Dacher Keltner

That is what's going on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's profound.

Yeah, I mean, you think about the Islamic tile patterns or the Mesoamerican basket weaving and sculptures and temples and our minds are wired to detect these sacred geometries of the visual world.

Yeah, but you feel struck by the facade of a cathedral or...

Some painting, I was lucky to be raised by a painter, my dad, who got me looking at paintings early in life and they changed my life.

And so, yeah, the visual world is a very rich realm of awe to explore.

Yeah.

And it's important because, you know, in this complicated time in American history, spirit and religion can divide.

And in some sense, as William James argued, underlying that is this feeling of the divine or mystical experience.

81% of Americans feel a sense of the divine.

Half of those people find it in nature.

And awe is the emotion that tracks that relationship to spirit and the divine.

One of the many sort of transcendent emotions like- Stories also of life and death, number seven.

Yeah, you know, we started getting stories around the world, watching children be born, infants be born, grandmothers, parents, friends, relatives, you just see life come in, the life cycle begins.

Likewise, you could now think about, you know, why are people awestruck by spring?

Right, because it's this maximum moment of life in nature.

It's like, everything is blooming.

Blooming and blooming, yes, coming forth.