Your Online Content Should Deliver 'Cognitive Ecstasy'

Humans love to have their minds blown. We are
changed by that feeling of seeing or learning something
perfectly new -- that feeling we call “awe.” And,
according to Jason Silva, that’s the secret to really
spectacular online content.
“Great content trades in the currency of inspiration,” said
Silva, host of the popular National Geographic TV show
Brain Games and futurist with YouTube series “Shots of
Awe,” at Advertising Week in New York City earlier this
month. “If we are going to tell a story, if we are working
with advertisers -- why not make that story inspirational?
Why not make that story mindblowing? Why not give
people that experience of cognitive ecstasy? Because I
promise you they are going to be more compelled to
share if they are moved by what you have created.”
At a time when the volume of material for people to read
and watch is exponentially growing, being able to grab
consumers’ attention online is the pot of gold at the end
of the rainbow. If you can invoke wonder and
amazement in the content you create and share, you
stand a better chance at making those consumers your
customers.
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Silva spends his life seeking that feeling -- that
“exhilarating neurostorm of intense intellectual pleasure.”
He specifically curates what he reads, sees and does to
maximize his potential for experiencing awe.
“I think it was Aristotle who used to say that human
beings don’t care about spectacle, what they care about
is ecstatic understanding,” he says. “We want to feel like
we learned something new. We want to upgrade our
maps. We want that cognitive ecstasy.”
How does he define awe? It’s that sensation you
experience when you’re presented with something you
have no existing framework to process. “Consider the
first time you went to the Grand Canyon or the first time
you saw an IMAX 3-D film about space. Literally you
have no reference points for what you are seeing, no
anchoring for what you are seeing, so your mental maps
of the world are being upgraded in real time and that is
an experience of awe.”
It’s next to impossible to listen to Silva and not believe
what he preaches. He’s animated, energetic and eager.
It’s as though he wants to give his audience a taste of
the cognitive ecstasy he preaches about. But alongside
his charismatic presentation is some pretty impressive
science. A 2012 study published in Psychological Science
determined that experiencing awe slows down people’s
perception of time , and that the more a person
experiences awe, the more satisfied they are with life.
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Advances in technology open up more opportunity for
awe -- and that’s a good thing. The changes we are
experiencing now, such as the constantly shrinking size
of a computer chip or the miniaturization of the video
camera, will provide new experiences we cannot even
imagine. Silva says that’s not something to be feared,
but something to look forward to.
As an entrepreneur, that means there are a growing
number of opportunities where your product or service
will have the potential to show a customer a new
function or service. Show that. Capitalize on that.
Writing content that will elicit a feeling of awe in your
customers will very likely mean more revenue dollars for
you, but will also leave your customers feeling better,
too. “It turns out that these exquisite moments of
cognitive ecstasy have residual feelings and benefits,”
Silva says. “Like, once the feeling of awe is over, you
are actually left with residual feelings of increased well
being, increased compassion, increased creativity,
increased all kinds of wonderful therapeutic benefits.”
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Perhaps you want to try your own feeling of cognitive
ecstasy? Have a look at the videos, embedded below,
which Silva showed in his Ad Week presentation. Learn
about awe -- and be inspired. You might just want to
blow your own mind on a more regular basis.
To Be Human Is To Be Transhuman