Ecstasy (emotion)

Ecstasy (ancient Greek ἔκστασις ékstasis "the coming out of oneself, the rapture"; from ἐξ-ίστασθαι ex-hístasthai "coming out of oneself, being out of oneself"), formerly also called rapture, is a term used in religious studies and psychology. Ecstasy is a collective term for particularly intense exceptional mental states that resemble a trance or are unleashed by one. They are described by those affected as dramatic changes of state of consciousness.

According to them, the consciousness is experienced as "expanded" or "heightened" during ecstasy. Through this expansion or elevation, the person concerned (or also an observer) gets the impression that he is "out of himself" or "not with himself". What is meant by this is that he has stepped out of the realm of his familiar environment and normal perceptual capacity and into a realm of different perceptual possibilities. The historian Peter Dinzelbacher describes ecstasy as the "emergence of the soul from the body with simultaneous suspension of sensory perception" and in a broader sense as a "rapturous state of excitement with diminished consciousness".

During ecstasy, this other realm appears to the sufferer not only as completely real, but as the only reality. Even in retrospect, ecstatics tend to regard what they experience in ecstasy as more significant, more valuable and more real than the everyday world. Religious ecstatics interpret and evaluate their ecstatic experiences in the context of their particular religious worldview. In some cases, "being outside oneself" is also understood literally in the sense of a local emergence of the soul from the body.

Favouring or inducing factors

The occurrence of ecstatic experiences can be brought about or promoted both by a reduction (impairment or elimination) of normal functions of the human organism and a lack of stimuli and by an increase in external stimuli.

Mitigation includes asceticism, isolation, stimulus deprivation (e.g., in the isolation tank), illness, fasting, persistent prayer, and meditation. Fainting states and near-death experiences can also be accompanied by ecstatic experiences.

On the other hand, numerous sensory stimuli are also capable of triggering ecstatic or ecstasy-like experiences. These include music, dance (e.g. dervish dances, trance dance), drums, chants, light effects (e.g. by means of mindmachine), intoxicating drinks (soma), hyperventilation, sexual techniques (e.g. neotantra), consumption of natural as well as synthetic intoxicants (e.g. MDMA, also known as ecstasy, or opiates) or life-threatening situations in combat. Today, ecstasy is often sought in a direct "synthetic" way through the use of music and intoxicants without a religious background, also combined with meditative practices.

Targets

An ecstasy can occur and proceed completely unexpectedly for the person concerned, or it can be planned and brought about by him. Ecstatics who plan their experiences or at least create favourable conditions for them often strive to reach a climax in which they see the goal and completion of the experience.

In many Far Eastern traditions, the attainment of absolute nothingness, of nirvana, and the associated experience of one's own dissolution and extinction is considered the highest attainable. Western traditions also mention such goals, but also pleasurable experiences up to states that are described as deification (experiencing one's own divinity). Some descriptions of ecstatic states also contain a clearly prominent erotic component with corresponding vocabulary. According to ecstatics, the experiences can include moments of deepest despair as well as moments of exuberant joy of life.