Ecstasy in Secular and Religious Experience

by Marghanita Laski

From Introduction written by the The first part discusses the methods by which texts were obtained and analysed. Based on the results of the analyses I put forward criteria for the experiences I shall accept as ecstatic ones. In the second part of the book I examine ecstatic experiences in detail, drawing, for evidence, principally upon my texts but also on other accounts of similar experiences. The third part is largely speculative. In it I discuss the results of ecstatic experiences with particular reference to beliefs that arise as a result of these experiences. Finally I summarize my findings and make suggestions for further specialized study. 544 pages.

Genres: Philosophy

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

English journalist, radio panelist, and novelist: she also wrote literary biography, plays, and short stories.

Laski was born to a prominent family of Jewish intellectuals: Neville Laski was her father, Moses Gaster her grandfather, and socialist thinker Harold Laski her uncle. She was educated at Lady Barn House School and St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith. After a stint in fashion, she read English at Oxford, then married publisher John Howard, and worked in journalism. She began writing once her son and daughter were born.

A well-known critic as well as a novelist, she wrote books on Jane Austen and George Eliot. Ecstasy (1962) explored intense experiences, and Everyday Ecstasy (1974) their social effects. Her distinctive voice was often heard on the radio on The Brains Trust and The Critics; and she submitted a large number of illustrative quotations to the Oxford English Dictionary.

An avowed atheist, she was also a keen supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Her play, The Offshore Island, is about nuclear warfare.

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently read a very good novel by this author and was thus inspired to read this non-fiction analysis of ecstatic experience. I'm sure it is utterly worthless as real sociology or psychology, but it is fascinating nevertheless. It was written in the late 1950's largely to satisfy the author's own curiosity. She wondered just how widespread ecstatic experiences are and whether they have enough in common with each other to be classifiable. So she devised a list of nine questions, and asked some 63 of her acquaintances to answer them over the space of several years when the subject had come up. Not a particularly large or rigorously controlled sample. While appearing on a popular BBC television program, she asked people to write to her describing their ecstatic experiences. She got over 400 replies, "many of them dotty," but admits she had no idea how this could be judged against the number of viewers of the show. She also collected some 44 texts, both religious and secular, which seemed to her to describe ecstatic experiences. These were texts which she happened to be reading or which came to mind, from Augustine to Woolf, again not a very controlled group. She was not a religious believer but dutifully recorded the comments of those who attributed their ecstasies to a higher power. She lists "triggers" and tries to systematize experiences. Laski was a very smart woman and her efforts are always fascinating, if not scientific. By the way, of the 63 people she asked, 60 reported having had some sort of "transcendent ecstasy."

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me an age to get through this book - it has the leisurely feel of chatting with an enthusiastic friend over many days. The open, 1960s vibe is a nice respite. Everything in this book is anecdote, shaky ground for drawing any real conclusions, but the survey of ecstatic experiences, and different perceptions of the cause and meaning of those experiences, is fascinating.