Finding Awe Amid Everyday Splendor

Far from being an undefinable caprice, awe, to Keltner, is a panacea, an evolutionary tool that holds the key to humanity’s capacity to flourish in groups.

In 1757, the Irish political philosopher Edmund Burke revolutionized the intellectual contemplation of awe with his celebrated “Philosophical Enquiry,” in which he described the distinction between beauty and “the sublime,” a de facto synonym for awe. Burke argued that the sublime was “our strongest passion.” It could often

The first issue was how to define awe. What is it? The thesis they alighted on rested on two key appraisals: “perceived vastness” and “a need for accommodation,” qualifying the latter as “a challenge to or negation of mental structures when they fail to make sense of an experience of something vast.”

To experience awe, to fully open ourselves up to it, helps us to live happier, healthier lives

According to Keltner’s book, seeking “brief moments of awe is as good for your mind and body as anything you might do.”

Many of the best and most spiritually nourishing things in life are all too often rendered invisible by the tyrannies of time, money and force of habit.