brand name of a popular alternative cancer treatment. The product is commonly classified as an escharotic—that is, a topical paste which burns and destroys skin tissue and leaves behind a thick, black scar called an eschar...

. After having his second heart attack in 2010, he died at his home of intestinal cancer in Vilcabamba
Vilcabamba
Vilcabamba may refer to:* Vilcabamba, Peru* Vilcabamba, Ecuador, town in the province of Loja, Ecuador* "Vilcabamba" , a 2010 Science Fiction story by Harry Turtledove...

, soon after diagnosis.

External links


Biography

O'Leary's brief NASA career is chronicled in the book "NASA's Scientist-Astronauts" by David Shayler and Colin Burgess
Colin Burgess (author)
Colin Burgess is an Australian author and historian, specializing in space flight and military history. He is a former customer service manager for Qantas Airways, and a regular contributor to the collectSPACE online community. He lives in New South Wales...

.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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