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Before I get started,

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I'm really excited to be here

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actually to just watch
what's going to happen, from here.

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So, with that said,

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we're going to start with
what is one of our greatest needs,

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one of our greatest needs for our brain.

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And instead of telling you,
I want to show you.

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In fact, I want you to feel it.

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There's a lot I want you to feel
in the next 14 minutes.

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So if we could all stand up, right.

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We're all going to conduct
a piece of Strauss together.

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Alright, and you all know it.

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Are you ready?

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Alright.

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Ready, one, two, three.

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It's just the end.

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(Music: Richard Strauss
"Also Sprach Zarathustra")

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Right?

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You know where it's going.

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(Music)

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Oh, it's coming.

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(Music stops)

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Oh!

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(Laughter)

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Right?

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Collective coitus interruptus.

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OK, you can all sit down.

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(Laughter)

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We have a fundamental need for closure.

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(Laughter)

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We love closure.

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(Applause)

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I was told the story that when Mozart,

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just before he would go to bed,
he'd go to the piano and go

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da-da-da-da-da

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his father, who was already in bed,

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think, "Ah,"

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he'd have to get up
and hit the final note to the cord

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before he could go back to sleep.

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So the need for closure

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leads us to thinking
about what is our greatest fear.

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Think, what is our greatest fear
growing up, even now?

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And it's the fear of the dark.

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We hate uncertainty.

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We hate to not know.

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We hate it.

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Think about horror films.

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Horror films are always shot in the dark,

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in the forest,

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at night,

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in the depths of the sea,

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the blackness of space.

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And the reason is because
dying was easy during evolution.

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If you weren't sure that was a predator,

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it was too late.

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Your brain evolved to predict.

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And if you couldn't predict, you died.

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And the way your brain predicts

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is by encoding the bias and assumptions
that were useful in the past.

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But those assumptions
just don't stay inside your brain.

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You project them out into the world.

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There is no bird there.

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You're projecting the meaning
onto the screen.

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Everything I'm saying to you right now
is literally meaningless.

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(Laughter)

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You're creating the meaning
and projecting it onto me.

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And what's true for objects
is true for other people.

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While you can measure
their "what" and their "when,"

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you can never measure their "why."

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So we color other people,

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we project a meaning onto them

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based on our biases and our experience.

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Which is why the best of design

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is almost always about
decreasing uncertainty.

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So when we step into uncertainty,

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our bodies respond
physiologically and mentally.

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Your immune system
will start deteriorating.

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Your brain cells wither and even die.

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Your creativity and intelligence decrease.

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We often go from fear to anger,
almost too often.

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Why? Because fear is a state of certainty.

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You become morally judgmental.

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You become an extreme version of yourself.

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If you're a conservative,
you become more conservative.

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If you're a liberal,
you become more liberal.

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Because you go to a place of familiarity.

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The problem is that the world changes.

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And we have to adapt or die.

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And if you want to shift from A to B,

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the first step is not B.

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The first step is to go from A to not-A.

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To let go of your bias and assumptions.

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To step into the very place
that our brain evolved to avoid.

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To step into the place of the unknown.

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But it's so essential
that we go to this place,

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that our brain gave us a solution.

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Evolution gave us a solution.

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And it's possibly one of the most profound
perceptual experiences.

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And it's the experience of awe.

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(Music)

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(Applause)

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(Music)

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(Applause)

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(Music)

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(Applause)

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(Music)

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(Applause)

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(Cheers)

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(Applause)

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Beau Lotto: Ah, how wonderful, right?

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So, right now you're probably all feeling,

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at some level or another awe.

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Right?

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So what's happening
inside your brain right now?

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And for thousands of years,

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we've been thinking and writing
and experiencing awe

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and we know so little about it.

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And so to try to understand
what is it and what does it do,

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my lab of misfits had just
the wonderful opportunity and the pleasure

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to work with who are some of the greatest
creators of awe that we know,

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the writers, the creators,
the directors, the accountants,

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the people who are Cirque Du Soleil.

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And so we went to Las Vegas

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and we recorded the brain activity

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of people while they are
watching the performance,

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over 10 performances of "O,"

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which is iconic Cirque performance,

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and we also measure
the behavior before the performance,

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as well as a different group
after the performance.

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And so we had over 200 people involved.

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So what is awe?

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What is happening
inside your brain right now?

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It's a brain state.

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OK?

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The front part of your brain,
the prefrontal cortex,

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which is responsible
for your executive function,

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your attentional control,

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is now being downregulated.

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The part of your brain called
the DMN, default mode network,

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which is the interaction
between multiple areas in your brain,

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which is active during, sort of, ideation,

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creative thinking in terms
of divergent thinking and daydreaming,

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is now being upregulated.

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And right about now,

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the activity in your
prefrontal cortex is changing.

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It's becoming asymmetrical
in its activity.

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Biased towards the right,

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which is highly correlated
when people step forward into the world,

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as opposed to step back.

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In fact, the activity across the brains
of all these people was so correlated,

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that we're able to train
an artificial neural network

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to predict whether or not
people are experiencing awe

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to an accuracy of 75 percent on average,

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with a maximum of 83 percent.

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So what does this brain state do, right?

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Well, others have demonstrated,

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for instance, professors
Haidt and Keltner,

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have told us that people feel small
but connected to the world.

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And their pro-social behavior increases,

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because they feel an increased
affinity towards others.

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And we've also shown, in this study,

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that people have a less need
for cognitive control.

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They're more comfortable with uncertainty
without having closure.

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And their appetite
for risk also increases.

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They actually seek risk
and they are better able at taking it.

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And something that
was really quite profound,

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is that when we ask people,

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"Are you someone who has propensity
to experience awe?"

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They were more likely
to give a positive response

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after the performance than they were.

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They literally redefined themselves
and their history.

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So, awe is possibly the perception
that is bigger than us.

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And in the words of Joseph Campbell,

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awe is what enables us to move forward.

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Or in the words of a dear friend,

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probably one of our
greatest photographers,

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still living photographers,
Duane Michaels,

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he said to me just the other day

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that maybe it gives us the curiosity
to overcome our cowardice.

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So, who cares? Why should we care?

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Well, consider conflict,

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which seems to be so omnipresent
in our society at the moment.

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If you and I are in conflict,

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it's as if we're at the opposite
ends of the same line.

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And my aim is to prove that you're wrong
and to shift you towards me.

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The problem is, you are doing
exactly the same.

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You're trying to prove that I'm wrong
and to shift me towards you.

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Notice that conflict is the setup
to win but not learn.

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Your brain only learns if we move.

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Life is movement.

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So what if we could use awe,

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not to get rid of conflict,

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conflict is essential.

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Conflict is how your brain expands,

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it's how your brain learns.

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But rather, to enter conflict
in a different way.

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And what if we could enter it,

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awe could enable us to enter it
in at least two different ways?

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One, to give us the humility
and courage to not know.

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Right?

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To enter conflict with a question
instead of an answer.

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What would happen then?

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To enter the conflict
with uncertainty instead of certainty.

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And the second is
in entering conflict that way

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to seek to understand,
rather than convince.

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Because everyone
makes sense to themselves, right?

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And to understand another person,

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is to understand the biases
and assumptions

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that give rise to their behavior.

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And we've actually initiated a pilot study

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to look to see whether
we could use art-induced awe

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to facilitate toleration.

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And the results are actually
incredibly positive.

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We can mitigate against anger and hate

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through the experience of awe
generated by art.

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So where can we find awe,

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given how important it is?

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So, what if --

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A suggestion.

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That awe is not just
to be found in the grandeur.

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Awe is essential.

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Often it's scale, right,
the mountains, the sun scape.

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But what if we could actually
rescale ourselves?

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And find the impossible in the simple?

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And if this is true,

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and our data are right,

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then endeavors like science,

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adventure, art, ideas, love,

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a TED conference, performance,

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are not only inspired by awe.

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But could actually be our ladders
into uncertainty,

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to help us expand.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)

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Please, come up.

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(Applause)

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(Cheers)

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(Applause)