He also concluded that they have a superior ability to see and interpret life more clearly because of their more accurate perception of self and reality.4...Their reality perception is less distorted by desires, anxieties, fears, hopes, false optimism or pessimism. Even though they have this superior attribute, they maintain a special kind of humility which renders them highly teachable. During peak experience they have an even better perception of reality which, when coupled with an extraordinary creative ability, can enable them to synthesize higher-order concepts and gain insights similar to those of many philosophers, scientists and theologians.5...Their special creative abilities are universal and are applied to all aspects of their life.
They are without exception dedicated to some work, task or duty that they consider important and which brings them excitement, pleasure, and fulfillment. Their work is so pleasurable that it becomes their play and allows for a higher degree of personality integration. They work very hard, striving for perfection with much discipline, often postponing pleasure to achieve the end result. They tend to work on problems that confront society, and have a genuine desire to help the human race. They have both self-confidence and self-respect, and are more concerned with the outcome of the task that involves them rather than with the protection of their egos. Their courage or lack of fear allows them the luxury of mistakes without self-recrimination.6
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They have a better perception of what is right and wrong based upon their own experiences. The struggle between good and bad is not a problem, and they consistently prefer to choose the better values and accomplish this with relative ease. They will resist their cultural teachings when these don't agree with their own point of view. Their values and ideals are similar to those taught by the great religions, even though they are not particularly religious. Most believe in a meaningful universe and could be considered as spiritual. Maslow stated that they accept "the transcendence of self, the fusion of the true, the good and the beautiful, contribution to others, wisdom, honesty, and naturalness, the transcendence of selfish and personal motivation, the giving up of `lower' desires in favor of `higher' ones,... the decrease of hostility, cruelty and destructiveness and the increase of friendliness, kindness, etc.".8
They feel a kinship with the whole human race and can maintain close personal friendships with others regardless of race, creed, class, education, political beliefs or nationality. They can be very tolerant of others' shortcomings, yet very intolerant of dishonesty, lying, cheating, hypocrisy and cruelty.9
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