The Star in the West

300 THE STAR IN THE WEST In a note to “ Time , ” Dr. Maudsley explains the state of ecstasy or Samâdhi as follows : The “ ecstasy , ” if attained , signifies such a “ standing out , ” Ek-otaois , quasi -spasmodic , of a special tract of the brain as , if persisted in , involves the risk of a permanent loss of power , almost in the end a paralysis of the other tracts . Like other bad habits it grows by what it feeds on , and may put the fine and complex co-ordinated ma chinery quite out of gear . The ecstatic attains an illumi nation ( so-called ) at the expense of sober reason and solid judgement, Crowley's answer to this is : Mysticus would not , I think , wish to contest this view , but rather would argue that if this be the case , it is at least a choice between two evils. Sober reason and solid judge ment offer no prize more desirable than death after a number of years , less or greater , while ecstasy can , if the facts stated in the Dialogue are accepted , give the joys of all these years in a moment . Récéjac says concerning this state : When the will succeeds in gaining admission to the ima gination , and the attention is fixed upon a moral object, such a case of mono -ideism becomes the most noble of hallucinations . The nature of the facts in this case admits a prolonged attention , for the moral object, far from being exhausted like objects of sense in one single intuition , ex tends and increases the longer it is dwelt on . Such an object will express itself in the mind which is generous to give it persistent attention , under symbols which become more and more intense until the soul , all absorbed in them , is sub limely hallucinated , and returns to itself full of eloquence , enthusiasm , and courage . ? Thus Crowley again writes of this exalted state : 1 Time , vol . ii, pp . 280-281 . a The Bases of the Mystic Knowledge , p . 249 .