Practicing Awe & Wonder

I just had a revelation about a subject close to my heart. A friend sent me an article in which I discovered that in recent times there have been various scientific studies of ‘Awe’, led particularly by Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at U Cal Berkeley. I’ve long been fascinated by simple yet mysterious experiences of awe and wonder, but hadn’t realised there had been any academic research into this phenomenon. Keltner’s book, Awe, The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder investigates  globally this powerful and hard to pin down emotion.

 I’ve previously written about my own experiences of wonder and awe. https://chrisparishwriter.wordpress.com/2022/10/11/wonder/ 

I’ve found that awe and wonder can actually be practiced and it has numerous benefits, a finding which is very much validated in Keltner’s studies. He defines awe as,

The feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world

This can be occasioned  by being in the presence of something physically huge, like being on a dramatic cliff top or looking up at a magnificent tree. It can also be that tingling and body-rippling experience you can have while listening to a beautiful emotive piece of music. Another very common source of awe is what Keltner refers to as ‘moral beauty’ — witnessing the kindness, goodness or generosity of other people.

This and ‘natural awe’ were the most prevalent sources of awe reported cross-culturally in Keltner’s research. Common to experiences of natural awe can be the sense that plants and animals are conscious and aware; a conviction prevalent in indigenous traditions. Keltner identifies 8 sources of awe and wonder, in what he terms, ‘the 8 wonders of life’, which also include epiphanies, spirituality and religion, life and death, and visual design.

 I was particularly interested in what Keltner found about the prevalence of ‘everyday awe’, finding the extraordinary in the ordinary: the shape and colour of a leaf in a puddle on the pavement, the play of sunlight glistening on water, fluffy clouds floating in a blue sky.

For a number of years I have consciously focused on my immediate sensory experience when out on daily walks, rather than giving attention to my mental rational machinations. And this has resulted in an increasing experience of ‘everyday awe’ and wonder. I realised that I have actually been practicing awe for years.

Keltner and others have established that one region of the brain is deactivated when we experience awe. And that’s the default mode network, where all the self-representational processes take place: thinking about myself, my time, my goals, my strivings, my checklist. That all quietens down during awe. Awe activates the vagus nerve, that big bundle of nerves which start in the top of the spinal cord, and which help calm us down, slowing our heart rate, reducing the fight-or-flight response, lowering blood pressure, helping digestion and generally calming down the whole inflammation process.

I found one simple ‘awe’ experiment of Keltner’s to be a great illustration of a large body of his and others’ work. It involved a group of older people (aged over 75 years) going out for what he called an ‘awe walk’ once a week. Their instructions were simply to go for a walk anywhere they might feel a little child-like wonder and look around, look at the big and small things and just follow any sense of mystery and wonder. (there was a control group that went out for a similar weekly walk, but without these instructions). Over the course of eight weeks, the ‘awe walk’ group felt more and more awe, and most interestingly, they experienced what Keltner calls ‘the disappearance of the self.’ They were instructed to take a ‘selfie’ picture at the end of each walk and week by week their selfies included less and less of the self and more and more of the surrounding environment. Participants became more interested in the vaster scene they now felt more part of.  

Wonder is very closely related to awe: it being a state of openness, curiosity, questioning, and embracing of mystery. Keltner’s studies found that,

People who find more everyday awe show evidence of living with wonder, and are more open to new ideas, to what is unknown, to what language can’t describe, to the absurd, to new knowledge, and to experience itself.

A common stereotype of awe is that it leaves people dazed and dumbfounded, but studies show the very opposite: that thought is actually more rigorous and energised.

This is all music to my ears, having long explored this terrain myself, but largely in isolation. Now hearing about these experimental studies very much confirms my own experience. 

Interestingly, awe and wonder are not the same as beauty or aesthetic appreciation. You can’t be satiated or jaded by repeated experiences of awe. It’s always fresh and new – and you could say – outside of time. I see it as a portal into the real. It’s not quite that you disappear – unless we’re talking of the small sense of self. You’re present but in a much more integrated and enmeshed way. 

These days the restorative power of ‘green bathing’ is recognised medically, and walks in the park or local woods are now commonly prescribed for anxiety and depression. And found to be at least as effective as medication or talking therapy.

But to my mind, it’s rarely taken any further. We modern people are increasingly estranged from the natural world and from each other, driven by our neurotic minds and submersion in ersatz virtual domains. Modern Western culture inculcates atomisation. Life is becoming more and more about the individual and focussed on our personal success and progress. The tragedy of all this is that without a wider deeper context, we end up being cut off from our greater sense of being and from any identity with the whole, which cannot be found merely within our rational minds. I feel that this is why even a short walk in the park can be so healing; our whole being subconsciously recognises and responds to even a small taste of a fuller reality. Because in reality we are not fundamentally separate individuals. We only exist in relationship. 

Rather than peak moments, I feel that awe and wonder are more the expression of simply being present and awake. And fortunately, awe and wonder can be practiced and cultivated.

I’ve quoted the great theologian Rabbi Abraham Heschel before, but his words on awe are worth repeating,

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement—get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible. Never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.