#Mos def the ecstatic driver#
#Mos def the ecstatic free#

You might go so far as to say this indicates that the best way for Mos Def to reassert what he really means as an artist would be to take his as-seen-in-Hollywood face out of the equation entirely, replacing it with a shot from an entirely different strain of independent, neorealist cinema that more clearly gets at what he represents as a lyricist. And now The Ecstatic, which depicts not Mos Def himself but a red-tinted shot from Charles Burnett's classic 1977 film Killer of Sheep. Contractual obligation mishap True Magic: no actual album art whatsoever, with a blank-looking Mos staring into space off the surface of the disc itself.

#Mos def the ecstatic driver#

Aggro experimental follow-up The New Danger: that same face now obscured by a stick-up man's mask, his bright red, bloody-looking index fingertip pointing to his own head on some Taxi Driver shit. Iconic solo debut Black on Both Sides: a stark, immediately-striking photo portrait that renders the attribution of his name unnecessary.

#Mos def the ecstatic free#

St.People looking for offhanded symbolism can feel free to try tracking Mos Def's career trajectory as an MC through his album covers.The dictionary definition of ecstasy at Wiktionary.Media related to Ecstasy (emotion) at Wikimedia Commons.

Timothy Leary, 'The Politics of Ecstasy', 1967.Marghanita Laski, 'Everyday Ecstasy', Thames and Hudson, 1980.A study of some Secular and Religious Experiences', London, Cresset Press, 1961. Milan Kundera on ecstasy: a quote from Milan Kundera's book 'Testaments Betrayed' (1993).William James, 'Varieties of Religious Experience', 1902.Leuba, 'The Psychology of Religious Mysticism', p.8. Archived from the original on September 14, 2004. Based on Papers read at the Symposium on Religions Ecstasy held at Åbo, Finland, on the 26th-28th of August 1981. (Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis XI: Religious Ecstasy. 'Ecstasy from a Physiological Point of View'. The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Third, revised ed.). For obvious reasons, it is rarely used in a scientific context it is a concept that is extremely hard to define.' See also 'In everyday language, the word 'ecstasy' denotes an intense, euphoric experience. to recognize a continuity of impulse, of purpose, of form and of result between the ecstatic intoxication of the savage and the absorption in God of the Christian mystic.' Always described as delightful beyond expression, these awesome ecstatic experiences end commonly in mental quiescence or even in total unconsciousness.' He prepares his readers '. But, however produced and at whatever level of culture they may be found, they possess certain common features which suggest even to the superficial observer some profound connection.

These states are induced by means of drugs, by physical excitement, or by psychical means. In 1925, James Leuba wrote: 'Among most uncivilized populations, as among civilized peoples, certain ecstatic conditions are regarded as divine possession or as union with the Divine. When he reaches an experience, a traditional interpretation of it already exists.' The experience together with its subsequent interpretation may strongly and permanently change the value system and the worldview of the subject (e.g. 'When a person is using an ecstasy technique, he usually does so within a tradition. People interpret the experience afterward according to their culture and beliefs (as a revelation from God, a trip to the world of spirits or a psychotic episode). In such cases, it is not rare to find that the person later, by reading, looks for an interpretation and maybe finds it within a tradition.' Maybe the person unintentionally triggers one of the probably many, physiological mechanisms through which such an experience can be reached. 'In some cases, a person might obtain an ecstatic experience 'by mistake'. Sometimes an ecstatic experience takes place due to occasional contact with something or somebody perceived as extremely beautiful or holy, or without any known reason. The particular technique that an individual uses to induce ecstasy is usually also associated with that individual's particular religious and cultural traditions. Ecstasy, by Jean Benner ( Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art)Įcstasy can be deliberately induced using religious or creative activities, meditation, music, dancing, breathing exercises, physical exercise, sexual intercourse or consumption of psychotropic drugs.