A Sense of Awe

 In 2016, an article by Paula Spencer Scott in Parade Magazine indicated that feeling AWE might be the secret to health and happiness.  Psychologist Dacher Keltner, who heads the University of California, Berkeley's Social Interaction Lab, studying the power of emotions, in 2013, kicked off Project Awe, a three-year research project funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Here are some of their conclusions:

1.  It's likely that human beings are wired to feel awe to get us to act more in collaboration, ensuring our survival.  Awe binds us together because facing a great vista, a starry sky, or a great cathedral, we realize we are part of something much larger.  Our thinking shifts from me to we.  Astronauts feel this in the extreme, according to a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.

2.  Awe helps us to see things in new ways.  Unlike other emotions, awe helps us to put on the brakes and keeps us still and attentive.  This "stop-and-think" phenomenon makes us more receptive to details and new information.  Albert Einstein described feelings of awe as "the source of all true art and science."

3.  Awe makes us nicer and happier.  The sense of awe seems to dissolve self and makes us act more generously, ethically, and fairly.

4.  Awe alters our bodies.  Awe is the emotion that most strongly predicts reduced levels of cytokines, a marker of inflammation that's linked to depression, according to research from the University of Toronto.  Recent studies have linked exposure to nature with lower blood pressure, stronger immune systems, and even reduced depression and stress.

In 2010, Stacy Bare and fellow veteran Nick Watson co-founded Veterans Expeditions to get returning soldiers from all eras outdoors.  Like Bare, they all began to report relief from PTSD.  Now, along with Sierra Club Outdoors, Veterans Expeditions has partnered with UC Berkeley to form the Great Outdoors Lab to document nature's impact on the mind, body, and relationships.

Researchers have speculated that a lack of exposure to nature lies at the root of many health problems of people who live in crowded cities and high rises.  Yesterday I wrote about time to be alone, which also may be crucial to our mental and physical health.

When God entered into the life of Abraham, beginning the history of the Jewish people, He made great promises to Abraham, telling him to "Look at the heavens and count the stars...."  It seems to me that for all of us, a sense of awe is the beginning of a relationship with God.  Karl Rahner, the greatest theologian of the 20th century, said that we have all experienced God in our lives -- but we have not all realized it.  "O yes," he said, "you have experienced God."  But that sense of awe and mystery is what is missing.  Our history, like the history of Abraham, is where we find Him, if only we know how to see.  And our sense of Awe at His Presence may be the source of our own spiritual health and happiness.