Terror & Awe: Two Faces of The Existential Encounter
Exploring the paradox of mortality awareness
In my previous two pieces, I discussed how Terror Management Theory helps explain our current mental health crisis and I explored practical approaches to conscious mortality awareness. Building on this foundation, a deeper question emerges: what does it reveal about human nature that our greatest terror and our most profound awe might spring from the same source?
This question originally came into focus for me when researching quantum change experiences (my “gateway drug” to death anxiety and psychedelic science) during undergrad. Quantum change refers to "sudden, dramatic, and enduring transformations that affect a broad range of personal emotion, cognition, and behavior" (Miller, 2004, p. 453). These experiences occur as the result of "a numinous or noetic intrapsychic experience" where default consciousness is superseded by another (Miller & C'de Baca, 2001, p. 256). Quantum change engenders immediate and persistent positive chan…
