Okay, that title’s a bit misleading, but the science has uncovered, if not God, at least awe, and that’s a big deal. Awe: The New Science Of Everyday Wonder And How It Can Transform Your Life, by UC Berkley professor Dacher Keltner, is an entry into a world we all experience but seldom pay attention to. In my own writing, I consistently try to describe two characteristics of humanity: personal worlds that we create and special moments that burst into those worlds. And here, in this work, Keltner describes the same processes from a neuroscientific perspective, presenting factual conclusions from experiments. The book’s title sets the stage: it’s about everyday wonder and how it impacts our lives. I confess that I just ordered the book and have yet to read it, but the reviews found in Huffpost are so intriguing that I had to share the basic idea. 

Apparently, we all have what is called a “default mode setting” in our brains.  “That is where all the self-representational processes take place: I’m thinking about myself, my time, my goals, my strivings, my checklist.” The first discovery was that all this self-centered activity quiets down when we experience awe. Ponder that for a second. Our egocentricity takes a vacation. Additionally, physiologically, our body also relaxes because awe activates our vagus nerve, which in turn “slows our heart rate, helps with digestion, and opens up our bodies to things bigger than us.” Our body, in awe, thus takes a mini vacation from the stress we impose upon it, enabling us to be more open to our surroundings. We get that warm feeling.

Awe is difficult to pinpoint. Its manifestations can be described, but it cannot be defined. “Keltner explained that finding awe and wonder on a walk (or anywhere else) can be as simple as pausing and noticing the world around us — from something as seemingly small as a newly blossomed flower to something as big as a sunset stretched across the entire sky. Other sources of awe include what he refers to as “moral beauty” — witnessing the kindness or goodness or generosity of other people — or listening to music, seeing art and contemplating big ideas…” ‘You know, while you’re out on your walk, go someplace where you might feel a little child-like wonder and look around — look at the small things and look at the big things and just follow that sense of mystery and wonder.’”

Perhaps not so amazingly, research also shows that awe grows and multiplies. The more you feel it, the more you get it, so to speak. Once your eyes are opened, the more you see. The more you search, the more you find. Knock and…[sound familiar?] Part of that expansion, also shown in the experimentation, is due to the fact that people literally moved themself away from trying to be the center of attention.  They became “more interested in the vaster scene that they’re part of and losing track of themselves, and that’s important — that’s important to expand our attention to things outside of the self.”

Perhaps in the book, in order to help us better understand awe, Keltner might refer to Rudolf Otto and his classic The Idea of the Holy. If not, I offer it here as poetic and mystical complement to the words of science.

“The feeling of it may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship. It may pass over into a more set and lasting attitude of the soul, continuing, as it were, thrillingly vibrant and resonant, until at last it dies away and the soul resumes its “profane”, non-religious mood of everyday experience… It has its crude, barbaric antecedents and early manifestations, and again, it may be developed into something beautiful and pure and glorious. It may become the hushed, trembling, and speechless humility of the creature in the presence of—whom or what? In the presence of that which is a Mystery inexpressible and above all creatures.”

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Carl Krieg, Ph.D. received his BA from Dartmouth College, MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of What to Believe? the Questions of Christian Faith,   The Void and the Vision,  The New Matrix: How the World We Live In Impacts Our Thinking About Self and God and How The Rich Stole Jesus. As professor and pastor, Dr. Krieg has taught innumerable classes and led many discussion groups. He lives with his wife Margaret in Norwich, VT.