By Jim Bloch
Want to improve your health, be more kind toward others and be more humble in your assessment of self?
Get outside and witness the total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8.
Social scientists have discovered that immersing oneself in truly awesome experiences can boost your health, improve your behavior and connect you more wholly to the social world.
“So I’m a social psychologist and I’m particularly interested in the experience of awe, and awe can be occasioned by a lot of different things, encounters with art, with music, with spiritual or religious practices, but in the West we find predominantly awe is brought about due to encounters that one has with nature or powerful natural phenomena such as the eclipse,” said Dr. Paul Piff of the University of California-Irvine.
Piff discussed the social and psychological impact of viewing the eclipse on a panel March 26 assembled by SciLine, the nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing scientists in touch with journalists on an array of critical issues.
In Port Huron, more than 98 percent of the sun will be covered by the moon on Monday, April 8.
The experience of awe changes the way you see and think about the world. Once you behold Grand Canyon, for example, you can never think of the landform of the U.S. in the same way again. Seeing the Northern Lights forever changes your perception of the night sky.
People typically describe awe-filled experiences as mind-blowing.
“We find … that awe has a lot of really interesting effects on people,” said Piff. “Awe experiences are described by people as some of the most meaningful in their lives. Those individuals that experience more awe also experience improved health outcomes, better well-being, they report more humble or somewhat insignificant views of the self, and we find … that awe seems to trigger more kind, compassionate, and empathic behavior among people.”
The total solar eclipse of 2024
The moon is expected to cross in front of the sun on Monday, April 8, creating conditions of near darkness along 100 mile-wide swath starting in Mexico and curving across the North America continent all the way to Maine and New Brunswick.
Near totality in southern Kentucky during the Aug. 21, 2017 eclipse.
The path of totality is the phrase used to indicate the moving band of darkness, which will last from about one minute to 4.5 minutes depending where you are.
In Port Huron, the eclipse is technically classified as partial. But slightly more than 98 percent of the sun will be covered by the moon, which will be moving across the sun from the lower right edge to the upper left hand edge.
The entire process will take two hours and twenty-eight minutes from the moon’s first contact with the sun until it fully crosses it and loses contact.
It begins at 2 p.m. It will end at 4:28 p.m.
The only place in Michigan that falls within the zone of totality is the far southeastern tip of the state near the Ohio border. The hot spot appears to be city of Luna Pier – aptly named – in Monroe County just of I-75 on Lake Erie.
The previous total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. was Aug. 21, 2017. The next one: 2044.
Eclipse at SC4
St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron will celebrate the total solar eclipse on the banks of the Black River.
“The college will host a viewing party on campus across from the College Center on River Street,” said SC4 spokesperson Sarah Rutallie in a statement. “The event is free and open to the public.”
The celebration takes place 2-4 p.m. Visitors will receive information on the eclipse, visit with SC4 professors, have access to solar telescopes and tour the SC4 Planetarium Experience in the College Center Atrium.
The forecast for Monday calls for partly cloudy conditions in Port Huron.
“Witnessing a solar eclipse from your hometown is memorable for all,” said Patrick Wilcox, instructor of physics and astronomy, in a statement. “The dramatic change in our relatively constant surroundings causes one to think and wonder about the universe. That curiosity sticks with us, every time we recall the event.”
The total solar eclipse of 2000
Piff and his co-investigators looked at the effects of witnessing the total solar eclipse in 2000.
“We compared residents within the path of totality to residents outside the path of totality, looking at spontaneous shifts in how people talked about themselves and talked about their motivations toward one another, surrounding their experience of the eclipse.”
The results were kind of mind-blowing.
“What we found is that individuals who resided within the path of totality who experienced the eclipse in its fullness and, you might say its full awesomeness, or its full power, exhibited more awe and as a result of that increased awe experience, they become less self-focused, less likely to talk about themselves in individuated me or I-centric ways. They used language that reflected a collective focus (and were) more likely to use collective pronouns like we and us. They expressed more desires for affiliation to connect and affiliate with others, and they became more pro-social, exhibiting an increased tendency to want to be kind or care for others and to be more sort of oriented to the well-being of the collective.”
In other words, get your eclipse glasses and get out there.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
