From Wonder to Transformation: The Lived Experience of Profound Awe

Abstract

This grounded theory study addressed the question: What model explains the lived experience of profound awe? It emerged out of a recognition that awe continues to be defined as a distinct emotion, and fails to account for the possible range of intensity of affect inherent to awe. Forty interviews were conducted with participants who identified as having had a profound experience of awe. A meditation script was used to induce a high level of memory recall of their experience. Results of the grounded theory analysis yielded three major themes: readiness, overwhelm, and beyond the everyday self. Profound awe was found to be a self-transcending emotion experience that dissolves self/other boundaries of the ego-identity into a small self or expansive self. The varied emotion appraisals ranged in intensity from mild to profound peak experience, with the potential to be transformative.