Peak Experiences

Chapter 9 briefly discusses Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the concept of self-actualization. One of the defining elements of self-actualization is having peak experiences, or experiences that can best be defined as mystic or profound in nature.

Humanism often suffers the criticism of being vague and untestable, and many of Maslow's descriptions of human activities certainly qualify. To the best of descriptive powers, then, peak experiences can be thought of as a kind of oceanic feeling. The individual at once feels focused yet open to unlimited experiences, powerful yet weak, ecstatic, and as though time and space have slowed or stopped. These feelings are apparently experienced without a specific link back to the self, so that the feeling, rather than the feeler, is the source of the experience. Peak experiences generally lead to the perception that something important has happened, possibly that can change one's direction in life. In general, peak experiences are a momentary loss or transcendence of the self, during which a kind of revelation is experienced.

Maslow thought that most people could have peak experiences, although they were more common among those who were self-actualized. Similarly, Maslow argued that a number of different circumstances could trigger peak experiences, from communing with nature to listening to classical music to insightfully solving a problem to orgasm. Apparently there is hope for us all, both to climb the hierarchy to self-actualization and to glimpse the infinite in a peak experience.

Maslow, A. H. (1976). Religion, values, and peak experiences. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books.