What Does a Human Need to Be Happy 3/3: Spiritual Needs
This is the third part of our series of understanding and fulfilling human needs. As our guide, we have used Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, drawn in the shape of a pyramid (below). Well, my drawing is more like half a pyramid, but it gets the job done.
The first part was about basic human needs, the lowest two levels of the pyramid: Physiological needs, like air, food and water as well as safety needs, such as security and health.
The second part was about human psychological (or emotional) needs: Belonging, friendship, connection, self-esteem, respect and so on.
Now we are at the top of the pyramid, labeled self-fulfilment needs. Here we find the desire to be the most that one can be: transcendence, spiritual growth.
First, take a look at the picture of the pyramid. You’ll notice that, compared to the picture I used earlier, there is another level at the very top labelled transcendence, or spiritual needs. This is what Maslow himself added to the hierarchy, as during his studies he found out that when the need of self-transcendence is met, it produces feelings of integrity and raises things to a higher plane of existence.
Furthermore, spiritual needs can be met on multiple levels and often meeting one’s spiritual needs helps fulfil the needs on the other levels of the pyramid as well. What’s even more astonishing is, that fulfilling one’s spiritual needs may result in releasing the thought of “needing” altogether.
Self-Transcendence = Spiritual Growth
So what are these spiritual needs or needs of self-transcendence?
This is where we delve into spiritual territory, so some concepts might be hard to grasp.
Keep an open mind. The needs discussed here are just as fundamental for us, humans, as are the needs of body and mind. If you feel uncomfortable with the term “spiritual needs”, just replace it with something you can agree with. You can call these “subconscious needs” or “needs that are beyond physical or mental”. Or just simply label this “spiritual growth”.
Nonetheless, these are needs we must fulfil in order to live our life to the fullest. There are also many ways these needs can be explored and experienced by everyone. Make sure to stick around to the very end and your curiosity will be satisfied.
In everyday terms, this need of “self-transcendence” could be described as the need to become something bigger than yourself. This is a good time to remind yourself of Johann Hari’s ideas for healing depression from the previous blogpost.
Based on what Hari found out about human psychological needs, and what Maslow is suggesting here, it seems that when our lives are about something bigger than ourselves we find true happiness and meaning.
Now remember, being about something bigger than you does not mean neglecting your own needs. It’s just that your needs are often abundantly fulfilled in the process of becoming something bigger, something more.
Your Life Is Not About You
As Neale Donald Walsch says: “Your life is not about you”. Your life is about everyone’s life you touch. At the same time, your life is all about you. This is a divine dichotomy and one of the concepts I mentioned might be hard to grasp. It is also one of the most profound truths about your life.
In the context of this blogpost, this could be explained in the following way: Whatever you say you want to express, experience and become, can only be done in relation to something or someone else. If there were nothing or no-one else, how would you experience who you are?
How would you be kind if there was no-one to treat kindly? How would you be patient if there was no-one to get on your nerves? How would you love if there was no-one to love?
You can only be something in relation to something else. Your greatest spiritual need is a desire is to experience your highest thought about yourself (your life is about you), but that can only be done in relation to something else (your life is about everyone else).
If this still feels confusing, don’t worry. We will take a deeper look at this concept in another blog post here -> The forgotten meaning of life
What Are Your Spiritual Needs?
Now we get to the very top of the pyramid. Transcendence. Spiritual needs. As always, this is where things get really interesting. What are the needs of our spirit? What could a soul possibly need?
Your obedience? Servitude of a higher power? Living according to some strict moral code?
For most of us, of course depending on where we live and what we have learned, the answer is usually not what we expected.
Your soul (spirit, subconscious mind) is completely without need.
Your body requires sustenance to keep going. Your mind needs stimulus. But your spirit in the truest, purest sense, needs absolutely nothing.
It would be anticlimactic of course to end here and just say that your spiritual needs do not matter, since your soul or spirit needs nothing.
Fortunately, the realm of the spirit is infinite, and we can always go deeper.
Life Is All About Experience
In the very centre of your being, the deepest depths of your subconscious mind, you have but one thing you wish to do. To know the highest thought of yourself experientially. Your spiritual joy, fulfilling of spiritual needs, is therefore in the process of creation. Experience.
What you think, say and do creates your experience. Thus, whether consciously or subconsciously, you are fulfilling your spiritual needs. Your spirit (soul, subconscious, higher self) conceives, your mind creates (chooses) and your body experiences.
Based on the experience, the spirit then makes a new conception. The circle is complete, the feeling is perfect (knowing + experiencing produces the perfect feeling) and the “need” is fulfilled.
If you want to “fulfil your spiritual needs”, you can do so by starting to choose your experience consciously.
Subconsciously You Seek To Know Your Spirit
You can get to know the workings of your spirit, your higher self, through practices like yoga and meditation or by using some specific substances, like ayahuasca (but drugs are bad, m’kay. Don’t do drugs).
If you want to know the joys of the spirit, you have to be out of your mind. Possibly even out of your body (you’ve heard of OBE’s, out of body experiences). Funnily enough, whether we realise this or not, this is exactly why the use, or misuse, of certain intoxicating substances is so popular.
When we consume alcohol, our conscious mind starts to get numb. We start to drift out of our mind to an experience of no fear, sadness, shame, guilt. This is what we find in the realm of the spirit as well. Pure joy.
Consuming alcohol is of course not a recommendable way to get out of your mind. It even takes you in the “wrong direction” so to speak. Consuming alcohol lowers you below your mind, to the realm of pure instinct.
But you don’t want to be below your mind, you want to rise above your mind, to the realm of the spirit. This can not be done by numbing your mind with substances like alcohol or certain drugs. Nonetheless, this is the experience you (your spirit, subconscious) are seeking and that is one of the reasons why alcohol and drugs are so popular.
Joy In The Realisation Of Self
Then what happens if you get a glimpse of this “spiritual world”?
Well, since that experience is all about pure joy, it may actually override your physical and emotional needs. For example monks, who have dedicated their lives to seeking spiritual wisdom, often live in the most basic conditions. You have probably heard or read stories about monks in monasteries, especially in Asian countries, that wear a robe and eat only a bowl of rice every day.
We tend to think, that this kind of asceticism is the prerequisite for finding inner peace or enlightenment. In fact, the opposite is true, but not in the way you think. Experiencing this “growth of the spirit” is so magnificent, so life changing, that the matters of mind and body become almost irrelevant.
That is not to say the needs of the body and mind should be neglected, but they are just not a priority anymore. It also does not mean that body and mind should not be valued, but the seeking of pleasure trough body and mind are simply set aside.
Just as you set aside, or let go, something that you no longer find useful or amusing (like a child sets aside toys), so are the needs of body and mind set aside to make way for the “needs” of the spirit.
There’s so much joy in the “realisation of self” that worldly success is just not appealing in comparison.
This is very difficult to comprehend and even more difficult to put into words. It must be experienced in order to understand. But no matter whether consciously seeking this experience or not, there comes a time in the evolution of every soul when the main concern is no longer the survival of the physical body, but the growth of the spirit.
Determine Who You Want To Be
If you seek this “growth of the spirit – spiritual growth”, the top of the pyramid we call “hierarchy of needs” consciously, you will find out that in doing so your needs at all the other levels are met with ease. You might even be not not that concerned about them at all.
This quote from Neale Donald Walsch is something I have used before, but it’s worth repeating in this context:
“Not needing” is a great freedom. It frees you, first, from fear: fear that there is something you won’t have; fear that there is something you have that you will lose; and fear that without a certain thing, you won’t be happy.
Here’s another one to sum everything up:
“The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out Who You Are, seek to determine Who You Want to Be.”
So fulfil your spiritual needs by creating yourself anew consciously. Imagine the best version of you and then start thinking, saying and doing things that this “best version of you” would think, say and do. Here’s a rule of thumb to help you get started: The highest thought is the one that contains joy. The highest vision of you is the one who is the happiest.
Things You Can Try
1. Finding Purpose
Think about how to make your life about something bigger than you. Ask yourself:
- What is my passion?
- What do I find meaningful and purposeful?
- How can I use my answers to the previous questions to help others?
If you want to have step-by-step instructions about how to turn your passion into profit, I suggest taking a look at the teachings of T. Harv Eker. I am not affiliated with T. Harv Eker, I am suggesting this because his teachings have helped me tremendously and I can wholeheartedly recommend his books and courses to you. Harv is all about using “inner world principles for real world results”. These principles rely heavily on finding your passion and using it to help others.
There’s plenty of free stuff to get you started, so don’t worry about spending money to make money 🙂
2. Meditation
You didn’t think we were going to finish this blogpost without talking about meditation, did you? You know me, I am a big advocate of meditation and the topic of fulfilling spiritual needs is where meditation really comes into play.
Life is fundamentally subjective. What you believe, will determine how you think and act, thus creating what you experience. But you can change the process! Act in a new way. Think in a new way. Then you will start to believe in a new way and experience life in a whole new way! Give meditation a try, see if it works for you.
Regarding “spiritual needs” or “transcendence”, there are many amazing teachers out there that have dedicated their entire careers around this topic. I suggest you do some research and find a teacher whose methods resonate with you, but if you want a good reference point or just a place to start, try Meditation 2.0 by Craig Hamilton. (Again, no affiliation)
3. Read The "Manual For Life On Earth"
While reading this blog, you have undoubtedly noticed that I often quote Neale Donald Walsch. In the near future, I will tell more about how life changing his books have been for me. But while waiting for that story, why not check the material yourself?
In a trilogy called Conversations With God – An Uncommon Dialogue, Neale claims to have a conversation with god. Pretty bold claim, I know! It turns out that god is not what you thought he/she should be. Neither is life.
Then who or what is god? Is this really a conversation with him/her? Most importantly: Does it even matter? Whatever the case, I can promise that these books contain all the answers to all the questions you have ever had about life:
- What is the meaning of life?
- Is there an afterlife?
- What is the right way to live?
- How do you make the most out of your life?
- Are psychic abilities real?
- How to make relationships work?
- Why does life seem like a struggle?
- What is the lesson we are supposed to learn in life?
Make what you will of the books, but please give them a go. They are a good kickstart to spirituality.
After reading the books, I have a challenge for you: Can you think of a better way to live, than what is presented in the trilogy?
If you can, please let me know. Then we can write a book about it together! (I’ll only take 40 % of the profit 😀 )
You can find the trilogy on Amazon
No affiliation here either. At the time of writing this (Feb 2022), Amazon is offering the trilogy for free with a free trial of audible. What better value for (no) money.
Conclusion
when the need of self-transcendence is met, it produces feelings of integrity and raises things to a higher plane of existence.
spiritual needs can be met on multiple levels and often meeting one’s spiritual needs helps fulfil the needs on the other levels of the pyramid as well.
“self-transcendence” could be described as the need to become something bigger than yourself.
Your greatest spiritual need is a desire is to experience your highest thought about yourself (your life is about you), but that can only be done in relation to something else (your life is about everyone else).
in the truest sense, your spirit needs absolutely nothing. Yet it is your subconscious need to know the highest thought of yourself experientially. Your spiritual joy, fulfilling of spiritual needs, is therefore in the process of creation. Experience.
fulfilling one’s spiritual needs may result in releasing the thought of “needing” altogether.
To fulfil your spiritual needs:
- Seek to find purpose
- Meditate
- Read the manual
Disclaimer
The entire contents of this blog are based upon the opinions of the author. It is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The information in this blog is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care professional before trying any of the products or methods based on this content. I cannot guarantee that you will be free of stress, anxiety or depression, or that you will be happy. I simply want to share with you what I have discovered during my twenty years of seeking happiness and what has worked for me may not work for you.
