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Sometimes you feel kind of like you're lost in time or something—you forget about your issues and everything for a few seconds.
This happens especially when you see a beautiful photograph or listen to a pleasing song, or maybe when you witness the melancholic sunset view and it makes you sit there and do nothing.

You can't describe that feeling, it's not like a particular emotion but it can be anything. It can be nostalgia, melancholy or euphoria or mixed emotions but you don't understand what you're feeling and you feel it to such a degree that you feel like you've felt something from the other side, that's how I usually word it.

So, do you know any word or expression to describe such a feeling?

Thank you.

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  • If you say "you can't describe the feeling" then how are we to come up with a word to describe it? A word that means indescribable (aside from indescribable itself) is ineffable, but I doubt that's what you're asking for. Jul 16, 2019 at 17:53
  • @JasonBassford ineffable is really good. Maybe a phrase might help if a word can't. I feel it's my inability to ask questions clearly. Like when you feel something really deep(you don't know what that feeling is), is there any phrase for that?
    – Rhythm
    Jul 16, 2019 at 18:01
  • It's still not clear to me what you're actually asking. The title of your question asks about a feeling that you can't understand, which is something different than what you express in the body of your question. In the body of your question you mention not being able to describe something—but then also specifically mention "something from the other side." So—is it something you are having problems explaining in the question, or is it it something that nobody can ever explain? (Is "from the other side" always misleading or is it getting at what you're actually asking about here?) Jul 16, 2019 at 18:08
  • @Jason yeah, I'm having problem explaining this question. I changed the title a bit, I couldn't come up with anything better but the body of the question is more important. And "from the other side" is very much related to the question.
    – Rhythm
    Jul 16, 2019 at 18:15
  • @Jason English is not my native tongue. When talking in my native language I usually say "This music makes me feel beyond" if the music makes me feel really deep(and I don't know what that feeling is). Now that might sound weird in English but in my native language others understand what I'm saying and I can't quite convey the same feelin in English.
    – Rhythm
    Jul 16, 2019 at 18:24

2 Answers 2

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You can describe the feeling of being lost in time that comes from the other side as mesmerizing - very attractive, in a mysterious way, making you want to keep looking (Cambridge Dictionary).

The steady downward spiral of snowflakes was mesmerizing, peaceful (YourDictionary).

Similar adjectives:

  • mystical - inspiring a sense of spiritual mystery, awe, and fascination
  • otherworldly - of, relating to, or devoted to another world, as the world of imagination or the world to come
  • transcendental - being beyond ordinary or common experience, thought, or belief; supernatural
  • captivating - charmingly or irresistibly appealing

Nouns:

  • awe - an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful
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Jason Bassford beat me to "ineffable" which is the term that first came to mind.

ineffable: causing so much emotion, especially pleasure, that it cannot be described

However be aware that since "ineffable" is an adjective, you will likely need to combine it with some noun in order to complete the image. For example:

As she stood watching the sun rise over the mountains, she was suffused with an ineffable bliss.

Note that "ineffable" does not have to be used with positive nouns. It's perfectly fine to use negative ones:

I felt a chill of hellish ineffable dread as my train pulled into the city

Or, as a kind of quirky juxtaposition, neutral ones:

Yet Bowie was that distinctively showbiz sort: a stubbornly extrovert wallflower. Only in the last years of his existence, as a semi-retired family man in Lower Manhattan, would he rediscover the skill of disappearing ... He savoured the escape from fame that only New York’s ineffable indifference can offer. (source)

Still, there are so many ways to say this in English that it would be difficult to list them all. Most are figurative, for example:

The music transports me to a different plane of awareness.

I get high off of the music.

The music takes me out of myself.

Some literal:

The music fills me with (an) indescribable feeling.

and others, well, French:

The music has a certain je ne sais quoi.

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