In a wonderful presentation by Dr. Hsin Hsin Huang at the Ignatian Magis Program on Saturday, she discussed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow's theory taught in psychology is that humans have five levels of needs starting with physiological needs.
1. Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Social belonging
4. Self-esteem
5. Self-actualization
In later years, Maslow added a sixth level - transcendence which is the need for surrender to God. "Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos" (Farther Reaches of Human Nature, New York 1971, p. 269).
I believe we are both human and spirit possessing not only our human gifts from God, but a soul which resides within us in this temporal space and time, but is eternal. To be eternal is to be neither in past or future, but always with God in the present. When we reach the sixth level, we recognize we are spirits first and humans second. We transcend our humanity to become one with each other and God in spirit.
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