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Originally Posted by New York Times Science Section
In his book, Dr. Keltner writes that awe is critical to our well-being — just like joy, contentment* and love. His research suggests it has tremendous health benefits that include calming down our nervous system and triggering the release of oxytocin, the “love” hormone that promotes trust and bonding.
“Awe is on the cutting edge” of emotion research, said Judith T. Moskowitz, a professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Moskowitz, who has studied how positive emotions help people cope with stress, wrote in an email that “intentional awe experiences, like walks in nature, collective movement, like dance or ceremony, even use of psychedelics improve psychological well-being.”
So what is it biologically? Awe wasn’t one of the six basic emotions — anger, surprise, disgust, enjoyment, fear and sadness — identified back in 1972, Dr. Keltner said. *But new research shows that awe “is its own thing,” he said*. Our bodies respond differently when we are experiencing awe than when we are feeling joy, contentment or fear.
I have never really seen this explored and this seems like a good place to start. Awe may play a large part in how people experience music, art and nature. Seems like it's sort of like the "sixth sense."
I love that sensation when I feel as though I have just witnessed a miracle. And it is through the arts and nature that
I find them most accessible.
It seems to be a childhood trait but I see less of it, earlier, all the time. I wish I could discuss it from a scientific point of view but it doesn't lend itself well to tangible explanations. Glad someone is doing the research to see exactly what is taking place in the brain that enhances the spiritual needs of humans.
Too many of us in countries of bounty are unhappy and too many of us deny our spiritual needs out of misunderstanding what that means to know what simple things can help us.
Part of the problem may be the trend to divorce the spiritual from the physical, to see science and spirituality as opposing forces or enemies of each other. We have a need for explanations and science can provide those.
It good to remember that even the explanations demonstrate the wonder. There is little mundane in our existence.
Just today I was reading an article about the Finns and how they are currently ranked high in the list of countries with contented citizens. A psychologist was being interviewed and she talked about how satisfying time in nature is for them.
It is nationally recognized so well that they are given four weeks summer vacation. And she said most of them go to live in nature, often in primitive conditions during that time.
I've always believed that is a good way to get in touch with the basic you. It provides an opportunity for mindfulness and removes the distractions of work and toys. After all, it is our original condition. We talk about harmony with nature but we rarely live it.
I have a sense that living in cities may be an unnatural state for humans.
What is ironic is that we have among the best that nature has to offer. From my days in sleepaway camp, I have always admired and loved nature. This is perhaps unusual given the professional backgrounds of both my family and myself.
In my sleepaway camp days, my favorite activity was hiking. During all three of my summers at Camp Greylock in Becket, Massachusetts, 1966-8, I summited Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts. In 1969 I went to Robin Hood in Center Ossippee, New Hampshire. From that camp I summited Mount Moosilauke and later Mount Washington in NH. Indeed my primary motivator for selecting that camp were water sports (Massachusetts then did not allow water-skiing on Lake Becket) and hiking. The summer was disappointing since frequent rains (think the Woodstock Festival that summer) severely limited outdoor activities. Thus, for summers of 1970, 1971 and (half of, until thrown out) 1972 I returned to the Berkshires, specifically Camp Mah-Kee-Nac. One of the disappointing aspects was lack of notable hiking. After I was thrown out of Mah-Kee-Nac I went to Lincoln Farms, which had a better blend of outdoor and cultural experience. We went on weekly outings. From my vague memory those were to Corning (the glass factory was recovering from Hurricane Agnes-generated flooding), Sturbridge Village and and Quintes Isle, Canada. Though there were no specific hikes there was a good mix of outdoor-oriented natural activities on all three.
My last summer of leisure was to Trails West in 1973, a teen tour. Let's just say there was an abundance of nature and awe, including especially:
Badlands (scratched by severe thunderstorms);
Black Hills hike;
Grand Teton (Rendevous Lake hike, still snow on the beach, overdid it a bit but was OK a few days later);
Glacier National Park (unfortunately had to take easier hike since still recovering from torn rib cartilage courtesy of Teton Hike);
Mount Rainier (hiked to Muir Camp);
Mt. Lassen (summited, at the time the only active U.S. volcano);
Grand Canyon (unfortunately North Rim, not so awe-inspiring);
Bryce Canyon (downward hike);
Arches National Monument (now Park);
Great Salt Lake;
Mesa Verde (more of guided walk); and
Great Sand Dunes National Monument (near Alamosa, Colorado).
All of these events were the memories of a lifetime. Our counselor on Trails West said at the beginning "I don't know if you're going to love or hate this trip, but I promise, you'll never forget it. I both loved it and never forgot it.
Since then I have been on hikes with a close friend or two, and more recently with my wife. Most recently, to see the redwoods at Muir State Park. I see no psychological replacement for the outdoors.
It makes sense to me. I love nature, and we have moved and traveled, now stagnant though, but plans to change that very, very soon.
I remember the first time I saw mountains, the desert SW, even experiencing different types of weather, seeing a lizard in the wild, so many things that just blew me away. Now, sitting in the house, no awe here at all. Frankly, I could never understand why people just sit in the house on the electronics, and it seems, at least with the people I have known, they tend to suffer down moods and a sort of misery.
As a kid, we trampled through the woods with Dad in Michigan looking for mushrooms. It was so fascinating to see so many kinds of plants, trees, animals, insects, etc. After a couple of hours, it did get really old for little kids though.
The world has changed. Not for me, not much longer. I don't see how these people can just sit and wait for death!
When I'm sad or troubled, I know that seeking out a natural setting will help me.
Once there (some of the places you mention, OP... there is something about geographically old landscapes -abandoned farms, old stonewalls, well-worn mountains) that add to their healing power, at least for me) I just look around and allow my eyes to absorb the beauty and the peacefulness. I do this with awe. (I'm pretty sure that is what I'm experiencing; it's nothing else that I know of) This kind of forces me to pause undistracted and put things into perspective. I breathe deeply and I start to feel physically different.. better. This more accurate perspective -inspired by awe- reminds me to keep gratitude and compassion in the forefront. And the natural landscape provides me with the reason why doing so is the correct thing to do.
Of course, it's not always picture post card perfect inside my head, but that's the goal (a sort of mindfulness, no?) And it starts with our natural world, full stop.
Part of me is wondering if defining and categorizing awe will somehow detract from the beauty and helpfulness of it. (and I spent my life in the sciences, measuring and quantifying everything) Maybe part of its effectiveness comes from its mystery. But then again, bringing it into the conversation and examining it will alert and potentially help more people. And that's a good thing.
Last edited by LilyMae521; 01-29-2023 at 06:06 AM..
LillyMae, you beat me to the punch. It's a pet subject with me - reconciling the spiritual and the scientific.
My inspirations have been men of science who studied for a lifetime and eventually began voicing statements of awe, an emotion that seems more appropriate for gardeners than for people of science.
I had returned to the thread to comment that that natural progression from awe to feelings of gratitude, connection, personal perspective and even praise are precisely what the world's traditional religions have called for us to experience in the presence of something larger than our perception of understanding or ability to create.
These are the essence of spiritual fulfillment. And I daresay a psychological need for human growth.
I think it is the human ego that can block understanding of this concept - the acceptance that there has always been a great power creating and destroying all around us - a wheel of metamorphosis. When we get caught up in the efforts to understand or to change we can miss the gifts of awe and humility.
Because humility is a negative concept for many I'll use a simple and common example of what I mean by that. Standing under a starry sky or sitting on an ocean beach creates the kind of humility I am talking about.
How many of us have found ourselves in that situation and realized how vast it is, this world of ours? And suddenly our problems and millennia of human problems slot into perspective at that moment.
That is a sense of belonging in the flow of human perception, of humility that puts our fears in perspective and can create a feeling of calmness. A spiritual need.
Well said, Lodestar. Although I tend to avoid words that are sometimes associated with religion. (like spiritual) They've been a bit corrupted for me. Which is fine.. there are plenty of other words to choose from.
My sense of awe comes from how different parts of the natural world live together and help each other.
But please don't tell me that humility is sometimes seen as a negative. That is something I just do not want to know.
When I'm sad or troubled, I know that seeking out a natural setting will help me.
Once there (some of the places you mention, OP... there is something about geographically old landscapes -abandoned farms, old stonewalls, well-worn mountains) that add to their healing power, at least for me) I just look around and allow my eyes to absorb the beauty and the peacefulness. I do this with awe. (I'm pretty sure that is what I'm experiencing; it's nothing else that I know of) This kind of forces me to pause undistracted and put things into perspective. I breathe deeply and I start to feel physically different.. better. This more accurate perspective -inspired by awe- reminds me to keep gratitude and compassion in the forefront. And the natural landscape provides me with the reason why doing so is the correct thing to do.
Of course, it's not always picture post card perfect inside my head, but that's the goal (a sort of mindfulness, no?) And it starts with our natural world, full stop.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lodestar
I had returned to the thread to comment that that natural progression from awe to feelings of gratitude, connection, personal perspective and even praise are precisely what the world's traditional religions have called for us to experience in the presence of something larger than our perception of understanding or ability to create.
These are the essence of spiritual fulfillment. And I daresay a psychological need for human growth.
Back in July 2013 my wife and I went on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We hiked to around 12,000 to 13,000 feet. I forget which. We had to cut the hike short because a clear morning quickly turned to clouds and the hail dented my wife's classes. I call that being "Rocky Mountained." Anyway, we descended to a lake near the trailhead, I believe Bear lake but I can't be sure. My wife as a bit cold and walked back to the car, parked nearby. I wanted to sit for awhile.
I found a bench by a pretty lake, which I believe to be Bear Lake (link). I sat down, and watched as it gently started to rain. I was thinking to myself how lucky I was to have my wife, a good marriage and two great kids, then 17 and almost 16. After sitting about ten minutes, my reverie was broken by a cell phone call from an obnoxious client, anxious to know how I thought his appeal was going to turn out. He knew I was on vacation and that the papers were all submitted, but as always he had another angle.
P.S. he won his appeal. I guess something else would have broken the magic spell, but it was great while it lasted.
I have always loved to be outside. I grew up in Wisconsin walking with my dad and our dogs outside daily in decent weather. We would go in the countryside where the dogs could be off leash. I now live in the West and love the mountains. I take a daily walk with my dogs. When I bought my condo I got one with a view of the courtyard which has big trees and is very green. I love sitting there.
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