Awe is “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that you don’t immediately understand,” says Dacher Keltner.
Dr. Keltner, who says that his favorite emotions are compassion and awe, shared that definition at a May 31, 2016, Arts & Letters Live presentation in Dallas.
He also quoted Emerson: “In the woods, we return to faith and reason….I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty.”
Dr. Keltner teaches at Berkeley and studies emotions, and he was the scientific consultant for the Pixar movie “Inside Out.”