text: are we really made of space dust?  if so, then what is keeping us intact as physical bodies? is it our conditioned thoughts? that notion came from carl sagan, the author of the novel "contact" that was later made into a movie starring jodie foster. now in the book what he actually said was "we are made of starstuff". he meant that we are made of what stars are made of, as is anything else in the universe. meaning we all things in the universe are made of basic chemical or even atomical components that are common to everything in the most basic level. it was not meant to be perceived as "if i cut my arm off and grind it up to very small pieces it will turn into space dust".