Within the quiet of the second when night time turns to day, the solar rises, and its rays heat your face, you’ve doubtless skilled awe. Or maybe you’ve encountered it on a mountain high, or listening to music, or witnessing the kindness of a stranger, or gazing on the night time sky, or wanting into the eyes of a lover, a baby, or canine. Awe is the emotion individuals expertise within the marvel and vastness of experiences past their understanding.
It’s additionally the theme of the latest challenge of MAPP Journal, the alumni publication of the College of Pennsylvania Grasp of Utilized Optimistic Psychology (MAPP) program.
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Can magic mushrooms reconnect us with nature?
Yellow mushrooms
Incoming MAPP Journal editor, Josey Murray (MAPP ’23), has discovered peace and connection—to others, to nature, and to herself—within the pure world. Analysis suggests she’s not alone. However as climates change and society grows more and more disconnected, worldwide well-being is struggling.
On this article, Murray explores how a reconnection with nature can have an effect on private and planetary change and the way psychedelic experiences could assist to information the way in which.
Jellyfish…
Jellyfish, stardust, and Nicodemus: Decoding the non secular in psychotherapy
Psychotherapist, Linda Schiavone (MAPP ’17), contends that although typically unexplored, spirituality could be a highly effective pillar of well-being, a possible supply of progress and transformation.
On this article, Schiavone illuminates the analysis case for spirituality in psychotherapy. By three vignettes, she helps each purchasers and readers determine the sacred, the divine, and the transcendent in each anticipated and surprising locations.
From despair to hope: Psychedelics and the pursuit of human flourishing
Psychedelics…
In what some have dubbed a psychedelic renaissance, a resurgence of curiosity about the usage of psychedelics in addressing psychological well being challenges is spreading throughout the globe. However, we’re nonetheless at that uncomfortable place within the scientific course of the place we’ve got extra questions than solutions.
On this piece, Jon Rosemberg-Kort (MAPP ’23) shares a gripping story in response to a pal’s despair, whereas shedding gentle on the potential of psychedelic-assisted remedy (PAT) to assist not solely in end-of-life transitions but additionally within the pursuit of human flourishing.
picture by Natalie Keltner-McNeil
A dialog on awe with Dacher Keltner
Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology on the College of California, Berkeley and the school director of UC Berkeley’s Larger Good Science Middle.
On this interview with MAPP Journal co-editors, Kimberly Dickman (MAPP ’22) and Abi Tschetter (MAPP ’22), Dr. Keltner displays on the science and on a regular basis marvel of awe and its life-transforming influence on our happiness. He additionally tells the non-public story that influenced him to put in writing his new ebook on the subject.
For extra on awe and different real-world functions of constructive psychology,
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References
Keltner, D. (2023). Awe: The New Science of On a regular basis Marvel and How It Can Rework Your Life. Penguin Press.
Photograph credit
Featured picture on Awe derived from a photograph by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
Photograph of yellow mushrooms by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash
Photograph of jellyfish by Joel Filipe on Unsplash
Psychedelic image created on ChatGPT by Jon Rosemberg (article writer)
Photograph of Dacher Keltner used with permission from Natalie Keltner-McNeil
