How Awe Rewires the Brain

Extraordinary places don’t just change what we see. They change how we see the world.

Standing waist-deep in the warm waters of Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, surrounded by black volcanic rock and clouds of geothermal steam, I had the unmistakable feeling that I had stepped onto another planet.

It wasn’t really relaxing.

It was disorienting—in the best possible way.

The Blue Lagoon is one of those rare places that overwhelms the brain’s ability to predict what comes next. The colors don’t seem real. The landscape feels impossible. The senses struggle to reconcile icy air with warm water, volcanic rock with brilliant blue water, silence with hundreds of people taking it all in.

This is awe.

Awe is one of the most powerful experiences a person's brain can have.

Most of our lives are governed by prediction. The brain constantly compares what it expects to what it actually experiences to build a model of the world. This remarkable efficiency allows us to navigate through life with little conscious effort, but it also means much of life passes by unnoticed. We stop paying attention because we’ve seen it all before.

Awe interrupts that process.

When reality exceeds our expectations, the brain can’t rely on its usual shortcuts. It must stop, absorb new information, and update its internal model of the world. For a short period, we become fully open to any opportunity.

That moment is far more important than simply being "interesting."

Research from my lab and others has shown that experiences of awe can make us more curious, more humble, and more open to new ideas. They remind us that our current understanding of the world is incomplete—and that’s exactly where innovation and transformation come from.

It’s difficult to leave a place like the Blue Lagoon believing everything should remain exactly the same.

When your perspective expands, so do your possibilities.

That’s why extraordinary experiences so often precede life’s biggest decisions. People return home from trips and finally start the company they’ve been imagining. Or, they solve a technical problem that has flummoxed them for weeks.  Or, they become genuinely grateful servant-leaders.  

The destination didn’t make those decisions for them.

The experience changed the brain that made them.

This is also why the most memorable events are rarely remembered because of the agenda. They’re remembered because they created moments that fundamentally shifted perspective.  

I remember riding a camel at sunset in the dunes outside Dubai with Henry who became both a business partner and lifelong friend.  Some event designer thought that attendees would enjoy a camel ride, but it inspired awe in me.

Experiences change what we know.

Awe changes who we are.

That’s the opportunity facing event designers.

Don’t simply inform people.

Create moments so extraordinary that attendees leave seeing themselves differently than when they arrived.  They are transformed.

ImmersionLive, the portable, self-contained kit, continuously measures these moments neurologically when attendees are given a lightweight wristband.  No helmet, no app download. 

Neurologic Immersion reveals exactly when an audience stops consuming an experience and starts being transformed by it. Once you identify those moments, you can intentionally create more of them.

Engineering awe is how to build loyal clients who need their sales meeting to rapidly generate revenue, or an organization transformation event that is make or break for the company, or a trade show that effectively moves product.  

My memories of the Blue Lagoon will eventually fade. The photographs will blend in with thousands of others on my phone.

But the brain that climbed out of those geothermal waters isn’t quite the same brain that stepped in.

And that’s the true power of awe.  

You can create consistently extraordinary events by measuring Immersion.  That is how you become awe-inspiring.  Use this link to get a demo to see how Immersion will create value for you.