My browsing this morning brought me to an article in The Atlantic by science writer Marina Koren. In her story, "Galaxy Brain Is Real," she says:
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| Nebulae in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Credit NASA, ESA, STScI |
of the Grand Canyon or the shore of an ocean stretching out past the horizon line. As your brain processes the view and its sheer vastness, feelings of awe kick in. Looking at a photo is not the same, but we might get a dose of that when we look at a particularly sparkly Hubble picture of a star cluster.
"The experience of awe . . . can lead to 'a diminished sense of self,' a phrase psychologists use to describe feelings of smallness or insignificance in the face of something larger than oneself. Alarming as that may sound, research has shown that the sensation can be a good thing: A shot of awe can boost feelings of connectedness with other people."
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"The experience of awe . . . can lead to 'a diminished sense of self,' a phrase psychologists use to describe feelings of smallness or insignificance in the face of something larger than oneself. Alarming as that may sound, research has shown that the sensation can be a good thing: A shot of awe can boost feelings of connectedness with other people."
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This "diminished sense of self," I thought... isn't that the goal of spiritual practice, entheogenic practice, or meditation practice? A diminishment of the self, a transcendence of ego, which then lets us sense a deeper and true connection to who and what are around us?
I thought how some of my favorite outdoor photos capture that feeling of awe, depicting our small selves in perspective, maybe on a mountain trail in northern Montana:
or on a frozen prairie in South Dakota:
Awe (noun): a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.
I'll take it.
2 comments:
Hi Joe,
Images of (or being present with) mountains, ocean, vistas etc stir me too. Those psychologists who use the expression 'diminished sense of self' are missing the mark.
The concept of self is generated by the ego, or the left hemisphere, (Iain McGilchrist's 'Emissary') and the effect that's evoked is more about pausing the ego, and so temporarily parking that sense of self. There's no diminishment involved, so it seems to me. When a psychologist writes 'diminished sense of self', that just indicates to me that (1)he/she hasn't read or thought widely enough, and (2)he/she is unaware of how such a word as 'diminishment' is likely to be understood. Having been an academic in the past, I know how siloed and jargon-bound they tend to become.
Putting a brief brake on the ego gives liberation from it. This seems to me related to the distinction between 'magic' and 'religion'. ie magic is about using barely-understood natural power for gain, ie it's a small, mean thing. (If it were to actually exist). Whereas religion is about gladly surrendering oneself to an omnipotent force or being. There's no 'diminishment' implicit in the latter. Rather there's a merging of yourself with the cosmos.
Just my thought on this. Great photos dude!
Appreciated, Peter!
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