Ecstasy Books

So many books about food are negative in tone, with emphasis on what we shouldn't eat and why not. Lois Ferguson's message is simple: lighten up and enjoy not only food but life itself. What a concept! If you love food, you'll love this book.

I don't want to review the book, I just want you to know who the author is since you don't have her listed: Mary Bittner Wiseman is the author.

As a student of transformation... most religous works leave me cold. They are simply out of touch with anything but religous dogma. This work however... cut out all the nonsense and gave me a real, straight to the point understanding of the process of transformation as Francis encountered life. He was human just like us and he struggled just like we do... and overcame and didn't stop. Read this book if you are serious... this is a must own and study. Haule lends his expertise from the theriputic process in analizing process... a GREAT BOOK !!!

It's rare to read such a refreshing and new approach to fiction. I was quickly swept away with the unique voice of the author and sound of the language. The story within the story that occurs near the beginning is in itself worthy of the the purchase.
As the tale proceeds, I became aware of a web of underlying themes and was particularly intrigued by the exposition of what is truth, what is reality and what perspective do we use to view our world. At the same time, it was a bit like reading a mystery, constantly piecing together these various viewpoints. And still, I was captivated by the moment to moment storytelling as it pursued its voice in so many different ways. Highly recommended!!!

I love discovering little-known books like this. "Ecstasy" is a nicely wrought mood piece from Dutch author Louis Couperus (1863-1923), who at present could hardly be more obscure among English-speaking audiences. A delicate and enigmatic tale of a young widow and her relationship with a restless, cosmopolitan fellow, this novel makes no innovations in the art of fiction, but it is notable for its psychological acuteness; the author is very good at describing his characters' internal conflicts. Some readers will have trouble putting up with the baroque flourishes (this is one of those 19th Century novels where the characters rarely talk like human beings), but I quite enjoyed it.

The story of an Austrian girl, who became a world class actress. From the 30s untill the early 50s, Hedy Lamarr was often labeled the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. This book details her ups and downs, her loves and failures, in a very humanistic way.

I was forced to read this book as part of a rehabilitation program at my school, and I have to admit that I was skeptical at first. But, after I read Mr Werther's book, I changed my mind. Ecstasy is bad! It is bad for your heart and your mind. I thought he was "right on" when he talked about how it makes you nice. So nice that you might even give away important information like your moms credit card information! I like how it wasn't too long, but it really made me think. Now I'll stick to things I haven't read about!

The book is a 544-page monograph classifying and systematizing ecstatic experiences. (There is nothing said about MDMA, misleading promotion of which has almost occupied the ancient term "ecstasy" today, but some other drugs and their effects are mentioned in the book.)

Basis for the research are:
* 63 interviews conducted by the author,
* 27 descriptions of ecstasy in literature,
* 22 examples of religious texts about the subject and
* 52 cases of schoolchildren reporting their extraordinary experiences.

All this primary material is included into the book as appendices. The material is analyzed thoroughly and processed into a classification of ecstatic states. First, ecstasies are divided into "withdrawal" and "intensity" types, the latter type is the main subject of further analysis. Intensity ecstasies are divided into "adamic" (peace+love+kindness), "knowledge" and "contact" ecstasies, in increasing order of "greater" experiences. Various triggers of ecstasy, special cases, related phenomena, also "overbeliefs" (i.e. interpretations with external assumptions, often with a share of wishful thinking) and their formation are analyzed. A variant of content analysis is applied to primary material and various number and percentage distributions are presented as tables.

In this rare and complicated field of study, some advantages of this book in comparison with most writings about the subject are:
* absence of any religious (pro- or contra-) agenda, neutral position;
* absence of evident strong prejudices, "letting the data speak";
* clarity of intellect and logic (as a Ph.D. in physics, I had to make no "humanities discount" at all, to my surprise);
* keen attention to the subject-related phenomena even in unexpected circumstances and
* moderate level of self-critical thinking.

I tried hard to find also some disadvantages, those may be:
* the rich vocabulary of author (a professional writer), making the book a non-easy reading for a reader with non-native English;
* the book has not been cited often by specialists (psychologists, sociologists etc.);
* the book is out of print and many libraries do not have it.

In conclusion - if you are seriously interested in understanding ecstatic experiences to work yourself through a serious study, this is definitely the book for you.

A study of the polemical and politically motivated nature of mentions of 'ecstasy' and 'madness', 'inspiration' and 'delusion', 'elevated sobriety' and 'drunkenness' in early Christian writings.

Historical researchers need to recognize and account for this polemical nature of the texts and the political nature of claims to having access to the dissociative cognitive state, whether held divine or demonic. In the polemical, even farcically polemicized battle of pens and spins, a writer's own group's access to the dissociative state of cognition was portrayed as divinely Spirit-filled inspiration and enlightened transcendent wisdom, while the dissociative state as accessed by one's opponents was, as a matter of course, portrayed as demon-possessed madness, folly, and delusion.

+AH4-For so many months I have enjoyed watching this title pop up on Eckhart Tolle's book's page. The title itself spoke volumes, or shall I say, opened a window to emptiness, so I just enjoyed the result of the title alone. Finally I ordered the tape... This little white tape, which looks exactly as unassuming as its image on the Amazon page, lasts perhaps 25 minutes or less, on one side only, not even lasting that side. Less is definitely more. Scott Morrison, about whom I know+AH4-+AH4- nothing, begins from a familiar place of speaker welcoming listeners and takes a path through varied terrain to drop you off with nothing. If you are lucky. I have no idea how many such tapes exist (Eckhart's is another), but this is one of them. If you are awakening, this little tape will probably pierce your skin in a new spot. I recommend this tape with pleasure. Thank you, oh Scott-free voice.+AH4-