Kama Muta: The Most Intense Emotion
Kama muta is a Sanskrit term that literally means “to be moved, full of love and/or admiration.” Researchers tell us that it is the most intense universal emotion because it defines that moment when we feel full of affection.
It is the surprise and admiration we experience for something or someone, and it is the moment when our eyes begin to water due to an abundance of emotions.
It is not easy to define this emotion with words. However, there are several studies that, among other things, aim to find out whether it is an emotion that manifests itself in all human cultures. An attempt has been made to find out how we all experience and describe it.
The language of emotions
In our language, kama muta can be translated as “to be moved.” It is, however, limiting to define it this way, because it connects to something deep in the human being, which is both positive and negative. For example, we cannot reduce it to a simple crush because it transcends our own emotional relationships.
It is that moment when something suddenly awakens in us. Something that also invades us at that moment. It’s a short feeling, but so intense that it lingers in our memory. Alan Fiske, professor of anthropology at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), points out that it is a social emotion.
This means that kama muta does not happen in solitude. It is always present in connection with an event, a person or a group of people who pleasantly surprise and inspire us.
Something or someone that brings us to the point of goosebumps. It could also be a knot in the stomach, or the sudden tears that appear in our eyes. Let’s talk more about this.
Kama Muta: An Intense, Comforting Experience
For example, think of a friend who did something wonderful for you. Or maybe the birth of a child or attending your best friend’s wedding.
A meeting or event with people you love, but haven’t seen in a long time. Be proud of someone. Attending a lecture by your favorite author or going to a play or concert and feeling deeply inspired…
These are just a few examples of what this emotion brings up. This is kama muta. Recently, a number of universities from all over the world published an extensive, detailed study on this subject. Its purpose was to reveal what they had discovered about the exposition of the emotions that make up kama muta.
What they found is that basically every person and culture expresses and experiences it both physically and psychologically in the same way. For example, everyone experienced the following:
- feelings of euphoria
- a certain warmth in their chest
- tearing eyes
- Goosebumps
- breathlessness, a kind of knot in the throat
- butterflies in the stomach
- a feeling of loss of gravity, a kind of floating in the air
Obviously, these are all physiological symptoms. However, scientists are increasingly interested in this type of emotion, because in a sense they never stopped studying it.
What moves and inspires people? Are we all moved by the same things? If so, is kama muta a universal experience? The answer seems to be ‘yes’.
Kama muta: the emotion of human connection
Studies on kama muta were popular for a few years. There are even organizations like the kama muta lab. They periodically provide information, because it is as interesting as it is revealing. So keep in mind that this is the goal of emotions in humans.
After all, the word “emotion” means movement in Latin. Every emotion, be it happiness, joy, sadness, fear or anger, has a “duty” to change us. To give us information about our internal reality to shape our behavior and generate a response.
Kama muta is also there to make sure we respond to something. That reaction, however, comes from a dimension that is as powerful as it is decisive: love.
Of course, each of us has the ability to be moved by something or someone. It could be our pet or maybe our husband. Perhaps it is the result of watching a performance or reading a book. The fact is that something that moves us creates an emotional imprint that changes who we are.
The purpose of such changes may simply be to experience compassion and affection for a particular person. To care for and protect them. Or to feel passionate. Maybe it’s just to become a better person after being inspired by someone’s story, even though we’ve never met him or her.
Universal emotion
Again, we are dealing with a universal experience, regardless of gender, culture, language or country. We are all often moved by something or someone else. Moreover, it is a feeling that is not only positive, but we can even say that it is necessary.
This is because few of our emotions promote both the desire to connect and the urge to start new things. Be motivated by the exciting mix of joy, hope, admiration and affection.
Kama muta is goodness and inspiration in one. There are few emotional impulses more revealing in a human than that, suddenly, something will move us.
The feeling that something touches us to the point where we feel intensely, suddenly, perfectly happy. It may only be for a brief moment, yet it is a moment that is as healing as it is motivating.
