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Hidden Brain
Hidden Brain

The Reset Button

December 22, 2025 • 1h 36m

Summary

⏱️ 12 min read

Overview

This Hidden Brain episode explores the science of awe through psychologist Dacher Keltner's research and personal experiences. The conversation moves from Keltner's struggles with anxiety in Wisconsin to his groundbreaking studies on how awe transforms our minds, bodies, and social connections. The second half features Mary Helen Imordino-Yang discussing transcendent thinking in education, answering questions from teachers, parents, and listeners about how to foster deeper, more meaningful learning experiences.

Personal Crisis and the Discovery of Awe

Dacher Keltner recounts his profound struggle with anxiety and panic attacks during his early career in Wisconsin. Feeling isolated and overwhelmed, he was experiencing 70-80 panic attacks per year. He found unexpected relief through experiences that took him outside himself—basketball games, Iggy Pop concerts, and watching storms—experiences that would later inform his scientific understanding of awe.

  • Keltner moved from California to Wisconsin and experienced extreme culture shock and isolation
  • He suffered 70-80 panic attacks per year during this difficult period
  • Playing basketball with fellow academics provided a sense of collective flow and temporary relief
  • Attending Iggy Pop concerts allowed him to lose himself and feel alive again
  • He received a personal letter from Iggy Pop that gave him strength and courage
" I come from a family on my mom's side that has a lot of anxiety, and I started to have profound panic attacks, really beginning with the day that I departed to drive across the country to Wisconsin. I had probably, I would say, 70 or 80 a year, really technicolor, full-blown panic attacks. "
" I touch his skin and his skin feels like God. You know, I'm just like, I can't believe I'm holding Iggy Pop's bicep. "
" I felt, you know, for those people out in the audience who've had real panic attacks, they are spectacular and they hit you and you literally the brain says you're dying and your body is telling you you Dacher Keltner are dying. "

Defining Awe: Vast Mysteries and Accommodation

Keltner and collaborator Jonathan Haidt developed a scientific definition of awe 20 years ago. Awe occurs when we encounter vast mysteries that we can't understand with our current knowledge, requiring what they called "the need for accommodation"—a rearrangement of our mental frameworks. This definition became foundational for studying awe scientifically and understanding its universal features across cultures.

  • Awe requires encountering vast mysteries beyond current understanding
  • The concept involves 'need for accommodation'—rearranging knowledge structures to make sense of experiences
  • Awe can be both beautiful and threatening, introducing profound uncertainty
" Awe requires what we called the need for accommodation. You have to rearrange your knowledge structures just to make sense of what you've encountered. But I think for our conversation today, it's really Awe encountering vast mysteries that we don't understand. "

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