Ecstasy
Overthink
Ellie Anderson, Ph.D. and David Peña-Guzmán, Ph.D.
4.7 • 549 Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lasers, fog machines, silent prayers…and don’t forget the ecstasy! In episode 126 of Overthink, Ellie and David dive into the experience of ecstasy. They look at interpretations of ecstasy in the tradition of mysticism, where ecstasy has been figured as a loss of self. How common are experiences of ecstasy? Are they limited to religious contexts, or are there alternate avenues for entering ecstatic states? And what about MDMA and its relation to rave culture? In the bonus, they explore how well ecstasy fits into William James’ framework for mystical states, and consider the relationship between ecstasy, reason, and age.
Works Discussed:
St. Teresa of Avila, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
Simon Critchley, On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstasy
James Landau, “The Flesh of Raving”
Marghanita Laski, Everyday Ecstasy
Wilhelm Mayer-Gross, “The Phenomenology of Abnormal Emotions of Happiness”
Simon Reynolds, Generation Ecstasy
Summer Heights High (2007)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Overthink. |
| 0:14.0 | The podcast where two professors find a way to talk about medieval saints and club drugs in the same episode. |
| 0:21.9 | Woo! I'm Ellie Anderson. |
| 0:24.2 | And, uh, woo. I'm David Pena. It was mine. |
| 0:27.6 | I don't know how much that woo translated. |
| 0:30.5 | It sounded a little force. It sounded like we don't go to the club anymore. |
| 0:34.9 | And we're trying to remember what it was like to be out past midnight in the olden days. |
| 0:40.0 | Speaking of which, David, you had the brilliant suggestion of starting this episode with a song |
| 0:45.9 | that many millennials will likely know. |
| 0:49.1 | And if you are not a millennial, you may or may not know it, but you will now know it. |
| 0:53.8 | This is from the HBO TV show, Summer |
| 0:56.9 | Heights High. Ecstasy. Ecstasy. E. E. E. Ecstasy. She's a naughty girl with a bad habit. A bad habit |
| 1:09.8 | drugs. She's a party girl with a |
| 1:13.6 | Bad habit for drugs |
| 1:17.6 | I think I'm bad girl When I first watched this in college, I have to say I low-level identified with Mr. G, the super flamboyant high school theater teacher, who is the creator of this musical. |
| 1:44.5 | And this song just sent me because it's so funny in the context of the show. |
| 1:49.5 | And just the image of this girl who's got a bad habit, a bad habit for drugs. |
| 1:56.6 | And you know, you have to watch it. |
| 1:58.5 | So I recommend to our listeners that they watch it because the visuals are just as good as the music. |
| 2:04.9 | Yeah. |
| 2:05.4 | So without getting into too much of the content of the show, much of which is likely cancelable in 2025. |
| 2:11.1 | This is a show put on at a high school by the theater teacher, Mr. G. |
... |
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