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Self-focus shuts awe out
Emerson and the quiet self
Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the great writers of awe, stood in a forest on a cold day in Massachusetts and felt uplifted into infinite space, with all mean egotism gone.
Awe quiets the self, and meanness is its great enemy. Focusing on the self reduces awe, and so does worrying about striving in society or the bottom line in a bank account.
The brain on awe
Longitudinal data show people becoming more self-focused over time. When awe does arrive, the default mode network starts to quiet down and vagal tone activates, and people feel tethered to something larger such as a piece of music, a culture, a political movement, or a team they love.
Too much self-focus is costing young people, and it makes them anxious. Dancing, hearing music, sharing things, and going backpacking all pull attention out of the self.
How does awe quiet the default mode network?
The default mode network is a set of brain regions most active during self-referential thought and mind wandering. In a 2019 study in Human Brain Mapping, Michiel van Elk and colleagues scanned people with functional MRI while they watched awe-inspiring videos. Activity in the default mode network dropped compared with activity during neutral videos. The drop was larger in people who reported feeling more awe.
Why do giant trees make people more helpful?
In a 2015 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Paul Piff and colleagues had participants look up at tall eucalyptus trees on the Berkeley campus for one minute. A researcher then dropped a handful of pens nearby. People who had looked at the trees picked up more pens than people who had looked at a tall building. They also rated themselves as less entitled.
Where did Emerson write about this feeling?
Emerson published the essay Nature in 1836, and it became a founding text of American Transcendentalism. In it he describes becoming a transparent eyeball, a figure who sees everything and is nothing. Cartoonist Christopher Pearse Cranch drew a caricature of the image, a giant eyeball on legs. The essay was published anonymously.
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