“It was the Angel of Innocence, leaving the world for a moment behind and falling in adoration at the moment the eternal gates are opened and the first view of paradise flashes on the sight.
“All those who have seen Bernadette in this state of ecstasy speak of the sight as of something entirely unparalleled on earth. The impression made upon them is as strong now, after the lapse of ten years, as on the first day.
“What is also remarkable, although her attention was entirely absorbed by the contemplation of the Virgin full of grace, she was, to a certain degree, conscious of what was passing around her.
“At a certain moment her taper went out; she stretched out her hand that the person nearest to her might relight it.
“Some one having wished to touch the wild rose with a stick, she eagerly made him a sign to desist, and an expression of fear passed over her countenance. ‘I was afraid,’ she said afterward with simplicity, ‘that he might have touched the Lady and done her harm.’”
Side by side with this description by the devout Lasserre of the appearance presented by Bernadette when in a state of ecstasy, I will quote the often-recorded account which Saint Theresa has given in her Memoirs of her subjective condition while in a similar state:
“There is a sort of sleep of the faculties of the soul, understanding, memory, and will, during which one is, as it were, unconscious of their working. A sort of voluptuousness is experienced, akin to what might be felt by a dying person happy to expire on the bosom of God. The mind takes no heed of what is doing; it knows not whether one is speaking or is silent or weeping; it is a sweet delusion, a celestial frenzy, in which one is taught true wisdom in a way which fills us with inconceivable joy. We feel as about to faint or as just fallen into a swoon; we can hardly breathe; and bodily strength is so feeble that it requires a great effort to raise even the hands. The eyes are shut, or if they remain open they see nothing; we could not read if we would, for, though we know that they are letters, we can neither tell them apart nor put them together, for the mind does not act. If any one in this state is spoken to, he does not hear; he tries in vain to speak, but he is unable to form or utter a single word. Though all external forces abandon you, those of the soul increase, so as to enable you the better to possess the glory you are enjoying.”
Occasionally striking illustrations of ecstasy are to be found among hysterical and hystero-epileptic patients in whom religious faith has no place. In these cases usually other special phases of grave hysteria are present. In some of the descriptions given by Charcot and Richer of hystero-epileptics in the stage of emotional attitudes or statuesque positions the patients are, for a time at least, in an ecstatic condition in which the hallucinations may be connected with sentiments of religion, love, fear, or other emotions. One shows an attitude of menace or an expression of fear; in another the expression is of beatitude or saintly happiness: to this expression perhaps succeeds one of intense joy; to this, one of passion and lubricity. Throughout all the changing phases of attitude and expression the patient has the other concomitants of the true ecstatic state, such as want of volition and insensibility.
DIAGNOSIS.—A cataleptic may also be an ecstatic or the reverse; but not a few cases are on record in the history of which, on the one hand, an individual has been subject over a long period to cataleptic seizures without the recurrence of ecstasy, or, on the other hand, to fits of ecstasy without a single attack of true catalepsy. Cataleptic attacks usually occur with more suddenness than ecstasy; the cataleptic may suddenly become rigid and statuesque—the ecstatic gradually, although it may be somewhat rapidly, passes step by step into a visionary state. In catalepsy and ecstasy the expression of the patient differs. One of the striking features of ecstasy is not simply the absorbed and abstracted, but also the radiant, expression of countenance. In catalepsy the expression is more likely to be vacant or at least negative. In ecstasy waxen flexibility is not present. The muscles can act in obedience to the will, and the trunk and limbs do not maintain the positions in which they are placed for any unusual time. In genuine catalepsy the consciousness is so suspended or altered that the period of the seizure afterward remains a blank in the memory of the patient. In ecstasy, however, the visions and fancies present during the fit can afterward be recalled, and are frequently recounted by the individual.
DURATION, COURSE, PROGNOSIS.—Nothing need be said as to duration, course, prognosis, etc. of ecstasy. The remarks made in considering hysteria, hystero-epilepsy, etc. fully cover these matters.