Maslow, Peak Experiences, and Systems Thinking

Maslow, Peak Experiences, and Systems Thinking: Why Personal Growth and Social Change Can’t Be Separated

Maslow gets flattened into that schoolbook pyramid. But his later work? That’s where the signal is. He wasn’t just talking about self-actualization — he was mapping self-transcendence, peak experiences, values, and the conditions for a better world. It’s exactly where systems thinking and neuroscience converge.

Self-actualization isn’t just about you

Maslow saw that the most self-actualized people weren’t isolated seekers. They were reformers, creators, and connectors:

“Self-actualizing people, our best experiencers, are also our most compassionate, our great improvers and reformers of society…”

This is systems thinking 101: no one grows in isolation. Neural networks strengthen through interaction, not solitude. The same holds for leaders — growth is recursive. Contribution fuels development; development fuels contribution.

Peak vs. Plateau: the long game

Maslow drew a line between peak experiences (rare, explosive insights) and plateau experiences (sustained, trainable states of meaning).

“One can learn to see in this Unitive way almost at will… a serene, cognitive blissfulness.”

That’s neuroplasticity in action. Transformation isn’t lightning — it’s rewiring. The same is true for organisations: one epiphany workshop doesn’t shift culture. Plateaus form when new feedback loops, norms, and structures reinforce higher-order ways of being.

Values, belonging, and the myth of the lone genius

Maslow integrated rationality and spirituality instead of pitting them against each other. He saw belonging and values as biological and social imperatives:

“Basic human needs can be fulfilled only by and through other human beings…”

The lone genius is a myth. No brain thrives without a network. In complex systems, success is emergent — a function of relationships, trust, and shared meaning. The neuroscience is clear: belonging and purpose are not nice-to-haves; they regulate stress, enable creativity, and sustain peak cognition.

Transcendence isn’t a hack

Maslow was blunt:

“A transient glimpse is certainly possible in the peak-experience… But to take up residence on the high plateau… That tends to be a lifelong effort.”

Real growth — personal or systemic — is slow by design. It’s feedback loops, repetition, and deliberate conditions that wire the brain and the culture for higher-order functioning.

The takeaway

Maslow’s late work is a systems map of growth:

• You can’t self-actualize in isolation. Contribution and growth are coupled loops.

• Epiphanies don’t transform systems — plateaus do.

• Belonging isn’t optional. It’s infrastructure.

• Transcendence is discipline, not accident.

So the real question is this: How do we design our lives, organisations, and societies so transcendence isn’t rare — but systemic?