Meditation and Self-transcendence: A Human Need?
Simone Indius
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science September 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-024-09848-6 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Hierarchy of needs Maslow Self-transcendence |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key points | Proposes that self-transcendence should be added as a new layer in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, conceptualizing meditative experiences as peak-experiences that humans strive for. |
Abstract
Building on Fircks (2023), who aims at integrating the theoretical and historical roots of mindfulness into psychology through a bridge between Taoism, relying on the polarity of life and wu wei (the principle of not-forcing) and Mead's Social Psychology, this commentary seeks to further explore how mindfulness, meditation and self-transcendence plays a role in the personal needs hierarchy of the human organism. This is done in the framework of Abraham Maslow's theory of human motivation and his hierarchy of needs, where a model that introduces a new layer in the hierarchy of needs, the need for self-transcendence, is presented. This model containing the new hierarchy of self-transcendence is based on Maslow's own notion of peak-experiences, as well as related to William James' notion of mystical experiences. Fircks' (2023) autoethnographic meditative experience is conceptualized as a peak-experience and analyzed to show how human beings strive to experience this state of being.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
- Mindfulness: Future Pathways and Cross-Fertilizations through Cultural Psychology. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science December 21, 2024
- The Mediating Effect of Self-Transcendence on the Correlation Between Frailty and Life Satisfaction in the Elderly. Journal of Applied Gerontology March 25, 2026
Cites 3
- Rediscovering the Later Version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Transcendence and Opportunities for Theory, Research, and Unification Review of General Psychology December 1, 2006
- Self-Transcendence as a Human Phenomenon Journal of Humanistic Psychology April 1, 1966
- Understanding The Process of Taoistic-Informed Mindfulness from a Meadian Perspective. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science September 2024