Welcoming Wisdom #4 - Awe, Ethics, and the Sacred Path to Flourishing

In this final episode of our opening series on Flourishing, we explore the deeper dimensions of what it means to live a meaningful and well-lived life. Drawing from awe research, contemplative neuroscience, and classical philosophy, we reflect that flourishing is not a fixed state but an emergent, relational process—one shaped by attention, moral insight, and reverence for life itself.

You’ll hear excerpts from Welcoming Wisdom: How Mature Minds Can Shape a Kinder, Wiser Future, including:

• A fresh take on awe as a catalyst for connection and transformation
• Iain McGilchrist’s insights into the “sense of the sacred” as a mode of perception
• Socratic wisdom on the examined life and the moral core of flourishing
• A synthesis of ancient virtue ethics, modern psychology, and ecological well-being

This episode concludes our foundational exploration of flourishing and sets the stage for the next series: The Mature Mind. Join us as we continue uncovering the unique capacities of aging minds to lead, imagine, and help shape a more compassionate world.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:54 Awe
• 7:11 Flourishing as an Emergent Process
• 8:40 The Examined Life
• 10:35 Flourishing is Ecological
• 11:16 Truth
• 12:29 Flourishing: A summary
• 16:01 Conclusion

Transcript

Awe, Ethics, and the Sacred Path to Flourishing

Welcome to Flourish As You Age, a podcast about living wisely, aging boldly, and shaping a more compassionate future. I’m your host, Michael Patterson.

This new series of podcast features readings and reflections from my upcoming book, Welcoming Wisdom: How Mature Minds Can Shape a Kinder, Wiser Future. The book is both a call to action and a guide for those of us entering life’s later chapters—not just to age well, but to grow into the deeper roles that age makes possible: as mentors, creators, and culture shapers.

Welcoming Wisdom blends science, story, and contemplative insight into a practical philosophy of aging—one that sees maturity not as decline, but as evolution. Over the course of the podcast, we’ll explore seven core mental frameworks—my A–G system of mind management. It’s a mnemonic device to help me remember the core principles that I feel undergird the wisdom systems that make the most sense to me—and how they support flourishing in a long life.

But we have begun with the Foundation: a series of chapters that set the stage by introducing the big ideas behind the book. Our first episodes have focused on what it means to flourish and we will conclude that topic with today’s episode. We will focus on Awe and the sense of the sacred, take a look at how Socrates thought about flourishing and end with a summary statement [INSERT CHAPTER TITLE]. Let’s get started.

Awe and the Sense of the Sacred

 Flourishing may find its highest expression in awe—those rare but powerful moments when we step outside our usual habits of mind and glimpse something vast, mysterious, and deeply moving.

Psychologist Dacher Keltner defines awe as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.” His research shows that awe isn’t limited to mountaintop experiences or religious revelation—it often arises in everyday moments: watching the sun rise, hearing a piece of music that stops you in your tracks, witnessing someone perform an act of deep kindness or moral courage.

 What makes awe so remarkable is that it doesn’t just feel good—it changes how we think and who we feel ourselves to be. It reduces self-focus, quiets the mental chatter of the default mode network, and enhances our sense of connection with others and with the world. It promotes humility, curiosity, and care. Biologically, awe engages the parasympathetic nervous system, calming our bodies and supporting health. Emotionally, it opens us to wonder. Cognitively, it reminds us how much lies beyond our current understanding—it teaches not just what to know, but how to know differently.

This way of knowing—receptive, expansive, and relational—is what many contemplative traditions point to when they speak of a mystical or sacred perspective. It’s not about believing in supernatural forces or otherworldly realms. Rather, it’s about cultivating a way of seeing that honors the mystery and depth of ordinary existence. To approach life with reverence, not because we have proof, but because we are present.

This orientation is echoed powerfully in the work of Iain McGilchrist, author of The Matter With Things. Drawing on neuroscience and philosophy, McGilchrist argues that many modern cultures have become dominated by the left hemisphere’s tendency to dissect, analyze, and control. While essential for science and language, this mindset, when unbalanced, leads to reductionism and a loss of meaning. In contrast, the right hemisphere specializes in the open, living, embodied awareness of relationship and context. It is through this mode of knowing, McGilchrist suggests, that we encounter what might rightly be called the sacred. 

But sacredness here doesn’t mean adherence to dogma. It refers to a felt sense of depth, presence, and profound value. A recognition that something is worth attending to not because it is useful, but because it is beautiful, or fragile, or immeasurably alive.

“The sacred is not a separate domain—it is an aspect of the real that we perceive differently when our attention becomes receptive, holistic, and grounded in relationship.”
Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things 

This idea has deeply influenced me. Like many raised in the modern scientific worldview, I had long operated with what I now recognize as a somewhat myopic mindset—one that leaned heavily on materialism, analysis, and evidence. While science has given us extraordinary tools for understanding the world, it can sometimes narrow our vision rather than expand it. Reading McGilchrist helped shift that for me.

 He didn’t ask me to abandon science, but to broaden my attention—to make room for mystery, depth, and what he calls the sense of the sacred. Not sacred in the supernatural or religious sense, but as a quality of perception: a way of being present to the wonder and interconnectedness of life without needing to explain it away. 

That shift in perspective has enriched my understanding of flourishing. It has helped me see that to flourish is not only to feel good or function well, but to participate more fully in the living world—with humility, reverence, and awe.

 And perhaps awe is one of the most powerful tools we have for that kind of flourishing. It softens the edges of certainty. It opens the mind without closing the heart. It reminds us that to be alive—conscious, connected, and aware—is itself a kind of miracle.

Flourishing as Emergent Process: A Socratic Perspective

In seeking to define what it means to flourish, it is tempting to look for a stable destination or fixed set of qualities—a state of happiness, balance, or success. But flourishing, as both ancient wisdom and contemporary science suggest, is not a static condition. It is a process, an unfolding, a form of emergence that reflects the ongoing interplay between self, others, and the ecosystems we inhabit. 

Socrates offers a vital philosophical foundation for this understanding. For him, flourishing (eudaimonia) is not about wealth, pleasure, or power, but about the health of the soul—the moral center of the person. This soul is not equivalent to the modern mind, which includes fleeting emotions and opinions. Rather, the soul is the seat of reason, character, conscience, and moral awareness. Its flourishing depends on a dynamic harmony between parts of the self: reason, will, and desire, guided by virtues such as wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice.

The Examined Life

From a Socratic standpoint, true flourishing arises from the examined life—a life in which we seek understanding, question assumptions, and live in alignment with truth and justice. This process is not primarily about feeling good in the moment, but about doing good over time. Socrates challenges the view that one can flourish by simply achieving personal success or gratification. As he provocatively asserts, it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong—for doing injustice damages the soul, regardless of material gain.

 Importantly, Socratic justice is not an isolated virtue; it implies living in right relationship with others. To act justly is to avoid inflicting harm, to respect the dignity of others, and to engage in social life with fairness and integrity. This vision of virtue has strong parallels with Buddhist principles of non-harming and ethical conduct, where moral health is relational and interdependent.

When we translate this view into modern terms, we might think of the soul as a person’s moral center of gravity—emerging from the interaction of the conscious and unconscious mind, the extended mind, and the social and ecological environments that shape our awareness. Flourishing, then, requires a kind of cognitive homeostasis: a balanced coordination among our multiple ways of knowing and being. This internal harmony reflects not stasis, but an ongoing process of dynamic equilibrium.

Flourishing is also ecological. We are embedded in systems—social, environmental, and cultural—that sustain or undermine our well-being. To truly flourish is not just to live in balance with oneself, but to live in balance with our communities and with nature. Justice, in this broader sense, includes environmental stewardship and the ethical use of resources. Our individual flourishing cannot be separated from the flourishing of others and of the Earth itself.

Truth, too, in the Socratic view, is not a fixed entity handed down from above. It is elusive and participatory, something we approach through dialogue, reflection, and openness. Socrates rejected both dogmatism and pure relativism. He held that truth exists but must be uncovered through honest inquiry—a process that demands humility, curiosity, and intellectual courage.

Thus, flourishing is not a possession but a path. It is a continual rebalancing, a movement toward greater harmony, coherence, and ethical depth. It is not merely a subjective feeling, nor an external achievement, but an emergent property of a life lived in mindful relationship with self, others, and the living world.

To flourish is to participate consciously in the process of becoming—not just becoming successful, but becoming just, wise, and whole.

Flourishing: A Summary

 Flourishing is not a fixed destination but a dynamic process—a way of being that integrates purpose, connection, resilience, and wonder. In these initial episodes, we’ve traced how the idea of flourishing has evolved from ancient philosophy to modern neuroscience, and how it continues to deepen as our understanding of the human mind expands.

Historically, flourishing was often associated with virtue, wisdom, and contribution. For Aristotle and the Stoics, the good life was rooted in reason, ethical action, and service to the greater good. In Buddhism, it involved the alleviation of suffering through mindfulness, compassion, and equanimity. These traditions understood that meaning and well-being were cultivated from within and are expressed outwardly through relationship and right action. 

Yet access to these ideals was long restricted — limited by gender, class, and circumstance. It wasn’t until the Enlightenment that happiness was framed as a universal human right, setting the stage for contemporary psychology to explore how flourishing might become more inclusive and achievable. 

Positive psychology brought this aspiration into scientific focus. Researchers like Seligman, Fredrickson, Lyubomirsky, and Davidson have shown that flourishing involves more than escaping suffering. It is built on positive emotion, engagement, meaning, accomplishment, and social connection. These elements are measurable, trainable, and deeply human.

Moreover, flourishing is not only psychological—it is ecological. As Ryan and Deci emphasize, well-being emerges through the interaction of internal capacities and external environments. We thrive when our basic needs for autonomy, competence, and connection are supported—by families, communities, and cultures that value wholeness over performance.

 Recent insights from contemplative neuroscience affirm that well-being is plastic. Attention, compassion, insight, and purpose—once thought to be traits of the fortunate few—can be cultivated through sustained practice. The brain changes with experience. So too does our capacity to flourish.

 And in the end, flourishing may open us to more than functional well-being —it may reawaken a sense of reverence for life. Through the emotion of awe, and through ways of knowing grounded in presence rather than control, we are reminded that the good life is not just about achievement or mastery. It is also about being touched by mystery—about perceiving life not as a puzzle to solve, but as something sacred to behold.

 To flourish, then, is to live more fully, love more deeply, and wonder more often. It is to be grounded in the real, while remaining open to the unknown. It is a path that unfolds over time, shaped by choices, habits, relationships—and the meaning we make of it all.

Conclusion

All right! So, we conclude our look at the first of the foundational chapters in my forthcoming book, Welcoming Wisdom - What it means to Flourish. In the next episode we will move on to the second foundational section called The Mature Mind which examines the potential of mature, experienced minds to develop a particularly rich and nuanced form of intelligence - a compassionate intelligence that is sorely needed in our troubled times. Until then. May you live long and flourish. 

If you’d like to stay connected, you can follow Flourish As You Age on your favorite podcast platform—or join my email list for reflections, updates, and special extras from my book-in-progress. You’ll find the link in the show notes.