H.G. Wells, Maslow, and the Peak-Experience

"What can you do if you're thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of bliss—absolute bliss—as though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon?" asked Katherine Mansfield in her memorable story Bliss.

The early 20th-century writer was herself age 30 at the time, and, though she lived only four more years, her life was vibrant with dazzling moments. It's likely that Mansfield would have appreciated Abraham Maslow's scientific quest to uncover their value for our emotional, and possibly even physical, well-being.

As Maslow's biographer, I've found no evidence that Mansfield's widely read stories influenced his founding of humanistic psychology—but an even more popular British writer may well have done so: namely, H.G. Wells. As I've noted in a previous post for Psychology Today, Maslow was an avid sci-fi reader whose private journals reveal his admiration for such modern luminaries as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and others. Maslow even asserted that sci-fi was the only literary genre interested in new ideas about humanity—especially its strengths and future capabilities. In this light, it seems no historical accident that Maslow co-launched the still-extant Journal of Humanistic Psychology to chart a new vision of human potential, just as the fledgling Space Age was amassing huge popular excitement.

Maslow's concept of peak-experience remains one of his most important and enduring formulations, becoming the foundation for his entire system of humanistic psychology. But where did he get this seminal notion? We know that his mentors Ruth Benedict and Max Wertheimer in New York City served as living exemplars of what he called self-actualizing men and women—and that their frequent, reported "peaks" of happiness and self-fulfillment initially convinced Maslow of their importance for our well-being and creativity.

We also know that Maslow began reading many biographies and memoirs of eminent persons to develop his ideas on this topic. Thus, he eventually argued that people can become "starved" by a lack of peak-experiences—ultimately leading to feelings of chronic boredom, depressed moods, and often, dependence on alcohol or other substances to gain a taste of that missing glow in day-to-day life.

Recently, I've become convinced that another major influence for Maslow was H.G. Wells, the preeminent sci-fi writer, satiric "mainstream" novelist, and founding futurist. In particular, Wells' fiction presented descriptions of peaks that embody key elements of Maslow's formulations in his books, including Toward a Psychology of Being and Farther Reaches of Human Nature. Two examples will suffice.

Published in 1906, Wells' short story The Door in the Wall depicts the unforgettable experience of a schoolboy who opens an intriguing door on a seemingly ordinary London street and, incredibly, finds himself in a garden world of utter beauty, innocence, and wonder. Growing into a cynical and world-weary middle-aged politician, he never gives up seeking to find that door again—and re-experience that wondrous, youthful perception of life's possibilities. I won't reveal the ending, but I can share that this story is ranked among Wells' finest literary efforts.

More than 25 years later, Wells' novel The Bulpington of Blup magnificently evokes his protagonist Theodore's transcendental experience at the age of 16 involving nature. It takes place near his home in small-town England on a summer afternoon. As the omniscient storyteller, Wells prefaces that, "It (was) something that has happened to many people, and to this day, none of these...is quite able to explain it and put it into relation with other experiences. Some dismiss it, some forget it, some live by it....It is something almost indescribable—but we must do our best (to relate it)." Essentially, Theodore beholds a beautiful sunset over the local bay, but it becomes transformed into something far greater—a "Sphere of Being" that blissfully envelops his mind.

Wells concludes his narration with these inspiring words: "He saw his universe clear as crystal and altogether significant and splendid. Everything was lucid, and all was wonder. Wonder was in Theodore's innermost being and everywhere about him....This he realized quite clearly...was the timeless world in which everything is different and lovely and right. This was Reality."

Maslow, of course, developed the notion of what he called the "Being-realm" (or "B-realm" in abbreviation) as a state of higher consciousness—and regarded it as vital for both creativity and emotional well-being. He emphasized that peaks transport us to this exalted domain—and I certainly think it plausible that Maslow as a sci-fi aficionado was familiar with Wells' powerful accounts, perhaps based on his own ecstatic moments.

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As a new year begins for us, the time seems right to recall a peak-experience—preferably one that occurred in recently departed 2024. Who was with you at the time, or were you alone? What triggered this moment of great happiness? What impact did it subsequently have on your view of life? And, most importantly, what can you do to generate more wonderful, uplifting experiences?