On Self-Actualization, Transcendence, and Spiritual Bypassing
Visualize:
You’re hiking a trail in mountainous terrain, surrounded by the California sequoias. The ascent is steep – perhaps more steep than you had originally planned. You are beginning to feel physically fatigued, but you have plenty of food and water for the trek. Looking ahead, you have full awareness that the path will require quite an arduous climb…What do you do in this scenario? Do you:
Give up and descend the trail?
Sit down in the middle of the trail and pretend as if you’re already at the top?
Take a brief period of rest, accept the physical labor of the climb, and carry forward with enthusiasm?
The answer seems laughably obvious, but how many of us give up on our dreams before even trying our hands? How many of us simply end up sitting around actionless for months, years, or an entire lifetime?
With this, it seems as though everyone wants to be at the top, but few people want to dedicate themselves to the time and effort that it takes to make the climb.
“The Top”
From the evolutionary perspective, “the top” is where potential safety, resources, and comfort are found. Great mountains further represent a higher perspective allowing individuals to view everything in the surrounding landscape with ease. With this, one can more readily become aware of approaching threats and predators.
Mountain peaks and “the top” further signify the spiritual realization of transcendence – to move beyond the limited confines of the ego to experience the intricate interconnectedness of all of Life. According to the work of Maslow, this is where each and every individual strives to be, whether consciously or not. Perhaps this is also why humans have built monolithic structures such as towers and skyscrapers, effortlessly carrying its inhabitants to “the top.”
That being said, it seems as though humans will hedonically do anything to avoid the pain of labor. However, on the path of actualization, there’s no elevator to the top floor of transcendence. We must take the tough trek up the mountain, and most likely fall a few times along the way.
The Necessity of the Actualization Process
Maslow famously stated, “What a man can be, he must be.” He further believed that each and every person has within them a spirit of potential waiting to be expressed. This process of manifesting and physically embodying one’s innermost world is what he referred to as self-actualization.
Furthermore, through his hierarchical categorization of human needs, Maslow presented the idea that basic physical and psychological necessities must be satisfied in an individual's life before self-actualization and transcendence could come into focus. According to this model, an individual must generally first meet their foundational physical needs of food, water, shelter, and security, as well as their psychological needs of love, belonging, and a sense of self-efficacy. If an individual struggles to meet these needs, their worldview tends to be myopic – focused solely on needs of survival.
Conversely, as an individual successfully meets their foundational needs and begins to feel a sense of safety, their perceptual field widens. They may begin to relax more deeply and experience what Maslow termed “peak experiences,” noticing the profound intricacies within themselves while feeling inherently connected with their surroundings. With this, the individual is increasingly able to focus on qualities of actualization such as autonomy, creativity, authenticity, expression, Wholeness, and joy, to name a few.
In other words, the process of actualization allows us to open and express ourselves, continuously freeing us from various sociocultural, as well as self-imposed, restraints.
It is furthermore possible that an individual attempts to bypass the foundational rungs of development in a subconscious attempt to escape the circumstances of hardship in their life, ignore the challenges of individual growth, and remain in deluded comfort.
Skipping the Lower Rungs of the Ladder
As previously mentioned, our brains are pre-programmed for hedonism – to run away from pain and latch onto pleasure. Therefore, when faced with the challenges of life, simple and comforting solutions like procrastination, avoidance, bypassing, and other forms of escapism naturally manifest. These behaviors enable individuals to temporarily escape from the difficulties of personal growth. They serve as protective coping strategies, allowing the body and mind to feel a temporary and false sense of Wholeness while shielding themselves from the challenging mountainous terrain of life.
However, despite temporary feelings of comfort, these forms of escapism ultimately result in stunted physical and psychological maturation in the long term. The individual essentially remains in an extended period of adolescence, neglecting to develop critical thinking abilities, a sense of responsibility, and autonomous behavior. This lack of rational faculty can render individuals susceptible to potentially malevolent forces of manipulation, as in the various cases of extremist ideologies, pseudoscientific beliefs, and cults. Such ideologies and social organizations prey on susceptible individuals, often preaching love, harmony, and spiritual experience, yet dismissing logical and rational modes of thinking and leading to detrimental behavior.
Similarly, individuals who are exposed to spiritual ideas and transcendent experiences without proper grounded guidance and structure can result in what has been coined “spiritual bypassing,” a term used by Psychologist John Welwood in his book Toward a Psychology of Awakening. Such a phenomena specifically comes about when an individual uses spiritual ideology, practice, and experience in order to subconsciously escape, or bypass, the challenges of their present life situation, going directly to the tier of transcendence.
“Spiritual bypassing” occurs, again, because the lower rungs of the pyramid have been skipped. The individual has yet to integrate their spiritual experiences into physical form, neglects physical and psychological development, and therefore lacks grounding in reality. This can result in ego inflation or overcompensation in character manifesting as spiritual narcissism, poor decision-making, unstable behavior, and an inability to form healthy relationships. Overall, in this scenario of spiritual bypassing, the individual tends to develop self-serving or egocentric tendencies, hindering true personal growth and connection.
These phenomena, furthermore, describe the “New Age” community in a nutshell.
For this reason, the yogic traditions emphasized the utilization of a genuine guru, or teacher. (In our modern Western context, this role is often filled by psychotherapists.) Ideally, these individuals are self-actualized figures who are engaged in their own transcendent work. They are not merely dispensing advice but are actively walking the path themselves. The guru promotes critical thinking and lived experience over rehashed dogma, guiding mentees to develop their own understanding and integration of spiritual experiences. This approach helps individuals avoid spiritual bypassing by ensuring they engage with the foundational aspects of their development, leading to grounded personal and spiritual growth.
Genuinely Becoming an Individual
In contrast to those caught in the detour of spiritual bypass, individuals who successfully meet baseline physical, psychological, and social needs increasingly yearn for independence and the development of their individual identity. They think actively and critically, question the standards of their society, build the foundations of their lives from the ground up, and learn curiously through trial and error. Furthermore, they begin to identify their own values while crafting and embodying a unique sense of purpose. With this, their lives become enriched with an authentic sense of meaning and they truly become distinct individuals amidst the collective.
As a person forms this healthy sense of identity, they also increasingly understand their own cultural upbringing. This deeper self-awareness enables them to empathize with the lifestyles and traditions of others, and participate without becoming ensnared by echo chambers and groupthink. Through this expanded perspective, they recognize that everything in Life is a necessary piece of a larger puzzle. Consequently, they naturally develop an understanding of interdependence and unity, where individual actions are intrinsically tied to those of others and the environment.
The individual then begins to be called towards transcendent action, going beyond their reach to offer their unique talents and attributes as selfless services to the world.
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As Above, So Below: The Uniqueness of Saints and Enlightened Figures
If an individual continues far enough along the path, they may come to the conclusion that their individual self cannot exist without knowing it in relation to the collective. They realize that they must expand beyond their own boundaries. This can be thought of as the stage of self-transcendence, which allows us to take our unique skills and passions to aid the growth of the societal organism.
Those who we think of as enlightened figures throughout history were extraordinarily unique characters who achieved exactly this – they discovered and embodied their True Nature of Inner Peace, Connectedness, and Creativity. They were animated by the Creative Energy of Life, and they constructed healthy conduits of expression for that Energy. They refused to be automatons ruled by the accumulation of collective and individual habitual patterns, choosing instead to live with conscious awareness and intentionality. This profound realization of themselves and Life allowed them to become wholly (holy) unique.
Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Gandhi, Ramana Maharshi, and Teresa of Ávila were individuals who truly walked their own unique paths, worked towards self-actualization, and realized their transcendent nature. More modern examples of such individuals include Carl Jung, Paramahansa Yogananda, and Sri Aurobindo. These figures are often hyper-mystified, yet they were fundamentally human beings who embodied Love, joy, and wholeness. They extended their hands in service to their communities, continuously connecting with all of Life. They formed themselves to be healthy individual cells who contribute to a more healthy societal organism.
This seems to be what it means to be a fully-integrated human being - to embrace both individuality and multiplicity; to embrace human nature and the often arduous actualized path in order to aid the transcendent growth of the Collective.
Bringing it Full-Circle
As Ernest Becker elegantly stated: “We are gods with anuses.” In other words, we have the infinite power of the Universe within us, yet we remain grounded in our physical existence and limitations as human beings.
Although living from a place of unity and transcendence is a truly beautiful aspiration, we must honor the foundational aspects of what it means to be human. We must embrace the challenges of physical and mental development. Only then can we be sturdy pillars of service to our communities.
Actualization is essential for developing core values, critical thinking, conscientiousness, healthy identity formation, self-esteem, and boundary-setting.
Transcendence enables us to empathize more deeply with others and use our unique identities, skills, and passions to contribute to aid in the growth of the societal organism.
To relate it back to our original metaphor: we cannot skip the difficult steps of the hike. We must continue the trek up the mountain enthusiastically, carrying with us an air of adventure and curiosity, and connecting with the beauty of the experience along the way. With this, we map the terrain and lead a path for others to follow.
Article by:
Max Kristopher Komes, MSc, RMHCI
CEO, Era of Clarity LLC
Owner, Max Komes Holistic Counseling
www.MaxKomes.com
