What is ecstasy and ecstatic dance?
When we think of someone in ecstasy we usually picture a person swooning with wild unbounded joy and happiness. Yet ecstasy may also arrive during the throes of a painful or deep heart-rending event such as the death of a loved one, or a debilitating illness. It is the last thing you might ever expect to show up in the center of a deeply challenging experience, but sometimes it does. Terrence McKenna defines ecstasy as a complex emotion containing elements of joy, fear, terror, triumph, surrender and empathy. It derives from the Greek word ekstasis, meaning “displacement, trance, to take flight, to drive out of one’s senses.” The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets defines it as “standing forth naked.” Einstein referred to it as the “ultimate religious feeling state,” while author Chris Griscom views it as “the higher self in action.” A defining trait of ecstasy is its immediacy. Ecstasy is not some splendid event, like a ravishing sunset, that happens in the external world befor
When we think of someone in ecstasy we usually picture a person swooning with wild unbounded joy and happiness. Yet ecstasy may also arrive during the throes of a painful or deep heart-rending event such as the death of a loved one, or a debilitating illness. It is the last thing you might ever expect to show up in the center of a deeply challenging experience, but sometimes it does. Terrence McKenna defines ecstasy as a complex emotion containing elements of joy, fear, terror, triumph, surrender and empathy. It derives from the Greek word ekstasis, meaning “displacement, trance, to take flight, to drive out of one’s senses.” The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets defines it as “standing forth naked.” Einstein referred to it as the “ultimate religious feeling state,” while author Chris Griscom views it as “the higher self in action.” A defining trait of ecstasy is its immediacy. Ecstasy is not some splendid event, like a ravishing sunset, that happens in the external world befor
