Endnotes
(epigraph): As paraphrased by William Luce in his play about Dickinson, The Belle of Amherst, which opened in the Longacre Theatre on Broadway in 1976. In the Author’s Note at the front of the printed version of the play, Luce writes that Dickinson’s poems and letters ‘radiate an invisible light’. He described the experience of reading them as ‘much like looking obliquely at a star in order to see it’. William Luce, The Belle of Amherst, Dramatists Play Services Inc., New York, 2015, p.3.
Prelude: A Light Within
‘The Wheels of Poseidon’: ‘A history of bioluminescence according to E.N. Harvey’, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 14 April 2016.
‘the vault of the heavens’: Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, London, 1936, p.496.
a cool blue light: Ferris Jabr, ‘The secret history of bioluminescence’, Hakia Magazine, 10 May 2016.
naval officers struggled to describe what they saw: Unless otherwise indicated, the quotes on pages 3–4 are all from Robert F. Staples, The Distribution and Characteristics of Surface Biolumiscence in the Oceans, US Naval Oceanographic Office, Washington, March 1966; https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/630903.pdf. Staples’ seminal study of these ‘sadly neglected’ organisms sold for ninety cents per piece. He had studied about 3000 reports of lit-up seas, mostly from shipping lanes, as well as British and US naval and coast guard reports and scientific cruise reports.
‘but no such luck’: Dorothy Freeman and Martha E. Freeman (eds), Always, Racheclass="underline" The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964, Beacon Press, Boston, 1995, pp.186–187, © 1995 Roger Allen Christie, reprinted by permission of Francis Collin, Trustee.
‘Imagine putting that in scientific language!’: Ibid.
does not appear to have been replicated either: Jabr, ‘The secret history of bioluminescence’. This phenomenon, writes Ferris, was described by physician Georg Eberhard Rumphius in the late 1600s.
dried fish skins were also unsuccessful: Andrew Watson, ‘Miners lamp history from flame to “the Davy Lamp” to electric’, Health and Safety International, issue 76, September 2018.
replace electricity in a ‘biobulb’: Rachel Nuwer, ‘One day we’ll light our homes with bacteria’, Smithsonian.com, 15 August 2013.
‘the sensitivity of our naked eyes’: Masaki Kobayashi, Daisuke Kikuchi and Hitoshi Okamura, ‘Imaging of ultraweak spontaneous photon emission from human body displaying diurnal rhythm’, PLOS One, 16 July 2009, vol.4, no.7, p.6256.
‘that doesn’t depend on what happens’: Quoted in Pico Iyer, ‘The joy of quiet’, The New York Times, 29 December 2011.
Part I: Awe, Wonder and Silence
In the company of arsonists
‘with silver sandalled feet’: Oscar Wilde, The Harlot’s House, quoted in Frank Harris, Oscar Wilde, Wordsworth Editions, 2007, p.52.
‘that swelling of the heart’: Adam Smith, The Essential Adam Smith, W.W. Norton and Company, 1987, pp.25–26.
‘his eyes are closed’: Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1931; quoted in David E. Rowe and Robert J. Schulmann (eds), Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace and the Bomb, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2007, p.229.
Chapter 1: Lessons from a Cuttlefish
‘Those who dwell’: from The Sense of Wonder, © 1956 by Rachel L. Carson, reprinted by permission of Francis Collin, Trustee.
‘remnants of the sea’: Peter Godfrey Smith, Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life, HarperCollins, London, p.200.
‘more satisfying than it would otherwise’: Melanie Rudd, Kathleen Vohs and Jennifer Lynn Aaker, ‘Awe expands people’s perception of time, alters decision-making, and enhances well-being’, Psychological Science, 1 January 2012.
than those who had not: Paul Piff, P. Dietze, M. Feinberg, D.M. Stancato and D. Keltner, ‘Awe, the small self, and prosocial behaviour’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, June 2015, vol.108, no.6, pp.883–99.
water ‘meditates you’: Wallace J. Nichols, Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected and Better at What You Do, Back Bay Books, 2014.
in August 2018: Christoffer van Tulleken, Michael Tipton, Heather Massey, C. Mark Harper, ‘Open water swimming as a treatment for major depressive disorder’, British Medical Journal Case Reports, 2018-225007.
‘getting fired at work’: Quoted in Layal Liverpool, ‘Could cold water swimming help treat depression?’, The Guardian, 13 September 2018.
happiness throughout your life: Harvard Study of Adult Development, www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org. See also Robert Waldinger’s TED Talk, ‘What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness’, November 2015.
than he did previously: Liz Mineo, ‘Good genes are nice, but joy is better’, The Harvard Gazette, 11 April 2017.
‘psychological ill-health’: Alexander K. Saeri, Tegan Cruwys, Fiona Kate Barlow, Samantha Stronge, Chris G. Sibley, ‘Social connectedness improves public mental health: Investigating bidirectional relationships in the New Zealand attitudes and values survey’, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 12 August 2017.
reported being happier, for example: G.M. Sandstrom and E. W. Dunn, ‘Social interactions and well-being: The surprising power of weak ties’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, July 2014, vol.40, no.7, pp.910–92.
vast stained-glass windows: Dacher Keltner and Johnathan Haidt, ‘Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion’, Cognition and Emotion, 18 August 2010, p.126.
shadowed by a huge — if extinct — beast: Piff et al.
fold us into the social collective: Dacher Keltner in Jo Marchant, ‘Awesome awe: The emotion that gives us superpowers’, New Scientist, 26 July 2017.
‘leaves cascading from trees’: Emma Stone, ‘The emerging science of awe and its benefits’, Psychology Today, 27 April 2017.
Chapter 2: Bathe in Nature
though it is not certain why: Gregory N. Bratman, J. Paul Hamilton, Kevin S. Hahn, Gretchen C. Daily and James J. Gross, ‘Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 29 June 2015, vol.112, no.28, pp.8567–8572.
‘urbanization and digital creep’: Florence Williams, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2017, p.4.