26 Mar Women Mystics: Alice Bunker Stockham
Alice Bunker Stockham (1833-1912) was one of the first female M.D.s in the U.S. and a significant voice for gender equality, birth control, and the sacredness of sex. Born to Quaker parents, she practiced medicine in the Chicago area and traveled widely, including staying with Leo and Sophia Tolstoy in Russia and attending the world Theosophical Convention in Madras as a guest of Col. Olcott (the co-founder of the Theosophical Society). Inspired by what she witnessed during a trip to Sweden, she was the first to introduce home economics and shop classes into American high schools.
Dr. Stockham was an advocate of karezza (Italian for “caress”), a form of loving, mindful, protracted sex without male ejaculation which she felt was a method for inducing expanded consciousness. She wrote about the positive physical and mental health benefits of karezza for men and women, and that making love in this way would generate creativity and provide spiritual benefits: “Sexual union can be a fast path to spiritual illumination” (Versulis, p. 116). She saw karezza as “a theory of sexual mysticism that entails not only the physical but also the spiritual union of man and woman in marriage” (Versluis, p. 115).
Stockham wrote several books on the use of sexual energy for higher union and spiritual unity. Since she couldn’t find anyone to publish her books that were so frank about sex, she founded her own publishing company. Through her philosophy of gender equality and the possibility of enlightenment of the individual and the couple through karezza, Stockham hoped to affect many. “Like William James, Stockham was concerned with results and effects for the individual, as well as with the potential transformation of the whole of human society.” (Hanegraff & Kripal, pg. 350). Alice Bunker Stockham may not have received the recognition she deserves, but she was surely a bright light in her gifts as a philosopher, sexual mystic, and wisdom teacher.
References
Hanegraaff, W. J., & Kripal, J. (Ed.). (2008). Hidden intercourse: Eros and sexuality in the history of western esotericism. Fordham University Press.
Stockham, A. B. (1903). Karezza: Ethics of marriage. Sacred Texts.
https://sacred-texts.com/sex/eom/index.htm
Versluis, A. (2008). The secret history of western sexual mysticism: Sacred practices and spiritual marriage. Destiny Books.
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