Awe, once spiritual, now vital for intelligence and wholeness. Awe fosters wonder and unity, enhancing health and social bonds.
Deep dives
Awe as a Pathway to Human Wholeness
Awe, once associated with spiritual experiences, is now regarded by science as essential to human intelligence and wholeness. Dacker Keltner's work delves into the role of emotions in moral perception, emphasizing awe's profound impact on human worldview.
The Transformative Power of Practicing Awe
Practicing awe involves recognizing everyday wonders that transcend understanding and nourish the human experience. Dacker Keltner's personal journey, from studying emotions to investigating awe, highlights how awe fosters a deep sense of wonder and connectivity in human life.
Awe's Influence on Human Connection and Health
Awe-inducing experiences bring individuals together, synchronizing their nervous systems and fostering a sense of unity. Studies show that awe not only enhances immunity and health but also strengthens social bonds and prompts altruistic behavior.
Awe as a Pathway to Meaning and Well-being
Awe functions as a compass for what truly matters in life, offering a profound sense of meaning and connection to the world. By quieting the default mode network in the brain, awe expands our view, encouraging a deeper exploration of purpose and interconnectedness.
One of the most fascinating developments of our time is that human qualities we have understood in terms of virtue — experiences we've called spiritual — are now being taken seriously by science as intelligence — as elements of human wholeness. Dacher Keltner and his Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley have been pivotal in this emergence. From the earliest years of his career, he investigated how emotions are coded in the muscles of our faces, and how they serve as “moral sensory systems." He was called on as Emojis evolved; he consulted on Pete Docter's groundbreaking movie Inside Out.
All of this, as Dacher sees it now, led him deeper and deeper into investigating the primary experience of awe in human life — moments when we have a sense of wonder, an experience of mystery, that transcends our understanding. These, it turns out, are as common in human life globally as they are measurably health-giving and immunity-boosting. They bring us together with others, again and again. They bring our nervous system and heartbeat and breath into sync — and even into sync with other bodies around us.
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