“Now, twenty years into teaching happiness, I have an answer: FIND AWE.” Dacher Keltner

Discovering awe 

The first time I really grasped the importance of awe was when I visited Ingleborough Cave, beneath the sacred mountain of Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales.

It was around a week after Beltane, and my first free day after our woodland springtime micro-festival Space to Emerge. My mind was still full of all the busyness of that weekend.

I decided to approach the cave as a sentient being, animate and alive. It completely changed my perspective when I was in there. Firstly, I asked permission to go into the cave. Then, I put the laminated self-guided tour sheet in my bag. I didn’t want to be told about what I was seeing, I wanted to feel it.

It turned out that I was to have the whole cave to myself for the entire time I was in there. This is very unusual. I have been several times since, and there has always been multiple groups of people in there with me. 

It was a very edgy experience being in there alone, knowing that the cave was alive. The deeper I went, the more on edge I felt. I sensed a presence walking behind me, but every time I looked over my shoulder, there was no-one there. All the time I was having a conversation with the cave in my mind, talking to the cave as a living being.

I didn't get all the way to the end that day. As the cave roof closed in around me, that was the point I felt it was too much. I turned around and hastily made my way back. As I left, two people were securing their hard hats onto their heads and preparing to enter, another conformation that cave had been kept empty for me to experience this on my own.

After those forty minutes alone, I emerged from the cave feeling very different to how I felt earlier. 

Before I went in, I was in the afterglow of Space to Emerge, and a part of me was still very much there at the in the woods with everybody. 

I was going through all the stories people had shared with me. Stories about them struggling, grappling with challenges in their personal lives, and also trying to make sense of the escalating world challenges as well. Being an empath, these touch points that I'd had with our community were still with me. 

I was also processing all the things that went on for me about leading an event of that scale and all the responsibility that comes with that. So, I was very much still there at Space to Emerge when I went in the cave.

But, when I came out of the cave, I noticed that my mind had completely settled. I no longer had thoughts of Space to Emerge racing around in my head. It was like my own emergence out of the belly of the mountain, restored and ready for the next chapter of the year. 

I left in a state of awe from my experience. And as I walked back through the woodland, I heard these words in my head: ‘awe-seeker’. I rather liked the idea of being an awe-seeker, and seeking out experiences of awe.

When I arrived back home, I immediately shared the idea with Jason and started to look into the theory behind awe and what it does within us. 

Awe reconnects me with something far greater than the everyday, and it raises me above the stresses and reminds me that I am part of something amazing, miraculous and mysterious. It helps bring perspective to problems that might be overwhelming, so that they're more manageable and this impact is almost instantaneous. It links me to the mystery. 

While I was in the presence of those limestone beings, I was touching the edge of the sacred, the spiritual, the Otherworld. 

I imagined the people that were inside Ingleborough Cave thousands of years ago after making their pilgrimage into the limestone country of Ingleborough mountain and the surrounding landscape. I reflected on how they would have experienced the cave without artificial light, in darkness with just a flicker of a flame. 

Just for a moment, I connected through my imagination about all those ancestors that would have gone in there and experienced that. 

But most of all, awe reminded me that in the topsy turvy world where so many people are struggling in so many ways, there is beauty and magic, and it still exists, and it's there for us to find. 

It does take, from my experience, effort to go and do things like this, to awe-seek, because there's always a feeling within me that I need to be doing something ‘productive’. That pull of responsibility, the voice saying ‘I should be doing something useful.’ Awe can feel indulgent. But it isn’t. It’s vital. It feels indulgent to go and seek out these amazing experiences, but it's so important to push through that and give awe time and attention. 

I reflected on how I feel in awe when I climb to the summit of mountains. Standing there with a 360 degree view extending up to fifty miles, moves something in me. As I descend, I'm already planning when I'm going to go up the next one. It is as if awe ignites a compulsion within me that I want more of it. 

I believe having more awe in our lives will be a very good thing, which is why I've been playing around since then with this idea of awe-seeking as an important part of being a human, and of being on a spiritual path.

My enquiries led to reading a book: Awe – The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder, by psychologist Dacher Keltner. Keltner is an American professor of psychology at the University of California and a researcher of happiness. This is what he said about awe at the outset of his book:

“What we are seeking in such inquiry is an answer to a perennial question, one we have been asking in different ways for tens of thousands of years: How can we live the good life? One enlivened by joy and community and meaning, that brings us a sense of worth and belonging and strengthens the people and natural environments around us? Now, twenty years into teaching happiness, I have an answer: FIND AWE.”

Awe and happiness are entwined. Awe is the emotion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don't understand. 

I love that we can find it anywhere, it doesn't require much money, or in fact any money, nor much time. Research has shown that even a couple of minutes a day will do, and because we have a basic need for awe wired into our brains and bodies, it's easy to find. 

And the feeling of awe has been with our species for a very long time.

The origins of awe

Dacher Keltner and colleagues conducted research into vocal bursts. These are short, non-verbal sounds such as sighs, laughs, shrieks, growls, oohs, ahhs, and mmms.

Their team went across the world, studying how people from different cultures recognised the emotional meaning of these sounds. What they discovered is remarkable: the vocal burst for awe, sounds like ‘whoa,’ ‘aaah,’ or ‘wow’, was understood about 90% of the time across their surveys.

Even in remote Himalayan villages with little Western contact, people immediately recognised awe sounds. This suggests that awe’s vocal burst is the most universal human sound of emotion.

The implication is extraordinary. Long before words, over 100,000 years ago, humans were already expressing awe vocally. When our ancestors stood together before the vast mysteries of life, they were saying the very same “whoa” we still say today.

The transformative power of awe

What happens to us when we experience awe? As it turns out, awe helps us flourish in so many ways. Awe is far more than a fleeting feeling; it touches happiness, health, relationships, values, and our very way of seeing the world. So, what does awe do for us?

1. Awe leads to happiness

Keltner’s decades of research suggest that awe is central to joy, meaning, and belonging. It’s not just pleasant; it’s foundational to a life well-lived. When we encounter awe, we feel part of something larger, a life infused with connection and purpose.

2. Awe realigns our values

Experiencing awe shifts our perspective. It softens the ego and helps us feel more connected to one another, to nature, and to the sacred. Suddenly, the world feels richer with meaning. Awe reminds us that life is not just about personal ambition or acquisition; it’s about relationship, reverence, and wonder.

3. Awe benefits our mental well-being

Keltner undertook research into the impact of awe on our brains. Through a study in Japan, one group of participants watched videos of awe-inducing nature, such as footage of mountains, ravines, skies, and animals from BBC’s Planet Earth. The other participants viewed more threat-filled awe videos of tornadoes, volcanoes, lightning, and violent storms.

The study found that both led to reduced activation in the ‘default mode network’ region of the brain. This is the part of the brain that is linked to self-focused rumination: self-criticism, anxiety, even depression. In other words, awe quiets the noisy ego. When awe arises, the grip of worry and judgment loosens, making room for calm, clarity, and healing.

4. Awe strengthens relationships

Awe doesn’t just reshape the self, it reshapes how we relate to others. Studies show that as our sense of self diminishes, awe shifts us from competition to collaboration. Instead of seeing the world as “dog eat dog,” we recognise our place in networks of interdependence: family, community, culture.

This shift is profoundly social. Awe is a powerful antidote to the isolation and loneliness so prevalent today. It draws us into belonging.

5. Awe opens us to wonder

Finally, awe widens our capacity for curiosity. It opens us to what is unknown, to what cannot be neatly expressed in language, to new knowledge, art, and mystery.

Even five minutes of everyday awe, gazing at the night sky, listening to moving music, noticing a spider’s web, makes people more curious about art, poetry, science, and philosophy. They feel more at home with mysteries, more able to think rigorously, and more willing to ask life’s big questions.

Ultimately, awe brings joy, meaning, and community along with healthier bodies and more creative minds. 

We need as much of it as we can get.

Everyday awe

The good news is, our experience of awe isn’t dependant on the amount of wealth we have: having a fancy home, going on exclusive resort holidays or buying expensive goods.

In fact, there is one study that has found that people who have less wealth report feeling more frequent awe during the day, and more wonder about their everyday surroundings.

It seems that wealth undermines everyday awe and our capacity to see the moral beauty in others, the wonders of nature, or the sublime in music or art. 

So where do we find awe? Keltner’s research identifies eight ‘wonders of life’ that consistently evoke awe across cultures:

1. Moral beauty: Witnessing acts of courage, kindness, or virtue.
2. Collective effervescence: Moving in unison at ceremonies, concerts, or sports events.
3. Nature: Vast landscapes, wild places, or the subtle beauty of everyday natural patterns.
4. Music: Sounds that move, transport, or connect us.
5. Visual design & art: Architecture, sacred geometry, aesthetic beauty.
6. Spiritual & religious practices: Mystical experiences, sacred rituals, connection to the sacred.
7. Life & death: Threshold moments such as birth, dying, or mourning.
8. Epiphanies and big ideas: Revelations, insights, or sudden clarity that expand our worldview.

Keltner ranks these eight wonders of life by how frequently people across cultures reported experiencing each one. This is not a hierarchy of importance, but of commonness: what humans most often describe as awe-inspiring.

At the top sits moral beauty, witnessing courage, kindness, and virtue in others, which people reported more often than nature or music. That’s striking: what moves us most deeply, more than mountains or symphonies, is the goodness we see in one another.

We all have a biological and spiritual need for awe. By actively seeking it in kindness, in community, in nature, in beauty, we reconnect with wonder, meaning, and the sense of belonging our souls crave.

If awe can reshape our minds, our bodies, our relationships, and our collective spirit, then perhaps one of the simplest prescriptions for a flourishing life is this: take a daily dose of awe. Even two to five minutes is enough to begin.

The world is waiting to astonish us.