How do you experience beauty?

[Blackmail!]

I'm wondering is experiencing beauty is rather independent from MBTI types, or if there is rather a connection...

Well, So far, I've noticed NT's aren't usually very gifted to display their emotional states, and hence can sometimes relate rather awkwardly towards aesthetics. But this is not always true, of course, and many great artists (especially among composers) are supposed to NT themselves.

But as an NT myself, I feel quite alone among my peers. ENTP's are supposed to be quite different from their brethren, in the way they often feel intense emotions, and thus can connect rather well with NF types (when they are not trying to manipulate them ). I intellectualize Art, of course -this is my job-, but the way I experience it is genuine.

Experiencing beauty is one the most powerful sensation I may feel. It puts me in awe, it's both appeasing and exciting. My breathing accelerates, and I sense vibrations in my whole body, like waves forming in my back. It's pure delight, pure extasy, and it can haunt me for hours, thanks to the exhilaration that loops and bounces in my head.

It's extremely sensual, physical pleasure, and yet it inspires me, and allow me to work (I'm an architect/landscape architect).

Friends around me often say I'm in a transe, I'm elsewhere. It's not Stendhal's syndrome, but it's quite close, somehow...

It's very intense, very strong. It's like a drug with which I would be permanently addicted. When I don't have my weekly dose, I can feel very depressed.


There's many ways to trigger that feeling:

I could be listening to Bach, or to a baroque composer...
Or I could stare at Paul Klee's paintings in a museum...
Or I could notice a small wild orchid flower among a landscape...
Or when I face one of the greatest piece of architecture in the world (like the Mont Saint Michel, the Machu Picchu or the Saynatsalo Town hall... et caetera...)

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So I'd like to ask you if you can relate?
Do you feel a link with your own type or functions?

For me [ENTP], it's a bit like if suddenly, my Ne would suddenly focus, and like if my Ti would simultaneously notice hundred of patterns, would instantly make a connection with a higher form of intellectual stimulation.
For instance, when I'm staring at a landscape, it's like if I would suddenly understand all his layers, how it was made and formed through past eons, how it could be interpreted, both scientifically and sensually, how the biotopes works, why there is a group of pines there or a building over there, how the wind is affecting them, how various shades are slowly stretching on the ground and play with rays of light, how the colors reflects, how I could gaze both at the whole picture and at the innumerable tiny, fragile details..

Everything.

I don't know if I'm explaining it this very well... Humm....

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So I'd like to ask you how do you experience beauty.
How do you feel?
What kind of beauty (if any) makes you feel something?

Could you describe your sensations?

What puts you in awe? Does it inspire you?

Is it purely intellectual, or rather physical, or both?
Is it a sensuous experience?

How strong is it? Is it pleasant?
Do you consider it as an emotion, or rather as something completely different?

 

[aeon]

When I experience beauty, I feel alive.

I witness beauty in many things - nature (in particular, people, flowers, birds, trees), music and its texture, wide-aperture photographs in natural light, pre-raphaelite and impressionist paintings, the art nouveau movement, exquisite typography, Daruta Majolica, the sound of P-90s into a cathode-bias EL84 amp with alnico drivers at full tilt, seeing people doing what they love to the best of their ability, well-executed cookware, Tiffany lamps, Persian rugs, a mother's love for her children, delicate pear cider, single malts from Islay, Trappist ales, chocolatiers who take it to the fullest, the sensual nature of fruit and the details of their forms, vintage bicycle lugs, cashmere, seeing people thrive - the list could go on and on - it is my top value after all - but more than anything, witnessing my beloveds expression in deep communion.

When I experience ecstacy in witnessing beauty I tend to experience some degree of respiratory paralysis, slight body tremor, ego dissolution, and profuse tears (without crying).

I have had that reaction to everything I listed, though some are more likely to trigger it, and do so more often.

I certainly experience awe, and in this regard I have little to say because my sense is that the experience is ineffable. At the very least, I think and feel I am inarticulate to the degree I would not communicate even the essence of my experience.

When I witness beauty and it is ecstatic, my experience is that the whole of my conscious awareness is being engaged - sensory, emotional, cognitive (personal) and intuitve and spiritual (transpersonal) levels of awareness are all engaged.

The ecstatic experience of beauty is the strongest of experiences of which I am aware. It can be pleasant, but oftentimes it would be better to say it is overwhelming.

I consider my ecstatic experience of beauty to be a spiritual experience. In the moment I surrender my self in witness of beauty, awareness becomes that of no-thing-ness, of is-ness. It is a state of grace.


Namaste,
Ian

 

[surgery]

each type of sensual beauty can affect me in different ways.

it's not uncommon for me to see people so attractive that they seemingly glow. sometimes that brilliance is so strong that it's uncomfortable to look at. often i'm torn between staring and looking away out of politness, shock, jealousy and or discomfort.

beautiful music usually conjures rich images in my head.

when i see beauty in nature, i'm often literally left wishing to physically "melt" or "merge" with it.

 

[dorareever]

Mostly is the opposite of ecstasy. Enstasis. I feel the whole world within me. Everything has a place. Everything makes sense. Nothing is foreing or unbalanced. Beauty is a mean to reach this state. Others are love, inspiration...both of which can produce beauty as well. I feel like crying, but not because I'm upset. Because I'm moved. I feel compassionate towards everything and everyone, because everything and everyone is part of me. I become more lucid, I can think better. I can sense better...everything.

This when I experience something that really moves me. If not then the feeling is more fragmentary, but there's always a bit of that sensation going on.

I can also appreciate something that doesn't reach me emotionally, because I see how it could make others react. Especially in art, if the artist was passionate and sincere, then I can see it even if his work doesn't give me any kind of thrill.