Transcendent Sex: Orgasm x 1000

My three previous blog posts have focused on scientific surveys and experiments concerning intimate relationships and sexuality. Today, I’d like to provide a counter-balance by examining the experiential, and in particular the spiritual, aspects of sex.

Much could be written about exotic techniques that have been developed in the context of such esoteric practices as Hindu and Buddhist tantric yoga, western ceremonial magick, goddess worship and modern witchcraft, Reichian orgone therapy and other forms of sex therapy – not to mention various exotic experiments involving recreational drugs. However, I will save those topics for another day.

Today, I’d like to look at the transcendental experiences that occur spontaneously, without any warning or preparation, in the sexual lives of ordinary citizens. And, fortunately, Dr. Jenny Wade, a faculty member of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, has put together a fascinating book, called Transcendent Sex – based on in-depth interviews with 91 individuals – concerning what she exaggerates as “the best kept secret in human history.”

The experiences reported by these 91 include the following – ranked, roughly, from the least to the most transcendent:

            Sensations of heat and light

            Awakening of “kundalini” or energetic sensations rising up the spine

            Speaking in tongues (glossolalia)

            Awareness of angelic-like spiritual presences

            A sense of merging with one’s partner to form a new, third being

            Experiencing “gifts of the spirit” such as healing

            Feeling connected and unified with all of nature

            Entering into non-physical realms of spiritual entities and forces

            Shapeshifting, channeling and possession

            Journeying outside of one’s body

            Entering into realms of supernatural bliss

            Falling into past lives and seeing the future

            Entering into states of enlightenment, Nirvana, Samadhi, Satori or Moksha

            Experiencing divine union

Of course, such experiences are not all sweetness and light. Often, as one enters into the depths of the psyche, one must encounter one’s own dark side or shadow. The results can sometimes be frighteningly demonic or hellish. Or, sometimes, such transcendent experiences lead to emotional bonding with a bad or unsuitable partner.

How is it that sexual encounters triggered these unusual experiences? Jenny Wade admits that she does not know. The experiences had nothing to do with the mechanics or techniques of lovemaking. They were neither related to orgasm, nor to any observable physiological differences between male and female sexual response. Sexual abuse was not a causal factor (although it is sometimes associated with such experiences in other contexts). Transcendent sex was not limited to certain, special relationships, nor did it have any discernable relationship to a person’s spiritual beliefs and practices.

It probably is worth noting however that similar experiences have also been reported among athletes of all varieties – as documented in the classic book by Rhea White and Michael Murphy, The Psychic Side of Sports.

And, it’s also worth noting the research of Canadian neuroscientist, Michael Persinger, who has found that such transcendent experiences occur readily among a certain population of people whom he describes as having “temporal lobe lability.” In other words, Persinger maintains that certain individuals have a very active portion of their brain that seems to generate these unusual experiences. This is a factor that probably did not particularly influence Jenny Wade’s interviewees – as they did not, typically, report such experiences during activities outside of sex.

The main point, for now, is simply that sexual encounters have the potential to shatter or dissolve the conventional boundaries of our ego that we maintain through most of our waking life. Then we enter into the mysteries of our own soul.

Science is usually a very incomplete tool when it comes to absorbing and integrating such experiences. Philosophy, literature and various spiritual traditions – while also incomplete – often are found to be very helpful.

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