Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark

One witness reported being able to read on deck at night, due to the bright white light of the sea, ‘like that from molten iron’.

we should force ourselves out of gyms and off machines and into the natural world, knowing, or hoping, that we may stumble upon awe.

In order to endure, to survive trauma or even just to stay afloat when life threatens to suck us under, we need to know we are not alone.

What can be done to nurture our inner lights, and guard them as jealously as an Olympian does a burning torch?

resources conferred by social connectedness can act as a ‘social cure’ for psychological ill-health’.

We more readily commiserate with the times when life is like a boa constrictor wrapped around our windpipes, squeezing out breath; like a dark ogre stealing our joy, our purpose and our hope as we sleep; or sometimes just like a thick black airless cave with no apparent exit.

people who regularly feel awe are more likely to be generous, helpful, altruistic, ethical and relaxed.

The sun’s rise and the sun’s retreat bookend our days with awe.

The authors of the study, Masaki Kobayashi, Daisuke Kikuchi and Hitoshi Okamura, concluded that we all ‘directly and rhythmically’ emit light: ‘The human body literally glimmers. The intensity of the light emitted by the body is 1000 times lower than the sensitivity of our naked eyes.’