"Providing case studies that highlight the diverse gendered voices and stories of people who have ecstatic religious experiences, this book brings together chapters on ecstasy, transformations of the mind and body and interactions between the living and spirits. Focusing on ecstatic contexts across North and South America, Africa, Japan and beyond, this book utilises intersection analysis to uncover the links among racial, social, and gendered political margins. Using a wealth of research from both past and present, the authors interrogate institutional contexts of possession, intoxication and exorcism, uncovering group interactions between people and gods, saints, angels, or demons"--
Why do people seek a connection to something beyond the social dimensions of the world? Ecstatic experiences are often labelled religious, spiritual, mystical or even sacred. However, ecstasy is not just extraordinary; for many people throughout the world it is an ordinary part of daily life.
The Handbook highlights the diverse individuals who have experienced ecstasy in the past and present from ordinary people to mystics, pastors, healers, spirit mediums and urban/neo/therapeutic shamans. Chapters show that ecstasy may be experienced during trance, possession, prayer, and even through the use of drugs, such as soma, peyote, ayahuasca, ibogaine, mushrooms, LSD, and other substances.
While institutional expressions of religion may be on the decline, experiences of religious ecstasy and interactions among living people and gods, saints, angels, and demons individually and collectively, are happening everywhere - occurring at home, online, in the community, and through prayer, dance, song, possession, and the ingestion of drugs. Ecstatic religious experience, as this handbook shows, provides meaning, belonging, and, for some, profit in the late capitalist marketplace.
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One of the many strengths of this book is that it looks at both the extraordinary and the ordinary in its examinations of ecstatic experiences. It also does so through diverse categories such as mysticism, intoxication, spirit possession, shamanism, and charisma, making the work even more valuable. * Amir Hussain, Loyola Marymount University, USA * A phenomenal resource for scholars interested in religious experience and expression. This handbook achieves a balance between breadth and depth by taking an inclusive approach to religion and ecstasy. The result is a foundational resource that is a major contribution to the study of religion. * Lori G. Beaman, University of Ottawa, Canada *
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Globally explores the diverse experiences of ecstasy - and transformations of the mind and body both in the past and the present.
Introduction. Alison Marshall (Brandon University, Canada) Rubina Ramji
(Cape Brenton University, Canada) and Michael Wilkson (Trinity Western
University, Canada)
I. Ecstasy as Intoxication
1. A Tale of Two Ecstasies: A History of Drug-induced Spirituality, Alison
Marshall (Brandon University, Canada)
2. The Hasidic Nigun: Grounding Ecstatic Religion in the Ascents of Past
Leaders, Gordon Dale (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion,
USA)
3. The Sufi Path: Finding God through Ecstasy and Intoxication, Rubina Ramji
(Cape Breton University, Canada)
II. Ecstasy as Spirit Possession
4. Go Tielwa: Ancestral Spirit Possession and Exorcism in Southern Africa,
Mogomme Alpheus Masoga (University of the Free State, South Africa)
5. Stranger Things: Spirit Mediumship and Spirit Possession in China, Alison
Marshall (Brandon University, Canada)
6. Expressions of Black Identity: Santería and Rural Afro-Cuban Ecstatic
Experiences of Ecstasy, Aleksandra Gracjasz (Leiden University, Netherlands)
7. Manifesting the Divine Mother: Madrasi Music, Mediums and the Politics
of Ecstatic Sonic Presence Within Indo-Caribbean Religions, Stephanie Lou
George (Hunter College, USA)
8. On Ensoulment: The Spirit of Ecstatic Objects, Carles Salazar
(Universitat de Lleida, Spain), and Jaume F. Simon-Contra (Artist, Spain)
III. Ecstasy as Charisma
9. Pentecostalism, Ecstasy, and Social Engagement, Michael Wilkson (Trinity
Western University, Canada)
10. Charisma and Ecstasy in Charismatic Christianity, Michael Wilkson
(Trinity Western University, Canada) and Peter Althouse (Oral Roberts
University, USA)
11. Aimee Semple McPherson: A Woman on Fire! Wendy L. Fletcher (Renison
University College, Canada)
12. Demonic Possession and the Holy Spirit: Insights into the Contested
Debate of Ecstatic Religious Experiences in Brazil, Bettina E. Schmidt
(University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK)
IV. Modern Manifestations
13. Healing Illness at the End of the World: A Millenarian New Religion in
Post-war Japan, Takashi Miura, (University of Arizona, USA)
14. The Evolution of Jewish Ecstatic Religion from Abraham Abulafias
Ecstatic Kabbalah to Contemporary Kabbalah in Israel, Federico Dal Bo
(University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy)
15. American Psychedelic Buddhism as Heterodox Ecstatic Religion. D. E. Osto
(Massey University, New Zealand)
16. 'We Will Always Burn the Man': Moving the Ecstatic Moment of Burning Man
into Virtual Reality, Sharday Mosurinjohn (Queens University, Canada), J
Jordan Loewen-Colón (Queens University, Canada), and Amarnath Amarasingam
(Queens University, Canada)
17. Distributive Effervescence and Late Modern Shamanisms: Ecstatic
Emotional Energy in Secularizing Societies, F. LeRon Shults (University of
Agder, Norway)
Bibliography
Index
Alison Marshall is Professor of Religion at Brandon University, Canada Rubina Ramji is Associate Professor of Religion at Cape Breton University, Canada Michael Wilkinson is Professor of Sociology at Trinity Western University, Canada
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