ABSTRACT
Abraham Maslow, pioneer in humanistic psychology, asked subjects to describe “the most wonderful experience of your life; happiest moments, ecstatic moments, moments of rapture, perhaps from being in love, of from listening to music, or suddenly ‘being hit’ by a book or a painting, or from some great creative moment” (Maslow, 1968, p. 71). He found that such “peak experiences” were easiest to obtain through music and through sex. As regards music, he found peak experiences reported from classical music, “the great classics” (Maslow, 1976, pp. 169-170). Some of the criteria for peak experiences were a state of total attention or complete absorption by the stimulus/music; disorientation in time and space; perception can be ego-transcending, even mean a fusion of the perceiver and the perceived; the emotional reaction is characterized by feelings of wonder, reverence, humility and surrender before the experience as before something great. The peak experience is a unique instance, it is good and desirable, never evil or undesirable, and may occasionally be described as sacred (Maslow, 1968, chapter 6).
