Krishnamurti’s experiencing and Keltner’s Awe can be quite horrifying—yet still somehow enthralling. Keltner (2023, p. 13) writes about the inspiring natural Awe to be found in witnessing a cataclysmic event such as an earthquake, thunderstorm, or wildfire. Horrible and dreadful images and pictures of gods in primitive cultures continue to attract us—think of the superhero movies that populate our movie theaters and cable channels. These competing images elicit feelings of profound admiration or profound disgust—often both. This is the perfect psychic storm associated with direct experiencing. Somehow, a power from outside time or space seems to intervene, and, I would suggest, interplays with the content of our ideational train. It leads us to an experiencing that penetrates and changes our inner psyche. And we don’t know how this will happen. It is beyond our control or true comprehension. We can’t readily generate an idea about the experiencing. Our conscious mind plays a secondary role (or no role at all). The unconscious ideational train does play a role.
Using more contemporary psychological terms, the boundaries between internal and external locus of control seem to be shattered when one is experiencing the outside enters the inside, and the inside is drawn to the outside. As an example, we point to the horrible and dreadful images and pictures of gods in primitive cultures. They continue to enthrall us, leading to feelings of profound admiration. Often, at the same time, they produce profound disgust. We view a miracle in the form of a newborn child or the recovery of a loved one from a life-threatening disease.
Somehow, a power from outside time and space seems to intervene and lead us to experiencing that penetrates and changes everything (though we don’t know how). This sense of Other that is beyond knowable time and space is what Carl Jung (1938) builds on when he is extending Rudolph Otto’s (1923) portrayal of what Otto calls the Numinous. Jung describes a numinous experience as one that “seizes and controls the human subject . . . an involuntary condition . . . due to a cause external to the individual. The numinous is either a quality of a visible object or the influence of an invisible presence causing a peculiar alteration of consciousness.” (Jung, 1938, p. 4)
At the present time, this experiencing is often described as a “thin place” where the secular (earth) and sacred (heaven) seem to join together. Thin places exist not only at physical locations (such as Lourdes, Findhorn, and Sedona) but also as moments or spaces in everyday life where the sacred is felt more intensely. They can be the sources of Awe that Keltner identifies—such as enthralling landscapes, beautiful or historic architectural sites, or dynamic, changing seashores. Krishnamurti’s experiencing may occurs in a thin place that brings forth clarity, spiritual renewal, and a sense of intimacy with the Divine.
Keltner (2023, p. 39) offers the following example of outcomes that can emerge from a thin place filled with awe and wonder:”
. . . a mental state of openness, questioning, curiosity, and embracing mystery, arises out of experiences of awe. In our studies, people who find more everyday awe show evidence of living with wonder. They are more open to new ideas. what is unknown. To what language can’t describe. To the absurd. To seeking new knowledge. To experience itself, for example, of sound, or color, or bodily sensation, or the directions thought might take during dreams or meditation. To the strengths, and virtues of other people. It should not surprise that people who feel even five minutes a day of everyday awe are more curious about art, music, poetry, new scientific discoveries, philosophy, and questions about life and death. They feel more comfortable with mysteries, with that which cannot be explained.”
