The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
John Muir (1838–1914)
Keep a green tree in your heart, and perhaps the singing bird will come.
Old Chinese Proverb
How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky?
Bob Dylan, Blowin’ in the Wind
The world of Nature has evoked awe in many human beings and inspired them to follow a spiritual Path. [ZB: 664–667; ZBH: 186–189] Piff and colleagues became interested in awe.1 Their series of behavioral experiments confirmed that awe can diminish Self-centeredness and increase other-directed (prosocial) forms of behavior. When subjects were tested for their generosity in a money-based economic game, those who already tended to experience awe gave most generously, even more so than did those who were disposed to compassion and to all the other prosocial emotions. Subsequent experiments during which awe was induced increased the likelihood that these subjects would then make ethical decisions, be more generous, and feel more inclined toward prosocial values in general.
The researchers induced awe in one experiment with the aid of a unique natural setting. It was full of tall trees. The subjects stood for one minute in this special grove of towering eucalyptus trees. This brief, actual immersive experience outdoors enhanced their subsequent prosocial helping behavior and decreased their sense of entitlements in comparison with controls.
When subjects witness the almost cathedral-like atmosphere of towering green trees overhead, they are receiving several benefits of visual messages throughout both their superior and inferior visual fields (chapter 10). The authors propose that the “feelings of a small self” are at the core of these beneficial effects that awe has on prosocial behavior. Such a diminution of one’s own Self-centeredness could seem to enhance the likelihood of one’s becoming interested in other persons and more aware of broader social contexts.
In a related study, college students were surveyed online for various (self-reported) positive emotions.2 Their positive emotion of awe was the strongest predictor for low levels of the harmful proinflammatory molecule interleukin-6.
It is plausible to propose that such “feelings of a small self” could also have testable neuroimaging correlates. However, it becomes open to question just how far today’s so-called “virtual reality” electronic equipment could provide an accurate approximate equivalent of the “real thing.”3 Deep, authentic awe is a sublime event that is usually experienced in the real outdoors. The occasion is often spontaneous, not contrived. Moreover, the infinitesimal witness is immersed in a night sky that knows no ceiling, or is in some other Grand Canyon-like natural setting that expands time and space far beyond one’s ordinary boundaries of mere wonderment. The current overuse of the word “awesome” suggests how far researchers still have to go in order to understand real, authentic, deep, natural awe, all of its psychophysiological correlates, and each of the mechanisms involved in its subsequent triggering effects.4