How to Change Your Mind

things, a radical form of selfishness. One of the challenges of treating the
addict is getting him to broaden his perspective beyond a consuming self-
interest in his addiction, the behavior that has come to define his identity
and organize his days. Awe, Hendricks believes, has the power to do this.
Hendricks mentioned the research of Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at
Berkeley who happens to be a close friend. “Keltner believes that awe is a
fundamental human emotion, one that evolved in us because it promotes
altruistic behavior. We are descendants of those who found the
experience of awe blissful, because it’s advantageous for the species to
have an emotion that makes us feel part of something much larger than
ourselves.” This larger entity could be the social collective, nature as a
whole, or a spirit world, but it is something sufficiently overpowering to
dwarf us and our narrow self-interest. “Awe promotes a sense of the
‘small self’ that directs our attention away from the individual to the
group and the greater good.”
Keltner’s lab at Berkeley has done a clever series of experiments
demonstrating that after people have had even a relatively modest
experience of awe, such as looking at soaring trees, they’re more likely to
come to the assistance of others. (In this experiment, conducted in a
eucalyptus grove on the Berkeley campus, volunteers spent a minute
looking either at the trees or at the façade of a nearby building. Then a
confederate walked toward the participants and stumbled, scattering
pens on the ground. Bystanders who had looked at the trees proved more
likely to come to her aid than those who had looked at the building.) In
another experiment, Keltner’s lab found that if you ask people to draw
themselves before and after viewing awe-inspiring images of nature, the
after-awe self-portraits will take up considerably less space on the page.
An experience of awe appears to be an excellent antidote for egotism.
“We now have a pharmacological intervention that can occasion truly
profound experiences of awe,” Hendricks pointed out. Awe in a pill. For
the self-obsessed addict, “it can be blissful to feel a part of something
larger and greater than themselves, to feel reconnected to other people”—
to the weave of social and family relations that addiction reliably frays.
“Very often they come to recognize the harm they’re doing not only to
themselves but to loved ones. That’s where the motivation to change
often comes from—a renewed sense of connection and responsibility, as