Self-transcendence accompanies aesthetic chills

Self-transcendence (ST) is a state of consciousness associated with feelings of ego-dissolution, connectedness, and moral elevation, which mediates well-being, meaning-making, and prosociality. Conventional paths to ST, like religious practice, meditation, and psychedelics, pose nontrivial barriers to entry, limiting ST’s study and application. Aesthetic chills (henceforth “chills”) are a psychophysiological response characterized by a pleasurable, cold sensation, with subjective qualities and downstream effects similar to ST. However, evidence is lacking directly relating chills and ST. In the summer of 2023, we exposed a diverse sample of 2937 participants in Southern California to chills-eliciting stimuli, then assayed chills, mood and ST. Even after controlling for differences in demographics, traits, and prior affective state, both chills likelihood and intensity were positively associated with measures ST. Parametric and non-parametric analyses of variance, mutual information, and correlation structure found that chills occurrence and intensity, and ST measures are reliably interrelated across a variety of audiovisual stimuli. These findings suggest aesthetic chills may denote sufficiently intense feelings of self-transcendence. Further study is necessary to demonstrate the generalizability of these results to non-WEIRD populations, and the precise direction of causal relationships between self-transcendent feelings and aesthetic chills.