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<P align="justify"> <i>Lihkadu … <P align="justify"> <i>Lihkadusat</i> ( Movements ). This word is used to describe the powerful emotional physical demonstrations experienced in [[Laestadianiam|Laestadianism]]; they were associated with spiritual experiences, especially strong sensations of grace. They were characterized by wails and cries, involuntary gesticulations and even dancing. Particularly in the early stages of the Laestadianism, they were extremely powerful, and they had at least a semi-ecstatic character. There were also occurrences in the early phase of the movement of complete loss of consciousness and of visions experienced during unconsciousness. These were similar phenomena to those which had appeared even more strongly in earlier revivalist movements in Lapland, most particularly the [[Čuorvut movement|<i>Čuorvut</i>]] movement and the Viklundist revival. The first Laestadians to experience these states were Saamis. According to Guttorm Gjessing, who studied ecstatic phenomena in the north, these states were distinctly more common among the Saami, particularly Saami women, than among Finns. They were even less common in Swedish and Norwegian Laestadians, among whom they were hardly found at all. In the research literature, this phenomenon has often been linked to the concept of [[Arctic hystery|Arctic hysteria ]]. This does not, however, offer a very convincing explanation because similar ecstatic phenomena have been found in conjunction with religious revivals in southern Finland, for example, and ecstatic preachers have been observed all over Finland. Nor is ecstatic religion by any means a phenomenon exclusive to the North. Even so, although ecstatic phenomena are not unique to the Saami, one can nevertheless assume that the millennial tradition of shamanism lowered their threshold for experiencing Christian ecstasies as well. The higher proportion of women who experienced the lihkadusat in the Laestadian movement can be explained from the point of view of the sociology of religion by the religious influence that it gave women in an otherwise patriarchal Christian culture.</P>e patriarchal Christian culture.</P> +
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