... Greece did not impinge on the regular running of the state. Modern anthropological studies of religion tend to approach ritual practices from an atheist and critical point of view, rationalising the rites and explaining them in terms of their function in society, or as a psychological necessity. This is both logical and necessary to gain a scholarly understanding of the practices, unclouded by personal beliefs. However, the limitations on this sort of analysis are clear for the social historian: by applying secular thought to the study of religion, we are restricting ourselves in a complete understanding of the experience. Although we gain a deeper understanding of the 'social' functions provided by religion, there is little elaboration on the personal motives and psychological effects on the individual resulting such practices. In the first part of this essay I shall therefore examine the personal experience of the followers of ecstatic cult, ...

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