Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences Paperback – January 29, 2014

Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences by Abraham H. MaslowOn the request of a local pastor who said he would be interested in my views of it, I read this book.Maslow was a well known Psychologist who is best known for his theory of the hierarchy of human needs. In this book, he delves into the realm of values and their formations. It was his belief that these can be scientifically examined, analyzed and that religion would benefit from it.First, he looks at the designated leaders of religions. He states in his Introduction that“Most people lose or forget the subjectively religious experience, and redefine Religion [1] as a set of habits, behaviors, dogmas, forms, which at the extreme becomes entirely legalistic and bureaucratic, conventional, empty, and in the truest meaning of the word, antireligious. The mystic experience, the illumination, the great awakening, along with the charismatic seer who started the whole thing, are forgotten, lost, or transformed into their opposites. Organized Religion, the churches, finally may become the major enemies of the religious experience and the religious experiencer. This is a main thesis of this book.”He supports this by dividing people into two categories: people (peakers) who experience “peak experiences and those who don’t (non-peakers.) The peakers are the ones who were mystics, who experienced a state of being revealed the world in a nonjudgemental ecstasy and whose descriptions became the founding of religions. This peak experience is entirely internal to the person experiencing it. The non-peakers either haven’t experienced this or have repressed it. The two types of people really do not understand each other according to Maslow. He associates the highest values with the peakers. But even the peakers can error if they continually seek peak experiences, need the peak experience to be happy and become selfish in the pursuit of those experiences. In fact, Maslow considers them becoming evil.Maslow states that he believes that self actualizers, the highest of those on his theory of human needs, are people who have experienced peak experiences.Then Maslow goes on to say that believes the dichotomy between science and religion has become too wide. He believes that a scientist needs values, values provided by religion, to be good scientists. If they do not have these values, then they are no better than the scientists working for Adolf Hitler, experimenting on other humans and those producing weapons of war. On the other hand, religions need to accept science and realize that religion is not fixed by ritual and canonical law. By becoming fixed, they deny the peak experience and in fact become antithesis of what they profess as religion. Such religion produces sheep rather than men as the religion becomes rigid and authoritarian. Maslow believes that religious questions should be scientifically examined and discovered.Maslow goes on to state, “Also this kind of study leads us to another very plausible hypothesis: to the extent that all mystical or peak-experiences are the same in their essence and have always been the same, all religions are the same in their essence and always have been the same. They should, therefore, come to agree in principle on teaching that which is common to all of them, i. e., whatever it is that peak-experiences teach in common (whatever is different about these illuminations can fairly be taken to be localisms both in time and space, and are, therefore, peripheral, expendable, not essential). This something common, this something which is left over after we peel away all the localisms, all the accidents of particular languages or particular philosophies, all the ethnocentric phrasings, all those elements which are not common, we may call the “core-religious experience” or the “transcendent experience.” In making this statement, Maslow believes all religions are essentially the same with exterior clothing of different words and rituals. And yet, he writes, “But to say it even more simply, each “peaker” discovers, develops, and retains his own religion.”A particularly interesting passage to me is, “It has sometimes seemed to me as I interviewed “nontheistic religious people” that they had more religious (or transcendent) experiences than conventionally religious people. (This is, so far, only an impression but it would obviously be a worthwhile research project.) Partly this may have been because they were more often “serious” about values, ethics, life-philosophy, because they have had to struggle away from conventional beliefs and have had to create a system of faith for themselves individually.” As I personally searched for the origins of morals, I too have had to shed conventional beliefs about morals and observe that religions seem to follow morals rather than precede them. In other words, morals tend to create religions rather than religions create morals.The first half of the book is an essay while the last half of the book are appendices trying to define certain concepts. I really found the appendices detracting from Maslow’s thesis that he presents in the first half of the book. I think Maslow’s essay stands on its own, it is clear and doesn’t need the extra explanations.What do I think of Maslow’s message? I find truth in much of what he stated. I do think there is a dichotomy between the prophets and the following legalists of religions. Having myself experienced the “peak experience,” and having found it ineffable, I can understand why such a dichotomy exists. I also believe scientists need morals, especially the ones who develop the sciences needed for technologies. I believe religions need to grow as well as accept scientific findings and adjust their theology in a suitable way.However, I do not accept Maslow’s statement about the commonality of the core belief in religions. In fact, I find some religions pure evil: some were made that way and some were created that way. I think a good test of whether a religion is evil is this: if a religion needs to force its members to accept it, either physically, by law or by psychological manipulation, then it is evil. A religion that is intolerant is evil. I do believe in peak experiences but I do not believe they all have common characteristics but I also believe we should not pursue them. It is good and well when they happen but they can not and should not be forced. I have not studied these in the depth of Maslow so I reserve judgement of their commonalities.The book is a worthy read by a person examining religions, morals and human experiences with regards to these.

This is not a book about churches, tenants, or doctrines, but it is a larger perspective on what Maslow described as the religious experience and what he later described as the human transcendental interaction a universe larger than existence itself. In this context, a "spiritual" experience is another form of knowledge and awareness perceived in the form of values and self-actualization, or independent personal fulfillment. Hence, this work explores the individual's interactions with realities not only larger tha any one person but also extending beyond human existence to the past and future. In this sense the shared experience of existence supersedes and individual's total span of existence. These ultimate insights when individually experienced are life changing.An excellent read with an open mind and by discarding too narrowly defined word and definition meanings often used to describe a religious experience. Maslow notes how often the most religious are not the most devout church adherents but rather those whose individual humility is expressed for the wonders of live, nature, and the human capacity to enjoy and appreciate existance.

This is an interesting viewpoint with plenty of resources and references from the psychological to the religious.However, with so many references the central idea is too repetitive.

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This book of Maslow's is way underrated! Though a child of the 60's I just discovered this book a week ago.The book touches on many important life themes. It explains why so many people can not swallow organized religions, which in turn explains why so many people describe themselves as atheists. At the same time, it explains the commonality of values shared by most people and makes an important case as to why such universal values should be taught in schools. There are also implications about child-rearing practices and how it is done best. The book also shows why the mystics in any religion struggle with the administrators and clerics (and visa versus). The struggles and causes of struggles between men and women are also examined. It is fairly easy reading though it may send you to the dictionary a little.

Maslow makes a good distinction between the peakers and the non-peakers and makes an excellent connection between this and organized religion. His use of the term "non-peakers" is not to refer to people who do not have peak experiences, for he believes that every one has peak experiences but he uses this terminology to refer to a person who is afraid of peak experiences The purpose of organized religion for him is to communicate peak experiences to non-peakers. His position tend to advance personal revelation over dogmatic revelations. The question he leaves unanswered is how personal revelations can be verified or validated? I believe organized religion will help in confirming peak experiences. If not, what most people might call peak experiences might just be neurosis.He also advances a religious pluralism that will accommodate every person, both the atheist and the believer. Maslow gives us good insights into peak experiences and helps us to appreciate more these experiences. His book is interesting to read and easy to follow. I enjoyed reading the book.

This essay, written in the mid-sixties, shows no signs of being dated. Though written by an academic, it is incredibly grounded. The ideas put forth in this material are some of the most valuable concepts related to the nature and challenge of the human condition I have encountered.

Maslow is best known for his 'hierarchy of needs' which has influenced a great deal of modern nthinking about how we manage our affairs. This book takes his thinking to a new level, relevant to the work of Beck and Cowan on Spiral Dynamics, Susanne Cook-Greuter on Action Logics and others. This thinking enables us to cut through paralysing arguments about complexity by giving us referent points that confirm our humanity.

Interesting but nothing new.

Good!

Buying this book I and was admittedly a little sceptical about it. There was a nagging doubt that maybe it was one of those books generated during more hopeful times by well funded academics self-reporting their journey of personal development for an audience of hippies dropping out to "find themselves". Thankfully I can report it is anything but this sort of thing and I can highly recommend it, I give it four stars rather than five because of the ommission of an index which I think in a book of this kind would have been really helpful.Maslow is a social psychologist of "hierarchy of needs" fame, an idea which failing to capture the imagination of fellow psychologists or therapists was instead embraced by management and motivational thinkers and consultants. The core of the theory being that human needs form a pyramid, the basis of which are the most basic of survival-subsistance needs, like food, shelter, air, water, the pinnacle of the pyramid being "self-actualisation", which is variously defined and possibly culturally specific (although Maslow himself didnt think so). As theories on the judgement of needs go its been pretty much unsurpassed, the idea that people are striving to satisfy these needs from the basic to complex, perhaps even unconsciously, has informed a lot of further research. In this book Maslow very much addresses the sorts of experiences which in sum amount to or contribute to self-actualisation and for this reason I found it very interesting, engaging and rewarding.The contents follow an editorial introduction and preface and comprise the following, a further introduction; dichotomized science adn dichotomized religion; the "core-religious" or "transcendent" experience; organisational dangers to transcendent experiences; hope, skepticism, and man's higher nature; science and the religious liberals and non-theists; value free education? and conclusions. There are a number of appendices, which as it turns out in a shorter book can be as lengthy almost as some of the chapters, comprising religious aspects of peak-experiences; the third psychology; ethnocentric phrasings of peak experiences; what is the validity of knowledge gained in peak-experiences?; preface to "New Knowledge In Human Values"; Rhapsodic, Isomorphic Communication; B-Values as Descriptions of Perception in Peak-Experiences; Naturalistic Reasons for Preferring Growth-Values over Regression-Values under Good Conditions; An Example of B-Analysis. Finally the book has a bibliography for further reading.All that said I would really, really hope that those chapter headings and titles wouldnt put people off, it is aimed at people with some sort of grounding in psychology and therefore there is a share of jargon but its not impenetrable to the general reader at all. There are many topics which should interest the psychologically, spiritually or religiously inclined, such as the boundaries and barriers between science and religion, which Maslow considers nebulous, obsticles in the way of true understanding and beneficial discoveries.I particularly enjoyed the chapters describing how Maslow believes that practices discovered to facilitate peak experiences at one time become more important than the experience itself or an obsticle to achieving that experience at another time, likewise the conflicts in established religions between facilitating peak experiences and the transmission of knowledge and tradition to new generations was of particular interest too (I can see parallels not simply with ideology but also the practice of therapists, social services and other professionals as a kind of "hardening of the arteries" takes place). Less theroetically this is a book completely full of feeling, it is very humanitarian and speaks to real human needs, perhaps some people will find Maslow's attempt to cut across boundaries too much and a minimisation of real differences between theists and non-theists (for instance) or his perspective on culture and context too much of a generalisation but I'm sure they will still find something rewarding in reading the book.While I would recommend this to general readers, the psychologically interested and spiritually interested I would also highly recommend it to anyone who has found spiritual insights and psychology Jung particularly enlightening or interesting.

I haven't finished reading this book but investment could be made on paper quality and print quality. Very disappointed.