AI Brainstorm Creator, a non-profit organization, has embarked on an ambitious global experiment to explore the concept of a 'Recommended Daily Allowance' for emotional peak experiences. The experiment, now in its fourth cohort, is based on the premise that just as there are dietary guidelines for nutrients, there may be optimal levels of intense emotional experiences that contribute to individual and global well-being. According to co-founder Amy Chang, 'Since we have the ability to induce intense emotions, and to heighten their effect by making sure they are derived from daily global group experiences which achieve meaningful goals, there is every reason to believe that doing so accelerates individual and global improvement.'
A key aspect of the program's approach is the emphasis on first engendering powerful emotions in others before prompting them in oneself. Savithri Patel, the organization's Education Director, explains, 'They say it's better to give than to receive, and we amend that to say that when you first help ANOTHER to delve deeply into a peak experience, you also induce the same thing in yourself.' The fourth cohort's experiments cover a range of emotional experiences, including gratitude, brainstorming, awe, laughter, and communal self-sacrifice or heroism. Participants celebrate live streams of newborn babies in the Philippines, engage in AI-assisted group mind mapping sessions to generate solutions for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, explore wonder-inspiring online experiences, join laughter yoga club meetings across 27 countries, and partner with students in Afghanistan to publicize little-known heroes on heroaward.net.
AI Brainstorm Creator recognizes that for the effects to be long-lasting and edifying, peak experiences must be shared and reinforced globally, insights must be evaluated and improved using AI and human intelligence, and participants must learn to create their own individualized emotional experiences to share with the world. John Toomey, the organization's Innovation Director, notes, 'When they engage in projects like these consistently, the question of life's purpose goes away. It's not so much that you FIND the meaning of life, it's just that if within the scope of every day you are contributing to thousands around the globe through co-creating masterpieces of laughter, awe, heroism, brainstorming, and gratitude, the question starts to fade and eventually loses meaning.' This experiment matters because it challenges conventional approaches to well-being by proposing measurable emotional guidelines, potentially transforming how societies understand and cultivate positive emotions for collective benefit. The implications include creating frameworks for emotional health similar to physical health standards, fostering global connectivity through shared emotional experiences, and leveraging technology to scale personal growth initiatives. By systematically studying emotional peaks, the organization aims to provide evidence-based methods for enhancing human flourishing on a global scale.
