Latest revision as of 15:00, 29 August 2026

Alignment Needs

Alignment Needs are needs that drive us to be in Alignment with our Spiritual Ego. These include our needs to give, to be nice, to be productive, to be authentic, to be a part of something bigger, to contribute and to help out, to "to give and to share and the willingness to make sacrifices for others."^[1] We feel good when are in alignment. We feel terrible when we are not.

Concept Map

Key Terms

Lightning Path Human Development Framework >

LP Psychological Framework >

Seven Essential Needs >

List of Essential Needs Categories

Seven Essential Needs >

Notes

On the LP we subsume the concept of Self-Actualization within the Needs Category of Alignment. The drive to self-actualization becomes the drive for Inner Alignment to actualize one's inner potential, to act in accordance with the "grow in terms of their own nature."^[2] We also have a drive for Outer Alignment, which is the drive to align with the familial, social, and societal, assuming these are healthy. We also have an alignment need to be a good person, to be nice, supportive, etc.

What alignment looks like depends on two factors

The general characteristics of the Spiritual Ego.
The specific characteristics of the individual.

Generally, the spiritual ego is a powerful, aware, loving, compassionate, and willful. It wants to create in a positive way for all beings.

Specifically, the spiritual ego may be interested in different things, like mechanics, sociology, history, computer, etc.

An aligned individual is one whose Physical Unit thinks, acts, and feels in accordance with the spiritual ego.

A lot has been said about alignment

Need to Give

Fromm discusses this need, and some other alignment needs, in his book To Have or To Be.

To sum up, the frequency and intensity of the desire to share, to give, and to sacrifice are not surprising if we consider the conditions of existence of the human species. What is surprising is that this need could be so repressed as to make acts of selfishness the rule in industrial (and many other) societies and acts of solidarity the exception. But, paradoxically, this very phenomenon is caused by the need for union^[3] (read Outer Connection

Quotes

We find the same needs affirmed and expressed in many communes throughout the centuries, whether religious, socialist, or humanist. We find the wish to give in the people who volunteer their blood (without payment), in the many situations in which people risk their lives to save another’s. We find the manifestation of the will to give in people who genuinely love. “False love,’’ i.e., shared mutual selfishness, makes people more selfish (and this is the case often enough). Genuine love increases the capacity to love and to give to others. The true lover loves the whole world, in his or her love for a specific person.
...
Outstanding examples of such people from past history are the sons and daughters of the rich in the Roman Empire, who embraced the religion of poverty and love; another is the Buddha, who was a prince and had every pleasure and luxury that he could possibly want, but discovered that having and consuming cause unhappiness and suffering^[4]

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Footnotes

↑ Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 102.
↑ Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 78.
↑ Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 106.
↑ Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 103.

References

[1] Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 102.

[2] Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 78.

[3] Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 106.

[4] Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 103.

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-<blockquote class="definition">'''Alignment Needs''' are needs that drive us to be in [[Alignment]] with our [[Spiritual Ego]]. These include our needs to be nice, to be productive, to be real, to be a part of something bigger, to contribute and to help out. We feel good when are in alignment. We feel terrible when we are not.
+<blockquote class="definition">'''Alignment Needs''' are needs that drive us to be in [[Alignment]] with our [[Spiritual Ego]]. These include our needs to give, to be nice, to be productive, to be authentic, to be a part of something bigger, to contribute and to help out, to "to give and to share and the willingness to make sacrifices for others."<ref>Erich Fromm, ''To Have or to Be?'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 102.</ref> We feel good when are in alignment. We feel terrible when we are not.
 </blockquote>
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 ==Notes==
+On the LP we subsume the concept of [[Self-Actualization]] within the Needs Category of [[Alignment]]. The drive to self-actualization becomes the drive for [[Inner Alignment]] to actualize one's inner potential, to act in accordance with the "grow in terms of their own nature."<ref>Erich Fromm, ''To Have or to Be?'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 78.</ref> We also have a drive for [[Outer Alignment]], which is the drive to align with the familial, social, and societal, assuming these are healthy. We also have an alignment need to be a good person, to be nice, supportive, etc.
 What alignment looks like depends on two factors
@@ Line 34: / Line 36: @@
 A lot has been said about alignment
+=== Need to Give ===
+Fromm discusses this need, and some other alignment needs, in his book [[To Have or To Be]].  <blockquote>To sum up, the frequency and intensity of the desire to share, to give, and to sacrifice are not surprising if we consider the conditions of existence of the human species. What is surprising is that this need could be so repressed as to make acts of selfishness the rule in industrial (and many other) societies and acts of solidarity the exception. But, paradoxically, this very phenomenon is caused by the need for union<ref>Erich Fromm, ''To Have or to Be?'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 106.</ref> (read [[Outer Connection]]</blockquote>
+== Quotes ==
+<blockquote>We find the same needs affirmed and expressed in many communes throughout the centuries, whether religious, socialist, or humanist. We find the wish to give in the people who volunteer their blood (without payment), in the many situations in which people risk their lives to save another’s. We find the manifestation of the will to give in people who genuinely love. “False love,’’ i.e., shared mutual selfishness, makes people more selfish (and this is the case often enough). Genuine love increases the capacity to love and to give to others. The true lover loves the whole world, in his or her love for a specific person.
+...
+Outstanding examples of such people from past history are the sons and daughters of the rich in the Roman Empire, who embraced the religion of poverty and love; another is the Buddha, who was a prince and had every pleasure and luxury that he could possibly want, but discovered that having and consuming cause unhappiness and suffering<ref>Erich Fromm, ''To Have or to Be?'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 103.</ref> </blockquote>
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