SELF-ACTUALIZATION MADE EASY O

n the day that we launched the new Human Potential Movement in South Africa (Friday, July 20) we had just completed the 3-days of The Ultimate Self-Actualization Workshop. Sixteen Meta-Coaches and Neuro-Semantic Trainers had just experienced the three Acts of the Drama of Self-Actualization that we call the Construct, the Crucible, and the Zone of Self- Actualization. As they gathered for the Launch Day in Pretoria, I used the occasion to ask them what they had personally received from the experience. And I told them why I wanted to know that.

“The reason I want to know what you received from the workshop is because it is critical that we all can both identify the value experienced and articulate it clearly to help us in our marketing of the workshop.”

So what did they say? Willem Fourie, a new Meta-Coach, said that for him the Self- Actualization workshop was Self-Actualization made easy. Brand Coetzee, a Meta-Coach and Neuro-Semantic Trainer, said that it was Self-Actualization made practical. Then a large group of those present said that they were and continue to be surprised at how gentle the transformation process of the Crucible was. They didn’t expect that. And even on Day 2 when we entered into the Crucible, time and again people said, “It just can’t be that easy.” “I expected it to be hard, rough, and painful, but it was so gentle, so organic.”

Cary Lucas, a Meta-Coach, Neuro-Semantic Trainer, and a part of People South-Africa (the sponsoring organization), said the workshop was for her Change without a Crisis. All of this reminded me of what Jim Walsh, a Meta-Coach and Neuro-Semantic Trainer in Florida, said about the Crucible, It is a Change Machine.

And, of course, that led to the questions that I’ve heard time and time again, “How does this particular change model work?” “How does the Crucible as a change model differ from the Axes of Change?”

And that initiated much of our discussion that day with those who knew both of these generative Neuro-Semantic change models. Much of the discussion also focused on the demise of the first Human Potential Movement and of the multiple techniques that they used in their attempt to find and unleash human potentials. Back in the 1960s through the 1980s, scores upon scores of processes were explored in an attempt to unleash potential. From various Gestalt Therapy processes to numerous Body Therapy approaches to the Encounter group, to experimentation with psychodelic drugs, to the sexual promiscuity at the sulphur hot-springs at Esalen, to meditation, and so on. Those were the days of wild experimentation as they tried to find some mechanism, some process, some magic key, some enlightened Aha! that would facilitate the unleashing of the incredible potentials that are within human beings.

And while some people found new personal powers and began finding their way to unleashing their potentials, most did not. And more important, the “movement” as such did not work through the chaotic creativity of those days to define a theory and specific processes that would consistently lead people to actualizing more and more of their inner powers and moving into a self-actualizing life as Maslow had described. And so, three decades later, the movement was gone, all of the original leaders dead, and no one carrying the movement forward.

Yet within the original vision and theory that Maslow presented were keys—significant clues about the actual processes of self-actualization. So while the “movement” fragmented into numerous groups and disciplines, all trying various ways to facilitate self-development, no one seemed to think about returning to the source (Maslow) and seeing what could be developed from his original genius. Fortunate for me, that was the gap I found when I first returned to this area and that’s all that I’ve attempted to do during the past two-and-a-half years—to revisit the master of self-actualization psychology to see what I could mine from the richness of his extensive research.

And that’s precisely what many at the workshop have said: “This is the next stage of Maslow.” “This actualizes the self-actualization theory of Maslow.” “Standing on the shoulders of Abraham Maslow, Dr. Hall has made the Hierarchy of Needs practical and dynamic so that we can use it for unleashing potentials; now the Pyramid really has become a Volcano.”

Is the process for self-actualizing easy? Can it be made easy? The process is certainly natural and organic. We are all made to develop, to grow, to learn, and to become more and more of who and what we can become. The biggest problem that interferes with this is that of fearing the process, of getting stuck at a lower need, and of distorting our needs through toxic and limiting beliefs. These are the leashes—the things holding us back, tying us up, and preventing us from actualizing our highest and best. And these are the things to unleash.