It’s the fantastic warm, elevated feeling we get when we witness acts of kindness. Even the most simple altruistic acts might give you a touch of this: a passer-by giving his packed lunch to a homeless man, a stranger offering to help a blind person cross the road, or a subway passenger giving up his seat for a old lady.
In this way, witnessing altruistic acts can be a source of what Abraham Maslow called ‘peak experiences’ — those moments of awe, wonder and a sense of ‘rightness’ which make us feel immensely grateful to be alive.
Jonathan Haidt is one of the few psychologists to discuss this type of peak experience. He calls it ‘elation’ and describes it as a “warm feeling in the chest, a sensation of expansion in [the] heart, an increased desire to help, and increased sense of connection with others.” It is, in his words, “a manifestation of humanity’s ‘higher’ or ‘better’ nature.”
In fact, this may be one reason why the experience occurs — because it brings a renewed faith in human nature, a sense of the sheer goodness which human beings are often capable of, which sometimes might seem difficult to see amidst the chaos and conflict of everyday life. But the sense of connection mentioned by Haidt is undoubtedly important too. As I suggested in my last blog post, altruism transcends the separateness we often experience as human beings. It connects us to one another — and in fact, pure altruism is only possible because, at the deepest level, all human beings are part of the same network of consciousness. The person who performs the altruistic act experiences this, and perhaps the recipient of the act of kindness too. And when we witness the act, we become part of the network too.
To read more of Steve Taylor, Ph.D's article, please click here.
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