Editor's note: This article was produced by a student participating in the course J477/577: Strategic Science Communication, a collaboration between the School of Journalism and Communication’s Science Communication Minor program and the Research Communications unit in the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation.

What if one of the future avenues of mental health treatment was as simple as taking a walk or sitting among the flowers? What if what people needed to do was seek out awe?  

Researchers at the University of Oregon are studying how awe and other self-transcendent emotions can be used in the treatment of mental health disorders.  

Awe, a feeling similar to wonder and joy, can be experienced both during breathtaking moments such as standing on the peak of a mountain or in seemingly mundane moments by looking at a spectacular photo or video.  

Danny Brown, a doctoral student in the Swann Lab, is researching self-transcendent emotions, such as awe, and the impact they can have on mental health. His research analyzes electroencephalogram (EEG) data collected while experiencing self-transcendent emotions, which can be a result of watching a video or by meditating.  

“A self-transcendent emotion would be anything that shifts the focus from yourself to something that is greater or more complex,” Brown said. "The one that always captures me is awe. Awe is my favorite emotion to feel."

Brown studied in California and Norway, and has now returned to his hometown of Eugene, where he works with Nicki Swann, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Physiology. Brown sought out Swann due to her expertise in EEG, and an existing project in the Swann Lab focused on natural imagery’s effects on depth of meditation.  

Swann said Brown has been “really great at developing cool analysis ideas and independently learning how to implement those, which are approaches we can apply to other projects.” 

With the EEG data, Brown hopes to form an objective understanding of self-transcendent emotions and what these emotions look like from a biological standpoint. He will then compare these results to previously collected psychedelic data by collaborators. 

“The question we are trying to get at, with natural inductions of awe—because you can have awe experiences in nature for example—does that activate the same neuroscientific profile as say a psychedelic, drug-induced awe experience?” he said.  

Combatting the Mental Health Crisis 

There is lively discussion around psychedelic usage and advancements in mental health treatment. Results from studies show positive benefits from psychedelic use, but many use subjective, self-report mechanisms. Instead of relying on self-reported experiences from participants, Brown’s EEG data from awe-evoking experiences aims to provide objective, quantifiable measures of self-transcendent experiences and their potential for use in mental health treatment.  

“Almost as a kind of ‘diet’, or light, psychedelic,” he said.  

If neurological markers from natural self-transcendent emotions are identified, they can be compared to data collected from psychedelic usage, which could allow for a greater understanding of what these emotions look like in the brain and their role in mental health.  

“One of the main issues with both psychedelic- and natural-induced awe is that it’s really hard to measure—it’s a known feature of this experience—in that it’s ineffable. Meaning it’s hard to describe,” he said. “That complicates self-reporting these experiences. It’d be great if we could put the EEG cap on you or collect your peripheral physiology and be able to find these markers of where awe happened,” Brown said. 

Brown joins other researchers exploring the idea of emotions as a treatment for depression and other mental health struggles.  

“It’s a slow shift, but I’m finding some traction with some researchers, in this idea of emotions as treatment,” he said. “That you can give someone awe in experiential form instead of pill form. And there are so many studies now from psychology that show the positive impacts of these self-transcendent experiences, like meditation and awe. The next step could be prescribing walks in nature to treat conditions like depression.” 

With the rise of activities such as “mental-health walks”, the idea of self-transcendent emotions as mental health treatment may already have public support. Research proving the benefit of self-transcendent emotions may provide a breakthrough for the future of mental health treatment, providing more support options for mental health disorders.  

“Awe is a topic that is on the rise, and I think that’s pushed by multiple things. One is that it’s interesting, it’s catchy, if you will. But I do think that it’s really steeped in truth, too,” Brown said. “When you look at things like depression and suicide, what you see is this lack of connectedness. I think that the psychological research of awe has really shown that’s its superpower. It makes you de-isolate and think about the greater good. And I think that’s something everybody could use.”  

— Story and images by Kaydyn Guelsdorf for the Office of the Vice President of Research and Innovation