amples from modern life of such illumination, unspeakably wonderful indeed, and yet I insist that these visions, though I know not how put together, are nothing but wonderful blendings of elements from the individual consciousness.

The following example of Saint Teresa will illustrate perfectly:

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Our Lord made me comprehend in what way God can be three persons. He made me see it so clearly that I remained as extremely surprised as I was comforted, . . . and now when I think of the holy Trinity, or hear It spoken of, I understand how the three adorable persons form only one God and I experience an unspeakable happiness."

It requires very little argument to see that no matter how pious and visionary I might be, no matter how prophetically, poetically, musically and saintly inclined I might be, such an illumination or vision as that of Saint Teresa is for me a psychological impossibility. Not because God cannot enlighten me, as He did her in what way God can be three persons, but because He never does enlighten on subjects that are of little or no interest; He never calls unless one turns aside, and I have never shown the slightest interest in trying to understand that problem.

Prophetic vision, therefore, as well as prophetic audition are subjective phenomena, usually the result of centrally stimulated cerebral impressions, indirectly the result of profound interest and thought, and directly again, the well-spring whence flowed the life-giving waters of deep and profound thought.

(C) PSYCHOLOGY OF ECSTASY IN RELATION TO PROPHECY

Ecstasy is a phenomenon known to all peoples and believed by all to be a state of the human mind in which the human communes with the divine. So Rohde:

"In der Ekstasis, der Befreiung der Seele aus der beengenden Haft des Leibes, ihrer Gemeinschaft mit dem Gotte, wachsen ihr Kraefte zu,

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von denen sie im Tagesleben und durch den Leib gehemmt nichts weiss. Wie sie jetzt frei als Geist mit Geistern verkehrt, so vermag sie auch, von der Zeitlichkeit befreit, zu sehn, was nur Geisteraugen erkennen, das zeitlich und oertlich Entfernte."

And again (p. 23) "Und es fehlt in allen Theilen der Erde nicht an Voelkern, die solche ekstatische Ueberspannungen als den eigentlich religioesen Vorgang den einzigen Weg zu einem Verkehr des Menschen mit einer Geisterwelt ansehen und ihre religioesen Handlungen daher vornehmlich auf solche Veranstaltungen begruenden, die erfahrungsgemaess Ekstase und Visionen herbeizufuehren geeignet sind."

As definite examples of persons who were especially gifted with deep insight through ecstatic vision, Rohde mentions Aristias (p. 92); Epimenides of Crete (p. 96-97) and others.1

The following vision seen by a North American Indian prophetess in a state of ecstasy shows again that what the prophet sees in ecstasy is only a heightened form, with brilliant colors, of the contents of his own consciousness: "A North American Indian prophetess once related the story of her first vision. At her solitary fast at womanhood she fell into an ecstasy, and at the call of the spirits she went up to heaven by the path that leads to the opening of the sky; there she heard a voice, and standing still, saw the figure of a man, standing near the path, whose head was surrounded by a brilliant halo, and his breast was covered with squares; he said: Look at me, my name is Ashauwauegeeghick, The Bright Blue Sky."

The most striking example of ecstasy, with vision and illumination and all the rest, is one experienced by Dr. Bucke who has, after the experience, made a great study of the phenomenon of ecstasy among others. I quote from a number of other experiences cited by James in his chapter on Mysticism ("Varieties of Religious Experiences").

"I had spent the evening in a great city with two friends reading and discussing poetry and philosophy. We parted at midnight. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodging. My mind, deeply under the influence of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the reading and talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost passive en1" Psyche," Vol. II, Edition 1903.

joyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images and emotions flow of themselves, as it were, through the mind. All at once, without warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame-colored cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere close by in that great city; the next, I knew the fire was within myself. Directly afterward there came upon me a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe. Among other things, I did not merely come to believe, but I saw that the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is, on the contrary, a living Presence; I became conscious in myself of eternal life. It was not a conviction that I would have eternal life, but a consciousness that I possessed eternal life then; I saw that all men are immortal; that the cosmic order is such that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all; that the foundation principle of the world, of all the worlds, is what we call love, and that the happiness of each and all is in the long run absolutely certain. The vision lasted a few seconds and was gone; but the memory of it and the sense of the reality of what it taught has remained during the quarter of a century which has since elapsed. I knew that what the vision showed was true. I had attained to a point of view from which I saw that it must be true. That view, that conviction, I may say that consciousness, has never, even during periods of deepest depression, been lost."

Thus Briggs acknowledges the possibility of profound thought and prophetic vision in this ecstatic state among prophets outside of the Hebrew nation. He says:

"The Shamans of Eastern Asia use a tambourine and stimulants until they cast themselves into an unconscious state and then are aroused to answer questions which are put to them. Their answers are often surprisingly accurate, although they know nothing that has transpired when they awake into consciousness again. Grecian prophetesses inhale foul gases from clefts in rocks (Delphi, Donona). At the present day the dervishes of Mohametans cast themselves in a circle or by howling for a long time. The Indian Fakirs cut themselves with knives as did the ancient prophets of Baal. There are also in the unconscious somnambulism and the gift of second sight kindred phenomena. In these ecstatic conditions involving unconsciousness to the outside world the inner emotional and intellectual nature moves with great rapidity and freedom and, as in the dream, reaches solutions of difficult problems and discerns the issue of events far and near. As in the dream so in the ecstatic states there may be instinctive prediction and instinctive guidance through difficulties, or there may be entire failure.

"There is also a higher order of prophets who through retirement and contemplation of the sacred mysteries of religion have been spiritually enlightened to discern truths of a higher order than their fellows and to

experience emotions of a deeper and more absorbing intensity. They have wondrous powers of insight and forecast."

We conclude, therefore, that whenever the subject becomes oblivious of the surrounding world and devotes himself with "long-sustained contemplation" to any one subject the result is ecstasy, the same phenomenon which many people to-day are practicing as a result of the importation of Indian philosophy under various names, especially under the name of Yogi philosophy. Most of the so-called "higher-thought" writers of whom the number is legion have absolutely nothing to offer by way of getting at truth, health, insight, inspiration and all the rest of it, except this relaxation of all thought and action and the contemplation of one subject, until the result attained shall be divine union of individual mind with universal mind, the highest attainment of truth and wellbeing. If this is believed and practiced to-day to an extent that one, who has not been among people of untrained scientific habits but of more than ordinary intelligence, can hardly imagine, how can we wonder, especially since it is an importation from the East and practiced by most orientalists, that the Hebrew prophets, too, children of their age and time, gifted with the highest powers of mind and soul and with the secrets of attaining to that highest, should have indulged in ecstasy and seen visions and heard voices, and believed them, nay, knew absolutely and unmistakably that these were the means of God to reveal truth. There could be no other explanation; there is, at bottom, no other explanation yet.

There is, therefore, no necessity for supposing, as many scholars do, as most scholars do,1 that ecstasy is not a

1

Butcher, Prof. S. H., in the Lit. Dig., February 4, 1905, says: "The Delphic priestess seized and subdued by an apparently divine possession lifted out of herself in transport, presents a contrast to the Hebrew prophet whose reason and sense remain undisturbed under the stress of inspiration." Delitzsch: " System of Biblical Psychology," p. 404, also tries to make this same distinction.

characteristic of the Hebrew prophets, or at any rate, a phenomenon of rare occurrence. It seems to me, such accounts of the prophetic activity are the results of an overzealous religious piety and an under-zealous respect for psychological laws. Vision and audition are not possible without some degree of ecstasy, nay, revelation, the direct intuition of truth of a high order, such as the prophets under any or all theories must be credited with, is actually impossible without some degree of ecstasy.1 Why then make the distinction between the Hebrew prophets and other prophets? All things natural are divine, and all things divine are natural. True it is that ecstasy of the wild and mad kind was seen only in the early stages of Hebrew prophecy when wine and dance. and music and other external means were used for bringing about this state, but the subdued elevated ecstasy due to religious temperament and patriotic fervor, due to constant and profound contemplation, was certainly the characteristic of the later prophets.

I conclude, therefore, with Algazali, the Arabian philosopher,2 against most of the scholars I have read, that "whoso knows not ecstasy knows prophetism only by name." Without ecstasy revelation, vision, audition, dream, are impossible, and vice versa, all these in turn produce ecstasy. Ecstasy is usually the spring whence all the other prophetic streams flow. "The hand of the Lord is upon me" is an expression of the prophet's ecstatic state, and, therefore, with Morgan3 I take ecstasy to be "a religious exaltation of spirit in which the free activity of the mind is not suppressed but heightened. Such a state is behind vision as a psychological condition."

1 See Flagg, W. J.: "Yoga or Transformation," New York, Bouton, 1898.

'Lewes, G. H.: "Biog. Hist. of Phil.," New York, Appleton, 1880, p. 368 ff. Article, Trance.