The sixth man to walk on the moon, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, said last night that psychic energy is far more powerful than nuclear energy, and that this energy could save or destroy the earth.

Speaking at the Law School Forum, the ex-astronaut said that his experience in space and his more recent research have confirmed, but not explained the existence of human knowledge outside the understanding of objective scientific research.

Had to Go Into Space

"I had to go into space to glimpse some of the profound insights that some of our great thinkers have found before," Mitchell said. He said that as he stood on the moon and looked at the earth, he knew that the universe is directed."

Mitchell said that man is destroying the earth, and the discovery of psychic power can be used either to continue to damage the earth, or to effect the earth's recovery.

He said that he has found through research that subjective as well as objective knowledge must be combined to permit men "to understand the universe."

Mitchell has been president of a research corporation that he said examines "noetics: the study of consciousness."

Working at the Stanford Research Institute, Mitchell and his researchers have conducted experiments in non-rational communication, curing of illnesses, energy fields and ways in which man affects the physical world.

On his 1972 voyage to the moon in Apollo 14, Mitchell performed an experiment in which he communicated with four people on earth, he said last night. He said he arranged cards in differing orders at different times and people on earth had guessed the card order the probability of which is one in 3000.

Mitchell, who holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Management from Carnegie Institute of Technology, and a ScD. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, was a technical director for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program in 1964-65.