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The '''Seven Essential Needs''' are the seven needs the [[Physical Unit]] is required to meet in order to grow, develop, and finally achieve and maintain strong [[Connection]].  <Ref>Sosteric and Ratkovic. “Seven Essential Needs,” 2018. https://www.academia.edu/38114100/The_Seven_Essential_Needs.</ref>
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==Related Terms==

[[Seven Essential Needs]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related term::Seven Essential Needs]]}}

[[Human Development]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related term::Human Development]]}}


==See Also==

[[Seven Toxic Needs]]

==Notes==

Essential needs are equivalent to "basic needs" in that they represent an "an energizing state that, if satisfied, conduces toward health
and well-being but, if not satisfied, contributes to pathology and ill-being." <ref>Ryan, R. M., and E. L. Deci. “Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being.” American Psychologist, 2000. p. 74.</ref>
The '''Seven Essential Needs''' are:

# '''Physiological Needs''' -- food, water, air, clothing, exercise, sex
# '''Safety and Security Needs''' -- safe home, safe spaces, secure finances. Safety includes the absence of assault of any kind, including physical assault (e.g., spanking), and emotional and psychological assault.
# '''Love needs''' -- unconditional support, acceptance, inclusion, being made to feel that we belong
# '''Truth and understanding Needs'''  -- "Mommy, why is the sky blue?" "Daddy, why are you angry all the time?" We all have a biological drive to know and understand the world.
# '''Esteem, Power, and Freedom Needs<ref>Thanks to Egle for pointing out the centrality of freedom and its relevance as an essential need.</ref>''' -- we all need to feel good about ourselves, and we all need to feel powerful and efficacious like  can create the world we want
# '''Need for [[Alignment]] with Highest Self''' - in Humanistic psychology, self-actualization<ref>
The term self-actualization, originally coined by Kurt Goldstein, was picked up by Abraham Maslow. For Maslow, the need for self-actualization is the need to be creative, to express one’s essence and desire, and to do what one is “fitted for.” As he says, “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man [sic] can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization” (Maslow, 1943, pp. 382). This is all true, but in LP psychology we would understand self-actualization as actualization/expression of [[Self]], with a capital "S".</ref>
# '''Need for [[Connection]] with Highest Self''' -- in Transpersonal Psychology, transcendence; in Christianity, Islamic, salvation; in Buddhism, enlightenment; etc.)

In order for a [[Physical Unit]] to grow up healthy and [[Connected]], all these needs must be completely met.

==Need for Love==

Reflected in the need for attention, need to be included, need for positive regard. 

When unmet, the need for love, positive regard, and attention can become desperation, and be exploited by disreputable or mentally ill actors. See for example Layton who cites Jim Jones attention and manipulative praise as psychological reasons for her toxic attachment to the Jonestown cult. <ref>Layton, Deborah. Seductive Poison. New York: Anchor Books, 2010. https://amzn.to/2wxOse4.</ref> 

===Need for Connection===

Underhill says "Broadly speaking, I understand it to be the expression of the ''innate tendency'' of the human spirit towards complete harmony with the transcendental order; whatever be the theological formula under which that order is understood."<ref>Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness. New York: Dover Publications, 2002. https://amzn.to/2C91xNY.</ref>

Einstein says... "There is a mystical drive in man to learn about his own existence...the dignity of man depends not on his membership in a church, but on his scrutinizing mind, his confidence in his intellect, his figuring things out for himself, and above all his respect for the laws of creation" (Hermanns, 1983: np)

The satisfaction of the seventh essential need - connection. "Only the experience of one's divinity in a non-ordinary state of consciousness can ever fulfill our deepest needs"<ref>Laszlo, Ervin, Stanislav Grof, and Peter Russell. The Consciousness Revolution. Las Vegas: Elf Rock Productions, 1999. https://amzn.to/2TlOCmC. p. 67.</ref>

Grof also notes that "Full satisfaction comes ultimately from the experience of...our own divinity, not the pursuit of material goals of any scope or kind <ref>Laszlo, Ervin, Stanislav Grof, and Peter Russell. The Consciousness Revolution. Las Vegas: Elf Rock Productions, 1999. https://amzn.to/2TlOCmC. p. 8.</ref>.

"It is not becoming increasingly evident that a craving for transcendence and a need for inner development are basic and normal aspects of human nature." (alignment and connection) <ref>Grof, Christina, and Stanislav Grof. The Stormy Search for the Self: A Guide to Personal Growth Through Transformational Crises. Penguin, 1990. https://amzn.to/2UtkgP1. p. 31.</ref>

Huxley ([[PP]]) notes that Totalitarian regimes exploit humanity's need for "unity" (read Connection) by "by means of a philosophy of political monism, according to which the state is God on earth, unification under the heel of the divine state is salvation, and all means to such unification, however intrinsically wicked, are right and may be used without scruple."

St. Teresa of Avila notes speaks of a need for actualization and connection suggesting that is "quenches thirst." "Oh, my Lord, if only one could be plunged so deeply into this living water that one’s life would end! Can that be? Yes: 34 this love and desire for God35 can increase so much that human nature is unable to bear it, and so there have been persons who have died of it."<ref>St. Teresa of Avila. The Way of Perfection. New York: Dover Publications, 2012. https://amzn.to/2Id75es.</ref>

==Further Reading==

Sosteric and Ratkovic. “Seven Essential Needs,” 2018. https://www.academia.edu/38114100/The_Seven_Essential_Needs.

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