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Thread: feeling the feels:a human trait

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    Default feeling the feels:a human trait


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    Seeing the Pope help strangers made me tear up. Later I learned why.
    By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor
    Updated 11:35 AM ET, Fri April 6, 2018

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    Vatican City (CNN)They were there to see the Pope: the students waving flags, the newlyweds in white, the priests and nuns and rich donors. In front sat the elderly and sick, many in wheelchairs: the Pope's VIPs.
    I watched from a balcony, like Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree.
    As Francis approached the wheelchairs, a dark-haired man slowly uncoiled to meet his embrace. Francis touched the man's head, blessing him, said a few words and moved down the line.
    Moments later, a small boy leaped from his chair to hug Francis. His mother wiped her hands on her pants before shaking the Pope's.



    I was surprised to find my eyes tearing, accompanied by a short burst of benevolence. I felt a brief urge to hug everyone in the room. (I am not a hugger.)
    Covering my tears' tracks, I turned to a colleague. He was emotional, too.
    It wasn't the first time I'd felt like this. But still, it was a bit odd. Why would witnessing a moment of kindness between complete strangers move me to tears? Isn't blessing people what popes and other holy men and women are supposed to do?
    When I returned home, I emailed a journalist who has covered popes for more than 20 years.
    "Those events never fail to move me," he said. "They always seem to be the most authentic moments of papal activity."



    At least I wasn't alone. But the question remained: What was going on in my brain?
    Answering that question was tricky. I asked moral philosophers, psychologists and spiritual leaders. I scoured books and academic journals and online articles.

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    A few years ago, the Pope spread it to a Pennsylvania family, who spread it to a famous Hollywood director, who responded with a remarkable act of generosity, a karmic chain whose repercussions still ripple through the world.
    Psychologists call the emotion "elevation," and this is the story of what it does to us, whether you are Pope Francis or J.J. Abrams or Thomas Jefferson.



    Yep, the man who "discovered" the feeling that makes us verklempt was the third president of these United States.
    A presidential psychologist
    Jonathan Haidt was sick of studying negative emotions.
    For eight years at the University of Virginia, the social psychologist had been plumbing the depths of disgust, studying ancient moral codes and conducting modern experiments.
    The idea of "positive psychology" attracted Haidt, who wanted to learn how to harness the power of emotions for moral growth, to help us live fulfilling and ethical lives.
    One day, Haidt writes, he came across a letter written by Jefferson more than 200 years ago. In it, Jefferson describes the effects of observing moral beauty, even in works of fiction.



    "When any ... act of charity or of gratitude," he wrote, "is presented to our sight or imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty or feel a strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable or grateful acts also."
    Observing good deeds, Jefferson continued, can "elevate" our bodies and minds, opening our chests and hearts.


    Thomas Jefferson described the emotion of elevation two centuries ago.
    The letter struck Haidt like a religious revelation: the sheer serendipity of finding a "new" emotion almost perfectly described by a former American president, at the very school that president had founded.
    Jefferson had noted four major components of the emotion: a triggering event (you witness moral beauty), a physical sensation (your chest dilates), a motivation (you want to help others) and an emotional feeling (you are uplifted and optimistic).
    That sounds a lot like psychologists' current definition of elevation: a warm, uplifting feeling that we experience when we see unexpected acts of kindness, courage or compassion. It often makes us want to help others and become better people.

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    Thomas Jefferson described the emotion of elevation two centuries ago.

    Jefferson had noted four major components of the emotion:


    a triggering event (you witness moral beauty),

    a physical sensation (your chest dilates),

    a motivation (you want to help others) and

    an emotional feeling (you are uplifted and optimistic).

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    this is why people seek religion


    If this is not the reason you sought religion



    why did you seek religion?



    mankind can be beautiful


    the reason our brains are wired for this is preservation of the species


    That makes it no less beautiful


    in fact it makes us beautiful



    we developed larger more complex brains because mankind was wired to help each other



    and we are at our finest when we help each other


    Jesus knew we were at our finest when we helped each other


    Muhamed knew wewereat ourfinest when we help each other


    Budda knew we were at our finest when we help each other


    Einstien knew we were at our finest when we help each other


    Mark Twain new we were at our finest when we help each other


    Jefferson new we were at our finest when we helped each other



    they all had differing religious beliefs


    the downfall of mankind will come with being dismissive to our fellow man


    degrading to our fellow man

    cruel to our earths cohabitants


    cruel to strangers


    how about we all expand our chests


    want to help others


    and become uplifted and optimistic

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    The earth got goose bumps
    Kama muta.
    That's what Alan Page Fiske, an anthropologist at UCLA, calls the emotion that washed through me when I saw the Pope blessing the elderly and the sick.
    The phrase means "moved by love" in Sanskrit. (The more well-known phrase kama sutra roughly translates as "love book.")
    Fiske says the closest we can come to the meaning of kama muta in English are words such as moved, touched, stirred or smitten. Christians might say that they've been slain in the Spirit or rolled by the Holy Ghost. Sufis might feel it during mystical moments, other Muslims on the Hajj pilgrimage. Mormons might call it "burning in the bosom." In internet slang, it's the stuff that makes you feel all the feels.

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    Transcending the self
    In 2016, two . The results were extraordinary. scholars examined the empirical evidence on elevation for the American Psychological Association's academic journal
    Experiments had found that elevation made people more likely or willing to volunteer for onerous tasks, donate to charity, mentor other people, register as an organ donor and cooperate with others.
    In other experiments, elevation was found to reduce prejudice and negative attitudes toward "outgroups" such as LGBT people and African-Americans. One experiment even found initial evidence that elevation could lead nonreligious people to become more spiritual, mainly by fostering a sense that people are benevolent and life is meaningful.
    "Elevation appears to lead to transcending the self -- psychologically, physiologically and behaviorally," wrote the scholars who summarized the findings on elevation, Rico Pohling of Germany's Technische Universitat and Rhett Diessner of Idaho's Lewis-Clark State College.


    Millions were moved when Francis embraced a disfigured man in 2013.
    "Therefore, it may help us to connect with each other, to temporarily overcome our selfishness and perhaps to move toward changing ourselves and thus inducing an upward spiral of positive change, not only for the individual who experiences it, but for a whole community."
    But elevation may not be all kindness and connection, Pohling and Diessner warned. One study found initial evidence that suicide bombings could cause elevation "within members of the same cultural group."
    "The results exemplify that elevation may indeed foster a desire to become like a martyr in certain societies," the scholars wrote. "However, further studies are needed on this highly provocative topic."
    Most of the studies, though, offered empirical evidence about elevation's potential benefits. Here's how one worked:
    In 2010, three scholars set out to test if elevation could inspire altruism in British university students. They recruited 59 young women from the University of Plymouth in England and broke them into three groups.
    One group was shown a video clip of Oprah Winfrey's show in which musicians expressed appreciation for their mentors. Another was shown a sketch from "Fawlty Towers," a British sitcom, intended to produce mirth. The control group saw a nature documentary.
    After watching the videos, the women were asked to write a short essay about what they had seen, while the researchers pretended to have computer problems that fouled up the whole experiment.
    Would the women be willing to participate in another study, the researchers asked, warning that it was "rather boring" -- a series of 85 elementary math questions.
    The women who had seen the Oprah clip, the researchers found, not only felt elevated -- warm in the chest, uplifted in the mind -- they were more likely to volunteer for the boring study and spent roughly twice as much time on the math questions as the women who had seen the comedy or documentary. Many even stayed to help beyond the hour for which they had signed up, the researchers said.
    Daniel Fessler, an evolutionary anthropologist at UCLA who co-wrote the study, said we don't fully understand elevation yet. We don't know why we feel it, or why, from an evolutionary perspective, feeling it would offer an advantage to a particular person.
    But the societal effects of elevation could be huge, Fessler and other scholars said.
    The study of elevation could help nurses, doctors, social workers, teachers and others who work long and often under-appreciated hours caring for other people.
    It could also reshape how we teach ethics and morals to students. They might, for example, be interested in a real-life example of altruism that stars a famous Hollywood director.

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    "Therefore, it may help us to connect with each other, to temporarily overcome our selfishness and perhaps to move toward

    changing ourselves and thus inducing an upward spiral of positive change, not only for the individual who experiences it, but

    for a whole community."




    But elevation may not be all kindness and connection, Pohling and Diessner warned.


    One study found initial evidence that suicide bombings could cause elevation

    "within members of the same cultural group."


    "The results exemplify that elevation may indeed foster a desire to become like a martyr in certain societies,"

    the scholars wrote.

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    feeling the feels is not a religious experience


    its a physical human emotion.


    We were designed by nature to nurture each other


    its part of being a human

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    Quote Originally Posted by evince View Post
    feeling the feels is not a religious experience
    its a physical human emotion.
    We were designed by nature to nurture each other
    its part of being a human
    I love these posts, thanks for taking the time to put them up.

    I would not say that we "were designed;" rather I would say that this flood of emotion when witnessing the kindness of others is a lovely survival mechanism. Despite the American insistence on "individuality," we are in essence a socially-cooperative species. Being able to empathize and feel a desire to do likewise when in the presence of kindness ensures that we will continue to nurture each other, as you put it.

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    thanks



    we grew larger and larger brains one human survival story at a time


    that survival more and more depended on humans cooperating to survive.


    when we see strangers helping each other we have a deep emotional reaction because it means we have found a good pack we may want to join.


    we help strangers out of hope we have found a new member for the pack


    its deeply moving to us out of the results of evolution


    we need to help to receive help.

    alone a human is dead in no time in the original habitat

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