Teresa of Ávila’s Levitation Accounts

Record summary

Teresa of Ávila described ecstatic states in which she felt bodily elevation, and her Life and other writings discuss witnesses, resistance and embarrassment surrounding such experiences. The material is important for comparing out-of-body-like language, somatic alteration, religious interpretation and institutional scrutiny. Teresa’s accounts are identifiable through her autobiography and Carmelite documentary tradition, while later hagiography amplified some episodes. Whether any physical levitation occurred is not established; psychological, social and theological readings remain competing interpretations.