HYPNOTIC STATES, TRANCE, AND ECSTASY. 811 



Margareta Maria Alacoque was possessed by a desire to emu- 

 late the sufferings of Jesus, and inflicted upon herself such hor- 

 rible tortures that her Mother Superior felt called upon to inter- 

 fere, although some were inflicted by the express command of 

 God. Is it surprising that she passed much of her time in a state 

 of delirious love for her " heavenly bridegroom," constantly see- 

 ing visions and receiving revelations ? 



Anna Katharina Emmerich has described for us most vividly 

 a condition of ecstatic trance in which the consciousness of the 

 real world was not wholly lost. It is analogous to the above- 

 quoted experience of Dr. Cocke. " I see this not with my eyes, 

 but rather, as it seems to me, with my heart here in the midst of 

 my breast. This causes perspiration to break out on that spot. 

 At the same moment I see the persons and objects about me, but 

 do not trouble myself about them ; I do not even know who they 

 are and even at this moment, as I speak, I see. . . . For some 

 days I have been continuously in a supernatural vision. I have 

 to use compulsion upon myself, for in the midst of my conversa- 

 tion with others I see entirely different pictures before me and 

 hear my own voice and the voices of others sounding dull and 

 muiSed as from an empty vessel. . . . My reply to what is said to 

 me falls from my lips easily, and often with more vivacity than 

 usual, although afterward I do not know what I said, yet I speak 

 coherently and intelligibly. It is very hard for me to keep my- 

 self in this double state. With my eyes I see my surroundings 

 dimly, enshrouded in a veil, as one does when trying to fall asleep 

 and just beginning to dream. The inner vision desires to sweep 

 me away with violence, and is far more clear and brilliant than 

 the natural, but it makes no use of my eyes." 



But St. Theresa has left us, perhaps, the best account of ecstasy 

 that we possess. One should note the complex hallucinations of 

 all the senses which served to bring about the true ecstasies. 



" One day, after I had prayed and besought the good God that 

 he would help me to do his will in all things, I began the song of 

 praise, and as I invoked him there came to me an ecstasy that 

 almost put me beside myself. ... I heard these words : ' Hence- 

 forward it is my will that thou shalt speak no more with men 

 but with angels only.'" "These inner addresses of God to the 

 soul consist of quite clear and plain words, but are not heard with 

 the bodily ear. . . . One day, as I was praying, God vouchsafed 

 to show me his hands only ; their beauty was so great that I have 

 no words with which to describe them. A few days later I saw his 

 divine countenance also, and was, I think, entirely absorbed in it. 

 . . . While he spoke to me, I beheld that majestic beauty, and the 

 words which that beautiful, divine mouth spoke to me breathed 

 an infinite sweetness. In those happy moments I felt an intense 



