It may be a sunset, a stirring orchestral number or a striking painting — whatever gives you goosebumps or makes you shed a tear. Experts believe that consistently seeking out these awe-inspiring experiences could lead to a significantly happier and healthier life.
People find awe in nature, religion and music, as well as through visual art or architecture. We particularly feel it when we “encounter things that are vast or beyond our frame of reference, and that are inexplicable and mysterious,” Dr. Dacher Keltner told CNN in a video interview. “And then those kinds of experiences initiate wonder and contemplation and imagination.”
Keltner approaches awe, in part, from an anthropological perspective, exploring how this emotion shapes our social fabric. “As a species, we are very interdependent,” he said. “But the central challenge to healthy social networks, which is vital to our health, is unbridled self-interest.”
Visitors look at an installation, three huge commissioned paintings about Buddhism and materialism inside the six-story Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA, in Bangkok, Thailand. Credit: Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket/Getty Images
But is finding wonder through art as simple as looking at a beautiful painting? Keltner says the answer is complex.
He says to think of beauty as something familiar. When we look at art that fits our understanding of the world, such as bucolic landscape paintings of rolling hills, we recognize that we are seeing beauty. But Keltner argues that awe-inspiring art happens “when we violate expectations, when things are out of place or turned upside down.” In contrast to beauty, awe is overwhelming and mysterious.
Shock value isn’t enough, though. In that same 2017 study, awe rarely occurred alongside feelings of disgust, horror, fear or anxiety. Fundamentally, what separates wonder from shock is that the former invites us to learn and grow.
Awe can also be inspired by music or nature. Credit: Arctic-Images/Stone RF/Getty Images
All this nuance means it can sometimes be hard to recognize feelings of awe when they arise. So Keltner suggests taking careful note of various stimuli, like paintings, music or natural phenomena, and analyzing how they make you feel.
“Do you feel quiet, do you feel humble?” he said. “All of our studies show that your sense of self recedes to the background of consciousness as you’re absorbing this perceptual experience. The “small self” is probably one of the defining elements of awe.”
The art of wonder
Evoking awe poses a challenge to artists because “it’s one thing to astonish people and another to aesthetically point to new ideas,” said Keltner.
Artist Seffa Klein sees science and art existing in harmony with one another. While one is seen as objective and the other highly subjective, they’re “very similar processes,” she said. “They’re ways for people to communicate information.”
Klein’s 2022 work “WEB (Like a Sunflower)” was made using bismuth, plaster and mixed media on woven glass. Credit: Seffa Klein Studio
Through her art, she tries to communicate her own awe to audiences. To do so, she plays with scale, both in the artistic and scientific sense. Drawing from the vast planetary scale of astronomy and astrophysics as well as from the microscopic dimensions of quantum mechanics, Klein strives to create a space where viewers can arrive at their own moments of wonder.
Her work incorporates radiating lines and recurring spirals, eliciting a sense of motion and drawing the viewer in. Intensely bright beams of color emanate like lasers from the reflective centers of the canvases like lightning bolts of inspiration. From farther away, audiences can appreciate the dynamism of the abstract starbursts but, drawing closer, they can admire the minuscule specks of metal that look like cells underneath a microscope.
“Awe is seeing that you are exceeded by something else and finding peace and beauty and admiration in that fact,” she said. “It’s a realization that, once you get past a certain scale, your being as you know it, stops existing.” Like Keltner’s notion of the small self, Klein calls this experience a metaphorical “ego death.”
“Awe is seeing that you are exceeded by something else,” said artist Seffa Klein. Credit: Seffa Klein Studio
Instead of existential dread, Klein finds comfort in that abstraction and mystery. When people realize the limits of their understanding, she said, “they can feel like they belong to a greater sense of order in the world.”
Creativity, curiosity and civic engagement
There may be mental benefits to being awe-struck, too — specifically a reduction in stress and anxiety. Keltner says that people who experience wonder tend to find a greater sense of wellbeing and purpose in their lives and this, in turn, makes them less self-critical. It is also associated with more creativity and curiosity.
Researchers worked with Google’s Arts and Culture project to map the emotions people felt when looking at different works, including J.M.W. Turner’s “Vesuvius.” Credit: Paul Mellon Collection/Yale Center for British Art
To feel the full extent of these benefits, it’s important for people to seek wonder in their everyday lives, even if they don’t have access to galleries, concert halls, mountain peaks or lakeside sunsets, Keltner said. Simply looking at art online could make a difference, he added. “I think one of the promises of our digital lives is (having access to) more aesthetic awe, and getting you to artists that you wouldn’t ordinarily find in a museum,” he said.
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Most importantly, he urges people to slow down and be receptive to their surroundings. “Look for things that challenge your scale, both small and vast,” he said — anything from a pattern created by flowers near the sidewalk to the silhouette of your city’s skyline on your commute.
He promises you’ll thank yourself later.
Top image caption: An installation by teamLab at the Venetian Macao resort and casino in Macao, China, on February 22, 2023.