Maslow’s Hierarchy No Longer Meets All Our Human Needs (And What Comes Next)

Why Human Needs Aren’t a Ladder - From Maslow’s Hierarchy to Whole-Being Ecology: A New Map of Human Needs

Most of us encountered Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs early in life—school, therapy, self-help books, leadership trainings. A clean pyramid. Simple. Logical. Upward.

Food and safety at the bottom. Love and belonging in the middle. Esteem and self-actualization at the top.

It made sense. It still does, to a point.

And yet—many of us have met our “basic needs,” even achieved what looks like success or liberation, and still feel anxious, fragmented, burned out, or hollow. Many of us have done the therapy, the ceremonies, the sex-positive exploration, the spiritual work… and still find ourselves circling the same unmet longings.

So the question becomes:

What if the ladder is part of the problem?

I come from a family of personal growth enthusiasts and self-helpers, so I was introduced to Maslow’s Hierarchy pretty early. It was validating to have a framework that said, “People don’t act out because they’re bad—often it’s because a need isn’t being met.”

Maslow mattered. He named human needs as legitimate. Safety, belonging, esteem, meaning—these were not moral failures but human realities. For its time, that was radical and humane. It helped soften cruel narratives like “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” or “poor people are just lazy.”

Maslow gave us compassionate intelligence around need.

But hierarchies have consequences.

A pyramid quietly implies that some needs matter more than others. That you should earn rest. Earn pleasure. Earn meaning. Earn care. Survival culture absorbed this quickly, and capitalism loved it even more.

Productivity became worth.Actualization became achievement.Healing became something you do after success.

I told myself for years:

“Once I’m not living paycheck to paycheck, then I’ll eat the foods my body actually needs.”“One day I’ll take that dream trip—but for now I’ll just buy the $100 sex toy to take the edge off.”

But sometimes the math doesn’t add up.

Sometimes you need the vacation now so you can show up with energy for the work that pays next month’s bills. Sometimes you need rest, touch, nourishment, or meaning before you burn out—not as a reward for surviving burnout.

The pyramid doesn’t account for this reality.

What If Needs Aren’t Sequential—But Ecological?

This is where Whole-Being Ecology comes in.

Whole-Being Ecology understands the human not as a ladder to climb, but as a living system to tend.

Needs are not conquered.They are fed.

When one domain is overactivated or starved, imbalance spreads. When all are nourished appropriately, vitality circulates.

This framework doesn’t reject Maslow—it evolves him.

It replaces self-actualization with right relationship.

Not becoming “more.”Becoming more connected, resourced, and free to choose.

Think less pyramid, more ecosystem:

• Soil

• Water

• Fire

• Sky

• Roots

You cannot starve the soil and expect fruit.You cannot overfire without burning the forest.

The Core Domains of Whole-Being Ecology

Interdependent biomes, not levels

1. Ancestral Body Wisdom

The ground we stand on

This domain governs instinct, nervous system regulation, sensory awareness, rhythm, rest, hunger, touch, inherited memory, and cultural imprinting.

It’s the intelligence of:

• The body knowing before the mind

• The gut, skin, breath, posture

• Animal safety and belonging

In modern language: somatics, trauma literacy, burnout recovery, reclaiming presence in a disembodied world.

When this domain is undernourished, we see dissociation, chronic anxiety, compulsive seeking, and loss of intuition.

This is the soil layer. No amount of vision or pleasure survives without it.

Sometimes it shows up as red flags when meeting someone new who strangely reminds you of your ex.Sometimes it’s the sudden urge to call a friend—only to learn they’ve been isolating and spiraling.Sometimes it’s the quiet thought: “I deserve better.”

That’s not drama. That’s wisdom.

2. Relational Alchemy

How energy moves between beings

This domain governs attachment, boundaries, conflict and repair, power dynamics, consent, and community belonging beyond identity performance.

Alchemy means:

• Turning friction into understanding

• Turning difference into curiosity

• Turning rupture into resilience

This includes relationship to self, others, land, culture, and systems.

When distorted, relational energy turns into codependence, isolation disguised as independence, performative community, or sexual over-activation used as a substitute for connection.

This is the water system. It carries nourishment—or contamination—everywhere.

For years, I tried to make relationships feel like ceremonies. Sacred. Perfect. Elevated.

But ceremonies are facilitated moments. Relationships are not ceremonies. Life is.

The real ceremony begins after the retreat ends, after the altar is dismantled, when two people curl up together in the cold and realize that being seen, imperfectly, is sometimes enough. Tomorrow we’ll map our needs. Tonight, we rest.

3. Erotic Intelligence

The circulation of vitality

Erotic Intelligence is not sexuality. Sexuality is one expression of it.

This domain governs creative drive, sensual perception, curiosity, play, desire as information, and pleasure without compulsion.

Erotic energy is life-force in motion. The yes in the body. The charge that animates healing, magic, devotion, learning, and care.

In its mature form:

• Desire has direction

• Pleasure has dignity

• Arousal can rest

• Vitality serves life, not consumption

When unintegrated, we see hypersexual spaces, burnout disguised as liberation, objectification of self and others, and confusion between intensity and intimacy.

I’ve lived seasons of profound sexual power—being desired, paid for, begged for—and simultaneously felt isolated, creatively blocked, financially unstable, or emotionally lost.

Erotic energy without circulation becomes a pressure cooker.Erotic energy with direction becomes fuel.

This is the fire. Necessary. Transformative. Sacred when tended.

4. Intuitive & Mythic Intelligence

Meaning, pattern, and guidance

This domain governs intuition, dreaming, symbolic thinking, spirituality, and personal cosmology.

It answers:

• Why am I here?

• What is this moment asking of me?

• How do I listen beyond logic?

This is where ritual lives. Where prayer lives. Where non-ordinary states are integrated rather than idolized. Where myth replaces dogma.

Growing up religious, spirituality meant study, belief, and obedience. Today, my spiritual practice is about listening—to my body, to people’s pain, to people’s dreams, to what wants to move through us.

When neglected, we drift into nihilism, spiritual bypass, or addiction to certainty or skepticism.

This is the sky. It gives perspective and navigation.

5. Material & Stewardship Intelligence

Care for body, land, and resources

Often left out of spiritual models entirely.

This domain governs food systems, shelter, money ethics, labor, and care of land, animals, tools, and spaces.

It asks:

• How do we sustain life?

• Who feeds whom?

• What does responsibility look like in community?

For me, this wasn’t a turning point—it was a Re-turning back.

As a child, I wanted to be a parent and a veterinarian. I learned to cook young. I learned to read moods, to stabilize rooms, to feed people physically and emotionally. Not the center of the orgy—but the one watching from the kitchen cutting fruit and making soup for afterward.

This is the root network. Invisible until it fails.

From Self-Actualization to Circulation

Maslow asked:“How do individuals reach self-actualization?”

Whole-Being Ecology asks:“How do beings live in right relationship with themselves, each other, and the living world?”

The goal is not transcendence.The goal is circulation.

You don’t need to become more actualized.You need to become more resourced.

Why This Matters Now

We are living through burnout culture, polycrisis, identity fatigue, over-therapy, and under-nourishment.

People are not broken.They are ecologically malnourished.

This is why so many spiritual and sexual awakenings collapse into exhaustion instead of integration. Erotic awakening without grounding becomes dysregulation. Spiritual insight without relational skill becomes isolation.

I see this constantly in retreat spaces. Men arrive thinking they need ecstatic orgy to evolve—while the real shift happens when they allow themselves to be held. People chase enlightenment when what they need is to grieve, to be understood, to simplify, to belong.

Intensity numbs. Intimacy nourishes.

What This Has Changed in Me

This is still a daily practice.

Sometimes I forget to eat because I’m excited about a project. Sometimes all I can manage is one meal and the couch. Sometimes I’m so focused on holding space for others that I forget to breathe deeply.

But I know my nervous system better now. I listen sooner. I repair faster. I measure success differently.

I’ve learned that even when my body feels lonely, I am host to a thriving ecosystem of microbes keeping me alive. Even when my soul feels empty, I can collapse onto the earth and let myself be drawn upward—rooted and lifted at once.

We are physical and spiritual beings.We are never truly alone.

An Invitation

What would it look like to build a life that feeds all of you?

As a gentle reflection, you might ask yourself:

• Where did Maslow’s hierarchy once help you—and where does it fall short now?

• Which part of your ecology has been overworked or ignored?

• Where has intensity replaced intimacy?

• What does your body already know that you haven’t listened to yet?

• What kind of nourishment are you actually hungry for?

This is not about abandoning desire, ambition, or spirituality.

It’s about tending the whole system—so nothing has to scream to be heard.

All offerings, retreats, ceremonies, and community spaces held by Wild Shamanics and StarSoil Alliance are rooted in this evolved understanding of human needs—not as a hierarchy to climb, but as an ecology to tend. Whether through ritual, relationship, land-based care, or shared nourishment, the work is the same: restoring right relationship within ourselves, with one another, and with the living world. If this framework resonates, you’re welcome to explore it firsthand through our free online resources, or by joining us in retreat—where we practice, imperfectly and together, the work and play of building a grounded, inclusive, and life-affirming community for the future.