Awe
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
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A second wonder of life is collective effervescence, a term introduced by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his analysis of the
Dacher Keltner • Awe
the heart of religion: that it is about mystical awe, an ineffable emotional experience of being in relation to what we consider divine.
Dacher Keltner • Awe
What is an experience of awe that you have had, when you encountered a vast mystery that transcends your understanding of the world?
Dacher Keltner • Awe
How does awe transform us? By quieting the nagging, self-critical, overbearing, status-conscious voice of our self, or ego, and empowering us to collaborate, to open our minds to wonders, and to see the deep patterns of life.
Dacher Keltner • Awe
Awe is the emotion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don’t understand.
Dacher Keltner • Awe
His phrase speaks to the qualities of such experiences: we feel like we are buzzing and crackling with some life force that merges people into a collective self, a tribe, an oceanic “we.”
Dacher Keltner • Awe
This self, one of many that makes up who you are, is focused on how you are distinct from others, independent, in control, and oriented toward competitive advantage. It has been amplified by the rise of individualism and materialism, and no doubt was less prominent during other time periods (e.g., in Indigenous cultures thousands of years ago). Tod
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we are most likely to feel awe when moved by moral beauty, the first wonder of life in our taxonomy.