Self-Transcendence Accompanies Aesthetic Chills
October 19, 2023 Leonardo Christov‐moore, Félix Schoeller, Caite Lynch et al. 6 citations preprint
Aesthetic chills—the pleasurable, cold sensation often experienced during music or film—are robustly linked to self-transcendence, a positive altered state involving ego-dissolution, connectedness, and moral elevation. In 2,937 participants exposed to chills-eliciting stimuli, chills occurrence and intensity formed a tightly interrelated construct with measures of self-transcendence, even after controlling for prior state and trait differences. The findings suggest that self-transcendence experiences can be reliably evoked through exposure to audiovisual media that elicit chills, offering a more accessible path to study and apply self-transcendence for well-being and prosociality compared to conventional methods like meditation or psychedelics.