See buying choices for this item to see if it's one of the millions that are eligible for Amazon Prime.

19 used & new from $10.00

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Ecstasy in Secular and Religious Experience (Library of Spiritual Classics)
 
Customer image from Scott Fulmar
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
 
  

Ecstasy in Secular and Religious Experience (Library of Spiritual Classics) (Paperback)

by Marghanita Laski (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)


Available from these sellers.


4 new from $68.99 15 used from $10.00

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Bollingen Series (General))

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Bollingen Series (General))

by Mircea Eliade
4.5 out of 5 stars (26)  $19.77
Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination

Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination

by Robert Jourdain
3.6 out of 5 stars (44)  $11.66
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

by Julian Jaynes
4.5 out of 5 stars (145)  $12.24
Explore similar items

Product Details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: J. P. Tarcher (July 1, 1990)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0874775744
  • ISBN-13: 978-0874775747
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 0.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,072,260 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Citations (learn more)
1 book cites this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below.

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search
Helle Kaasik suggested this product show on searches for "ecstasy". What do you suggest?

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Research about ecstasy - this time a real one, December 7, 2006
By Helle Kaasik (Tartu, Estonia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


   


Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)



Look for Similar Items by Category


Light It Up

Shop for sconces

Add light and beauty to your home with sconces from the Lighting & Electrical Store. Shop our extensive selection of indoor and outdoor fixtures.

Shop all sconces

 

Big Savings in Books

Bargain Books
Find great titles at fantastic prices in our Bargain Books Store.
 

Summer Reading for Kids & Teens

Summer Reading for Kids and Teens
Discover everything from beach reads and board books to teen romance and action-adventure series in Summer Reading for Kids & Teens. And, check off the kids' required reading lists in our Summer School Reading Store.
 

Best Books

Best of the Month
See our editors' picks and more of the best new books on our Best of the Month page.
 

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.



Where's My Stuff?

Shipping & Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue shopping: Top Sellers
Paranoia
Paranoia by Joseph Finder
Glenn Beck's Common Sense
Finger Lickin' Fifteen
Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich
My Soul to Lose
My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent

Conditions of Use | Privacy Notice © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates