"ouk oida" -- "I do not know"

In Paul's rapture to paradise text, he three times repeats the phrase "ouk oida" -- I do not know. Meditation upon this thrice repeated phrase in light of my own harpazo ascent sixteen years ago has provided me insight into what I consider the experiential core of the narrative. Each "ouk oida" preserves a moment, a distinct authentic experiential moment.

"In the body? I do not know." This first "ouk oida" moment, reflects a first heavenly phase of harpazo ascent where there is a clear, overwhelming felt sense of being snatched, suddenly, forcibly, and irresistably away bodily into a blissful, unearthly realm. The "ouk oida" is the non-anxious observation that since the ordinary external senses are suspended, there is no way of knowing what is actually happening to the physical body.

"Out of the body? I do not know." This second "ouk oida" moment reflects a distinctly noticeable second phase of harpazo ascent where there is a distinct felt sense of being released from the ordinary body. There does however remain a sense of a body shape, and a feeling of bodily pleasure. The "ouk oida" in this phase is a non-anxious observation that with the external senses still suspended, there remains no way of knowing what is actually happening to the physical body.

"Out of the body or without any body? I do not know." This third "ouk oida" moment is very different than the first two. The first two moments happen in rapid succession as the first two distinct phases in a three phase heavenly ascent. By contrast, the situation of the third "ouk oida" is paradisiacal stillness.

The narrative is divided into two parallel parts, the first climaxing in "the third heaven," and the second climaxing in "Paradise." Studies of the cosmology of the time find a range of meanings in Paul's language. My understanding draws on the findings of these studies, but selects from the range of possible meanings according to what fits with the core experience markers, the three "ouk oida" moments.

I understand "the third heaven" as the portal to "Paradise." This understanding of reflected in Clement's paraphrase of the ascent "to the third heaven and from thence into Paradise." I understand "Paradise" mythically as the resting place of the blessed after the death of the "psychical body" and the portal to resurrection in the "spiritual body." The intermediate stage is experientially something like a deep sleep, but without any grogginess before and after. The experiential context of the of the third "ouk oida" moment is the moment of awakening out of this Paradise deep-sleep, awakening into Paradise embodiment. The immediate sense upon awakening includes a completely non-anxious perplexity about one's body: There is both a memory of entering the paradisiacal deep sleep with a "third heaven" felt sense of being "without any body," and there is also a sense of somehow having been "in the body" -- in the same physical body -- the whole time. It is particularly perplexing since the descent from "without any body" sense back to the "in the body" sense takes place with no sense of the process of descent -- the experience is of waking up out of heaven on earth. To put it differently, there was a conscious ascent to heaven, but no conscious descent; thus, upon awakening, there is a stark juxtaposition of two distinct prior conditions: embodiment and absence of any body -- thus the third "ouk oida" moment is a perplexity about which memory to regard as the source of the present moment. Was I "in the body" or "without any body?" Given that the immediate past is a pure mental blank, a gap, the response spontaneous, non-anxious response is "ouk oida."