Peace Table
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Peace Table
The Peace Table is a visionary concept introduced by Abraham Maslow, referring to a dialogical and scientific space for rethinking human nature, healing, and social order. It is now being revived as an intellectual and spiritual project aimed at manifesting a Eupsychian society or Harmonic Social Order. See https://medium.com/the-peace-table
Concept Map
Key Terms
Related Terms
- Eupsychian Theory
- Seven Essential Needs
- Human Development Framework
- Authentic Spirituality
- Connection Experience
- Needs Satisfaction
- SpiritWiki
- Accumulating Class
- Toxic Socialization
Notes
The Peace Table is a visionary concept first articulated by psychologist Abraham Maslow during a transformative mystical experience in the early 1940s. Rather than contribute to war psychology or political propaganda, Maslow resolved to build what he called a “Psychology for the Peace Table,” a system of thought and practice dedicated to healing, understanding, and the actualization of full Human Potential.
This psychology would eventually evolve into his Eupsychian Theory, grounded in Humanistic Psychology, Transpersonal Psychology, and a future-facing, utopian science of being, Eupsychian Psychology. The Peace Table symbolizes the foundational place from which humanity might collaboratively design a society capable of producing happy, autonomous, connected, and fully functioning individuals.
Maslow's Vision
Maslow envisioned a literal and metaphorical table where people—scientists, philosophers, mystics, educators—would gather to discuss the **nature of human beings**, the **causes of hatred and war**, and the **pathways to peace, healing, and human flourishing**. This vision redirected his career away from pathology-focused psychology (Freud) and control-oriented behaviorism (Skinner), toward a comprehensive, need-satisfying, spiritually integrated framework for personal and collective development.
Maslow’s foundational statement:
> “I had a vision of a peace table, with people sitting around it, talking about human nature and hatred and war and peace and brotherhood… That moment changed my whole life.” — Maslow, as quoted in Hoffman (1999:148–49)
Contemporary Revival
The Peace Table is now being revived as a **digital publication project and scholarly initiative** inspired by Maslow’s original vision. Hosted initially on Medium, this effort aims to continue the unfinished Eupsychian project by creating an open, collaborative, and intellectually rigorous forum for addressing the global polycrisis. It serves as a **convergent space for scholars, mystics, professionals, and systems designers** to articulate the principles, frameworks, and practices necessary to birth the "good society" Maslow envisioned.
Theoretical Grounding
The Peace Table is grounded in:
- Maslow’s later works (e.g., *The Farthest Reaches of Human Nature*, *Motivation and Personality*, *Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences*)
- The emergent need-based models articulated in the Lightning Path Human Development Framework
- Anti-capitalist critiques of elite sabotage of humanistic and transpersonal psychology (cf. Elkins 2009; Sosteric & Ratkovic, under review)
Decline and Suppression
Maslow's Peace Table was never fully realized. Following his death in 1970, and due to coordinated ideological and institutional opposition, the humanistic project was aggressively defunded and marginalized in mainstream psychology. This “epistemic assassination” (Elkins, 2009) effectively removed one of the few emancipatory threads within the Western psychological tradition, derailing the development of a truly liberatory and holistic psychological science.
Purpose
The revived Peace Table initiative aims to:
- Resurrect and build upon Maslow’s Eupsychian psychology
- Create a permanent intellectual and developmental platform for healing, systemic transformation, and global peace
- Provide spiritual, theoretical, and empirical grounding for designing a global, healing and connection focussed Eupsychia