When people step outside their own cultures with openness, travel can reshape their inner world. For Lorwen C Nagle, a Harvard University–trained psychologist from the US, a journey to India did exactly that. Years later, she summed it up on X, “After my PhD, I went to India. What I experienced dismantled my Western worldview.” Her understanding of India is rooted not in theory, but in lived moments, eight realisations that stayed with her for more than 30 years.

Control and time mean less than we think

Nagle’s first lesson arrived almost immediately. Pushed onto a crowded bus bound for Haridwar, her backpack crushed under goats and fish, she realised ownership and control were fragile ideas. Nothing was fully “hers” anymore. The message was that hold on tightly, or suffer.

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Time followed the same pattern. Long train journeys across India felt endless, not efficient. In contrast to Western ideas of productivity, time in India felt unmeasured and shared. When time stopped being something to manage, it became something to experience.

Happiness comes from within

One of the most lasting images from her travels was a young man with no arms or legs, smiling with ease. That moment stayed with her for decades. It challenged the idea that happiness depends on comfort or success.

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Joy, she realised, is internal, not circumstantial. Another lesson came from pain treated with care. In Varanasi, she saw a disabled cow, unable to walk, still fed, bathed, and decorated daily. Suffering was not ignored, but honoured.

Sacred spaces shape the wind

In Rishikesh, standing barefoot in the Ganges after crossing Lakshman Jhula, meaning was not something to analyse, it was something to feel. These were spaces built to slow people down. Later, at a Palkhi festival in Maharashtra, surrounded by tens of thousands of people and dense jungle, the line between the individual and the collective seemed to fade. Human life and nature felt deeply connected.

Small moments carried big lessons. An empty tuna can from America, casually discarded, became an object of fascination the next day. What was trash in one country was a mystery in another. Finally, death itself was never hidden. Sitting night after night at Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi, she watched cremations openly. Nothing was softened. In witnessing impermanence so closely, life itself felt more sacred.