Dacher Keltner - The Thrilling New Science of Awe

One of the most fascinating developments of our time is that human qualities we have understood in terms of virtue - experiences we've called spiritual - are now being taken seriously by science as intelligence - as elements of human wholeness. Dacher Keltner and his Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley have been pivotal in this emergence. From the earliest years of his career, he investigated how emotions are coded in the muscles of our faces, and how they serve as “moral sensory systems." He was called on as Emojis evolved; he consulted on Pete Docter's groundbreaking movie Inside Out.
All of this, as Dacher sees it now, led him deeper and deeper into investigating the primary experience of awe in human life - moments when we have a sense of wonder, an experience of mystery, that transcends our understanding. These, it turns out, are as common in human life globally as they are measurably health-giving and immunity-boosting. They bring us together with others, again and again. They bring our nervous system and heartbeat and breath into sync - and even into sync with other bodies around us.
Welcome to a new season of On Being.
ABOUT
Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and founding director of the Greater Good Science Center. He hosts the podcast "The Science of Happiness". His latest book is "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life".
STAY IN TOUCH
Facebook: / onbeing
TikTok: / onbeing
Instagram: / onbeing
The Pause newsletter: onbeing.org/newsletter/
OUR PODCASTS
On Being with Krista Tippett: onbeing.org/series/podcast/
Poetry Unbound: onbeing.org/series/poetry-unb...
#onbeing #kristatippett #dacherkeltner #psychology #awe #collective #effervescence #wonder #science #neuroscience #ecosystem #podcast #podcasts

[@kerithedwdards4406]

Dacher Keltner is helping us all ot access what is native to us -- awe -- and he is doing it with grace and generosity. Thank you.

[@jessicalee7119]

Thank you so much for this conversation ~ listening to you share all of this made me feel less alone in the world.

[@leonstenutz6003]

0:20: Virtue, spirituality and the emerging science of wholeness; 0:33 Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley 0:45 Moral sensory systems; 1:00 Emojis & Inside Out 1:20 Awe: Mystery transcending understanding 1:30 A life-giving science -- The Science Of Awe: Syncing breath, mind, body, bodies, people... 2:18 Friendship & Curiosity 2:28 "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder & How It Can Transform Your Life" 3:05 Moral Virtue in the (Science) Lab 3:30 Dacher: Childhood & upbringing 7:54 How to live a good life? ¡Find awe! 8:10 Where awe is found: Other people around us & Moral Beauty (8:40) -- kindness, courage, overcoming, heroism ... 9:10 Eight Wonders Of Everyday Life -- Interior analogues to (physical) Wonders ofthe World (9:30) 10:00 Awe is ordinary and everywhere; 10:30 The First Winder Of Life: Moral Beauty 10:40 "Allowing Goodness Its Own Speech" (Toni Morrison) ... 11:20 Tough times & cynicism; Refuting cynicism (including in the social sciences); built-in human neurophysiology, sharing, solidarity & cooperation; (11:40) "Sympathy is our strongest instinct" (Darwin) 12:10 We need more stories on human goodness; 12:40 There is a lot of goodness out there; 12:40 Collective effervescence (Emile Durkheim); Moving together; Youth, events, rallies; Unity, awe, & bliss (13:50); "The significance of insignificant things" (Kierkegaard, 14:20); 15:00 Bhutan; Dance; Moving together; Young people moving back to boardgames & interaction 16:00 The Superorganism; moving in unison; inner neural unity & outer social neurosyncing; 17:30 Rafting together evens out hormone levels; 18:00 Awe and Nature & the 'neurophysiology of wild awe' (18:36); Nature evokes awe (19:00); we are part of an ecosystem; nature benefits our neurophysiology -- water, chemichals from flowers & trees (19:30); 20:30 The Vagus Nerve -- our favorite nerve at 'On Being' -- The caretaking nerve; Soulnerve' (21:25); Soul & Science; 21:50 Cultural biases shape science; Fight-or-flight physiology (22:00) -- a profound (myopic) paradigm; 22:30 Neurophysiology of the vagus nerve; A nerve connecting brain, heart, gut, mind & body; The mind-body nexus; The Love Organ (Steve Porges, 1980s, 23:07); Awe activates the vagus nerve (23:48) and opens one up to the world; 25:08 'I feel nervous' -- Nurturing capacities; Life-giving science; Chakra systems; Budhism & transcendent states; Scientific grounding; 'Bodily reverberations' (William James) 28:24 Meaning & A Compass For What Matters; 28:38 Spirit, soul, sacred, religion, science; 29:25 Awe, mystery, & death; 31:20 Intelligence of religion: Dance, chant, liturgy, design, service, music, dancing, wholeness, flourishing ... 32:50 Life & death: Dacher's personal experience with awe, illness, and death; 35:25 The madness of grief; the meaning of life; presence & absence of the diseasef; 36:10 Going back in search of Awe; Awe Walks; Sacred texts; Awe Spots; Music ...

[@kannan3801]

Thanks a lot 😊😍🙏

[@ShirleyShowalter]

I wonder how the science of awe can connect to the art of peacemaking? Do people on opposite sides of the political spectrum, for example, experience awe in opposite ways? On January 6, were the insurrectionists filled with a spirit of awe? If enemies stood side by side in the presence of the Grand Canyon could they see each other? What would a conversation between Dacher Keltner and John Paul Lederach be like?

[@FJK1953]

How about a "conversation" with criminal warmongers Bush/Cheney? Both Speaking of Faith--to anyone to the "right" of where the "center" used to be, at least--and "Shock and Awe" arose from the toxic ashes of 9/11. "Opposite ways," indeed! We are, per force, stuck in a binary of our own craven making. Refuse.Fascism.

[@weldonnisly1752]

Great question Shirley! Well worth pondering and pursuing in conversation and exploration!

[@Leadeshipcoach]

Wonderful question Shirley!

[@LukeKinman]

Check out the science of awe white paper by summer Allen! It compiles research in the realm of awe from 2003 to 2018. I follow your intuitions. I’m curious what higher levels of dispositional awe across the collective would do for social cohesion.

[@alro11]

good interview

[@ellenmuseum]

Amazing how something so obvious has been shrouded and demonized....welcome back science!

[@frankbair5605]

This is a bubbly and happy conversation, and "science" is mentioned very often, almost as if that "science" is not just a powerful mental methodology, but rather a third person in the conversation. The endpoint is all happy, lovely, and beautiful. But isn't their also a collective effervescence associated with a totalitarian, free-speech controlling, culture canceling, book-burning rally? Isn't awe more than butterflies, moral beauty, and fairies? In our own lives. We have witnessed the awesome power of social movements and political groups to kill huge masses of people. Weren't they also blissful? What is the "goodness" standard?

[@timbenson6577]

I think you only listen enough so you could give a cynical reply,we all are aware of the dark sid🎉e of humanity the point is of course, but there is also this other side to humanity that needs to be empathized.

[@nitsamarcandonatou9147]

I am IN the body of…Soul!! How would that speak to us??