Reiterating Awe (Presentation)

(if you want to go beyond the index cards, click the links for text support, sound effects, and visuals)

Wordsworth believed in sublimity in experience (like his revisit to Tintern Abbey).

Today, preconceptions of awe restrict the terms in which one can experience awe. It's
seen as a singular, extraordinary moment; it's a one time event found mind-blowing,
terrifying, transcendent, or existential.

Awe can be defined by these preconceptions of course, but this singular moment is
only the first tier of awe we can experience. As we open ourselves to developing awe,
we can re-experience it on a second and third tier level.

To experience these tiers of awe, we are conditioned consciously and subconsciously.

We can either A) consciously seek something to inspire change in us or
B) awe finds us, and that stirs a change in us.

Our experiences change us so when we re-experience awe after this change,
it's with new insight or perspective.

Nostalgia too is a form of conscious and/or subconscious conditioning to
re-experience awe. Gaps in our memory and awe by association leaves us prone
 to feeling awe again because we experienced it with the same content already.
Even if it's in another form.

With these conditions, we can experience the tiers of awe. The first tier is "Initial Awe": a combination
of emotions felt during the first encounter of awe-inspiring content. (first encounter: reading Life of Pi)

The second tier of awe is "Wonder": the cause of astonishment or admiration
that is new to one's experience. (second encounter: seeing film adaptation)

The third tier is the "Sublime": to elevate or exalt and render finer, finding the content of
higher worth. (third encounter: listening to soundtrack, evoking those emotions and thoughts again)

The circumstances in which you experience awe-inspiring content need not be in a specific order
(like text to movie to soundtrack) but can occur in any order with any form of content, as long
as the content remains (mostly) intact.
(first tier: you interpret picture 11 above)

(second tier, referencing picture 11, you read the text that inspired the picture)
 "...maybe we are all cabinets of wonders." Brian Selznick

(third tier, seeing another visual) In the movies, you see the Narnia wardrobe scene
and think of the first image and quote you've experienced awe with when considering
"cabinets of wonder."

Overall, these experiences are personal. In my social proofing, I've had people tell me "rereading let's me
recapture details on a truer, personal level" while another says "books inspire, movies recapture." A third person
told me "music is my inspiration" while a fourth said "audio books are too slow" for her to re-experience
awe with the same content she read.

No matter the order or form, re-experiencing awe allows a person to grow and continue to experience.
We can continue to be fascinated with the world and continue to live in awe of the things around us.