Awe by Dacher Keltner

From a foremost expert on the science of emotions, a groundbreaking and essential exploration into the history, science, and greater understanding of awe

Awe is mysterious. How do we begin to quantify the goose bumps we feel when we see the Grand Canyon, or our utter amazement when we watch a child walk for the first time? Until recently, there was no science of awe, that feeling we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that transcend our understanding of the world. Revolution­ary thinking, though, has shown how humans have survived over the course of evolution thanks to our capacities to cooperate, form communities, and create culture—all of which are spurred by awe.

In
Awe, Dacher Keltner presents a sweeping investigation and deeply personal inquiry into this elusive feeling. Revealing new re­search alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life, Keltner shows us how cultivating awe in our ev­eryday lives leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. At turns radical and profound, brimming with enlightening and practical insights, Awe is our field guide for how to place this emotion as a vital force within our lives.

Why I Picked It Up

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I reference this book a lot because I talk about awe a lot. For one, I’m deeply interested in neuroaesthetics and say that my journalism tends to be framed by the study of what we find beautiful and why. Obviously, that fits. My curiosity in the individuality/connection tension also fits this, as awe provokes this “unified but uniquely significant” state that’s difficult to channel in other areas.

I say this frequently, but so many books reference Dacher Keltner’s work and studies that his book itself almost feels obvious or even basic. It’s solidified in the canon of books I read to the extent that it almost feels too easy—but I liked reading it a lot, would recommend it to practically everyone wading into similar topics at the beginning, and think the explanation of the concept likely illuminates a lot about who I am as a person. It’s a bridge between my passion for reading, the arts, travel, and psychology.

About the Book

You know certain truths before you’re able to articulate them, especially in regards to your taste. So when I talked about awe in 2022, 11 years into my book blog, I’d realized this was the pattern but didn’t know all the research behind it or to what extent the analysis of it infused my work and curiosity.

In Dacher Keltner’s study of wonder, he identifies eight signifiers (or catalysts) to awe as an emotion:

1. Acts of strength, kindness, and courage
2. Mystical experiences
3. Encounters with life or death
4. Nature
5. Dance, sport, and collective movement
6. Big ideas
7. Music
8. Art

These tend to form the basis of all—or most of—the activities that make us feel seen, known, comforted, etc. without words. People gravitate towards different ones individually, but there are certain patterns, like nature being the one most commonly cited. (Think “goosebumps.”)

For example, I probably go more towards acts of kindness, whereas someone else might identify a moment of moral strength. Most fiction books are likely only significant because they depict several of these. An example I frequently use is that I might gravitate towards awe via Mary Oliver i.e. nature/beauty whereas someone else might be struck by the vastness depicted by Cormac McCarthy, which looks more like terror.

And then, I was reflecting on awe and how it resolves issues for me of:

1. The sense that words fail us on aspects that are the most important to us (too big or precise to articulate)
2. The need to stop time and make it feel meaningful (see also: flow states)
3. The need to be individual and independent and discrete, but also to feel connected and communal

The pursuit of awe solves a lot of those paradoxes, at least for me, both in the topics of my favorite books and what those books actually do on a functional level—or whatever your preferred form of art.

It’s why you might feel known on the level of your favorite song or connected to someone who’s done the same hike, or even why you feel close to those with whom you’ve been through terrifying experiences with, but maybe not when you actually try to put your thoughts into words in front of someone.

And like Four Thousand Weeks and The Molecule of More talk about, or even The Paradox of Choice, many of us are often haunted by the idea that we’re somehow using our limited time incorrectly by chasing the wrong, wasted things. The short term hit, basically, that makes us stop, look up, and wonder where our day went. Awe slows and stretches us, and it also makes us more aware of what Grit calls the “novelty in the nuance” rather than the candy-sugar high of novelty-novelty.

For some, awe is in a specific hobby like swimming in Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui. Or in the span of a performance, like in Daisy Jones and the Six.