Kama muta: what is it and how is this emotion manifested?

Being moved to such an extent that we can't help but make our eyes water. Feeling like goosebumps when noticing a pleasant chill when feeling proud and loved. Noticing warmth in the chest when we attend a social event with other people...

All these situations that can hardly be described with words in our language have their expression in Sanskrit: kama muta. This emotion is universal, transcends cultures and manifests equally everywhere, being the physiological manifestation of being moved.

Next we will try to understand the meaning of such a curious expression, in which situations we could say that we feel kama muta and what are its characteristics.

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What is kama muta?

Defining what the kama muta is is not an easy task since there is no word in any other language that accurately translates what an expression means in Sanskrit. In its original language it comes to mean something like "feeling moved" or "being moved by love", although this definition is rather concise since this idea of ​​"love" connects with something much deeper, positive and pleasant in being human.

The kama muta is a vital, international emotion that transcends cultures, genres and ways of thinking. Those who have begun to study it assure that it is the most intense universal emotion, a feeling that defines that moment in which we feel full of affection, surprise or admiration towards something or someone. It can appear in multiple contexts and can move us, touch our hearts, feel group pride, feel connected to others, feel patriotism, nostalgia...

We could describe the kama muta as that moment when something makes us feel good inside, makes us emanate warmth deep in our chest. It feels like we are emotionally embraced. It is a brief but very intense sensation, so much so that it remains marked in our memory. Although it is related to love, it does not mean "falling in love", in fact, it transcends affective relationships but it does have a social origin.

this emotion It does not arise in solitude but occurs when there is an event in which several people are involved, either just two or a group, and it can even be given in the company of animals. These individuals suddenly inspire us and move us to such an extent that we feel a kind of chill pleasant, we get goosebumps on our skin and we feel how our eyes begin to water when a teardrop.

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Characteristics of this emotion

Although relatively recently this emotion has begun to be addressed scientifically, studies have agreed that it is a universal emotion since has the same physiological manifestation throughout the worldregardless of what culture we grew up in. The physical sensations that we can feel when the kama muta occurs are:

• Euphoria
• heat in the chest
• Tears or moisture in the eyes
• Chills or piloerection (goosebumps)
• Pleasant sensation of choking, lump in the throat
• Butterflies in the stomach
• Feeling of "floating"

It is an emotion that appears in social contexts and It is usually related to positive and pleasant moments. Its appearance helps us connect with other people and seems to be key in the development of sense of belonging in groups and, also, in social phenomena such as a demonstration or protest peaceful. It encourages us to start new things by feeling this exciting mixture of admiration, hope, affection and joy.

Experts such as Alan Fiske, professor of anthropology at the University of California at Los Angeles, believes that kama muta is an emotion that it could motivate people to reach out to each other, to help those who are disadvantaged and to unite in far-reaching social projects. It is an emotion that moves us to something more than love, rather to compassion, to the concept of humanity with all its letters.

Among the characteristics that define the kama muta we can highlight that it is a prosocial emotion, which occurs by the sudden intensification of social exchange, above all by the appearance of sudden love and goodness. This apparition is brief, at most two minutes, although it can be repeated throughout the same "love" event and is always experienced in a positive way, although it can also arise in negative situations, suspecting that it could be behind group membership in harmful situations such as a sect.

In what contexts does it occur?

As we have seen, kama muta is closely related to love, although it is not exactly the same. While love is a lasting and more or less constant feeling, kama muta is a momentary emotion that barely lasts for an instant, but it occurs when love is experienced. It does not matter if the love that creates it is romantic, religious or platonic and it can be towards a person, a family, a group of people or even with humanity at its maximum extension. Taking this into account, we can understand that there are countless situations in which this emotion can occur.

Let's see a list of situations in which it can appear, being both situations related to the emergence of a new love and the manifestation of one that already has its history:

• Kissing someone for the first time.
• Adopt a pet.
• Go to a mass in the church.
• Singing in a choir.
• Have a child.
• Receive the drawing that our son has made of us.
• Go to our son's graduation.
• Get marry.
• Get together with family at Christmas.
• Attend a captivating play.

The thrill of human connection

Due to its recent scientific approach, the full extent of the kama muta is still not known, although it is worth noting the work of the reference organization in its study: the kama muta lab. This organization is in charge of compiling worldwide research that addresses this emotion that, despite being inherently human, it has gone unnoticed by Western psychologists for so long. time.

As with the rest of the emotions, the kama mutates helps us adapt socially. In the same way that joy, sadness or anger motivate us to behave in a certain way, which is supposed to help us overcome the situation in which we find ourselves. find ourselves properly, the kama muta causes us a reaction which is to help us connect with other human beings and, it can also happen, with pets or the idea of ​​Mother Land.

What moves us, be it our partner, child, neighbor, dog, or even a person who until recently was our enemy, leaves us with an important emotional imprint. This imprint is not metaphorical, there really is a change in our way of perceiving what we feel compassion for and affection for, creating a bond or strengthening the one that already existed, something fundamental in contexts as crude as a marital breakdown, a war or being a victim of some crime. There is no forgiveness without compassion, and the kama muta could help in the process.

So the kama mutates could be the key to psychological well-being in difficult situations, apparently irresolvable situations in which those involved are so enmity that it seems that there will never be a happy ending. But, fortunately, the human being is still a wonderful being and the discovery of the kama muta proves it. A connection so intense and pleasant that, however brief it may be, it fixes what seems to be doomed to be broken.

Bibliographic references:

• Fiske, A. Q. (2019). Kama Muta: Discovering the Connecting Emotion. Routledge: London, UK.
• Zickfeld, J. H., Arriaga, P., Santos, S. V., Schubert, T. W., & Seibt, B. (2020). Tears of joy, aesthetic chills and heartwarming feelings: Physiological correlates of Kama Muta. Psychophysiology. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13662
• Blomster Lyshol, J. K., Seibt, B., & Thomsen, L. (2020). Moved by observing the love of others: Kama muta evoked through media foster humanization of out-groups. Frontiers in Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01240
• Steinnes, K. K., Blomster, J. K., Seibt, B., Zickfeld, J. H., & Fiske, A. Q. (2019). Too cute for words: Cuteness evokes the heartwarming emotion of kama muta. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00387
• Zickfeld, J. H., Schubert, T. W., Seibt, B., Blomster, J. K., Arriaga, P., Basabe, N., … & Fiske, A. Q. (2019). Kama Muta: Conceptualizing and Measuring the Experience often labeled Being Moved Across 19 Nations and 15 Languages. Emotion, 19, 402-424. doi: 10.1037/emo0000450
• Kama muta lab (2020) Home. Kama muta lab. Extracted from: http://kamamutalab.org/