“Tantric Orgasm:” Mystery, Myth, Misnomer?

A Unifying Cosmic Experience
(excerpted from Tantra: Cult of the Feminine, by the late André Van Lysebeth…Please consider purchasing the book for your further explorations, and supporting his legacy and his family…)

Tantra has always known that the acme of sexual experience brings about a state of bliss that is a far cry from simply climaxing and produces a split from ordinary, waking consciousness associated with the ego. Changing planes of consciousness is therefore a
well-tried means of transcending the ego and gaining access to a unitary cosmic experience. Going beyond the ego thus involves no
mortification, no tedious asceticism which often creates more problems than it solves.

You may have noticed that in referring to this peak experience I deliberately avoided the word orgasm, both too specific and too vague, and chose acme, instead. I also discarded climax and paroxysm which both imply extreme tension that is totally alien to the Tantric experience. Without rejecting ordinary orgasm, Tantra considers that it is too dependent on mechanical, genital reflexes and prevent any conscious control. The female orgasm is a sort of spasm that is almost as irrepressible as the male’s ejaculation. In this mysterious Tantric alchemy, the Shakti need not forfeit her genital orgasm on condition that the Shiva not lose his sexual control because of it: she must gradually transcend ordinary orgasm so that the energy thus awakened may activate the “heavenly” part of her brain. In the same way, the Shiva must go beyond his ejaculation, which implies that he has already mastered it. In both cases, the psychic, mental, orgasm is acme.

Both our sexualities, the genital one with its orgasm, and the cerebral one with its acme, unite in the Tantric experience,
although the heavenly one is given top priority, it being the only one
capable of opening the doors to cosmic experience.

Even without any Tantric initiation, some women may experience something very close indeed to the “real thing.” A woman describes
her experience as follows: “First, my feelings are concentrated at the genital region, then they flow over by great waves in my whole
body. I become my feelings. I am all sensitivity. At times, I feel like singing, as if the sensations were reaching my vocal chords and made them vibrate on a still to be discovered tone.

“I have wonderful feelings of wholeness. It is difficult to describe this. I feel electricity running through my whole body and live intensely the bodily and spiritual union with my partner. At times, I pray God tto become united to him, and feel the bliss of ecstasy!

“this kind of orgasm is to me a dive into the metaphysical, in another world, a religious world. I have the feeling of climbing a mountain. This all happens within my head which flows over with emotion, and compels me to stay emotionally close to the man with whom I am.

“Orgasm is a compulsive sensation of light; this light comes from his head and flows into my own, and I too start emitting light. Within my body everything becomes light. I am blinded by a dazzling light, which shines from behind my eyes, I hear nothing more, I do not feel anything precise, but each part of my blood starts dancing, evey pore irradiates, and the spiders in the closet, the ants on the floor should feel it and be joyous to receive such love” (translation from Le rapport Hite, Paris, 1977, p. 178).

This excerpt is easy to decipher once you’ve realized there are two types of sexuality and two types of experiences. Obviously (and unknowingly), this Shakti awakened her Kundalini; her genital orgasm was the first stage of the rocket that propelled her toward another state of being, toward the heavenly experience which she herself explicitly locates in her brain (in the above quote the italics are mine) rather than in her yoni. Moreover her experience is spiritual, cosmic, and maybe even mystical, but it is unlikely that she will be able to reach this state each and every time. The same is true in Tantra. The Shiva must realize that if and when his Shakti reaches such a state — and the ecstatic expression on her face will tell him — she has become “disconnnected” from the species pole: the “best behavior” for the Shiva, in this case, is to stop moving, be still and psychically share the Shakti’s experience.

In a way, Tantra has democratized the experience ith its rituals and processes which se the appropriate mental and corporeal conditions. True, this type of experience is not within the immediate reach of each and every women, be she a Tantrist or not. But it is also true that each and every woman is potentially capable of attaining it. Moreover, such an acme is not the only door to the state of cosmic fusion (cf. the chapter on the Path of the Valley). Furthermore, exercising her anti-frigidity muscles and sharing maithuna with a Shiva capable of ejaculatory control will gradually release the Shakti’s dual sexuality and she will eventually be able to have such an experience and share it with her Tantric or non-Tantric Partner.

As a follow-up to the above, you may proceed directly to the section starting on page 316.”
— End Excerpt of Andre Van Lysebeth’s Tantra: Cult of the Feminine

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