Beyond the “merely healthy” individual, he suggested, were those who became better human beings for others as well as for themselves. By this he meant “rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality”. After experiences of awe, people made more ethical decisions and showed greater generosity and compassionI prefer the term “wonder” to “awe”. Wonder, by contrast, is a state in which we remain in possession of our intellectual faculties as well as feel emotionally elevated. A New Map of Wonders by Caspar Henderson is published by Granta on 2 November, at £20.

Source: The Guardian October 29, 2017 06:00 UTC