Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

Dr. Keltner is a rare: researcher, writer, teacher and inspirational humanist. In ’88, the psychology field was ablaze with the science of “cognitive biases”. The grand summary for that run is “Thinking Fast and Slow” (2013) by Daniel Kahneman who got a Nobel for his research. And, few were designing experiments to understand the innate human EMOTIONS which triggered our seemingly irrational decisions within our modern world context. (But, these decisions enabled survival within hunter-gather conditions!) Since ’88, Dr. Keltner has researched many emotions and eventually “awe” – a most difficult one to nail down. One of his previous books “Born to Be Good: the Science of a Meaningful Life” (2009. 6 Stars!) hit on many pro-social emotions with AWE being included, but needing more research. What’s great about this just-out - “AWE” - is how Keltner has chosen to use 4 lenses for looking at it, because different folks will be hooked, more or less, by these 4 different perspectives. 1. He starts off with: “The Science of Awe”. This includes: clever experiments; universal surveys; the findings of neuroscientists regarding the neurochemistry and brain/body locations that underlie and coincide with emotional activity; and a taxonomy of awe catalysts that includes 8 ranked sources. What’s the #1 catalyst for awe experiences? “Other people’s actions” (acts of “moral beauty”). Nature is #2, and surprisingly Spiritual/religious experiences are #6 (How can faith organizations facilitate more 1 to 5 experiences to blend with their stories and rituals?) 2. Then, “Stories of Transformative AWE”. When anyone is asked – “What has ever given you a sense of awe? – the stories spill out. Keltner’s stories may resonate with more people than the “science” section. 3. “Cultural Archives of Awe”. AWE is a gateway emotion that leads to - humility, gratitude, wonder and creative impulses; as well as fear, reverence and huddling together; these impulses may then lead to more compassion, forgiveness, and serving the greater good. The creative inspiration then gets expressed and captured for posterity by – art, music, dance, rituals, poetry, epic stories and astounding architecture like cathedrals. And, there are people for whom these creations are more powerful than science and stories. 4. And, finally: “Living a Life of Awe”. Keltner has a MOOC course at edex.org on the “Science of Happiness”. Many enroll, few finish and fewer yet are able – on their own- to redesign their neural pathways for better happiness habits. Most of us need - a social, support-group; a cheerleading guide; and many sessions – to get new habit traction. So, Keltner closes with guidelines for getting everyday AWE and making it a habit that may then power the development of other pro-social emotions and better health. This book could be turned into a course for any spiritual-energy, seeking group. For example: read X pages per week with some upfront questions; have some extra, voluntary, youtube-viewing or reading; and next-meeting, discussion questions. Consume the entire book over 12 or so weekly sessions. To sell you further on Dr. Keltner and AWE: go to youtube and search for “Keltner AWE”. Many clips appear. I recommend watching the shortest and most recent ones. Perhaps in this order: 1. “Awe with Dacher Keltner” (2 years ago, 3 minutes, 44 seconds) 2. “What is Awe and the 8 Wonders of Life” (1 year ago, 4:42) 3. “The Biological Effects of Sympathy, gratitude and Awe” (4 years ago, 5:19) Our modern world has taken us out of our evolutionary, tribal context. We are, therefore, more – awe, relationship, touch - deprived. Happiness stats are waning. We need more – goosebumps, chills, wonder, curiosity and all of the downstream emotions – that awe provides. Buy this breakthrough book!

AWESOME: I loved this book! It filled me with AWE, just reading it! Dacher Keltner is THE reason I became a Ph.D. social psychologist, as I took his “Power, Dominance, and Status” class at U.C. Berkeley many years ago —and if you told me then that I would use social psychology to tackle questions of good vs. evil, emotion, love, and then (without meaning to!) logically prove the truth of the “true self” (or “soul”?!) I wouldn’t have believed it! But I guess somehow Dacher knew … because he endorsed me as a candidate for graduate school, writing my letter of recommendation, and told me to study with Phoebe Ellsworth and Rich Gonzalez at the U. of M, and so I did, and I ended up getting my Ph.D. there. Then, I published a book in 2009 that scientifically linked these concepts together into a general social psychological theory, logically, bridging science and spirit, which I couldn’t believe, either! The work blew my mind—and then I used the work to heal my own life—which also blew my mind! Simply put, Dacher Keltner gave me a mind-blowing, AWE-filled life! If he can do this for me, just imagine what he can do for you! I’ve seen Dacher in action, and he’s so much more than a great scientist—he’s an incredible human being of great compassion and wisdom—and he can play basketball! In my opinion, he’s also an enlightened zen master! Now, in this incredible book, you get a touching description of his relationship with his departed brother Rolf, awe-inspiring and captivating stories from change-makers all over the world—many of whom have “composted” “garbage experiences” into new life and growth—for themselves and others—and incredible insights into the mystery and nature of Awe, itself! In short, Dacher is a ridiculously humble and insatiably curious guy, brilliant scientist and fabulous writer, who exudes the best of all the human virtues. READY TO FEEL AWE? READ THIS BOOK & GET TO KNOW THE AWE-INSPIRING DACHER KELTNER!

I’m not really a non-fiction fan but I found this book interesting. I could highly relate to awe-inducing experiences in the music and nature chapters. I appreciated the author’s closing thoughts and conclusion.

I enjoyed Keltner’s look at the many dimensions of “Awe”. The totality and diverse perspectives from which to appreciate are most helpful in awaking my appreciation of all things around me in this world.

This book was an interesting exploration of different aspects of awe. The author stretches the definition of awe and in some cases dilutes what I consider awe. I'm glad I read this book. Keltner makes many claims about awe without any reference to supporting research.

I love this book! It’s so good and so powerful! I initially heard it mentioned in a sermon and knew I needed to read it. I love the shift in perspective that it gave me - and now I look for awe everywhere! Buy it - you won’t regret it.

The book ‘Awe’ focuses on the benefits of feeling awe (“…the saintly tendencies of awe.” Page 158 and “…how awe moves us to wonder and saintly tendencies.” Page 191.). However, feeling awe is not necessarily always a good thing or a force for good. Followers of some popular movements may feel a strong sense of awe for their leaders and their missions, for example Gandhi or Hitler. Workers and investors may feel a strong sense of awe for visionary business leaders, for example, Steven Jobs or Elizabeth Holmes. A sense of awe of cosmic order may have stimulated deep understandings, for example, the relationship between mass and energy in physics or the relationships among people in the ancient Indian caste system. A powerful component of awe, moral beauty, may have a component that we are doing God’s work and inspired great examples of community cooperation or the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, and the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Feelings of awe might be triggered or manufactured in an individual by clever marketing, public relations, and advertising, all of which are designed to create specific behaviors, for example, to buy something (“…capitalists seeking to commodify awe.” Page 167) or to vote for someone. Powerful digital tools such as AI and social media, can influence an individual’s mind to create awe for specific points of view, for example, QAnon. In his book, Behave. The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, Robert M. Sapolsky often agrees with Dacher Keltner; for example, “An open heart is a prerequisite for an open mind (page 168).” But, as Sapolsky points out on page 637: “…“cooperation” is a value-free term. Sometimes it takes a village to ransack a neighboring village.” “Awe” is also a value-free term. In particular, Sapolsky discusses us versus them on page 63: “…we are our most prosocial concerning in-group morality when our rapid, implicit emotions and intuitions dominate [such as awe] but are most prosocial concerning out-group morality when cognition holds sway.” Dacher Keltner recognizes Robert M Sapolsky’s important point regarding us versus them. But among 250 pages in praise of ‘awe’, there is only one paragraph that recognizes the harm of ‘awe’. “The toxicities of communities that revolve around mystical awe are also well chronicled and have given the world tribalism, genocide, and the subjugation of those outside of the favored group-historically, women, people of color, and Indigenous peoples in more than ninety countries, extractive and authoritarian forms of power, as well as charismatic sociopaths, often find revered places in communities of mystical awe [emphasis added].” Page 210. Feelings of awe have a light side and a dark side: Ading women, people of color, plus Indigenous peoples together as a group, it appears that more than half of humanity has suffered because of awe. Maybe awe should be more feared than praised.

I found the book to have interesting and even inspiring ideas that applied to my own life. However the presentation is a bit wordy and repetitive. I think it would have made a better book if it was shortened. I got bored and left it many times but always returned to continue reading.

SHORT and Precise. What you need in daily business

Awe is an emotion that we fail to consider. Awe is our attitude to God which is often mistakenly referred to as fear. It is also the everyday wonder we feel when we come across ordinary, yet inspiring events, emotions and acts. This book helps us explore the various kinds of awe and how it can renew our minds

a wonderful book -thought provoking and inspiring

Great book on a very interesting topic well written and presented

This is an extremely well written book. It combines deeply engaging personal narrative, encounters with extraordinary people and scientific research into a comprehensive and captivating treatment of an intriguing emotion. An engaging writing style is carefully pinned to scientific work (and art, and literature, and just about every meaningful field of human endeavour) but never feels academic or over-specialised. Moreover, the book creates the emotion it describes so well. Despite all the excellent and approachable anchorage in scientific research, reading the book creates a feeling that reaches beyond evidence: a sense of wonder, an intimation that the door of mystery is still open... The only aspect of the book that was not perfect was that it was hard to put down! I read it within a week. However, I am glad I did, and I can easily imagine reading this wonderful book again in the future.