Distinguishing Traits
Spiritual ecstasy can be distinguished from spirit possession and hypnosis in that ecstasy is not accompanied by the experiencing subject losing interior consciousness or will. Rather, the person experiencing ecstasy notices a dramatic spiritual awareness heightening, with total will concentration on the elevation. If the ecstatic state comes about slowly, the subject may notice changes in his or her physiological responses. But, once brought into complete ecstasy, the subject ordinarily has no, or very little, external surrounding physical state awareness. Some external awareness remains in a partial religious ecstasy. Intense fear may accompany the initial stage of being drawn into ecstasy. Different religious teachings distinguish and describe several stages or forms of ecstasy.
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“If we justify war, it is because all peoples always justify the traits of which they find themselves possessed, not because war will bear an objective examination of its merits.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)