Ecstasy

From The SpiritWiki

Ecstasy is an example of the Enhanced Positive Affect that often attents a powerful Connection Experience.

Examples

Enhanced Positive Affect > Beatific Vision, Bliss, Cosmic Religious Feeling, Ecstasy, Euphoria, Happiness, Rapture, Spiritual Emergence, Warmth

List of Connection Outcomes

Connection Outcome > Connection Pathology, Déjà vu, Emotional Cleansing, Emotional Satisfaction, Enlightenment, Existential Terrors, Healing, Liberation, Perfect Connection, Perfected Connection, Perfection, Permanent Connection, Physical Sensations, Psychotic Mysticism, Realization of Self, Ritambharapragya, Spontaneous Alignment, The Unity, Transformation, Union

Notes

The elitist Madam Blavatsky: "Real ecstasy was defined by Plotinus as "the liberation of the mind from its finite consciousness, becoming one and identified with the infinite." This is the highest condition, says Prof. Wilder, but not one of permanent duration, and it is reached only by the very very few. It is, indeed, identical with that state which is known in India as Samadhi. The latter is practised by the Yogis, who facilitate it physically by the greatest abstinence in food and drink, and mentally by an incessant endeavour to purify and elevate the mind. Meditation is silent and unuttered prayer, or, as Plato."[1] Note her emphasis on "purification of the mind" (see Flow Purification) and also by incessant intent (i.e. prayer).

On individual reports: "Ecstasy. I had certainly experienced being intoxicated under the influence of alcohol and pot and coke and so forth, but this feeling of intoxication was just so much different. It left me feeling so peaceful, and it was very very dramatic.[2]

Alan Watts comments on the association of ecstasy/bliss with Connection Experience.

The central core of the experience seems to be the conviction, or insight, that the immediate now, whatever its nature, is the goal and fulfillment of all living. Surrounding and flowing from this insight is an emotional ecstasy, a sense of intense relief, freedom, and lightness, and often of almost unbearable love for the world...[3]

Footnotes

  1. Blavatsky, H. P. The Key to Theosophy: A Clear Exposition Based on the Wisdom Religion of All Ages. Theosophical University Press, 1889.
  2. William R Miller and anet C’de Baca, Quantum Change: When Epiphanies and Sudden Insights Transform Ordinary Lives (New York: The Guildford Press, 2001).
  3. Watts, Alan W.. This Is It (p. 18). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.