Observations placeholder
Socrates - Plato Symposium - Out of body and trance states
Identifier
018760
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Symposium – Plato [Translator: B. Jowett]
I have told you one tale, and now I must tell you another, which is worth hearing, 'Of the doings and sufferings of the enduring man' while he was on the expedition.
One morning Socrates was thinking about something which he could not resolve; he would not give it up, but continued thinking from early dawn until noon--there he stood fixed in thought; and at noon attention was drawn to him, and the rumour ran through the wondering crowd that Socrates had been standing and thinking about something ever since the break of day. At last, in the evening after supper, some Ionians out of curiosity (I should explain that this was not in winter but in summer), brought out their mats and slept in the open air that they might watch him and see whether he would stand all night.
There he stood until the following morning; and with the return of light he offered up a prayer to the sun, and went his way (compare supra).