Awe

What is an experience of awe that you have had, when you encountered a vast mystery that transcends your understanding of the world?

How can we live the good life? One enlivened by joy and community and meaning, that brings us a sense of worth and belonging and strengthens the people and natural environments

around us? Now, twenty years into teaching happiness, I have an answer: FIND AWE.

In the scientific literature on NDEs, as in the story above, people report a vanishing of their default selves. They are merging with a larger force or form of consciousness that feels infinite, pure, fundamental, and benevolent. The unfolding of experience does not seem governed by the temporal and spatial laws of our default mind. Transcendent em

One of the most alarming trends in the lives of children today is the disappearance of awe. We are not giving them enough opportunities to discover and experience the wonders of life. Art and music classes do not make the school budget. The free-form play of recess and lunchtime is being replaced with drills to boost scores on tests that have only

Because of the narrowing of the female pelvis, brought about by our species’ shift to walking upright, and the disproportionate size of the human head to accommodate our large, language-producing brain, our infants are born premature. In fact, wildly premature, taking ten to fifty-two years to reach semifunctioning independence, if there is such a

Human waves now ritualistically arise at football games, political rallies, concerts, and graduations. They tend to move clockwise and travel at a speed of twenty seats per second.

Our evolutionary shift from arboreal life to bipedal walking paved the way for awe. As we began to walk upright, our perception of the world changed; we encountered vast vistas and mysteries of what lies beyond. We became a wandering species, timing our migrations and settlements to the cycles and patterns of the sun, weather, seasons, life cycles

Americans today enjoy half as many picnics as we did two decades ago. We have one fewer dear friend in our circle of care than thirty years ago. Thirty-five to 40 percent of people report suffering from loneliness.