Body Erotic

29 Nov Body Erotic

In the readings and video for this module I was happy to be exploring the erotic and the body, as sex is my main area of research in my doctoral work. I was surprised to learn in Erickson’s video (2023) that Jung had said the Freud considered sex a numinous portal to the divine, followed by Erickson’s disclaimer that sex is not a portal for everyone. I was moved when one of my cohort shared that the readings had been triggering for her, which she shared with obvious embarrassment. She later sent me a message saying that she had been moved that I was so able to openly share about sexuality and my research.

I was so intrigued by the excerpt by Barratt (2010) that I bought the whole book and devoured it. I resonated with his phrase “our culturally-endorsed alienation from our experiential embodiment,” and that returning to our awareness of our embodiment is essentially a spiritual practice. He sees the integration of the mind and body as similar to healing the split between the sacred and the secular.

Kripal’s article (2022) was fascinating with his story of the latent and not-so latent homosexuality at the monastery. Of course! Where did gay people have to go in the past? This led me to many ponderings on the nature of the male sexuality that has come down to us – and for the first time considered the ramifications that all the spirituality we have grown up with and studied was created by celibate men, or as Kripal points out, men preferring homoeroticism if not openly gay. “There is nothing straight about the historical Jesus.” This has led me for the rest of the semester to basically reject all traditions coming out of Wilber’s ascending line, especially as much of my extra-curricular reading this semester has been about the mindboggling sexism of Tibetan Buddhist tantra.

Gendlin’s practice of Focusing (2015) has been an important contributor to my own experience and practice of embodiment. From his book and a therapist I was working with at the time, I learned about and practiced the felt sense, and gradually came to trust it. I have also practiced Grof’s (2012) Holotropic Breathwork, both by doing individual, dyadic, and group sessions, and by attending two weekend-long workshops.

I enjoyed Fuller’s (2008) piece on the somatics of spiritual transformation and intend to read his book over the break. He is quite sex-positive and writes about how sexuality informs life with passion and vitality and gives the body a sense of aliveness.

I was inspired to create a sexual meditation for my husband and myself which we are continuing to practice daily. It has changed in form and content as we continue to refine. We take notes every day, and I plan to use it for a research project for a future class. (I misunderstood at the beginning of this class — we were not going to be doing this kind of project. Nothing lost.)

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