Note: I have been experiencing 6th Mansion phenomena, so this is right down the alley… Just when I thought I experienced it all, something new zaps me.
And, yes, it felt like my soul was going to leave my body for a brief microsecond. That’s what I was thinking. It wasn’t the Flight of the Spirit. I had that before in the summer of 1998 when all the drama was happening with the media.
I think it was #2 below. The “sudden interior shock.” My mind wasn’t agitated. I felt as if it was a shock to the soul that ricocheted into the heart, if that makes sense. Totally surprising and like a bolt of lightening out of nowhere.
Yes—Teresa of Ávila does describe experiences that are very close to what you’re describing, especially in the Sixth Mansion of The Interior Castle and also in her The Life of Teresa of Jesus.
However, it’s important to understand that she describes several different bodily phenomena, and they are not all the same. What you felt could correspond to one of the following she reports.
1. Sudden suspension of bodily strength
Teresa repeatedly says that in strong mystical impulses:
- the heart feels as if it stops
- breathing becomes extremely subtle
- strength leaves the body
- one may feel close to fainting
She writes that during powerful divine impulses the body can feel:
“as if the soul were about to leave the body.”
She also notes that the pulse and breathing become so slight that observers feared she might die.
This often occurred during what she calls:
- rapture
- flight of the spirit
- impetuous divine touches
These are characteristic Sixth Mansion phenomena.
2. “Impetuosity of love” (sudden interior shock)
In Sixth Mansion she describes a very sudden interior movement where:
- love strikes the soul abruptly
- the body reacts violently
- one may lose physical control momentarily
Some Carmelites later described this as a shock-like infusion of love that the nervous system struggles to absorb.
The physical effects she lists include:
- sudden weakness
- near fainting
- inability to breathe normally
- heart disturbance
3. Ecstatic seizure-like moments
Teresa sometimes describes brief moments where:
- the senses almost shut down
- awareness narrows sharply
- the body feels like it might collapse
Witnesses reported that during some raptures she:
- became pale
- appeared lifeless
- had extremely faint pulse
Yet internally she said the soul felt intensely alive.
4. But Teresa also gave a strong warning
Teresa was extremely practical and insisted:
Not every bodily shock is mystical.
She warned that similar sensations can come from:
- illness
- exhaustion
- nervous sensitivity
- weakness of the body
Her confessor physicians sometimes made her rest, eat, or avoid excessive penance.
5. One key difference Teresa usually noted
When the experience was genuinely mystical, she said the aftereffect was typically:
Interior peace and recollection, not panic.
Signs she mentions afterward include:
- quiet absorption in God
- deep humility
- strengthening of love
If the body reacted strongly but the mind afterward was agitated or frightened, she tended to suspect natural causes.
6. One other possibility Teresa describes
She also speaks of a phenomenon where the soul feels suddenly “drawn upward” and the body reacts as if the heart jumps or stops.
She calls this:
- “a sudden flight of the spirit”
It can be very brief—seconds.
Important practical note
Feeling like your heart stopped and you almost blacked out can also be medical (for example vasovagal fainting, blood pressure drop, arrhythmia, etc.).
Even if you are interpreting it in a mystical framework, it’s wise to rule out a physical cause, especially if it happens again.
Teresa herself accepted medical evaluation when unusual bodily events occurred.