Rapture

"What is rapture and what is it like to experience it? Rapture shares some of the qualities of related experiences such as joy, exultation, and intoxication but is not identical to them. This philosophical examination allows an understanding of rapture to emerge from examples of an expansion of the self, a sense of the dissolving of boundaries, however momentarily, between self and others, an overflowing of energy, and an emptying out of the self, of release. Paradigmatic cases are, of course, sexual rapture and other forms of intense physical experience, as well as the various related phenomena of love or generosity, including mystical religious experiences. But more delicate forms of rapture can be found in meditation or in aesthetic contemplation. Christopher Hamilton reflects on the ideas of others as well as on personal experience, offering readers a sense of an edge against which to sharpen their understanding of what might be at stake in finding that rapture is already present in life and in making room for more. He provides many examples not only from philosophy but also from literature, painting, film, and daily life"--