Ecstasy

Ecstasy (pronounced ek-stuh-see)

(1) Rapturous delight.

(2) An overpowering emotion or exaltation; a state of sudden, intense feeling.

(3) Mental transport or rapture from the contemplation of divine things.

(4) A slang term for the drug Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) (often initial capital letter).

(5) A state of prophetic (especially poetic) inspiration (archaic).

1350–1400: From the Middle English extasie, from the Old & Middle French extasie (ecstasy, rapture), from the Medieval Latin extasis, from the Ancient Greek ékstasis (entrancement, astonishment, insanity; any displacement or removal from the proper place" (in the New Testament "a trance")) from existanai (displace, put out of place, drive out of one's mind).  The construct of ékstasis was ek- (ec-)- + stásis. The construct of existanai was ex- (out) + histanai (to cause to stand) from the primitive Indo-European root sta- (to stand, make or be firm).  The  verbs ecstatize (1650s), ecstasiate (1823), ecstasize (1830) are extinct and the spellings ecstacy, exstacy, exstasy, extacy & extasy are all obsolete.  Ecstasy is a noun & verb, ecstatical is an adjective, ecstatically is an adverb, ecstatic is a noun & adjective and ecstaticize, ecstaticized & ecstaticizing are verbs; the noun plural is ecstasies.

Lindsay Lohan and her Lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

The adjectival use seems first to have emerged in the 1590s in the sense of "mystically absorbed" (from the Ancient Greek ekstatikos (unstable, inclined to depart from) & ekstasis, and something like the familiar modern meaning "characterized by or subject to intense emotions" is from 1660s, used by writers to describe mystical experiences, states “…of rapture which stupefied the body while the soul contemplated divine things".  That meaning shift to "exalted state of good feeling" seems to have been in general use early in the seventeenth century.  However, although now almost exclusively associated with feelings of exaggerated pleasure, it wasn’t always so, once associated in religious use with feelings anything but and there are those today for whom pain is an essential part of their ecstatic experience.  It’s a niche market.

Expert advice.  Lindsay Lohan confirmed Ecstasy is better than cocaine.

The slang use of ecstasy for the drug methylendioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) dates from 1985.  Taken as a pill (which can include other drugs as active ingredients), MDMA attracted slang including E, E-Bomb, Ekkie, Dancing Shoes, Love Drug, Love Potion, Molly, XTC, X, Bean Drug & Disco Biscuits.  One interesting footnote to emerge from studies of its use was that young women punctilious in checking supermarket labels to monitor their intake of fat, salt & sugar, seemed remarkably trusting of drug dealers offering pills.  Another phenomenon in the marketing of MDMA was the use of corporate trademarks, stamped onto the pills; it’s said Mitsubishis were very popular.  One interesting consensus which seemed to emerge from users that if enjoying a lollypop after MDMA, the best flavor was lemon.

Barnaby Joyce (b 1967; thrice (between local difficulties) deputy prime minister of Australia 2016-2022), House of Representatives, Canberra, ACT, Australia, February 2018.

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Unlike many of the buildings usually included in the standard tourist itinerary of Rome, the Cornaro Chapel (1626), at Santa Maria della Vittoria, close to the Repubblica metro station, is tiny.  In this intimate space is an elevated aedicule on which sits the little church’s famous installation, L'Estasi di Santa Teresa (The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa; sometimes called The Transverberation of Saint Teresa), a sculptural group in white marble, carved by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) in 1652.

The interior of the church, also the work of Bernini, is sumptuously decorated, gilded stucco and multi-colored marble arranged so that barely a surface or crevice is left naked, this lushness the best setting imaginable for this masterpiece of high Roman baroque.  Bernini dismissed the suggestion he use an enclosed chapel and instead presented his composition as a theatre, cleverly lit by a window hidden by the pediment with, on the flanking walls, two opera-boxes containing sculptured representations of the family of his patron, the Venetian Cardinal Federico Cornaro (1579–1653). 

Bernini had reason to be grateful to the cardinal.  The work was completed during the pontificate of Innocent X (1574–1655; Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, pope 1644-1655) and Bernini had been the court architect of the previous pope, Urban VIII (circa 1568–1644; Maffeo Barberini, pope 1623-1644), regarded by Innocent as profligate.  With papal patronage withdrawn, Bernini was again an artist for hire and the cardinal granted the commission.  Teresa of Ávila, the Spanish founder of the Discalced Carmelite nuns, is depicted seated on clouds as if on a bed.  She is captured during the ecstasy she described in her mystical autobiography, experiencing an angel piercing her heart with a dart of divine love, causing both immense joy and pain.  Considering the long tradition of statuary in the Roman Catholic Church, that of Saint Teresa is quite a departure, her contorted posture and the ambiguous smile of the angel lending the scene a rare mix of passion and voluptuousness.  It’s reputed also to be the only Roman Catholic church with a painting depicting a battle scene above the alter and soldiers instead of angels holding up the organ, a legacy of the celebrations at the end of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648).

Saint Teresa in white marble, 1652 (left) and Lindsay Lohan resting in a Cadillac Escalade, Los Angeles, May 2007 (right).  The striking similarity between the two saintly souls inspired one of 2007's most widely-shared memes.