Singer and Maslow – Two Visions, One Destination

Abraham Maslow and Michael A. Singer explored human potential from very different directions—Maslow through motivational psychology, and Singer through deep spiritual introspection—but their messages resonate with a shared truth: human growth is not just about fixing what’s broken. It’s about uncovering what’s possible.

 

Maslow’s Pyramid:

A Journey from Need to Meaning 

Abraham Maslow introduced his original 5-layer Hierarchy of Needs in the 1940s as a way to describe how human motivation unfolds from the ground up. Here are those original five layers:

  1. Physiological Needs – Food, water, air, sleep, shelter

  2. Safety Needs – Personal security, health, financial stability

  3. Love and Belonging – Friendship, intimacy, family, social connection

  4. Esteem Needs – Self-respect, status, recognition, achievement

  5. Self-Actualization – Fulfilling personal potential, creativity, authenticity

I felt that something was missing, so I added Spirituality as a top layer.

 

Maslow later expanded this into an 8-layer model, which included more nuanced stages of growth and higher states of awareness:

  1. Cognitive Needs – Knowledge, understanding, curiosity, learning

  2. Aesthetic Needs – Appreciation of beauty, balance, and form

  3. Self-Transcendence – Spiritual realization, unity, connection to something greater than the self

This extended model reflects a fuller view of human nature—one that acknowledges our need for knowledge, beauty, and spiritual meaning. Maslow called these higher drives the pursuit of “B-values”: being, truth, simplicity, wholeness, and transcendence.

 

Flexibility in Maslow's Pyramid

 

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs should be understood as suggestive, not mechanical. It is a useful picture of human motivation, but real life is rarely as neat as a staircase.

 

People do not simply finish one level and then permanently move to the next. We may be living in several layers at once. We may care about safety, love, meaning, and self-respect all in the same day.

 

We may also move up and down the layers depending on circumstances.

 

A person may be deeply thoughtful and spiritually awake, yet if he is suddenly threatened, badly hurt, or deprived of something basic, the lower needs can quickly come forward and demand attention.

 

This is the main truth Maslow was pointing toward. Basic needs usually come first because they are tied to survival and stability.

 

Hunger can interrupt philosophy. Fear can interrupt creativity. Illness can interrupt self-development. When the foundation is disturbed, higher concerns are often pushed into the background.

 

But that does not mean the higher levels disappear. They remain part of us, waiting for room to re-emerge.

 

A spiritually developed person may live near the top of the hierarchy much of the time, not because lower needs no longer exist, but because they are usually handled well enough that attention can rest in deeper values.

 

Such a person is more often centered in meaning, love, service, inner freedom, or self-transcendence. Yet even then, the lower levels remain real.

 

The body still needs food, rest, safety, and care.

 

The difference is that the higher life becomes the person’s usual home, while the lower needs are still honored when they arise.

 

So the hierarchy is best seen not as a rigid ladder, but as a shifting pattern of priorities.

 

It reminds us that human beings are layered, that the more basic needs can interrupt the higher ones, and that growth does not mean escaping the lower levels forever.

 

It means becoming established enough that the higher dimensions of life can guide us most of the time.

 

Michael A. Singer: From Clinging to Inner Freedom

 

Michael A. Singer presents something radically different—not a hierarchy, but a complete reorientation of identity.

 

Singer teaches that we are not our thoughts, our emotions, or our story. We are the one who observes.

 

MaslowInstead of climbing toward wholeness, Singer shows us how to surrender what blocks the assent.

 

The key is not acquisition, but release. Energy naturally wants to flow up through us—what blocks it is our resistance, our clinging, our fear.

 

 When our inner energies are blocked (what yoga calls samskaras), we feel stuck, anxious, or reactive. But when we relax into awareness and let go, these blockages release—and the energy rises. We become free, open, and filled with light.

 

While Maslow guides us through development, Singer gives us the tools of liberation: meditation, surrender, present-moment awareness, and the realization that freedom is already here, waiting to be noticed.

 

A Spiritual Need Maslow Touched, Singer Embraced

 

Maslow didn’t always talk about God or spiritual surrender. But later in life, he opened to the idea of self-transcendence—a level where the individual self gives way to something far greater. This, I believe, is the need that exists beyond all others. For some people, it remains hidden. For others, it becomes the deepest longing.

 

And this is where I personally expand Maslow’s vision. I believe there is a ninth level—what I simply call the Spiritual Level. It’s the need to feel close to God, to act in harmony with His will, and to transcend the fear of death with an awareness of eternal truth.

 

Unlike other levels, this need doesn’t always follow the hierarchy. A person facing death can either fall into fear—or rise into faith. The Spiritual Level has the power to override even our biological needs.

 

I felt that self-transcendence basically meant that you could think for yourself, and that seemed a little lame, so I included Spirituality as the top layer on my web page in 2018.  But Maslow beat to  to it and in 1966 Maslow expanded his model to 8 layers and gave it a new name.  It was described in the his book Religions, Values and Peak Experiences (1966):  These models are shown on the top left.

 

 

 

Maslow's Pyramid

 

 

My version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 2018

 

Maslow Eight Level Pyramid

A Wider Version of Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs with a New Name 1965

 

Abraham Maslow: A Life in Search of Human Potential

 

Born in 1908 to poor Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, Maslow’s early life was difficult. He grew up in a home that was emotionally barren. But instead of hardening, he turned inward, becoming deeply reflective. He wanted to know: what allows people to grow? What gives life meaning?

 

Though he began with behaviorism, studying animals and stimulus-response patterns, he found it lacking. It didn’t capture the richness of human life. So he helped form humanistic psychology, the “third force” after Freud and Skinner. It was grounded in this simple idea: People are inherently good.

 

Maslow believed that people don’t just want to survive—they want to thrive. He studied healthy, self-actualized individuals, like Eleanor Roosevelt and Albert Einstein, to understand what made them exceptional. They weren’t driven by fear. They were guided by inner truth.

 

His work helped shape education, therapy, business leadership, and social reform. He gave the world a hopeful model of what it means to be human.

 

Both Maslow and Singer Believed in Human Growth

 

Maslow’s pointed the way to growth, and Singer showed us how to let go and start growing.Picture of Maslow


Singer shows us the freedom that comes with growth.

 

Maslow builds the staircase.  Singer reminds us that we don’t need to climb—we simply need to open up.

 

The two views agree: human life has extraordinary potential. We are here not just to function, but to awaken.

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write... if he is to be at peace with himself." —Abraham Maslow

“You are not the voice in your head. You are the one who hears it.” —Michael A. Singer

 

Maslow as a Pioneer

 

Maslow’s ideas offered a hopeful, expansive view of human nature at a time when psychology was mostly focused on the medical model which stressed mental illness and dysfunction. He believed we needed a psychology of wellness, not just sickness. He wanted to study what made people happy, fulfilled, and at peace.

 

He also believed that many of our modern problems stemmed from not understanding our own potential. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with this person?” he encouraged psychologists to ask, “What could this person become if we gave them the right support?”

 

His influence didn’t stay within psychology. His ideas found their way into education, business, leadership, and even community development. Schools began thinking about students’ emotional needs. Managers started seeing employees as people with inner lives and dreams—not just workers. His model has even been adapted for planning cities and organizing humanitarian efforts.

 

Maslow passed away in 1970 at the age of 62, but his vision still resonates. Long before the rise of what we now call “positive psychology,” Maslow was already calling for a shift toward studying joy, love, creativity, and wholeness.

 

In many ways, he opened a door for all of us—to look beyond our limitations and ask, “What more is possible?”

 

Singer was also a pioneer as he used meditation to explore the inner life in a scientific way.  Singer understood how you could observe scientifically, the inner life by moving across the river, and just observe.

 

Singer found the how the inner life worked, without the noise of history.  Maslow showed that we had a path, and Singer taught how to move upwards.