ECSTASY, an intense emotional state in which the scope of consciousness appears on introspection to lack all differentiation. It is characteristic of religious devotees. Mysticism is the opinion that ecstasy is a cognitive state, and mystics usually assert that the truest knowl edge, or even the only true knowledge, is that acquired in a state of ecstasy. Ecstasy is not confined to any one religion nor to any one state of civilization — it is shared by the Budd hist monk, the Hindu yogi, the Moslem dervish, the Neo-Platonic sage, the Jewish cabalist,. the early Christian martyr, the Swedenborgian and the medicine-man of the Amazonian savage. It is of the most varied nature as to its causes, its physiological and psychological concomitants, and the interpretation which it receives. Intoxi cants, wild orgiastic dances, intent gazing at the navel or crystal globe, the mortification of the flesh, strange postures, the droning repeti tion of sacred words— all these devices and many others are employed to sweep from the field of consciousness all sharply-bounded ideas of particular things, and to lead the soul into a contemplation which finds all its demands satisfied within itself. The state of ecstasy attained by any of these means shows in its concomitants an intimate association with hyp notic phenomena—it is accompanied in certain cases by anesthesia, the stigmata of the saints, loud irrepressible cries or frenzied dances and visions of the most varied kinds. In the Occi dent, ecstasy is oftenest interpreted as a direct communion with God, an unmediated entrance into the inmost heart of things. The less theistically inclined Hindu regards his ecstatic state rather as a sloughing off of the appear ances of Being and even of the will to he, so that the soul floats away into the blissful non existence called Nirvana. There are many cases where states of an essentially ecstatic character have been attributed to demoniac possession.
Ecstasy is closely related to other forms of very intense emotion. The ecstasy of the Mos lem fanatic is above all a warlike passion, a desire to carry jehad into the lands of the un believer. Ecstasy of the orgiastic variety has very commonly a strong sexual element, as the cult of Dionysos bears witness. The deliberate evocation of ecstasy as a means of inducing a pleasurable excitement is by no means unknown even within the Christian faith, as is shown by the circumstances of many religious revivals. Ecstasy may be associated with objects other than those of religion. Intense esthetic con templation often leads to an absorption of the spectator in the work of art so complete as to deserve the name of ecstasy. In such a case
the emotional effect of the work becomes so intense as to blot out all thought of the detail by which this effect is conveyed.
The cognitive value of ecstasy is very diffi cult to determine. It is certainly impossible to refute by recourse to the processes of con secutive thought what purports to be the object of a knowledge higher than thought and inde pendent of its norms. Nevertheless, this logical irrefutability of mysticism is by no means a proof of its validity. The fact that the mystic believes with the utmost faith that he his been in communion with God does not in the least show that his mystical experience has not merely been a general sense of well-being, combined with the apparently amorphous mental content of one in a state of partial auto-hypnosis. So long as the mystic keeps his worlds of descrip tive knowledge and of revelation sharply dis tinct, whether to follow him is a matter for each to decide for himself. However, much of the discursive knowledge that the mystic accepts as guaranteed by his mystical experi ence is not contained in the mystical experience itself, which is for the most part non-discur sive in nature. The transition between the mystical vision, such as that which appeared to Moses on Sinai, and its interpretation in dis course — the Ten Commandments — is subject to a criticism on the part of reason, to precisely the same extent as any other transition from one item of knowledge to another. The weak est link in the chain that leads from the state of ecstasy to the dogma which claims to have been revealed in this state is the first step from direct immediacy to descriptive knowledge.
Ecstatic states appear frequently as psycho pathic phenomena. Trances are characteristic of hysteria and catalepsy. In general, mystical experiences are most common among those who are abnormal in their mental make-up, or are weak by constitution or long illness, or have recently undergone some strong emotional shock. (See MYSTICISM; TRANcE). Consult Achelis, T., 'Die Ekstase) (Berlin 1902) ; Granger, F., 'The Soul of a Christian' (London 1906); Inge, W. R., 'Christian Mysticism' (Oxford 1899) ; James, 'Varieties of Religious Experi ence' (New York 1902) ; Janet, P., (L'itat men tal des hysteriques) (Paris 1893-94; tr. New York 1901) •, Recejac, E., 'Essai sur les fonde ments de la connaissance mystique' (Paris 1897) ; Ribot, 'Les maladies de la memoire' (Paris 1881) • Starbuck, E. D., 'Psychology of Religion' (London 1899) ; Underhill, E., 'Mys ticism' (London 1911).