Self-Transcendence Accompanies Aesthetic Chills

Self-transcendence (ST) is a positive altered state of consciousness associated with ego-dissolution, connectedness, and moral elevation, which mediates well-being, meaning-making, and prosociality. Conventional paths to ST such as religious practice, meditative practice, and psychedelics pose nontrivial barriers to entry, limiting ST’s study and wide application. Aesthetic chills (henceforth “chills”) are a peak psychophysiological response characterized by a pleasurable, cold sensation, and subjective qualities and outcomes intuitively similar to ST. However, evidence is lacking directly relating chills and ST. We exposed 2937 participants to chills-eliciting stimuli, then assayed chills intensity, mood and ST measures. Controlling for prior state and trait differences, chills were robustly associated with ST. Analyses of main effects and covariance structure found that chills occurrence and intensity, and ST measures, form a tightly interrelated construct. These findings suggest that ST experiences are reliably evokable via exposure to aesthetic chills-evoking audiovisual media. We discuss implications of chills-evoking media for tractable studies of ST and democratized applications of ST towards human flourishing.