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The Wonder of Awe: How Life's Mysteries Transform Us
Imagine standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, watching a child take their first steps, or being moved to tears by a piece of music. That feeling-that expansive sense of wonder that makes you feel small yet connected to something vast-is awe. In his groundbreaking book, Dacher Keltner, the renowned Berkeley psychologist who advised Pixar on the emotion of Joy for "Inside Out," presents a revolutionary idea: awe might be the most important emotion for human well-being and connection. Named one of the best books of 2023 by The New York Times and embraced by figures from Oprah to Tim Ferriss, "Awe" arrives at a crucial moment when society faces epidemics of loneliness, division, and disconnection. Through twenty years of pioneering research, Keltner reveals how this often-overlooked emotion-available to everyone regardless of wealth or status-can transform our physical health, strengthen our communities, and give our lives profound meaning in just a few minutes each day.
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Eight Wonders That Awaken Our Souls
Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world. It's a complex emotion that has been largely neglected by science-while thousands of studies examined fear, only a handful explored awe before Keltner and his colleagues began their work.
Through collecting over 2,600 personal narratives from twenty-six countries spanning diverse religions, wealth levels, and cultural values, Keltner and his team identified eight universal "wonders" that reliably trigger awe:
Moral beauty appears when we witness others' courage, kindness, or resilience-like seeing someone stand up against injustice or overcome tremendous obstacles. A father ejecting a racist customer who insulted his child's friend, a young Yemeni girl escaping forced marriage and fighting through the judicial system, or even watching our children overcome challenges can fill us with this form of awe.
Collective effervescence emerges when we move in synchrony with others-whether dancing at concerts, participating in rituals, or even walking in crowds. This "electricity" generated when individuals gather transforms isolated selves into unified wholes, creating what sociologist Emile Durkheim called "extraordinary height of exaltation." From Daybreaker dance events to stadium waves at sporting events, these experiences satisfy our deep evolutionary need for connection.
Nature's vastness-from towering redwoods to star-filled skies-triggers perhaps our most accessible form of awe. These encounters reduce stress hormones, improve immune function, and activate neural networks associated with pleasure and reward. Our bodies respond to awe-inspiring nature like they do to nutritious food or refreshing sleep-we feel nourished, strengthened, and alive.
Music transports listeners to transcendent dimensions through what cellist Yumi Kendall describes as "a cashmere blanket of sound." Whether through lullabies that shift children's physiology toward patterns of belonging, Beethoven's compositions that awaken "infinite yearning," or Aretha Franklin's exalted singing, music creates shared activation in brain regions governing emotion and meaning.
Visual design-from architecture to paintings to natural patterns-reveals what photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher calls "sacred geometries," transcendent patterns connecting all living things. Dutch master Pieter de Hooch's paintings of ordinary domestic scenes show the "mathematics of moral beauty" in everyday moments, while Ernst Haeckel's scientific illustrations reveal the "artistic drive" unifying diverse species through evolution.
Spiritual and religious experiences offer direct encounters with what William James called "the fundamental cosmical IT." These mystical moments often begin with inexplicable experiences that transcend normal perception, which our minds transform into spiritual beliefs using ancient cognitive systems. During these experiences, brain regions associated with the default self quiet down while areas linked to joy activate.
Life and death moments-births and deaths-universally inspire awe across cultures. Witnessing new life emerge or being present as someone passes connects us to the profound mysteries of existence. Nancy Bardacke, creator of a mindful birthing program, describes witnessing birth as seeing "the head crown, and then the eyes and face slowly appear. WOW... It is a miracle."
Epiphanies-sudden understandings of essential truths-reveal fundamental insights about our world. Darwin's vision of a "tangled bank" of interconnected plants, insects, birds and worms led to his revolutionary understanding of evolution as having "grandeur in this view of life."
Notably absent from these awe stories were material possessions, money, consumer purchases, or technology devices. Awe occurs in a realm separate from materialism and status-seeking-what many call the sacred.
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How Awe Transforms Our Inner Landscape
When we experience awe, a remarkable transformation occurs within us. Our default self-focused mindset - preoccupied with control, independence, and personal advantage - diminishes, allowing us to perceive ourselves as part of larger networks and systems. Brain imaging studies confirm this dramatic shift: awe significantly reduces activity in the default mode network, regions associated with self-focused processing and self-referential thinking. This neural quieting creates space for a more expansive way of seeing ourselves and our place in the world.
This transformation powerfully counteracts today's epidemic of isolation and loneliness. As Walt Whitman poetically captured: "every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." Rather than seeing ourselves as separate individuals competing for limited resources, we recognize our fundamental interconnection with others and the world. This shift manifests in measurable ways - studies show that people experiencing awe use fewer first-person singular pronouns and demonstrate increased prosocial behavior.
Awe transforms into wonder - a distinct mental state characterized by openness, questioning, and embracing mystery. People who experience regular awe show greater curiosity about art, science, philosophy, and life's deepest mysteries. Contrary to common stereotypes that awe makes us dumbfounded or passive, scientific evidence shows it energizes rigorous thought and intellectual exploration. Historical examples abound: Newton and Descartes developed their groundbreaking work on mathematics, physics, and color theory through sustained wonder at natural phenomena like rainbows. Einstein's revelations about space-time emerged from his capacity to maintain childlike wonder about light and motion.
Perhaps most importantly, awe expands our "circle of care" - the network of people toward whom we feel kindness and moral consideration. William James called these the "saintly tendencies" of mystical awe. In one striking experiment, participants watching awe-inspiring nature videos shared more than half their earned points with strangers, compared to control groups who shared significantly less. Another study found that people surrounded by awe-inspiring redwood trees volunteered 40% more time to help tsunami victims than those in a neutral environment.
These transformations aren't merely psychological - they manifest in measurable physiological changes. Tears of awe contain a unique chemical composition distinct from other emotional tears, signaling our awareness of vast things that unite us. Goose bumps (piloerection) activate when facing mysteries together, triggering increased oxytocin production and vagus nerve activity that promote social connection and bonding. Even our vocalizations - the universal "whoa" or "aaah" of awe - appear to have evolved specifically to unite us in facing life's vast mysteries together. These physical responses create a feedback loop, reinforcing the psychological and social benefits of awe experiences.
Modern neuroscience has revealed that regular experiences of awe can lead to lasting changes in brain structure and function, particularly in regions associated with empathy, emotional regulation, and perspective-taking. This suggests that cultivating awe isn't just momentarily transformative - it can reshape our neural architecture in ways that support sustained psychological well-being and social connection.
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The Healing Power of Everyday Awe
Awe may be an antidote to our overheated and overstressed times by reducing inflammation produced by our immune system. While proinflammatory cytokines help fight pathogens, the human mind also treats social threats like rejection and loneliness as invasions, elevating cytokine levels. Research showed that everyday awe uniquely predicted lower inflammation levels, potentially preventing diseases like depression and heart disease.
This finding resonated with Stacy Bare, a veteran who found healing through wild awe after suffering from trauma and suicidal thoughts following his deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. After experiencing an epiphany while rock climbing in the Flatirons of Colorado, Bare dedicated himself to giving wild awe away, creating Sierra Club programs for veterans and others to experience nature.
A collaborative study took participants-underresourced teens and veterans-rafting on the American River. Results showed participants' cortisol levels converged as they moved in unison, and a week later, both groups reported less stress and greater well-being. Veterans showed a 32% drop in PTSD symptoms. Importantly, it was specifically the feeling of awe, rather than other positive emotions, that accounted for these benefits.
Even brief encounters with awe can transform our perspective. Participants who looked up at awe-inspiring eucalyptus trees felt less entitled and narcissistic, asked for less compensation money, and were more likely to help someone who dropped their books. Backpackers on their fourth day in the wilderness performed 50% better on reasoning tasks than those just setting out. Even political polarization decreased after people watched awe-inspiring nature videos.
The most profound finding may be the simplest: people experience awe two to three times weekly in ordinary moments-a friend's generosity, a flower's scent, light playing through trees, or even while watching television with friends. These everyday encounters with awe are available to everyone, regardless of wealth or privilege. In fact, research confirms that people with less wealth actually report more frequent awe in daily life.
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Musical Pathways to Transcendence
When cellist Yumi Kendall plays with the Philadelphia Orchestra, she experiences a profound connection to humanity's musical history. As she describes it, the vibrations move through her body, her thoughts soar into new spaces, and the notes create "a cashmere blanket of sound" that envelops listeners. This transcendent experience, shared by countless musicians across centuries, represents one of humanity's most powerful gateways to awe.
This musical awe operates neurologically as sound waves transform into patterns of activation that flow from the auditory cortex to regions affecting our bodies-heart, lungs, sexual organs-and eventually to our prefrontal cortex where we assign cultural meaning. Studies confirm music shifts our physiology to the neurophysiology of awe: melodious music reduces heart rate and blood pressure, activates dopaminergic circuitry, and when experienced collectively, synchronizes brains in regions governing emotion and meaning. Research using fMRI scanning has shown that when people listen to their favorite music, multiple brain networks light up simultaneously, creating a whole-brain engagement unlike almost any other activity.
Musicians express emotions through sounds resembling our vocal expressions-anger through slow, lower-pitched sounds with rising contours; joy through higher-pitched, quickly shifting sounds. Research confirms listeners can identify emotions in music across cultures-even Americans can detect emotions in traditional Chinese music they've never heard before. This universal emotional language extends to specific musical features: minor keys typically convey sadness, while major keys often express happiness. Fast tempos generally communicate excitement or anxiety, while slower rhythms can induce calmness or melancholy.
Sacred music often shares acoustic features of awe vocalizations, connecting listeners to spiritual figures or forces-whether through Hindu "om" chants connecting to Brahman, Qur'anic recitation transporting believers to Muhammad's revelation, or Indigenous ritual songs relating participants to the Divine. Gregorian chants, with their long, sustained notes and ethereal harmonies, create a sense of timelessness and infinity. Buddhist throat singing, with its otherworldly overtones, helps practitioners transcend ordinary consciousness.
Humans emerged from Africa 50-60,000 years ago as musical beings who structured social interactions through music. Archaeological evidence, including bone flutes dating back 40,000 years, suggests music played a crucial role in early human societies. From early childhood, we synchronize with music's beat, though we connect more easily with our own culture's rhythms. This synchronization builds trust-strangers who tap to the same beat show greater compassion and willingness to help each other. Studies of group singing reveal that participants' heart rates synchronize, creating a physiological bond that enhances social cohesion.
While music has universal elements (beat structure, pitch meaning, descending contours), cultures develop specific patterns that express their unique life experiences. Music thus becomes an identity marker-studies show working-class students prefer music expressing life's struggles (rap, country) while upper-class students gravitate toward music expressing individualism (alternative rock, jazz). These musical preferences reflect not just personal taste but deeper social and cultural identities. For example, research has shown that musical preferences can predict personality traits and even political orientations with surprising accuracy.
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Visual Doorways to the Sublime
At fifteen, Keltner discovered everyday awe in the Louvre's Room 837, where Dutch master Pieter de Hooch's paintings of ordinary domestic scenes-women cooking, doing laundry, caring for children-revealed a "mathematics of moral beauty." Unlike the crowded Vermeer exhibits, de Hooch's "quietly revolutionary" paintings showed how sublime community could exist in mundane moments. His masterful use of light streaming through windows and doorways created geometric patterns that transformed simple household tasks into moments of transcendent beauty, suggesting that divinity could be found in the most ordinary aspects of daily life.
While awe is often associated with vastness, photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher documents "microscopic awe" through images of bees' eyes, honeycomb structures, and human tears. Her work reveals "sacred geometries"-transcendent patterns and unifying structures that connect all living things. Her "Topography of Tears" project, photographing dried human tears under a microscope, shows how different emotional states produce distinct crystalline patterns, suggesting that even our smallest expressions contain universes of meaning and beauty.
Edmund Burke's 1757 philosophical treatise on the sublime distinguishes between beauty (arising from familiarity) and awe (from encounters with the powerful, obscure, and dreadful). Modern aesthetic studies confirm this: we prefer visual scenes that match our default expectations, finding comfort in familiar placements and perspectives. Research in environmental psychology demonstrates how certain visual patterns - like fractals in nature - consistently trigger positive emotional responses across cultures.
For art to evoke awe, Burke argues it must suggest vast mystery through profusion (like Pissarro's bustling Parisian boulevards teeming with countless individual stories), repetition (suggesting unifying forces like ocean tides or windswept wheat fields), patterns of light and movement (as in Rembrandt's masterful use of chiaroscuro), or by subverting our expectations of time and space (like Van Gogh's horizon-less "Almond Blossoms" or Monet's studies of light across haystacks).
Visual art enables "possibilities of feeling" by allowing us to perceive the world directly through emotional lenses. Kathe Kollwitz's stark portrayals of grief after losing her children show us how loss transforms perception, with her bold woodcuts conveying universal human suffering. Jim Goldberg's "Rich and Poor" photographs reveal the raw tenderness of poverty through intimate portraits paired with subjects' handwritten reflections. For Kandinsky, art evokes mystical feeling and "preserves the soul" through mood or "Stimmung," fine-tuning our experience of awe through his pioneering abstract compositions that sought to capture music's emotional resonance visually.
Research shows viewing art activates dopamine networks, enhances creativity, and promotes prosocial behavior-people who engage with art volunteer more and donate more money. In healthcare settings, art helps patients feel secure and contextualize illness within life's broader narrative, with studies showing reduced anxiety and pain levels in rooms with nature artwork. Meanwhile, awe-inspiring urban design promotes collective well-being and cooperation, as seen in projects like New York's High Line or Chicago's Millennium Park, where public art installations create shared spaces for wonder and connection.
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The Spiritual Dimension of Awe
Reverend Jennifer Bailey's spiritual journey began at age five when, after experiencing racism in a park, she found comfort in the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Years later, she would discover the transformative power of sacred music there, awakening to the idea that she was "beloved in the eyes of God."
Her approach to spirituality-which she calls "composting religion"-involves breaking down outdated religious elements, distilling essential spiritual truths, and growing new practices. This composting metaphor reflects the ancient process of transforming raw materials into nourishing humus through decay and microbial activity.
Similarly, spiritual awe often follows a pattern of breaking down preconceptions, distilling essential feelings, and growing new spiritual beliefs. Malcolm Clemens Young experienced this when, as a sixth grader, he was awestruck by moonlight on a lake, wondering "What could create such beauty?" This led him to explore diverse spiritual texts before attending Harvard Divinity School.
Now dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Young finds awe in prayer, surfing, fog patterns, and biblical passages. Rather than focusing on theological debates, he values being present during life's intimate moments-births, deaths, marriages-saying "this is God, right here, around us."
William James, despite his privileged upbringing, battled severe anxiety and depression before embarking on his search for what he called "the fundamental cosmical IT." He sought mystical experiences through spiritualists, seances, and even nitrous oxide, which led him to compile accounts of divine encounters in his revolutionary work "The Varieties of Religious Experience."
Modern science shows that mystical awe often begins with inexplicable experiences that transcend normal perception, which our minds transform into spiritual beliefs using ancient cognitive systems. During these experiences, brain regions associated with the default self quiet down while areas linked to joy activate.
Studies show spiritual engagement correlates with increased well-being, reduced depression, greater life expectancy, and prosocial behaviors that strengthen groups. However, communities centered on mystical awe can also foster tribalism and subjugation of outsiders-a reality that modern spiritual leaders are working to transform.
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Finding Awe in Life's Beginnings and Endings
Childbirth is perhaps humanity's most undervalued act of courage. Our unique evolutionary path produced highly vulnerable infants requiring years of intensive care - a trait that sets us apart from other primates whose offspring are more immediately self-sufficient. People across cultures describe the birth of children as miraculous moments of awe-from witnessing new life emerge, to seeing family features in a baby's face, to feeling overwhelming responsibility and connection. This transformative experience often reshapes parents' entire worldview and sense of purpose.
Nancy Bardacke, who created a mindful birthing program after decades as a nurse-midwife, describes witnessing birth as a profound privilege: "You see the head crown, and then the eyes and face slowly appear. WOW... It is a miracle... to witness life become." This boundary-dissolving experience connects to breath itself: "Breathe in, I am here. Breathe out, I expire. WONDER!" Her program teaches expectant parents to embrace the intensity of birth through mindfulness, turning fear into reverence for life's most fundamental process.
At the other end of life's journey, Roshi Joan Halifax offers wisdom on approaching death with awe rather than fear. After protesting in the civil rights movement, studying Indigenous traditions across multiple continents, and training as a Buddhist monk for over 40 years, she developed practices for "being with dying." Her work spans hospices, prisons, and medical institutions worldwide, showing how death can be a sacred transition rather than just a medical event.
Her approach centers on three essential principles: not knowing (quieting the default self to remain open to whatever emerges), bearing witness (being fully present without trying to fix or turn away from suffering), and compassionate action (breathing in suffering and transforming it into healing presence). Through her pioneering work with AIDS patients in the 1980s and continuing with terminal patients today, she teaches that death can be approached with wonder rather than dread, often becoming a profound teacher for both the dying and their caregivers.
The science of near-death experiences reveals consistent patterns that sound remarkably like awe-a vanishing of the default self, merging with something larger, and transcendent emotions washing over the experiencer. Research shows that up to 20% of cardiac arrest survivors report such experiences, describing them as life-changing encounters with something greater than themselves. After his brother Rolf's death, Keltner found that "the people we love remain with us in mysterious ways, enabling an opening to new wonders of life." This transformation of grief into wonder appears across cultures, suggesting that awe may be a natural part of processing both the beginning and end of human existence.
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The Epiphany of Interconnection
Awe reveals fundamental truths about our world, leading to epiphanies that transform our understanding. This "noetic" dimension of mystical awe connects us to something larger than ourselves-what William James called "the fundamental IT."
People describe this connection through metaphors: Margaret Fuller's "the all," Whitman's "the scheme," Emerson's "transparent eyeball," or Yumi Kendall's "cashmere blanket of sound." What connects us through awe is a system-interconnected elements working together with purpose.
Systems thinking perceives life through relationships rather than separate objects, recognizing interdependence, constant process, and animating qualities that unite disparate elements. Awe enables us to see these underlying systems and locate ourselves within them.
The eight wonders of life are themselves systems. Moral beauty instantiates ethical systems; collective movement forms systems that unite people; nature consists of interlocking systems from cells to ecosystems; creative arts deploy systematic symbols to express cultural ideas; religion systematizes beliefs and rituals; life itself follows systematic dynamics of growth and decay.
We evolved systems thinking to adapt to our hypersocial evolution-tracking shared caregiving, coalition networks, and collective activities. This perspective underlies traditional ecological knowledge and was central to nineteenth-century scientist Alexander von Humboldt, who described nature as "a network of forces and interrelationships."
New studies show how awe shifts our minds from reductionistic thinking to seeing interrelationships and dependencies. Brief experiences of awe move us from seeing ourselves as separate to recognizing our embeddedness in complex social networks. Awe connects us to the natural world as one interdependent species among many.
Awe's ultimate purpose is integration-connecting us to the systems of life: communities, nature, culture, and webs of ideas. The epiphany of awe is understanding that we are part of forces much larger than ourselves. This emotion, built into our evolution, enables us to wonder together about life's great questions: What is life? Why am I alive? Why do we die? What is our purpose? Awe hints at answers to these perennial mysteries and moves us toward life's wonders.
