The Ecstatic Experience

The human need for ecstasy-the ability to be free of the limitations of ordinary consciousness-is as imperative as the need for food. Renowned anthropologist Felicitas Goodman claimed that being deprived of ecstasy was the fundamental cause of all forms of addiction. Indigenous cultures and the civilizations of antiquity were aware of this and developed specific rituals to induce and channel trance energies to detoxify and nourish the subtle body in order to experience the ecstatic reality that gives life to matter.

Belinda Gore has been teaching workshops on ecstatic trance throughout the world since 1987. A student of Felicitas Goodman, she carries on her mentor’s lifework at the Cuyamungue Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is the author of Ecstatic Body Postures: An Alternate Reality Workbook, and she lives in Columbus, Ohio.