Cardanus, lib. 2. Synes. Somniorum, cap. 8.
"IN Ecstasin multis modis dilabuntur homines, aut per Syncopen, aut
animi deliquium, aut etiam proprie abducto omni sensu externo, absque
alia Causa. Id vero contingit consuetis plerunque, & nimio affectu
alicujus rei laborantibus; --- Ecstasis medium est inter vigiliam &
somnium, sicut somnus inter mortem & vigiliam, seuvitam --- Visa in
Ecstasi certiora insomniis: Clariora & evidentiora --- Ecstasi
deprehensi audire possunt, qui dormiunt non possunt".
Men fall into an Ecstacy many ways, either by a syncope, by a
vanishing and absence of the spirits, or else by the withdrawing of
every external sense without any other cause. It most commonly happens
to those who are over sollicitous or fix their whole minds upon doing
any one particular thing. An Ecstacy is a kind of medium between
sleeping and waking, as sleep is a kind of middle state between life
and death. Things seen in an Ecstacy are more certain than those we
behold in dreams: they are much more clear, and far more evident.
Those seized with an Ecstacy can hear, those who sleep cannot.
Anno 1670, a poor widow's daughter in Herefordshire, went to service
not far from Harwood (the seat of Sir John Hoskins, Bart. R.S.S.) She
was aged near about twenty; fell very ill, even to the point of death;
her mother was old and feeble, and her daughter was the comfort of her
life; if she should die, she knew not what to do: she besought God
upon her knees in prayer, that he would be pleased to spare her
daughter's life, and take her to him: at this very time, the daughter
fell into a trance, which continued about an hour: they thought she
had been dead: when she recovered out of it, she declared the vision
she had in this fit, viz. that one in black habit came to her, whose
face was so bright and glorious she could not behold it; and also he
had such brightness upon his breast, and (if I forget not) upon his
arms. And told her, that her mother's prayers were heard, and that her
mother should shortly die, and she should suddenly recover; and she
did so, and her mother died. She hath the character of a modest,
humble, virtuous maid. Had this been in some Catholick country, it
would have made a great noise.
'Tis certain, there was one in the Strand, who lay in a trance a few
hours before he departed. And in his trance had a vision of the death
of King Charles II. It was at the very day of his apoplectick fit.
There is a sheet of paper printed 16 ... concerning Ecstacies, that
James Usher, late Lord Primate of Ireland, once had: but I have been
assured from my hon. friend James Tyrrell, Esq. (his Lordship's
grandson) that this was not an ecstacy; but that his Lordship upon
reading the 12, 13, 14, &c. chapters of the Revelation, and farther
reflecting upon the great increase of the sectaries in England,
supposed that they would let in popery, which consideration put him
into a great transport, at the time when his daughter (the Lady
Tyrrel) came into the room; when he discoursed to her divers things
(tho' not all) contained in the said printed paper.