Something Understood

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Religion & Ethics

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through music, prose and poetry

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Something Understood: Agony and Ecstasy

Agony and Ecstasy

BBC Radio 4 - Something Understood, Agony and Ecstasy

John McCarthy reflects on the feeling of euphoria and where it comes from.

A sudden, overwhelming sense of well-being can be life-changing. John McCarthy explores the experience of euphoria and reflects whether it originates in the brain or the divine.

If you're lucky enough to have felt it, a sudden overwhelming sense of well-being can be life-changing. Where do these crucial moments in our lives come from? Are they just chemicals reacting in the brain or could they originate from the divine?

John McCarthy reflects on the strange and sudden experience of euphoria. He begins with a deeply puzzling euphoric moment from his own life. Did he feel God or simply the release of endorphins? He revisits the trauma psychiatrist that helped him make sense of the bewildering experience.

John reflects on others' euphoric moments and their different sources - like religious ecstasy, brain disorders, drugs, exercise and music. He considers the mystical experiences of saints - Paul the Apostle's awakening on the road to Damascus, and St Teresa of Avila's sudden state of ecstasy consumed by the love of God. 
 
Before his epileptic seizures, Fyodor Dostoevsky would experience staggering seconds of bliss, which influenced his writing and religious sentiments. In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley detailed his euphoric experiences taking the hallucinogenic drug mescaline. Beyond the short-cut of mind-altering drugs, long-distance runners have often experienced euphoria after pushing their bodies to the absolute limit. The conclusion to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde climaxes with a musically-induced euphoria for both the audience and the performers.

Euphoria takes on many forms, but the feeling is often transformative. Euphoria can seemingly spontaneously enter one's life or can be experienced through the very human effort to transcend ordinary humdrum experience.

 
Producer: Colin McNulty
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