Self actualization is one of the highest levels of humans' growth. It is not superior since everyone can get there, it is just a stage of being. Here are some of the characteristics of self actualized people:
- Real not ideal: Self actualized people have a healthy relationship with reality and are more comfortable with it and do not deny it. They accept the good and bad as parts of the same spectrum where one is in balance and the other out of balance.
- Accountability: Self actualized people do not get into the blame game but look for their role in a situation to make improvements.
- Open to making mistakes: Self actualized people give themselves and others the right to make a mistake and do not limit their life's experience because of fear of mistakes. At the same time, they take reasonable cautionary steps not to repeat the same mistake over and over again.
- Acceptance: Self actualized people have acceptance of self, others and the world around them. They are objective in general but also aware of their subjectivity and how it may deceive them.
- Spontaneous: Self actualized people are grounded but at the same time learn to be open to new experiences, bring the inner child out and have fun with life. They don't force themselves to be as others think they "should" be and go with what feels right to their core. At the same time, they do not try to intentionally hurt others and are sensitive to what is good.
- Problem focused: Self actualized people focus on the solution from a more multi-modal perspective and are open to new ideas and options. They also look at a problem from above their emotions as if they are standing outside the chaos to see what is happening to make an unbiased judgment about it.
- Desire for detachment and privacy: While interactive and well connected with their surroundings, self actualized people have also a need to have time to themselves for quiet time and reflection and do not always have to be with others to enjoy their time. While with other people whom they feel connected to, the presence is enough and there does not have to be any open communication all the time.
- Autonomy: Self actualized people are independent of their culture and their surrounding while are aware of them fully. They make decisions on their own without being conditioned toward any particular culture, religion and else. They are aware that conditioning can be limiting and illusive and need to be used with full awareness.
- Appreciations of simple things: Self actualized people learn to enjoy simple things in life and to connect with nature. They take time to find joy and content in daily things that come to all of us for free without any effort. A walk in the park, looking at the moon at night, listening to a bird singing are activities that are close to her heart.
- Honest: Self actualized people are honest but know the fine line between honesty and being blunt. Others always know where they are standing with self actualized people and relationships with them are usually drama free since they won't say yes where they feel otherwise. In other words, they are assertive.
- Mystical and peak experiences: Self actualized people have regular mystical and peak experiences and have the ability to find and connect with their authentic self. During these experiences, they feel at one with the world around them.
- Oneness: Self actualized people become more of a global soul where their concern is more toward all mankind not just what they have been conditioned to feel more similar to.
- Healthy interpersonal relationships: Self actualized people have clear boundaries therefore, their relationship is free of drama and anxious attachments. They have more profound relationships with other adults on a deep level. They are capable of greater love and focus on the good few rather than a large number. Their relationships are very meaningful and positive.
- Equality: Self actualized people tend to believe in the equal nature of humans and believe that each person has certain strengths and weaknesses.
- Playfulness: Self actualizing people are playful in nature, love to laugh, and make jokes but not at the expense of others. They are open to new things in life.
- Creative: Self actualizing people are creative and express themselves in many positive forms like writing, speaking, playing, painting or else.
- Resistance to inculturation: Self actualized people resist transcendence to any particular culture and go above their culture and maintain a strong individuality while learning and at times, practicing what seems positive in their as well as other cultures. This is done by choice not any force of attachment. They can evaluate the culture objectively to see what works for them and their loved ones. They can also assimilate naturally into a new culture if they live in it.
- Imperfections: Self actualizing people are aware of the fact that they, like others, are imperfect because they are humans. But this awareness brings them opportunities to constantly learn new ways to grow. While being content with themselves but they never stop striving.
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Also, non-sequitur, surrealist, dirty/taboo, job, metaphorical, etc, jokes all don't make humor at the expense of others.
As to your last sentence, I'd need an actual joke to determine if what you are saying holds true. I've never before considered a non-sequitur or a metaphor a joke, I'd like to see examples of those. Sometimes it is subtle and can very often be good-natured, but I still maintain that every joke is at someone's expense in some fashion.
This article is for the lucky few.
Try writing an article which addresses the problems in this country and the world.
Thank you - that's the most sensible and open-eyed comment (from either perspective) I've read on H P for a long while!
More broadly yes, I agree, it does seem like common sense. Perhaps "self-actuallisation" is a buzzword for maturity? :)
I'm not even inclined to refer to the president's (hidden) references to the need to "grow up". They aren't really all that well hidden, after all.
What I am aiming at is more like the historical record on mysticism. Because it seems a lot to me that it has to do with finding answers to the question of "unde malum" / "why does evil exist"?
How about defining "maturity" as the state where a person has actually asked that question and found an answer that doesn't keep anybody else from finding theirs?
btw
just in case we could actually agree on this little proposal, I basically guarantee a "peak experience".
boy am I a marketing failure. I should be charging big $ for this.
But then again, in the US there are those founding father types of guys. The kinds of guys who had it all figured out. Only they didn't tell anyone. They merely wrote that scrappy constitution with those scrappy amendments.
Towards the other, are those who are completely bound up in objects: my toy, my mommy, my food, my whatever.
Most adults fall somewhere in the middle. The run of the mill self-actualized are somewhere past the middle but not yet to the enlightened stage(s), and tend to have temporary peak/plateau experiences and are quite successful in their chosen careers and hobbies.
Fred Travis, a neuroscientist at Maharishi University of Management, studied the psychological and physiological profiles of 17 people who were reporting 'permanent" pure consciousness 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for years on end (a reasonably good approximation of enlightenment), and conducted interviews as well, asking the question "describe your self." From the data, he created a "Brain Integration Scale" that he hopes can determine the degree of enlightenment of an individual using both physiological and psychological measures and has published several studies on his findings.
Other researchers have taken that same Brain Integration Scale and used it to compare the degree of enlightenment of:
world-class managers compared to less-successful managers;
world champion athletes compared to pro-level athletes who don't win gold medals and world championships;
and professional classical musicians compared to amateur classical musicians.
In every study, the "better" people showed higher scores on the brain integration scale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turiya
Research on the physiological correlates of turya found during TM practice:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7045911
Breath suspension during the transcendental meditation technique.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10512549
Pure consciousness: distinct phenomenological and physiological correlates of "consciousness itself".
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9009807
Autonomic patterns during respiratory suspensions: possible markers of Transcendental Consciousness.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10487785
Autonomic and EEG patterns during eyes-closed rest and transcendental meditation (TM) practice: the basis for a neural model of TM practice.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19862565
A self-referential default brain state: patterns of coherence, power, and eLORETA sources during eyes-closed rest and Transcendental Meditation practice.
Research on the physiological correlates of turyatita in long-term TM meditators:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12406612
Patterns of EEG coherence, power, and contingent negative variation characterize the integration of transcendental and waking states.
http://www.tm.org/american-psychological-association
Abstract for the 2007 Conference of the American Psychological Association
Brain Integration Scale: Corroborating Language-based 
Instruments of Post-conventional Development
Research on the physiological correlates of turyatita in non-meditators:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2009.01007.x/full
Higher psycho-physiological refinement in world-class Norwegian athletes: brain measures of performance capacity
And Norman Rosenthal, the guy who coined "Seasonal Affective Disorder," obviously isn't a good judge of the value of such things, either. I mean, not only must we conclude that his pilot study on TM and PTSD in veterans is too small to form policy around, but that the positive findings are actually a sign of how bad it is for you to practice.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/amsus/zmm/2011/00000176/00000006/art00019