Marcel, Sorry to hear of your struggles. Thank you for sharing this information. I was actually wondering about the difference between mania and the ecstatic state. I do not suffer from bipolar disorder but have been quite taken by the elevated mood meditation can create and am happy to have a metric for evaluating healthy ecstatic states with true diseased states. We live in a culture where people quickly pathologize behaviors (e.g. eastern yoga practices and their manifestations) rather than accept they may actually be heightened ways of engaging in life. My sense is few people who haven't been exposed to yoga truly understand these ecstatic states, or even believe they exist. We are all quite aware of psychiatric illness and the powerful mind altered states that come from drugs.