The Peak Experience

Imagine living your life on the ground level of your house. Things are overall fine, yet there are the normal worries about finances, relationships, health, etc. But then one day, out of the blue, a staircase appears and leads to a higher level where those worries about yourself seem small. Up here you feel a part of something bigger and more important. This is a place of reverence, wonder, sacredness and awe where you feel better, more noble, more connected to everyone and everything around you, and a profound sense of peace and wholeness. This higher level may only be available to you for a few minutes, but when you find yourself back down on the main floor, the experience stays with you and you are changed. This is how Jonathan Haidt (2013) explains transcendence, or peak experiences. It is as if each person has access to a higher way of being at times, where they feel a part of a larger whole and where the sum is greater than its parts. Maslow defined peak experiences as “unusual moments of heightened joy, serenity, beauty, or wonder” (Hoffman, 1988). Reports of these beautiful experiences have been made across time, culture, religion, and gender, are essentially indescribable and can potentially change the person’s perspective toward life (Maslow, 1964).

It’s worth watching Haidt’s Ted Talk on the staircase metaphor, examples of peak experiences and why we have them:

Examples of Peak Experiences

A woman who felt like she was coming down with the flu laid down to bed, and she expressed this as her peak experience: “I went to bed immediately, and my husband wished to send for the doctor. But I told him that I would rather wait until morning and see how I felt. Then followed one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I cannot express it in any other way than to say that I did "lie down in the stream of life and let it flow over me." I gave up all fear of any impending disease; I was perfectly willing and obedient. There was no intellectual effort, no train of thought. My dominant idea was: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me even as thou wilt," and a perfect confidence that all would be well, that all was well. The creative life was flowing into me every instant, and I felt myself allied with the Infinite, in harmony, and full of the peace that passeth under­standing...I do not know how long this state lasted, nor when I fell asleep; but when I woke up in the morning, I was well.

—William James

Kaitlin suffered from depression and descended into philosophical nihilism in college. Then: “I was walking along the ocean, headed out along the dock, and saw the light sparkling on the water. … Suddenly it all became clear to me. … The world is bright and full of love—there is spirituality in everything!”

—The Spiritual Child

In 1956 at the age of 23 my husband and I were walking the cliff path from St Ives in Cornwall to Zennot. It was a bright sunny day in September, bright but not a garish mid-summer sun. My husband was walking his usual forty yards ahead and disappeared over the prow of an incline, so to all intents and purposes I was entirely alone. Although there was no mist, the light seemed suddenly white and diffused and I experienced the most incredible sense of oneness … The experience was unbelievably beautiful.

—The Alister Hardy Trust archive

The first time it happened, I was in a forest in the north of France. I must have been twenty-five or twenty-six. … That particular evening, some friends and I had gone out for a walk in the forest we liked so much. Night had fallen. We were walking. Gradually our laughter faded, and the conversation died down. Nothing remained but our friendship, our mutual trust and shared presence. … I was simply registering the world around me — the darkness of the underbrush, the incredible luminosity of the sky, the faint sounds of the forest (branches snapping, an occasional animal call, our own muffled steps) only making the silence more palpable. And then, all of a sudden. . . . What? Nothing: everything! No words, no meanings, no questions, only—a surprise. Only—this. A seemingly infinite happiness. A seemingly eternal sense of peace. Above me, the starry sky was immense, luminous and unfathomable, and within me there was nothing but the sky, of which I was a part, and the silence, and the light, like a warm hum, and a sense of joy … Yes, in the darkness of that night, I contained only the dazzling presence of the All. Peace. Infinite peace! Simplicity, serenity, delight.

—Andre Comte-Sponville, Quoted in The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality

I was sitting one evening, listening to a Brahms symphony. My eyes were closed and I must have been completely relaxed for I became aware of a feeling of ‘expansion’, I seemed to be beyond the boundary of my physical self. Then an intense feeling of ‘light’ and ‘love’ uplifted and enfolded me. It was so wonderful and gave me such an emotional release that tears streamed down my cheeks. For several days I seemed to bathe in its glow and when it subsided I was free from my fears. … I can truly say that it changed my life and the subsequent years have brought no dimming of the experience.

—Introduction to Religious and Spiritual Experience

I was on one of my first astrophotography adventures, alone at about 2:00 am, overlooking Delicate Arch in Arches National Park (Utah). I was waiting for the moon to set so I could have the darkest sky possible to photograph the Milky Way. I sat there for at least a couple hours in the deep quiet, admiring the unique sandstone landscape and the brilliant expanse of stars. I still don’t know what made this happen, but as I continued to take in the scene, I started to feel myself being absorbed into it. Instead of a sense of looking out from a place inside my head, it was as if I had no head, no body. There wasn’t a “me” anymore. I was the whole landscape, the whole sky. There was a sense of extraordinary calm and satisfaction. Everything was perfect, and nothing could change that, not even death.

—Jared Warren

Characteristics of Peak Experiences

Hear it from the horse’s mouth, this is Abraham Maslow himself explaining peak experiences:

Defining peak experiences is difficult due to the wide variety, uniqueness, and personal aspects of transcendence. They are highly personal and can be different for each individual. And how do you describe something with words that you may have never felt before? Perhaps this is why William James characterizes peak experiences as ineffable - they cannot be put into words. Despite these challenges, current research does list specific characteristics of transcendent experiences, although they often differ from person to person. We’ll list some here to help you identify specific experiences in your life that could be considered transcendent.

Four Qualities of Mystical Experiences - William James

1. Transcendent experiences are passive. We can increase the likelihood of a peak experience by meditating or going out in nature, but we cannot cause a peak experience. The experience “descend(s) as some sort of external force” (Esfahani Smith, 2017).

2. Transcendent experiences are ineffable, meaning that they cannot be put into words. Although many have tried to explain their own personal experiences, there is no effective way to put these experiences into words so that another could fully understand what happened.

3. Transcendent experiences are noetic. This means that transcendent experiences impart knowledge and wisdom. The effect that these experiences have on us can be significant, perspective-shifting, or even life-changing. The knowledge or understanding we gain will impact us for a long time.

4. Transcendent experiences are transient. Mystical experiences do not often last much longer than a few hours and are usually much shorter.

Privette’s 3 Characteristics of Peak Experiences (Privette, 2001)

1. Peak experiences can cause an increase in personal awareness and understanding and can serve as a turning point in a person's life.

2. Peak experiences are intrinsically rewarding and cultivate positive emotions.

3. People often feel a sense of unity with the world and can lose track of time during a peak experience.

Maslow’s 17 Characteristics of Peak Experiences

Complete absorption, richer perception, disorientation in physical time and space, intrinsic reward of the experience, ego transcendence, dichotomy transcendence, momentary loss of fears, anxieties, and inhibitions, greater acceptance and forgiveness of oneself and others, heightened aestheticism, wonder, awe and surrender, fusion of the person and the world (Kaufman, 2020)

John R. Peteet (2018) identified four core elements in the experience of transcendence:

1. Suspending disbelief

2. Being inspired or moved

3. Surrendering oneself

4. Identifying one’s place within a larger context