Awe, Man

Experiencing the hottest new hotel, most acclaimed new restaurant and buzziest far-flung destination is all well and good, but travel’s true reward is the wonderment it sparks within.

- James Stewart

ON THE THIRD night of my camel trek from Jaisalmer, India, figures from the desert materialised in our camp: an old man swaddled in shawls and a boy clutching a plastic oil canister. Greetings made, they sat by our fire. From his shawls, the man pulled out two flutes and began to play—a fluid, warbling melody over a low drone. The boy drummed his empty canister, producing booms and gulps like a tabla. Sparks crackled. The sky boiled with stars. In the intense silence between songs, you could hear the infinity of the universe. Although wrapped in a blanket, I had goose bumps.

What I was experiencing was awe—and according to a recent book, it was more profound than you might imagine.

In Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley, argues that “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world” ranks among the most poorly understood yet most powerful emotions we possess.

Keltner’s analysis of the replies of 2,600 respondents from 26 countries to his questionnaire regarding awe-inspiring experiences finds eight sources of the emotion (“the eight wonders of life”), from the obvious such as nature, music, visual art and mystical experiences to less tangible things such as the “moral beauty of others” (kindness, courage, and so forth), epiphanies and life-or-death experiences. Awe silences our narcissistic egos, Keltner argues. It makes us look beyond ourselves to ask big questions about existence and the universe, maybe to seek answers, whether spiritual or scientific.