Time
Most people use only the material value of time, caring about entertainment, gaining social status and accumulating money.
But time also has spiritual value - man, unlike animals and plants, has the ability to self-awareness, and reason and self-awareness lead to self-knowledge and save a person from material suffering.
It is important to accept the fact that time is running out, and it should not be wasted, but rather engaged in spiritual practice. People before death think only one thing: “I was wasting my time wrong,” this happens because we think about material things, are attached to material things, and it hurts us when we are deprived of everything.
But a person engaged in spiritual practice is not attached to material things, learning his spiritual nature (eternity, bliss, knowledge) understands more and more what the spiritual value of time is.
Knowledge
The knowledge we receive helps us discover the true meaning of life, allows the mind to be in harmony with logic, faith and feelings. It is also given to us to know the fundamentals of nature.
A person not only learns about the world, but also tries to understand the meaning of his existence. Knowledge is an important component of consciousness; human development cannot be imagined without it.
A person striving for truth will always try to accumulate as much knowledge as possible. Probably everyone has heard the phrase “Knowledge is power”, this is true, but not everyone thinks about how to gain this power.
Useful knowledge is information that has passed through time. This is a kind of instruction that we apply to our lives.
Development
As you know, nature is changeable, and all living things are always in motion. Everything changes: our views, tastes, interests, the old is new, etc.
Development is evolution, movement. Changes happen naturally, and no matter how hard someone tries to stay in place, no one can do it.
Development is also a spiritual value; many take development for some kind of life changes, material growth, but spiritual development is the evolution of personal qualities, the improvement of one’s inner world.
The main goal of development is to realize one’s nature, to discover oneself. You can never lose the fruits of spiritual work, which cannot be said about the material things you have accumulated.
The need for knowledge and understanding.
This need is generally barely perceptible, and the pathology that arises when it is dissatisfied is inexpressive; it manages to escape observation and appear as the norm. Very little is said about her at all. One of my charges ended up in the army as a soldier. I specifically prepare guys for the army. Of course, I cannot influence hazing. But the guys I trained, mostly students, adapted perfectly and did not suffer from hazing. So, one of them told me how the “grandfathers” listened to him with pleasure when he spoke. He interestingly presented information on geography, physics, biology, anatomy, and satisfied their need for knowledge and understanding.
A. Maslow believes that the basis of the human desire for knowledge is not only negative determinants (anxiety and fear), but also positive impulses, for example, curiosity. This phenomenon can also be observed in higher animals.
All mentally healthy people are attracted to the unknown. And, conversely, everything known and interpreted can cause boredom. With neuroses, there is a craving for the familiar and a horror of the unfamiliar.
Failure to satisfy cognitive needs can lead to serious psychopathology. Neuroses often occur in highly intelligent people who do boring work. Many intelligent women fell ill when they became housewives and immediately recovered when they returned to work. The same is observed with pensioners and the unemployed. I highlighted the next thought of A. Maslow: “If a person is deprived of the right to information, if the official doctrine of the state is false and contradicts obvious facts, then a citizen of such a country will almost certainly become a cynic.” Read it again. And now further: “He will lose faith in everything and everyone, he will become suspicious even of the most obvious, most indisputable truths; for such a person no values and no moral principles are sacred, he has nothing to build his relationships with people on; he has no ideals and no hope for the future. There is also a passive reaction to a lie - a person becomes lack of initiative, weak-willed, ready for blind submission.”
The need for knowledge manifests itself from early childhood. In children it is more pronounced than in adults. Children do not need to be taught curiosity, but they can be weaned off curiosity, which many parents and educators manage to do. It is this tragedy that is unfolding in our kindergartens and schools. Maybe that’s why children indulge in all sorts of bad things.
Satisfaction of the needs for knowledge leads to a feeling of deepest pleasure; it becomes a source of higher, ultimate experiences. We often do not distinguish cognition from learning and evaluate it from the point of view of the result - whether the child knows or does not know, completely forgetting and not taking into account the feelings associated with cognition - comprehension, insight, insight. Meanwhile, a person’s true happiness is connected precisely with these moments of involvement in the highest truth. A. Maslow believes that it is precisely these bright, emotionally rich moments that only have the right to be called the best moments of human life. Maybe they are the only human life. This data will help me more clearly formulate the pedagogical concept: what is needed is not teaching the subject, but teaching the knowledge of the subject.
By the way, it has now been proven that it is precisely at such moments that endorphins are released into the blood - morphine-like substances that the body itself produces. And this ensures a good mood, high adaptation, even protects against infections and makes a person more resistant to radiation exposure. I don’t know what other arguments I can give to make it obvious that the development of intelligence should be the only responsibility for everyone. After all, we are people! We cannot be happy if our intellect is not developed!
Now think for yourself whether your need for knowledge has been satisfied and why you are still reading this book.
The desire for knowledge always precedes the desire for understanding.
The desire to understand in itself is motivating and is an integral characteristic of the individual. There is no antagonism between these needs; rather, they are synergistic. I noticed how understanding the essence of the matter immediately alleviates a person’s condition. I always tell my clients, including seriously ill patients, the truth. They often feel better immediately. And in general, when we hide something unpleasant from a person, we insult him, considering him stupid, cowardly, weak, unable to bear grief, evil, etc. And when they hide something from you, you feel like an idiot.
As you already understood, needs can be higher and lower. What are the differences between them? A. Maslow identifies 16 differences. I present them with some of my own comments. It seems to me that knowing these differences is of practical importance.
1. First of all, a higher need manifests itself later in phylogenetic, evolutionary terms. The need for self-actualization is inherent only to humans.
The need to satisfy the food, defensive and sexual instincts, in general, coincide in humans and animals, although in the process of humanization we satisfy these needs in a completely different way than animals. Animals immediately pounce on food, dig holes themselves or look for ready-made ones. We go to work, earn money and with this money we buy food, an apartment and clothes. We also have sex differently than animals. We need to learn everything. Intelligence, the most striking difference between humans and animals, is present, or rather, participates in the satisfaction of these needs and leads to the fact that we can receive not only pleasure, but also pleasure.
2. In the process of individual development, higher needs are discovered later than lower ones.
At birth, the child has only physiological needs and, in a weak form, the need for safety. After a few months, the need for love, belonging and recognition is revealed, then the need for self-actualization, but only if the lower needs are satisfied. In children, the need for self-actualization appears quite early, but is then often suppressed by parents and school. I'm not talking about you, our reader. Your parents, of course, were concerned that all your abilities would develop. I'm talking about those who were prevented from doing this.
Here are some cases that I had to observe. The girl wants to become an actress, and her mother sends her to medical school. The child has the ability to be an artist, but he is forced to become an accountant, etc. Of course, this happens rarely, but for some reason, those who visit a psychotherapist are mostly those who have not developed their abilities, although compared to others they are not so bad. Moreover, most of my students exceed the average level in their development, but often they themselves hold back their growth.
Then I ask them: “Have you grown up to yourself? If you wasted your time on your spiritual growth, would you be higher or remain at the same level?” Ask yourself this question, our dear reader. And if you answer in the affirmative, then, consequently, you have not grown into yourself. And don't reassure yourself by making comparisons with others. You will feel bad sooner or later anyway!
3. The higher the place of a need in the hierarchy of needs, the less important it is for survival, the longer it can remain unsatisfied and the higher the likelihood of its complete destruction, says A. Maslow. Lower needs are biological in nature and dominate as long as a person is alive.
Higher-level needs are characterized by less ability to dominate. Failure to satisfy higher needs does not cause such desperate self-defense reactions as unsatisfaction of lower needs. Compared to food and safety, respect already seems like a luxury.
4. Living at higher motivational levels means greater biological efficiency, longer life expectancy, and less susceptibility to disease. Satisfaction of higher needs causes higher pleasure, leading to the greatest release of endorphins and alcohol into the blood. And this increases the vitality of the body and serves its growth and development. I even came up with this aphorism: tell me what you enjoy, and I will tell you who you are. If a person is able to derive pleasure from symphonic music or the works of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, is delighted with certain provisions in the Bible, etc., this indicates his high level of development.
5. From a subjective point of view, higher needs are less pressing. Hints of higher needs are indistinct, indistinct, their whisper is sometimes drowned out by the loud and clear demands of other needs, their intonations are similar to the intonations of erroneous beliefs and habits. The ability to recognize one's own needs, i.e. Understanding what you really need is a huge psychological achievement in itself.
It was not by chance that I singled out this sentence. Unfortunately, many people do not know their nature, they do not know what they need. This is the result of incorrect upbringing and pressure from the micro-socioenvironment. Sometimes a person does not do what he wants in accordance with his nature, but what society requires of him, and ceases to hear hints of higher needs.
6. Satisfaction of higher needs leads a person to a subjectively desired state; he experiences peace, tranquility, happiness, and fullness of inner life. Satisfying the need for security will, at best, lead to a feeling of relief and relaxation, but will not be able to give moments of ecstasy, ecstatic happiness, delight, understanding, pride and similar feelings.
7. Living at higher motivational levels, seeking satisfaction of higher needs means moving towards health, away from psychopathology.
8. To actualize a higher need, more preconditions are required (and above all, good preparation) than to actualize a lower need.
9. To actualize higher needs, favorable external conditions are necessary. I would say certain conditions. Sometimes favorable conditions can lull the need for self-actualization.
When I talk to children, the first thing I ask is what they are going to become. Many of them answer: “I don’t know.” These children live in a greenhouse, where all conditions are created for them and all their desires are satisfied. I'm scared for the fate of these children. They have no motive for activity. Until the age of five, children usually clearly know what they will become. And they immediately begin to prepare for this. A boy who wants to become a great military leader builds sand fortresses and plays out battles, a girl wants to become a dressmaker and begins sewing dolls. But parents come, destroy the sand fortresses and deprive the boy of victory, or buy the girl a gorgeous doll that no longer needs to sew clothes, and the desire to become a dressmaker is ridiculed. What comes from nature is killed, and what they want to impose on the child is not vaccinated. So he doesn’t know what to become.
I remember the story of one of my wards. She should have become an actress, so her parents made her a radio engineer, her husband an economist. But you can’t escape your nature. She was, after all, an actress at her core. So she made scenes for him at night and gave him a heart attack. But he did not think of leaving her, since in childhood he was taught to fulfill his duty. So understand the conditions in which children live. I would call those conditions good that contribute to the development of children's abilities. I believe that in our school the most disgusting conditions are created for especially gifted children. Focusing on the lagging student, with whom everyone fiddles - from the teacher to the school principal - leads to the fact that capable children, without making any effort, achieve good results for a poor student. They don't learn to work hard, they don't have social training, they don't put in the effort to get what they want. Having graduated from school with a medal, and sometimes from a university with honors, they find themselves defenseless against the difficulties of life. And former poor students gain the upper hand over them, who, although not distinguished by great intelligence, nevertheless went through a harsh school of struggle with parents, teachers and head teachers of schools, deans and rectors of universities.
So, our excellent students, from my point of view, live in poor conditions. It is difficult to imagine how much society loses from this. I once described the “excellent student syndrome” and ways to prevent it - stop working with poor students. When have you ever seen a rector call an excellent student into his office and praise him? But underachieving students are constantly called to the rector for showdowns. One of my friends - a university teacher, a former excellent student - complained that he could not get to the rector to discuss a very important matter. He is always busy fighting with underperforming students. I propose to give C students to bad students, if it is impossible to expel them, and to create special structures for excellent students, where they could compete with each other and develop their intellect.
It seems to me that nothing bad would have happened. Having received a diploma, but not knowing how to do anything, a poor student would not work in this profession and would not be able to achieve benefits, since he would not have undergone social training. Or maybe, seeing that excellent studies are rewarded at the highest level, I would also become a better student.
10. When both the lowest and highest needs are satisfied, the latter acquires greater subjective significance. In order to satisfy a higher need, a person is even ready to make sacrifices.
11. The higher the level of a person’s needs, the wider the circle of his love identifications, the greater the number of people included in this circle and the higher the degree of love identification. (Don't confuse love with sex!) We're talking about love here.
12. Living at higher motivational levels and satisfying higher needs produces the desired beneficial civic and social consequences. The higher the need, the less selfish it is. Hunger is extremely selfish. It's actually self-satisfaction. But the desire for love already leads to interaction with others, etc.
13. Satisfaction of higher needs brings a person closer to self-actualization. Self-actualized people are very similar to each other, even if they live in different countries. All self-actualized, i.e. happy people ultimately climb to the same peak of happiness, but only on different paths. And in general, happiness has no options, as well as gender, age, nationality, religion and other contrived differences. Misfortune has options. And there is only one path for development; there are many paths for stagnation.
14. Living at a high level and satisfying higher needs leads a person to natural individualism. He loves himself and loves the other.
15. The higher the level of a person’s needs, the more susceptible he is to psychotherapeutic influence. Psychotherapeutic methods cannot help a hungry person. A paradox often arises: the more a person needs psychotherapeutic help, the less often he turns to it. By the way, during periods of unemployment, as V. Frankl noted, neurotics are the first to lose their jobs.
16. Lower needs are more clearly localized, more tangible, and more limited than higher needs. Hunger and thirst are much more somatic than the need for esteem. In addition, the satisfaction of lower needs is more obvious than the satisfaction of higher ones.
To satisfy the need for hunger, you need to eat a certain amount of food. And the satisfaction of needs for knowledge knows no limits.
Moreover, when you start complaining that you cannot satisfy higher needs, you simply will not be understood.
Thus, one very prosperous and famous doctor, and even of retirement age, who was treated very well by both patients and bosses, suffered from the fact that he could not provide assistance to a number of seriously ill patients in the clinic where he worked, there was no necessary equipment. He went through the authorities. His claims were not understood. They didn’t understand what he needed. No one drove him from work, he had a private practice, but he suffered because he could not work at full capacity. In the end, he went to a place where appropriate conditions for work were created for him.
In this context, I want to emphasize one point: the need for self-actualization is biological in nature. Complete health and happiness are impossible without its satisfaction. It’s just that as long as you want to eat and don’t have an apartment, you have no time for self-actualization.
Realizing your true needs and desires is a difficult task. In order for our instincts not to be completely suppressed, they should be “protected” from culture, education and teaching.
With this approach, the task of psychotherapy is to remove internal prohibitions and barriers, and the main concepts will then be spontaneity, naturalness, self-acceptance, satisfaction, freedom of choice, and the search for ways to most clearly and freely express impulses coming from the depths of the soul.
With this approach, the task of improving human nature can only be realized through social measures that encourage human instinctive tendencies.
About people living at the highest levels of motivation (self-actualization), we can say that their actions and behavior are extremely spontaneous, they are open, simple-minded, natural and therefore expressive.
They are the norm. That's what we'll talk about now.
One of the main qualities of a psychologically healthy person is the ability to control. Human behavior is determined by two factors - emotions and reason. Emotional or expressive behavior is almost uncontrollable; it is difficult to hide, suppress, or fake.
It takes effort to hold it back. And reasonable behavior requires effort. So you need to organize your activities in such a way that what you want to do is both necessary and expedient. Then a person will have no contradictions either with society or with himself. So, I want to write this book, write it expediently.
So, in a healthy person both tendencies coexist harmoniously. He can refuse self-control, but he can also control himself, he can have pleasure for a while, he is polite, tries not to offend people, knows how to remain silent and knows how to control himself. He is capable of being stoic and epicurean, restrained and relaxed, sincere and aloof, cheerful and businesslike. He lives in the present, but knows how to think about the future. A healthy self-actualized person is universal, unlike the average person; he realizes most of the possibilities inherent in his nature. He moves towards absolute humanity, i.e. to reach your full human potential.
A. Maslow conducted a study of self-actualized people. His subjects were acquaintances and friends, public figures and historical characters.
As a result, four categories of subjects were selected:
• Seven obvious and two conditional examples of self-actualization (contemporaries, clinically examined).
• Two obvious examples of self-actualization, (past people - Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson).
• Seven very conventional examples of self-actualization of famous people (Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, William James, Jane Adams, Schweitzer, Aldous Huxley and Spinoza).
• Examples of partial self-actualization (five people).
A. Maslow believed that it is by the best representatives that humanity should be judged, and not by dwarfs, freaks, patients, bandits and hooligans. I decided to repeat A. Maslow's study. And among those who completed my trainings, I found people who took the path of self-actualization. I can say this with confidence. They discovered abilities that they did not even suspect about, achievements appeared that they could not even dream of. And when I told them about this at the beginning of work, they looked at me like I was crazy, and did not simply leave me because they had nowhere to go. All other doctors and psychologists have already given up on them. Here I found signs of self-actualization (signs of a psychologically healthy person), which I am now beginning to describe. I hope that by focusing on them, you can find your path to self-actualization.
Liberty
Freedom is a very multi-valued concept, but it can be characterized. A person can always feel when he is free and when he is not. If he acts based on his principles, desires and is responsible for the result of his actions, he is free.
That is, he is responsible for his actions and decides for himself what to do. This means free will and no coercion from outside.
beauty
Beauty is the most mysterious spiritual value; each person understands it in his own way. If you do a survey among people, the results will be different.
For some, beauty is a bird that pecks seeds from a person’s hand, for others it is a luxurious English garden... Therefore, we can say that beauty is what surrounds us. It exists in relationships between people, in us, in others, in nature.
It is beauty that inspires to create - it encourages musicians and writers to create real masterpieces that do not lose their uniqueness through the centuries... This is a very subtle substance, and only a sensitive person can understand it.
Types of spiritual needs
The most important spiritual need is the desire for knowledge, including external and self-knowledge. This was noted by philosophers of various eras. Aristotle wrote that we all naturally strive for knowledge. Michel de Montel, a sixteenth-century French thinker, argued that the pursuit of knowledge is the most natural of all others. The aesthetic need is also a very important spiritual need. Its components: the desire to see harmony in people and nature, to master the world according to the laws of beauty. This also includes literature in human life, painting, music, poetry, and the desire to improve human relationships. Another spiritual need is for communication. This includes friendship, love, camaraderie, consideration for each other, psychological and moral support, empathy, compassion, co-creation and exchange of ideas.
Art
Art is the spiritual self-realization of a person through sensory and expressive aspects - drawing, sound, writing, light, etc.
Art helps every person to feel the beautiful, makes him spiritually richer, gives energy and brings meaning to life. If there were no art, then we would live only by those things that surround us (ordinary), and there would be no opportunity to grow and progress.
A person who is associated with art is filled with energy and is capable of creating the surrounding reality. Most often, the creator begins to look for his own meaning, which has not previously been found among people.
Creation
Creativity is characteristic of every person, but not everyone discovers it in themselves. This is the creation of something new, something that has not been seen before.
It is usually believed that creativity is creating a work of art, writing classical music, but a little girl, for example, who wrote a couple of lines in her notebook about a bear cub walking in a meadow - this is already creativity, she is a creator and has created something new.
Creativity is the ability to create something new; it always elevates the soul and ennobles the personality.
True
People have a sparkle in their eyes when it comes to seeking the truth, the truth. This is a person’s natural desire to understand the world in which he lives, as well as himself. Truth is a spiritual value, it gives a person a lot - with its help we can analyze what is happening, our actions, we consider certain actions that we perform for morality and correctness. For everyone, truth has its own understanding - for one, something that for another has no significance will be sacred. Truth is what has been tested by time and experience.
Basic needs
Let us dwell on the classification of basic needs, which is quite general and widespread. Basic needs are those needs that are common to all people. These include: material, biological, spiritual and social. The important thing is that they are arranged in a hierarchical order. In order for spiritual and intellectual needs to appear, it is necessary that the physiological systems in our body function, that is, the material and biological ones are satisfied. But not all authors make this dependence absolute.
There is definitely a sequence of need satisfaction, but it cannot be thought that it is absolutely the same for all individuals. There are cases when the need for spiritual development and creativity turned out to be dominant not after other needs (biological, recognition, security, etc.) were satisfied, but when even the basic requirements for housing, food and security were not yet satisfied.
Any of the above needs is aimed at a particular object and encourages us to take possession of it.
Biological needs require the possession of vital resources, material needs require the material means necessary to satisfy all needs, social needs require forms of communication and communication with other people. A person’s spiritual needs require mastery of spirituality.
What is spirituality? Consciousness and spirituality are similar concepts. However, not all consciousness is spiritual. For example, a worker performing certain operations on a factory assembly line does them consciously and competently. At the same time, these actions are unspiritual and technological. An alcoholic consciously chooses alcoholic drinks and snacks. Nevertheless, when drinking alcohol, he does not see a reasonable limit, his enslavement to passion does not allow him to rise higher, he falls into the state of an animal. The main reason for such a fall is lack of spirituality.
Love
Love is the highest spiritual value that you can imagine. Human existence cannot be imagined without it.
Many people mistakenly believe that if they don’t have a loved one, then there is no love. However, love is ourselves, our essence. You can love a bird singing outside the window, a new day, the spring wind, the smile of a loved one...
Love can be different - spiritual, physical, material, friendly, etc. Love helps a person become better, ennobles him.
How are they formed?
The process of formation of spiritual needs is influenced by a number of factors, such as:
- Family. Parents are the first people with whom a child actively contacts. Their ideas about norms, needs and values will influence him.
- Society. Society has long had ideas about what values each person should have.
Some will call some of them controversial, but the influence of society is extremely great, and most people unconsciously adapt to the requirements. - Friends, colleagues. As a person gets older, he begins to be influenced by a wider range of people.
- State of mental and physical health. A seriously ill person's ideas about needs may differ from those of a healthy person. And people with significant intellectual defects, in principle, may not have pronounced spiritual needs.
- Education. Much depends on its quality and availability, as well as on the competence of teachers and management.
Spiritual needs begin to form in early childhood.
Good
Goodness is one of the most important spiritual values. It manifests itself in man’s desire to improve life on Earth not only for himself, but also for others.
A good person always strives for truth and justice. A good deed is manifested in sincerity - this is not when a person does something for gain, but when he tries to do something for another selflessly.
Kindness has always been valued, but people sometimes suffer greatly because of their sensitivity and concern for others. Kindness is a spiritual need for everyone; when we do something useful and good, we feel better, more confident, and our souls become light.
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Identifying Spiritual Needs
A person’s spiritual needs are the desire to understand the world around him and his place in it, self-realization, self-improvement, self-knowledge.
This is a type of need determined by the inner world of a person, his desire for self-deepening, concentration on what is not social and physiological needs. His satisfaction is facilitated by the study of culture, art, religion, the purpose of which is to understand the highest meaning of existence.
