Humanistic Perspective

When I stopped practicing Religious Legalism after more than 20 years, my journey went in the opposite direction to pursue the Humanistic License to do-my-own-thing. For more than 10 years, I earnestly tried to Self-develop qualities advocated by the Human Potential Movement so that I could Be and Behave in particular ways needed to Become Self-actualizing. I used my Being, Behaving, Becoming Model to Self-develop humanistic qualities I believed would answer these Existential Questions: Who am I? Where am I going? What must I do to get there?  No matter how diligently I tried, I finally realized I would not get satisfying answers and could not Become Self-actualizing.

Regrettably, I was among the 83% of Americans who were attracted to the psychobabble of the Human Potential Movement – vainly seeking Self-fulfillment that did not result. [See Daniel Yankelovich's New Rules: Searching for Self-fulfillment in a World Turned Upside Down,1981.] I wasted more than 10 years that proved to be futile and meaningless. In my Spiritual Memoir, I critique the Being, Behaving, Becoming qualities I vainly sought to Self-develop – by sharing Lessons Learned and Spiritual Insights gained – so readers will not be attracted to humanistic promises that cannot come true.

Only a few persons in all of human history were Self-actualizing. When Abraham Maslow realized this, he replaced this goal with Transcendence over objective reality. This launched the New Age Movement with promises that Self-is-god in one’s own subjective reality – when you imagine this during an altered state of consciousness. You can read an Excerpt on Humanism from Chapter 12.