Awe

It's hard to write a book about awe, I think, that's...well, awesome.

Dacher Keltner gives it a go in his new book, Awe. He shares what he and a collaborator discovered from collecting stories of awe from people in twenty-six countries, what he calls the Eight Wonders of Life. So what most commonly led people around the world to feel awe?

(1) Other people's courage, kindness, strength, or overcoming.
(2) Collective effervescence. A term created by French sociologist Émile Durkheim that describes the feeling of buzzing and crackling with life force that merges people into a collective self, a tribe.
(3) Nature.
(4) Music.
(5) Visual design.
(6) Spiritual and religious awe.
(7) Stories of life and death.
(8) Epiphanies.

Keltner offers more details from his study of stories of awe, and then he tells stories of awe that he has heard.