“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” ― Albert Einstein
Awe is that breathtaking moment when we encounter something vast and beyond our immediate understanding. Awe is difficult to define, maybe that is why psychologists—until the early 2000—have kept their distance from it. While religious scholars, philosophers, and sociologists have considered awe’s role in religious transformations, aesthetics, and political change, psychologists historically had only a fleeting interest in the emotion. Wonder, on the other hand, is the childlike curiosity that sparks joy in the face of the unknown. It's the insatiable desire to explore and understand the mysteries that surround us.
“We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that the savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.” ― Mark Twain
Some suggest that awe can be classified not just as an emotion but also as a type of altered state of consciousness, a “self-transcendent" experience. Transcendent emotions make us feel small and insignificant. This feeling small is counterintuitive for our society that constantly instructs us to be better, bigger, conquer, and know everything. However, only when we realise how small we are we can experience true fascination and novelty. Isn't this the seed to innovation and renewal?
It is awe that makes us humble toward the natural world. It is awe that makes us innovative. We are not educated to feel small and to experience awe in today’s world. We are more and more awe-deprived by our life styles and "know everything answering devices". Our gaze is fixed on our smartphones rather than marvelling at the world and at arts expressions. We have no time to spend outdoor for unstructured exploration. Awe is being sacrificed for résumé-building activities. At the same time, our culture has become more individualistic, more narcissistic, more materialistic, and less connected to others. Less connected to awe.
Have you experienced awe recently? How did it feel?
What if, we allowed ourselves with the experience of awe, such as exposure to art, nature, or scientific marvels? What if learning environments encouraged wonder instead of shaming it with “head in the clouds / abstract/ dreamy” that reword only the certain path of providing answers?
Haugen coined the Homo Imaginens term to refer to our evolving consciousness, our way into the future.
Imagining the future is not the same thing as architecting the future. Nor engineering the future or manufacturing the future.
Imagining is metaphorical & poetic to support us comprehend: feelings, aesthetic experiences, moral practices, spiritual awareness. It’s connecting and relational to resolve the separation between us and them so individuals can think/act in relation to the world, in relation to the future. Imagination is not just about problem-solving but also (especially?) about revelling in the sheer joy of exploration and discovery. Awe and wonder serve as a reminder that imagination is not just a task but a celebration of the extraordinary, an acknowledgment of the infinite possibilities that lie beyond the confines of routine thinking. That’s a r-evolution for our busy lives craving for tools and means to an end! That’s a r-evolution for the practical and tangible. Can we allow ourselves to wonder in a space beyond smart objectives? Can we, instead, celebrate the beauty of wandering, of getting lost, and the mystery of a deep forest?
My invitation (an invitation I keep as the for front of all my books and programs) is not to abandon logic or practicality but, to allow space for imagination, awe, wonder… My wish is we free ourselves from the tyranny of linear performance and expand into the
mysterious spirit of creativity. After all, true progress often emerges from the chaos of uncharted territories.
I have designed a series of simple prompts and invitations to journey into creativity with wonder and awe, you can download it for free here.
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