As envisioned by psychologist Abraham Maslow—he of the now-famous, pyramidal Hierarchy of Needs—a “peak experience” is a near-magical moment in which an individual reaches (or glimpses) a heightened state of existence.
This heightened state, according to this definition, is borderline supernatural in its impact on the person experiencing it, and in fact may help explain the religious, spiritual, and other tricky-to-express psychological modes that result in the flavor of euphoria, excitement, and experiential filtering reported by those in the midst of such a state.
Much of the original data collected about peak experiences were self-reported after the fact, as Maslow was essentially trying to figure out when they happened, and how they seemed to influence the mindset of the person who experienced them.
Those he surveyed on the matter reported that their peak moments tended to orient around creative work, aesthetic experiences—like interacting with visual art and music—achieving new knowledge, including scientific knowledge, exposure to nature, having sex or otherwise intimately connecting with someone, engaging in spiritually significant rituals or other activities, and in some cases periods of introspection: eureka moments gleaned entirely from their own self-exploration.
Maslow’s research into this topic was important to his larger body of research because he was very interested in the idea of self-actualization and, in essence, what it means to live a good life; perhaps even one’s best life.
According to his perspective on such things, peak experiences represented a quick look at what it means to be fully self-actualized: to be living life in such a way that one’s physical and egoistic needs have been fulfilled, and one can thus refocus one’s time and attention toward what he considered to be higher, more vital concerns.
Maslow’s later work added additional layers to his pyramidal model for self-actualization: those of cognitive and aesthetic needs. The idea being that a person will likely need to be intellectually and creatively fulfilled in addition to having food, being healthy, and having a solid sense of self-worth and social value.
According to this updated framework, after all that is handled, one can then begin the process of growing into one’s true form, living up to one’s full potential, and benefitting from that process (while also benefitting the rest of the world).
Some more modern, post-Maslow takes on this concept are oriented around self-transcendence rather than self-actualization. So rather than becoming the optimal version of oneself, the ultimate goal is to expand one’s sense of self to include more of the universe.
This means many different things to many different people and groups, with some perceiving it as an inherently religious or spiritual endeavor, and others seeing it as a natural escalation for those who are willing to keep learning and experiencing: to them, it only makes sense that we might, as a consequence of that process, expand or even remove the boundaries most of us perceive between “self” and “everyone and everything else.”
It’s also worth noting that peak experiences—whatever our interpretation of them—can influence our future behaviors, even long after we experience them.
Based on the research that’s been done on this topic thus far, it would seem that many people who experience a positive peak experience (as opposed to some kind of “peak” traumatic event) report making positive changes in their lives following that experience.
Many such people also report that the experience helped them understand that there was a heightened state that might be achieved, again, someday, but that having the memory of their peak experience—and what it felt like to be in the midst of it—was itself valuable, even if they never felt that way again.
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