Lost Ecstasy: Its Decline and Transformation in Religion (Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Mysticism)

Annotation This book is a study of religious ecstasy, and the ways that it has been suppressed in both the academic study of religion, and in much of the modern practice of religion. It examines the meanings of the term, how ecstatic experience is understood in a range of religions, and why the importance of religious and mystical ecstasy has declined in the modern West. June McDaniel examines how the search for ecstatic experience has migrated into such areas as war, terrorism, transgression, sexuality, drug use, and anti-institutional forms of spirituality. She argues that the loss of religious and mystical ecstasy, as both a religious goal and as a topic of academic study, has had wide-ranging negative effects. She also proposes that the field of religious studies must go beyond criminalizing, trivializing and pathologizing ecstatic and mystical experiences. Both religious studies and theology need to take these states seriously as important aspects of lived human experience Lost Ecstasy 4 Contents 7 Chapter 1 Introduction: What Happened to Ecstasy? Mysticism, Ecstasy, and the Constructivist Loop 9 Chapter 2 Some Examples of Religious Ecstasy 33 Judaism 34 Christianity 39 Islam 46 Hinduism 52 Buddhism 55 Chapter 3 Attacks on Ecstasy: Pathologizing in Academia 67 Philosophy of Religion 68 Sociology of Religion 72 Anthropology of Religion 77 History of Religions/Religious Studies 85 Psychoanalysis and Ecstasy 92 Biology, Psychiatry, and Medicine 97 Chapter 4 Attacks on Ecstasy: Theology—We Don’t Want It Either 111 Judaism 111 Islam 114 Christian Theology 116 Theology and Pathologies, the Case of Medjugorje 128 Chapter 5 Destructive Ecstasies: Wargasm and the Joy of Violence 137 Ecstatic Violence 138 The Ecstasy of Transgression 147 Destructive Ecstasy and Religion 150 Chapter 6 The “Spiritualized” Ecstasies: Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll 166 Connecting Sexual Ecstasy with Spirituality: From Tantra to Romance Novels 168 Drugs as Entheogens: Bringing the God Within 180 Santo Daime—Ayahuasca as Sacrament 181 Ecstasy and Rock and Roll—The Ecstatic Aspects of Modern Music and Dance 187 Trance Dance, Neo-shamanism, and Universal Peace 197 Chapter 7 The Return of the Repressed: Millennial, Charismatic, and Renewal Movements 212 Millennial Christianity and the Rapture 214 Charismatic Christianity and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit 219 Other Forms of Western Religious Backlash 229 Chapter 8 The Case of Hinduism: Ecstasy and Denial 241 Vedic Religion 245 Upanishadic Religion 247 The Yoga Tradition 249 The Tantric Tradition 250 The Dharma Tradition 252 Folk Religion 252 The Bhakti Tradition 253 Arguments 257 Chapter 9 Ecstasy and Empathy: Some Venerable Elders and New Directions 263 Ecstasy Deprivation and the Pragmatic Argument 272 Ecstasy and Knowledge—The Theoretical Side 289 Modern Psychiatry and Ecstatic States 295 Chapter 10 Conclusions: Can We Go Beyond Criminalizing, Pathologizing, and Trivializing? Or, the Problems of Shooting Yourself in the Foot 307 Index 325 Front Matter ....Pages i-viii Introduction: What Happened to Ecstasy? Mysticism, Ecstasy, and the Constructivist Loop (June McDaniel)....Pages 1-24 Some Examples of Religious Ecstasy (June McDaniel)....Pages 25-58 Attacks on Ecstasy: Pathologizing in Academia (June McDaniel)....Pages 59-102 Attacks on Ecstasy: Theology—We Don’t Want It Either (June McDaniel)....Pages 103-128 Destructive Ecstasies: Wargasm and the Joy of Violence (June McDaniel)....Pages 129-157 The “Spiritualized” Ecstasies: Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll (June McDaniel)....Pages 159-204 The Return of the Repressed: Millennial, Charismatic, and Renewal Movements (June McDaniel)....Pages 205-233 The Case of Hinduism: Ecstasy and Denial (June McDaniel)....Pages 235-256 Ecstasy and Empathy: Some Venerable Elders and New Directions (June McDaniel)....Pages 257-300 Conclusions: Can We Go Beyond Criminalizing, Pathologizing, and Trivializing? Or, the Problems of Shooting Yourself in the Foot (June McDaniel)....Pages 301-318 Back Matter ....Pages 319-325