The psychological exploration of transcendent experiences within natural environments reveals consistent emotional and perceptual dimensions across diverse personal accounts, emphasizing the transformative capacity of landscape elements to evoke states of awe, harmony, and deep affective resonance; through the analysis of 131 individual narratives, Lorenzo and Corraliza (2017) identified key features such as vastness, water, vegetation, and light as central triggers of these profound encounters, which align with previous studies on awe-inducing stimuli that underscore perceptual magnitude and complexity (Keltner & Haidt, 2003), supporting the idea that nature, especially in its grand and multisensory expressions—such as mountains, cliffs, rivers, and forests—serves as a fertile context for emotional intensification and cognitive accommodation; the transcendental dimensions extracted—wonder, illumination, and a sense of unity or being part of a greater whole—often co-occurred with affective states like calmness or emotional activation, and aesthetic responses linked to beauty and pleasure, reinforcing the multidimensional impact of these experiences; for example, environments like summits or waterfalls were frequently associated with a sense of timelessness and elevated consciousness, echoing Maslow’s notion of peak experiences and Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow (Maslow, 1964; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990); such findings not only contribute to a richer understanding of environmental psychology but also suggest practical applications for therapeutic and restorative landscape design, aiming to foster personal transformation and psychological well-being through deliberate contact with awe-inspiring natural settings.
