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Awe Hardcover – January 3, 2023

by Dacher Keltner (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 447 ratings
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From a foremost expert on the science of emotions, a groundbreaking exploration into the history, psychology and meaning of aweSocial psychologist Dacher Keltner has spent his career speaking to different groups of people, from schoolchildren to prisoners to healthcare workers, about the good life. These conversations and his pioneering research into the science of emotion have convinced him that happiness comes down to one finding awe.Awe allows us to collaborate with others, open our minds to wonder, and see the deep patterns of life. In his new book, Keltner presents a radical investigation into this elusive emotion. Drawing on his own scientific research into how awe transforms our brains and bodies, alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life during a period of immense grief, Keltner shows us how cultivating wonder leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. The book includes intensely moving, deeply personal stories of awe from people all over the world-doctors and veterans, environmentalists and poets, indigenous scholars and hospice workers, ministers and midwives.At turns radical and profound, Awe is our field guide for how to uncover everyday wonder as a vital force within our lives.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Allen Lane
  4. Publication date
    January 3, 2023
  5. Dimensions
    6.38 x 1.26 x 9.45 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0241603900
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0241603901
  8. See all details
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  1. Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.
    Highlighted by 1,654 Kindle readers
  2. Awe is the emotion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don’t understand.
    Highlighted by 1,002 Kindle readers
  3. What is an experience of awe that you have had, when you encountered a vast mystery that transcends your understanding of the world?
    Highlighted by 596 Kindle readers
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen Lane (January 3, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241603900
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241603901
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.53 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1.26 x 9.45 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 447 ratings

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Dacher Keltner

Dacher Keltner

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4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
447 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Pamela M. Barger
5.0 out of 5 stars Life enhancing!
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2023
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This book elaborates on a hunch that has driven my whole seven-decade life. I've managed to earn (barely) enough to live on by doing things that regularly envelop me in awe--playing live music and teaching music. Gardening, walking in nature, writing, even trying to make visual art. All of these are what make me want to get up in the morning, and make me a person who can teach music to children knowing that it will enhance their lives. Since reading this book I've become more aware of the way physical sensations are clues to where I should go, what I should do, how I really feel, and more. I treasure that lump in my throat, because it makes me human. I LOVE the idea that many physical reactions are primal, and that they have to do with connecting us to others, and to much larger things. In the thirteen century, poet Rumi wrote "Don't open the door to the study and begin reading; Take down the dulcimer. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Indeed. By the way, this book is deceptively easy to read, and personal. The fact that it is accessible does not mean that it is less than profound. (P.S. Mr. Keltner, I laughed aloud when my body raised my shoulders upon hearing a singer sing flat--a physical reaction that came WAY before my intellect could remind me that such a move might hurt the singer's feelings. It's been a while since I read this book. Now I need to reread it to see if you address "cultural learning" becoming so deeply ingrained that it precedes conscious thought.)
32 people found this helpful
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T. J. Trentadue
4.0 out of 5 stars worth returning to
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2024
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I found the book to have interesting and even inspiring ideas that applied to my own life. However the presentation is a bit wordy and repetitive. I think it would have made a better book if it was shortened. I got bored and left it many times but always returned to continue reading.
5 people found this helpful
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D. B. Merrifield
5.0 out of 5 stars Breakthrough Book. We All Need More AWE Everyday
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2023
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Dr. Keltner is a rare: researcher, writer, teacher and inspirational humanist.

In ’88, the psychology field was ablaze with the science of “cognitive biases”. The grand summary for that run is “Thinking Fast and Slow” (2013) by Daniel Kahneman who got a Nobel for his research.

And, few were designing experiments to understand the innate human EMOTIONS which triggered our seemingly irrational decisions within our modern world context. (But, these decisions enabled survival within hunter-gather conditions!)

Since ’88, Dr. Keltner has researched many emotions and eventually “awe” – a most difficult one to nail down. One of his previous books “Born to Be Good: the Science of a Meaningful Life” (2009. 6 Stars!) hit on many pro-social emotions with AWE being included, but needing more research.

What’s great about this just-out - “AWE” - is how Keltner has chosen to use 4 lenses for looking at it, because different folks will be hooked, more or less, by these 4 different perspectives.

1. He starts off with:
“The Science of Awe”. This includes: clever experiments; universal surveys; the findings of neuroscientists regarding the neurochemistry and brain/body locations that underlie and coincide with emotional activity; and a taxonomy of awe catalysts that includes 8 ranked sources.

What’s the #1 catalyst for awe experiences? “Other people’s actions” (acts of “moral beauty”). Nature is #2, and surprisingly Spiritual/religious experiences are #6
(How can faith organizations facilitate more 1 to 5 experiences to blend with their stories and rituals?)

2. Then, “Stories of Transformative AWE”.
When anyone is asked – “What has ever given you a sense of awe? – the stories spill out. Keltner’s stories may resonate with more people than the “science” section.

3. “Cultural Archives of Awe”.
AWE is a gateway emotion that leads to - humility, gratitude, wonder and creative impulses; as well as fear, reverence and huddling together; these impulses may then lead to more compassion, forgiveness, and serving the greater good.
The creative inspiration then gets expressed and captured for posterity by – art, music, dance, rituals, poetry, epic stories and astounding architecture like cathedrals. And, there are people for whom these creations are more powerful than science and stories.

4. And, finally: “Living a Life of Awe”.
Keltner has a MOOC course at edex.org on the “Science of Happiness”. Many enroll, few finish and fewer yet are able – on their own- to redesign their neural pathways for better happiness habits.
Most of us need - a social, support-group; a cheerleading guide; and many sessions – to get new habit traction. So, Keltner closes with guidelines for getting everyday AWE and making it a habit that may then power the development of other pro-social emotions and better health.

This book could be turned into a course for any spiritual-energy, seeking group. For example: read X pages per week with some upfront questions; have some extra, voluntary, youtube-viewing or reading; and next-meeting, discussion questions. Consume the entire book over 12 or so weekly sessions.

To sell you further on Dr. Keltner and AWE: go to youtube and search for “Keltner AWE”. Many clips appear. I recommend watching the shortest and most recent ones. Perhaps in this order:
1. “Awe with Dacher Keltner” (2 years ago, 3 minutes, 44 seconds)
2. “What is Awe and the 8 Wonders of Life” (1 year ago, 4:42)
3. “The Biological Effects of Sympathy, gratitude and Awe” (4 years ago, 5:19)

Our modern world has taken us out of our evolutionary, tribal context. We are, therefore, more – awe, relationship, touch - deprived. Happiness stats are waning. We need more – goosebumps, chills, wonder, curiosity and all of the downstream emotions – that awe provides. Buy this breakthrough book!
152 people found this helpful
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M. Weissbluth
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but is 'awe' good?
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2023
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The book ‘Awe’ focuses on the benefits of feeling awe (“…the saintly tendencies of awe.” Page 158 and “…how awe moves us to wonder and saintly tendencies.” Page 191.). However, feeling awe is not necessarily always a good thing or a force for good. Followers of some popular movements may feel a strong sense of awe for their leaders and their missions, for example Gandhi or Hitler. Workers and investors may feel a strong sense of awe for visionary business leaders, for example, Steven Jobs or Elizabeth Holmes. A sense of awe of cosmic order may have stimulated deep understandings, for example, the relationship between mass and energy in physics or the relationships among people in the ancient Indian caste system. A powerful component of awe, moral beauty, may have a component that we are doing God’s work and inspired great examples of community cooperation or the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, and the doctrine of Manifest Destiny.
Feelings of awe might be triggered or manufactured in an individual by clever marketing, public relations, and advertising, all of which are designed to create specific behaviors, for example, to buy something (“…capitalists seeking to commodify awe.” Page 167) or to vote for someone. Powerful digital tools such as AI and social media, can influence an individual’s mind to create awe for specific points of view, for example, QAnon.
In his book, Behave. The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, Robert M. Sapolsky often agrees with Dacher Keltner; for example, “An open heart is a prerequisite for an open mind (page 168).” But, as Sapolsky points out on page 637: “…“cooperation” is a value-free term. Sometimes it takes a village to ransack a neighboring village.” “Awe” is also a value-free term. In particular, Sapolsky discusses us versus them on page 63: “…we are our most prosocial concerning in-group morality when our rapid, implicit emotions and intuitions dominate [such as awe] but are most prosocial concerning out-group morality when cognition holds sway.”
Dacher Keltner recognizes Robert M Sapolsky’s important point regarding us versus them. But among 250 pages in praise of ‘awe’, there is only one paragraph that recognizes the harm of ‘awe’. “The toxicities of communities that revolve around mystical awe are also well chronicled and have given the world tribalism, genocide, and the subjugation of those outside of the favored group-historically, women, people of color, and Indigenous peoples in more than ninety countries, extractive and authoritarian forms of power, as well as charismatic sociopaths, often find revered places in communities of mystical awe [emphasis added].” Page 210.
Feelings of awe have a light side and a dark side: Ading women, people of color, plus Indigenous peoples together as a group, it appears that more than half of humanity has suffered because of awe. Maybe awe should be more feared than praised.
69 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Marvin Klassen
5.0 out of 5 stars Wife loves it
Reviewed in Canada on February 19, 2024
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Wife wanted it. She loves it.
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Sandeep Bhasin
2.0 out of 5 stars Just read the first chapter… or two
Reviewed in India on December 2, 2023
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The book is good enough for the first two chapters. Rest is a justification to the first two chapters.
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Susanne W.
4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring
Reviewed in Germany on October 29, 2023
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Awe as a door to more selfawareness. The author describes dedicates the capters to the different aspects of awe. I think this book is for church people very inspiring.
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Dr Paul
5.0 out of 5 stars Where Science and Spirituality Meet
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 15, 2023
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This is an extremely well written book. It combines deeply engaging personal narrative, encounters with extraordinary people and scientific research into a comprehensive and captivating treatment of an intriguing emotion.

An engaging writing style is carefully pinned to scientific work (and art, and literature, and just about every meaningful field of human endeavour) but never feels academic or over-specialised. Moreover, the book creates the emotion it describes so well. Despite all the excellent and approachable anchorage in scientific research, reading the book creates a feeling that reaches beyond evidence: a sense of wonder, an intimation that the door of mystery is still open...

The only aspect of the book that was not perfect was that it was hard to put down! I read it within a week. However, I am glad I did, and I can easily imagine reading this wonderful book again in the future.
23 people found this helpful
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Jill
2.0 out of 5 stars Hmm!
Reviewed in Canada on March 22, 2023
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Passed it along to my local library.
2 people found this helpful
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