The Peak Experience

[Pav]

Quote

People during and after peak-experiences characteristically feel lucky, fortunate, graced. A not uncommon reaction is “I don’t deserve this.” Peaks are not planned or brought about by design; they happen. We are “surprised by joy”. The reaction of surprise, of unexpectedness, of the sweet “shock of recognition” are very frequent.

A common consequence is a feeling of gratitude, in religious persons to their God, in others to Fate, to Nature, to people, to the past, to parents, to the world, to everything and anything that helped to make this wonder possible.

Very often this feeling of gratitude is expressed as or leads to an all-embracing love for everybody and everything, to a perception of the world as beautiful, and good, often to an impulse to do something good for the world, an eagerness to repay, even a sense of obligation.

-A. Maslow; Toward a Psychology of Being

I believe I've had a few experiences like this before; everything felt perfect just the way it is, everything beautiful, and I had a strong love for everything and everyone. I am awed by the fact that I exist, and feel a strong sense of gratefulness for existence and all that I've experienced and can only direct it to the universe as a whole. Nothing can harm me in such a state, no neurosis existed in my mind. I could have died right then and there and I would not have minded in the slightest. 

It was quite an experience, it is the state I would like to be in all the time. It's as if I become my higher self.

My question: Is this what you would call an "enlightenment" experience or are you guys talking about something different? Often I find it difficult to understand spiritual teachers and some people on this forum when they talk about enlightenment. It seems like they are all speaking of different things, and are often quite vague. But when I read Maslow I feel like I can understand exactly what he means, I feel like I've had experiences of much of what he describes.

[cetus]

@Mat Pav That sounds like an accurate description. It is a state of being, and well being. "Everything is exactly as it should be at this very moment".

[Azrael]

2 hours ago, Mat Pav said:

Is this what you would call an "enlightenment" experience or are you guys talking about something different? Often I find it difficult to understand spiritual teachers and some people on this forum when they talk about enlightenment.

A peak experience definitely opens you up or puts you in direct contact with what is, but you have to see there is a clear distinction between a peak experience that connects you with being to the fact that every experience by its nature is and can only be being in its way. The peak experience just lets you in on that.

They also can open you up to a realization that can then - after the peak - slowly get your new standard of seeing things and the world. I often experience peak experiences for typically 1-2 weeks after having a few weeks of real brutal monkey mind terror. It then sets a new standard of understanding until you come to the point at which even every negative experience is seen in its totality and as the flow of things that is natural. So basically you calm down.