Easy Ecstasy

Easy Ecstasy, by Dan Washburn, explores whether hypnosis, whether received from another person or practiced alone, can lead to mystical states. Its premise rests on psychological studies carried out in clinics and laboratories, many of them obscure, that examine how a deepening trance can bring about experiences of spiritual unity and transcendence.

The first part reviews six studies showing that people who go deeper into hypnosis report experiences resembling samadhi, satori, cosmic consciousness, enlightenment, and mystical bliss. The second part surveys fourteen methods drawn from the psychological literature that use hypnotic trance to produce these mystical experiences, giving readers a practical sense of how such states might be approached.

The third part turns to religious traditions, with essays on how trance has been used to produce spiritual experience in Jewish, Buddhist, and Christian mysticism. Its chapter "Jesus the Mystic" argues that Jesus himself was a master of trance, ascending into the heavenly realm to behold and join with the divine light.

The final part reprints most of the foundational research studies discussed in the first part, along with an essay by the physician Milton Erickson, whom the book describes as the most important hypnosis researcher of the twentieth century. The essay is titled "Deep Hypnosis and Its Induction." Throughout, the author relies on this lesser-known research to show how mystical states can be reached.