Thoughts & Insights

From the Springboard of Emotion into the Experiential Dimension of Amazement

“Science begins with wonder”, said Aristotle.

We come to wonder via curiosity and through the yearning to discover. Following on from this wonder, we arrive at unique moments of insight, awareness and thought.

Wonder appears to be a very special source of insight. We are inspired by respect and admiration for the unusual, unexpected and surprising, which does not appear to be too unbelievable to take it to be real or at least possible. Wonder presupposes the faith that what amazes us actually exists. And for this very reason, it may drive us beyond our conventional perception of life and catapult us into new experiential dimensions. Like a springboard. OUBEYs pictures whisk those who view them into new raptures of amazement every time.

Wonder in itself is a wonderful thing. Enjoying one’s personal wonder, though, is another thing altogether. “If you have lost the ability to be amazed, you’re actually already dead”, said Einstein. Someone who has lost the capacity to be amazed thinks they know everything or no longer wants to learn and has agreed to a fatal limitation in their opportunities in life. Wonder has all the seductive power of enthusiasm. To allow oneself to be amazed is to set off an exciting spiritual adventure. Children are amazed most of the time and are not shy of it. Everything is new for them. Through them we experience in uncontrolled immediacy the joy that wonder can trigger in a person and the powerful emotions tied up in it.

Wonder is the beginning of insight, not its end. The smallest things can ignite our sense of wonder, as can the largest. Like a key opening a door, it opens up a path which takes us into unexplored, unknown and inexplicable territory. The further we penetrate and the more we learn about ourselves and the cosmos we inhabit, the greater our wonder. Our amazement grows with every advance in science.

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