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Religious ecstasy is a type of altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and reportedly expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euphoria.

Although the experience is usually brief in time,^[1] there are records of such experiences lasting several days or even more, and of recurring experiences of ecstasy during a person's lifetime.

In Sufism, the term is referred to as wajd. In Buddhism, piti, usually translated as "joy" or "rapture", is an element of jhana, a state of mental oneness with an object that one focuses on in meditation.^[2]

^ Marghanita Laski, Ecstasy. A Study of Some Secular and Religious Experiences. The Cresset Press, London, 1961. p. 57
^ Gunaratana, Henepola (1995). "The Jhanas in Theravada Buddhist Meditation". Access to Insight. Retrieved 2 March 2025.