One hears much lately, especially in military strategy, of “winning the hearts and minds” of people. Such victory might hinge on reconstruction and the greasing of palms, but one of the oldest methods of winning the love—of getting people to embrace something—is to extol that thing’s impact on the inner life.
The technique plays out in propaganda (
freeing,
transformative ,
energizing); in advertising blurbs (
amazing,
hypnotic,
thrilling); and promotion of artistic and intellectual endeavors (
edifying,
illuminating,
spellbinding). From the beginnings of literature, writers have glorified people and events by hyping their mental, emotional, or spiritual impact. Just how admirable is the hero of the epic
Beowulf? He has saved chieftain Hrothgar’s people, yes; but Hrothgar’s emotional response to his savior is even more persuasive:
his breast’s wild billows he [Hrothgar] banned in vain; safe in his soul a secret longing, locked in his mind, for that loved man burned in his blood.” … (Beowulf, XXVI)
While such acclaim suits a 1,400-year-old world of mead halls, I’d be proud today to be dubbed a breast-billower.
Speaking of categories, I should note that within several I incorporate the words heart and brain into suggested terms. Brain is usually meant metaphorically, not in the sense of a shivering gray physical mass; but heart is sometimes considered a physical organ to be figuratively jostled (heart-juddering) and sometimes itself a metaphor for feelings (heart-plundering). I may be slipping semantic and categorical boundaries; but if a term wins your heart and mind, consider me transported.
TERMS
absorbing
affecting
Amazement City
amazement, an
amazing unleashed
amen-astonishing
animating
arresting
astrogation through inner space, an (ref., spacecraft navigation)
“axe for the frozen sea inside us, the” (—Franz Kafka, what a book must be, 1904)
bewitching
beyond boggling
both-barrels mind-blasting
brain-bifurcating
brain-bludgeoning
brain-crashing
brain-draining
brain-incinerating
brain-pulverizing
brains-into-putty astonishing
brain-stunning
brain-waffling
brass-knuckles stupefying
captivating
commoving (agitating, exciting)
consuming
daft-making
disembodying
dislocatingly amazing
double-take amazing
double-whammying
drainingly emotional
dumbstriking
dumfounding
edifying
emotional eggbeater, an
emotional liftoff, an
emotional splashdown, an
energizing
engaging
enlightening
enlightenment, an
enrapturing
enravishing
enthralling
entrancing
fascinating
flagellation of the senses, a
frisson, a (shudder of emotion)
gear-grindingly jolting
haunting
head-crumbling
heart-flurrying (bewildering)
heart-plundering
incantatory (enchanting, as by incantation)
incarnation of amazing, the
inspiriting
jaw-breakingly amazing
jitters-making
keenly affecting
kick-starts the spirit
like a meteorite through the soul
“Likewise the youth … beheld a charming object, whose heart-plundering face the handmaid of divine handicraft had adorned with the blushing taint of grace….”
—Hassain Waiz Kashifí, The Anwári Sohailí, 7th Book
heart-rustling
heart-twiddling
hot sauce for the brain
hypnotic
illuminating
impactive
make-way-for-it amazing
Mausoleum-of-King-Mausolasat-Halicarnassus amazing (ref., one of Seven Ancient Wonders)
meshuga-making (Yi.: crazy)
mesmeric
“[Mick Jagger is a] writer of brilliant, soulful, soaring, incantatory anthems, hymns to broken hearts … broken spirits … and fragmentary hopes for redemption….”
—Ron Rosenbaum, New York Observer, Dec. 9, 2001
mesmerizing
meteor shower in the mind, a
Mind-Boggle Boulevard
mind-bonking
mind-broadening
mind-clobbering
mind-cudgeling
mind-diddling
mind-dismantling
mind-flummoxing
mind-freaking
mind-gutting
mind-hemorrhaging
mind-jangling
mind-joggling
mind-marmalizing (turning to marmalade)
mind-mussing
mind-mutilating
mind-probing
mind-pummeling
mind-razing
mind-rocketing
mind-ruffling
mind-scorching
mind-scrambling
mind-snatching
mind-stewing
mind-tripping
neuron-blasting
noodle-frying
nut-cracking
nutso-making
nuzzles the heart
passion-raising
peal of epiphanic insight, a (an epiphany)
pepper for the brain
propelling
provocative
provoking
psychic reentry, a
punch-drunk dizzying
quickening
quiver-making
R&R for the soul
riveting
rousing
run-of-the-mill stupefying
scalp-tightening
sending (emotionally moving)
sense-stunning
sit-down-and-brace-yourself amazing
soul-bracing
soul-churning
soul-flensing (flaying, skinning)
soul-freshening
soul-jiggling
soul-kindling
soul-laundering
soul-nourishing
soul-scouring
soul-seizing
soul-shearing
soul-smiting
soul-sparking
soul-throttling
soul-tugging
speech-foozling (bungling)
spellbinding
spellful
spirit-bracing
spirit-buoying
spiritual feeding frenzy, a
spiritual propellant, a
spiritual purgation, a
spiritual schvitz, a (Yi.: sweat bath)
spiritual soft landing, a
spiritual tonic, a
spiritual whiplash, a
startling
stirring
stirs your pudding
stupefying
surface-to-air uplift, a
swivet-making (excited nervousness)
terra firma for the spirit
thought-foozling (bungling)
thrillifying
tochis-over-teakettle traumatizing (Yi.: tochis = posterior)
tongue-cleaved-to-the-roof-of-the-mouth astounding
touching
transforming
transporting
trauma-making
traumatic
traumatizing
traumatizingly good
tumult-making
ungluing
vivifying
wake-the-dead amazing
wake-up beanball, a
wacko-making
will put your brains in a blender
will supercharge your psyche
will synchronize your clock
wit-sharpening
Moving 
