Religious ecstasy
Religious ecstasy is an altered state of consciousness characterized by a profound connection to the divine and a diminished awareness of the surrounding environment. Individuals across various faiths have reported experiences of intense closeness to a deity, often accompanied by visions of holy figures such as saints or prophets. This state can arise spontaneously or through activities like prayer, meditation, music, dancing, fasting, or even the use of certain substances. Historically, the term "ecstasy" comes from Greek, referring to a trance-like condition where time may seem altered, and individuals may experience euphoria and heightened emotions.
The phenomenon is recognized in numerous religious traditions, including Christianity, where numerous saints, like St. Teresa of Avila and St. Francis of Assisi, are celebrated for their ecstatic experiences. In addition to individual experiences, group ecstasy has been a significant aspect of religious revivals throughout history. While some may view religious ecstasy as a symptom of mental illness or demon possession, many practitioners assert that these experiences are spiritually significant and lead to a greater sense of holiness or personal transformation. Overall, religious ecstasy is viewed as a complex interplay of spirituality, emotion, and altered perception, reflecting deep human desires for connection with the divine.
On this Page
Religious ecstasy
Religious ecstasy is an altered state of mind in which a person feels an increased connection to a divine being and a decreased connection to their surroundings. People from several faith traditions have reported experiencing moments of intense closeness with a deity. In some cases, people report seeing visions of their god, a saint, a prophet, or another holy person while in an ecstatic state. The state can occur spontaneously, or it may be prompted by praying, meditating, playing music and dancing, fasting, or using certain types of drugs.
Background
The word ecstasy comes from the Greek words ex, meaning "out," and histanai, meaning "to cause to stand." The term was used by the ancient Greeks to refer to an altered state of mind or trance, especially one where the person experienced amazing or bewildering sights and sounds. In many cases, there is also an altered sense of time. Time may seem to slow or stop, or the person may be unaware of time passing. The person will often experience euphoria, or great happiness and joy, during an ecstasy. They may also be highly emotional.
This type of altered state with bursts of happiness can be brought on by a variety of stimuli, including seeing or hearing something profoundly beautiful (such as a musical or artistic performance), achieving a great accomplishment (such as winning a championship game), or participating in intense exercise (such as running a marathon). It can also be the accidental or intentional result of using some hallucinogenic drugs, or a side effect of some mental illnesses, most notably bipolar affective disorder. However, religious ecstasy specifically involves a focus on the divine and an enhanced sense of closeness to a deity. In most cases, religious ecstasy has some lasting impact on the person, inspiring an effort to achieve greater holiness, to share a message imparted during the experience, or to draw closer to the deity.
Some have reported these ecstatic experiences as spontaneous, occurring with no specific provocation. For example, six people in the village of Medjugorje in the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina claim they have been seeing visions of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, since June 1981. The visionaries were all teens or children at the time the visions and related religious ecstasies began. The young people were either walking on a mountain near their homes or tending to their families' sheep and not engaged in any specific religious activity when they first claim to have experienced religious ecstasy. Other times, people who experience ecstasies are taking part in specific religious activities, such as prayer, fasting, religious rituals, spiritual dancing, or meditative practices. In some cases, people use a substance, such as a hallucinogenic drug, or engage in an experience, such as sitting in a sweat lodge, to create a physical condition in which they are more susceptible to a trance-like state to try to induce religious ecstasy.
Someone experiencing religious ecstasy will often appear to be in a trance or become unresponsive to stimuli from the outside world. The person may, however, appear to be responding to someone not in the room, with eyes fixed in a specific direction and verbal responses given to questions the observer cannot hear. The experience can be as short as a few seconds or as long as several hours, during which time the person may even faint or otherwise become unconscious. Once the experience ends, the person will often have a heightened sense of emotion depending on how they interpret what was seen during the trance. The person may be agitated if what they experienced is perceived as threatening, or the person may be calm and peaceful if what was experienced felt good. In either case, the person often firmly believes what they experienced to be real and feels closer to the divine as a result.
The person who experiences a religious ecstasy may also report having an epiphany. In the Christian context, this can refer to an encounter with Christ. In other contexts, it can also refer to an intuitive or enlightening revelation about something. A religious ecstasy can sometimes result in a person making a major change in their life, such as leaving a job, as the result of something they came to understand during the ecstasy.
Overview
A number of traditions accept the idea that practitioners can experience religious ecstasies. Those who practice yoga may aspire to samadhi, meaning equal states of consciousness. Through meditation, the practitioner strives to bring their spiritual sense in line with the physical and mental senses. Success results in a state of ecstasy.
Religious ecstasy also has a strong presence in Christianity. Many Christian saints claimed to have experienced ecstasies with visions, including St. Teresa of Avila, St. Francis of Assisi, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, Julian of Norwich, and Thomas à Kempis. Group states of religious ecstasy have also been characteristic of several periods of religious revival in Christianity, including the First Great Awakening in the sixteenth century, the Second Great Revival during the nineteenth century, and the beginnings of the Pentecostal movement in the early twentieth century. The Roman Catholic Church considers religious ecstasy to have two components. There is an internal and invisible component where the person's mind and soul are focused on the divine, and there is an external and visible part where the person seems to be cut off from the effects of external stimuli.
In some cases, religious ecstasies have been dismissed as a sign of a mental health condition. While some people who have mental illness experience ecstasies either as a symptom of or apart from their medical condition, many people who are otherwise mentally sound have experienced states of ecstasy. The condition has also sometimes been condemned as a sign of demon possession. Those who seek to differentiate between ecstasy and possession usually point to the outcome and the sense of joy and peace that accompanies ecstasy.
Bibliography
"Beginning Days of the Apparitions." Caritas of Birmingham, medjugorje.com/beginning-days-of-the-apparition. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.
Burton, Neel. "The Psychology of Ecstasy." Psychology Today, 19 Jan. 2015, www.psychologytoday.com/za/blog/hide-and-seek/201501/the-psychology-ecstasy. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.
"Ecstasy." The Catholic Encyclopedia, www.newadvent.org/cathen/05277a.htm. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.
Esparza, Daniel. "What Is Ecstasy in Christian Mysticism? Saints' Insights." Aleteia, 27 Nov. 2024, aleteia.org/2024/09/27/what-is-ecstasy-in-christian-mysticism. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.
Glaz, Stanislaw. "Characteristics of Extraordinary Religious Phenomena Accompanying the Christian Religious Experience—Reflection." Religions, vol. 5, no. 4, 9 Dec. 2014, pp. 1146–60, www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/4/1146/htm. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.
Holm, Nils G. "Ecstasy Research in the 20th Century—An Introduction." Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, vol. 11, 1982, doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67128. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.
Malinar, Angelika, and Helene Basu. "Ecstasy." The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Emotion, edited by John Corrigan, Oxford UP, 2008, pp. 241–58.
Nyanaponika, Ven. Pathways of Buddhist Thought: Essays from the Wheel. Routledge, 2013, pp. 190–94.
Ogén, Göran. "Religious Ecstasy in Classical Sufism." Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, vol. 11, 1982, doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67143. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.