Preliminary Thoughts: "Peak Experience"?

    I have been reading a lot about theories of peak experience from Abraham Maslow and Colin Wilson, particularly from their respective works, Toward a Psychology of Being and the wonderfully compiled The Ultimate Colin Wilson. I would like to articulate some of my own understanding of when "peak experience" can be most felt.

     First, a detour: Arthur Schopenhauer once observed that, when people look back on their past experiences, they often do so with fondness, even though they felt struggle at the time they were going through the experience. It's as though the mind were storing this information about the experience that makes it more or less like a work of art: a structured totality that is satisfying in and of itself, with an overarching story and a conclusion. Another metaphor one might use here is that of a canvas. A canvas contains a whole picture and within that picture is a whole scene. The scene "hangs together" with all the elements in perfect place, even though it may look asymmetrical or somewhat unplanned from certain minute elements. 

Spinoza, I believe, had a similar kind of analogy in thinking of life as a tapestry. When one is too focused on one element and does not see the later elements that surround it, that piece of the puzzle might look like a jumbled mess. But once one has the patience to step back and see the whole totality, then one can see that the piece of the puzzle means something greater. But the problem is that when a person is going through the situation, they feel that they are struggling with the incompleteness of the situation. There is a struggle to live and an anxiety that makes a person feel that they are totally immersed in a situation, can blind them to the beauty of the situation. But when time passes, what is left over is a kind of tableau: a full structured picture of an experience that allows a person to see that everything "made sense". It's almost as if one does not know how the story will end but when it does, there is a satisfying conclusion. The sense of being able to behold the moment without any sense of judgment is what Maslow and others have defined as "peak experience", as opposed to a deficiency experience that is based on striving alone.

    When Colin Wilson is talking about peak experiences, he wonders whether this can be induced or not, by will.  It's hard, I believe, because it can be quite difficult to get out of "striving" and "struggle" mode. Not only this, but in fact, perhaps part of the trick to all of this is to recognize that one need not emerge from "struggling" at all-simply because struggle itself is an integral aspect of the experience. To be able to be in the midst of struggle and yet realize that struggle is only one part of the totality, could be one way of having a peak experience in the midst of struggle itself. If one is trying to pull away from struggle or to seek some permanently blissful experience that transcends struggle, is this not after all, going against peak experience altogether?

So I think that before a person can truly have peak experience, they must first of all let go of the idea that struggle is something to be overcome. Perhaps one way to look at it is by saying: we are all actors on a cosmic stage. Actors must by necessity, play certain parts in the drama. When I recognize the need to be part of the struggle yet know that I am not really bound to identify with that one singular part, then I am able to participate in the drama of experience and life without suffering from the incompleteness and uncertainty that goes with "being a part".