Archive for Thursday 13th June 2002 - The peaks of happiness

One of my favourite writers is Colin Wilson. He must have written more books than anyone else - well over a hundred, on all kinds of subjects. And he never stops working, beginning every day at 4am. Behind all his writings is one big,idea. With just a bit of effort, he says, we can lead far happier, far more interesting lives than we mostly do now. Much of the time we are just ‘going through the motions’, doing what we have to without thinking about it. But when something unusual happens, we become alert. At those moments we stop living automatically and see the situation directly, through our own awakened senses. Those are the moments you remember and talk about.

The secret of health and longevity, says Wilson, is waking yourself up to everything going on around you. From an American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, he heard about the ‘peak experience’. It is the experience that most people have from time to time, when suddenly, for no apparent reason, you feel totally happy and at peace with the world. Maslow discovered that the more peaks you have, the more content and successful you are likely to be. You can train yourself to have more peaks and a better life. The first step is to make a decision. You decide to see beauty and goodness in the things and people around you. You will see ugliness too, but do not concentrate on that. The more you practise the better you become. The peak experience will occur more often, and you will have glimpses of that happy state that mystics call paradise on earth.

John Michell