Does being in a rapture count as raging?

Question

The Exciter Spiritualist gains the following ability:

Rapture (Su)

An exciter gains the ability to enter an ecstatic state in which he’s consumed and overwhelmed by his passions and driven into a fighting fury. This functions similarly to a bloodrager’s bloodrage, treating his spiritualist level as his bloodrager level, though he doesn’t qualify for feats or other elements that require rage or bloodrage. When entering a rapture, the exciter loses all other benefits from having his phantom confined in his consciousness (such as the Skill Focus feats and bonus against mind-affecting effects), but he can choose to exchange the normal +4 morale bonus to his Strength and Constitution scores normally gained from bloodrage for a +4 morale bonus to his Dexterity and Charisma scores or a +2 morale bonus to his Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma scores. In addition to the fatigue for ending a bloodrage, an exciter can’t enter a rapture again for 1 minute after ending his last rapture.

This ability states that it functions like bloodrage, but does not count as the rage or bloodrage class features. That makes it very clear that it does not allow you to qualify for things like Extra Rage, which requires the rage class feature.

So what about things that affect you while raging, or if you have a rage ability? Does this count for those?

Examples:

• Furious weapon enchantment
• Skald's Inspired Rage
• Boots of Swift Fury

These all say that they do something "while raging" or "if an ally has her own rage class ability".

Answer 1

It appears that a character who has entered Rapture qualifies as Raging.

Careful examination of the quoted text indicates that the effects of Rapture are identical to the effects of bloodrage other than in the ways indicated in the text. Those changes are the loss of all other confined phantom effects, the ability to influence what stats are modified, and the 1 minute cooldown. The overall "raging" or "in a rage" status is one of the effects of bloodrage, and it is not specifically modified. Thus, the furious weapon and the boots, at least, should both apply fully.

The "though he doesn’t qualify for feats or other elements that require rage or bloodrage" is potentially confusing, but refers to the things that the individual with the power qualifies for by dint of having the class feature, rather than the things that the effects that the state imbues. Specifically, this may disallow the alternate benefit from the Skald's Inspired Rage ability. Rapture specifically does not count as bloodrage for that purpose, and is not itself included on the example list. It also does not include "rage" in the name of the ability, like all of the listed examples do. On the other hand, it is arguable that any power that causes you to enter an "in a rage" state should qualify as a "rage" power. The fact that the 10th level feature "Rapturous rage" allows you to take rage powers to modify the ability further suggests that it should qualify as a rage ability, but does not indicate it outright. Its DM's call, though I would lean towards allowing it. Note that if it does qualify for Inspired Rage, the one minute cooldown for rapture would still apply, even though the fatigue is cancelled.