The Peak-Experience, Explained
The most ecstatic moments of our existence, concisely defined and explained in terms of essentials
Peak-Experience: A peak-experience is a moment of extremely intense positive emotion of a specific type. At minimum, it is an amalgam of the emotions of happiness and self-esteem; but it is often combined with other positive emotions of awe, gratitude, affection or love, and excitement for the future. It is set off (apparently always) by some great personal victory in life—by attaining something of massive value to you (which triggers the emotion of happiness), and the awareness that it was you (as opposed to pure chance or other people) who was, at least in part, responsible for it (which triggers the emotion of self-esteem).
Although the term “peak-experience” was first coined by Abraham Maslow in 1956, a number of different terms—including satori (meaning “sudden enlightenment”) and kensho (meaning “seeing one’s true nature”) from Zen Buddhism; the mystic experience (meaning an experience of self-transcendence in which one perceives the wonder and mystery of existence); and cosmic consciousness (meaning a non-ordinary state of consciousness that mixes joy, intellectual lucidity, and expansive awareness of the “life and order of the universe”)—refer to the same experience.[i]
These other terms highlight a key dimension of the peak-experience—specifically, that it places the person in an altered state of consciousness! It makes the individual capable of what Maslow called B-cognition (or the cognition of being), which he described as the “purest,” most efficient, and “most objective” perception of reality—which includes the reality of one’s own past, present, and future.[ii] In no uncertain terms, it gives one the feeling of a sudden awakening, like a veil was suddenly lifted from the mind (this new state of consciousness being to regular waking consciousness, what regular waking consciousness is to unconscious sleep)![iii]
Every emotion alters cognition in its own specific way; and this is the way the core peak-experience emotions (happiness and self-esteem) influence cognition. And the more intense the emotion a person feels, the more profoundly his cognitive processes differ from those of his baseline (non-emotional) state of mind. In the more intense peak-experiences, then, the person feels that he is finally fully awake (even if he had no inkling of being “asleep” before). And this is why, as Maslow wrote, the peak-experience is also a transient moment of enlightenment (or self-actualization). Or as the Zen Buddhist tradition has it: “even though [during satori] your outlook is the same as of the Buddha, you are not yet a full Buddha,” which requires that you have the “[satori] experience again and again [,] and support them with continuous practice.”[iv]
A peak-experience, however, can most certainly initiate the process of growth to full self-actualization (or Buddhahood, or enlightenment). And even when it does not, it will often transform a person’s whole personality structure, worldview, and direction in life, in a matter of hours![v]
The above article is an exerpt from my book, On Rotting Prison Staw: The Self-Actualization of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It is the most concise definition and explanation of the psychological phenomena Abraham Maslow called peak-experiences.
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satori; Bucke, Richard Maurice, Cosmic Consciousness, p 11
[ii] Maslow, Abraham, Farther Reaches of Human Nature, p 160
[iii] Pearson, Craig, Supreme Awakening, Chapter 1
[iv] Yen, Sheng, Dharma Drum: The Life and Heart of Chan Practice, p 54
[v] For a good overview and analysis of the peak-experience, see: Gelperin, Roman, The Master Mind of the Self-Actualizing Person. Chapter 2, Part 11: Peak-Experiences. And Chapter 2, Afterthoughts: The Anatomy of a Peak-Experience.
Life will never be as it was.
Gratitude and humility will join your life and the energy that you are will forever speak differently.