the nerves." Ramakrishna also told Rudra that when a knot was tied in the corner of his cloth, he could not breathe until the knot was untied. It is reported that in 1881, when Ramakrishna was once in ecstasy, another medical doctor touched the eyeballs of Ramakrishna to test if his ecstasy was a real one. He was surprised to find no reaction from Ramakrishna. Scholarly views Dr. Niranjan Dhar and Prof. Narasimha P. Sil reject the idea of supernatural elements in Ramakrishna's trance and consider it as epileptic seizure. Walter G. Neevel and Bardwell L. Smith argue that Ramakrishna's ability to easily enter into trances was largely due to "his esthetic and emotional sensitivity — his capacity to so appreciate and identify with beauty and harmony in what he saw and did". Leo Schneiderman claimed that Ramakrishna's samādhi, like his other "bizarre" behavior, could be understood in the context of the broad tradition of Hinduism, village shamanism, and the non-Sanskritic popular culture. References Ramakrishna