Kama Muta is both a sanskrit word and a scientific term to describe the emotion of “being moved.”

Kama Muta is a universal feeling we often encounter when observing acts of deep compassion, intimacy, or cooperation.

But as someone who spends most of his time in his rational brain rather than his emotional one, these moments rarely occur in my everyday life.

Rather than observe and feel, I have a tendency to observe and question – which pulls me out of the moment.

The hack, it seems, has been to experience that exact feeling within fiction: watching a movie, experiencing a play, reading a story.

In those situations, the complex rules of the world feel simplified, and I can lay back and watch events unfold, knowing that I cannot intervene.

Perhaps that’s the purpose of art. To help people experience Kama Muta who struggle to connect with themselves and others.