Changes

What is an act in the strict Lacanian sense of the term? Recall C.S. Lewis' description of his religious choice from his <i>Surprised by Joy</i>—what makes it so irresistibly delicious is the author's matter-of-fact "English" skeptical style, far from the usual pathetic narratives of the mystical rapture. C.S. Lewis' description of the act thus deftly avoids any ecstatic pathos in the usual style of Saint Theresa, any multiple-orgasmic penetrations by angels or God: it is not that, in the divine mystical experience, we step out (in ex-stasis) of our normal experience of reality: it is this "normal" experience which is "ex-static" (Heidegger), in which we are thrown outside into entities, and the mystical experience signal the withdrawal from this ecstasy. Lewis thus refers to the experience as the "odd thing;" he mentions its common location—"I was going up Headington Hill on the top of a bus"—the qualifications like "in a sense," "what now appears," "or, if you like," "you could argue that... but I am more inclined to think...," "perhaps," "I rather disliked the feeling"):