In the middle of the last century, the psychologist Abraham Maslow set about the foundations of happiness. Interviewing people about their lives, he was intrigued to find that many reported having experienced rare moments of epiphany, associated with “awe… rapture, ecstasy or bliss” in which “all separateness or distance from the world disappeared”.
Those feelings were often accompanied by a sense of great understanding, Maslow said – “the feeling that they had seen the ultimate truth, the essence of things”. He , and subsequent research confirms these moments can contribute to long-term well-being. Whether we are triggered by religion, art, music or nature, it pays for our minds to transcend the here and now, at least occasionally.
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In my previous column, I wrote about the “spirituality of science”, and I have loved hearing your stories, many of which resemble Maslow’s peak experiences.
Consider the following account by Jenny Larby, who remembers a chemistry lesson about entropy. “My mind was completely blown – the simple idea that disorder was more likely than order, explained so much about our messy world,” she writes. “I could suddenly see everything around me differently, and chaotic or unexplainable things felt somehow more acceptable. I felt like I’d discovered the key to the universe.”
Another reader described a maths lesson where she learned about Euler’s identity, which connects five fundamental numbers in a single equation: ei π + 1 = 0. Like Larby, this reader spoke of feelings of wonder. “Maths is extraordinary. The universe is extraordinary. Human minds invented all this abstract symbolic stuff and it turns out to fit the world out there.” I wholeheartedly agree; discovering Euler’s identity persuaded me to study maths at university.
For some readers, such as Paul Kemp, peak experiences have become a regular occurrence. He reports feeling inspired by images from the “showing thousands of galaxies in a tiny area of sky” (pictured above) and by elephants burying their young. “No deity is needed to see the true wonders of the universe we live in and new examples come in almost daily,” he says.
The excitement can manifest as an intense urge to share what we know. “Often I jump out of my chair, start walking around and I want to tell the whole world about my new idea or scientific finding,” says Onno Hamburger, a psychologist in the Netherlands.
I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who got in touch. It is truly amazing to see the emotions that science can inspire and the sense of connection that comes from our curiosity about the world around us.
David Robson is an award-winning science writer and author of The Laws of Connection: 13 social strategies that will transform your life, out on 6 June
For other projects visit newscientist.com/maker.
