The Real Self and Mystical Experiences

Abstract

The concept of self-actualization is central to humanistic psychology. But what is this self that is to be actualized? Maslow, who introduced the term, thought that it belonged to the realm of Being, most easily accessed through peak experiences. It was essentially something transcendent, and to contact it was to partake of something like a mystical experience. But Maslow, in company with many earlier and later writers, took it that there was just one mystical experience, which might be described as unitive consciousness or cosmic consciousness. There are, however, at least seven quite separate and distinct mystical experiences, and I outline these with references to the literature of mysticism. The practice of meditation is then looked at in the light of these considerations, and criticized for its ambiguity. The spiritual path is then discussed in the context of the preceding argument, and I show that the practice of personal growth and humanistic psychotherapy offer a safe and sound basis for starting on the spiritual path. This may lead to a clean mysticism free from mystification, and a real religion with an aware psychology. "Through therapy or personal growth, we learn how to open up to our own inner process. Through mysticism, we learn how to carry on with that same process, into the deepest depths of all."