19 Mar Women Wisdom Teachers: Gina Ogden
Gina Ogden, PhD (1935-2018) was a feminist, sex researcher, teacher, scholar, author of 13 books, and wisdom teacher. She was a pioneer in introducing the spiritual dimension into mainstream sexology. She put forth the model of the 4-D Network of which the four dimensions were the physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual. She received highest honors from the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), as well as apprenticing in ceremonial shamanism for two decades. Ogden was at one time an adjunct professor at CIIS.
Ogden conducted a nationwide study on integrating sexuality and spirituality known as the ISIS Survey. She received 3,810 responses, making it one of the largest American scientific sex surveys. Participants were asked what sex means to them rather than the usual quantitative questions such as “how many times do you … ,” “how old were you,” “how often do you …” The objective of her study was to understand the deeper purpose of sex in our lives rather than to measure performance. The stories that were collected challenged the fifty years of performance-oriented norms established by other major sex surveys. Survey participants were for the most part women, and they overwhelmingly showed that “the paths to sexual satisfaction connect physical sensations with spiritual energies such as love, compassion, commitment, empathy, and reverence for life” (Ogden, 2006, p. xii).
Ogden’s work is significant for many reasons, perhaps the most important being that it expands contemporary understandings of sexuality to that of “sexual intimacy can be an ever-expanding spiritual process” (Ogden, 1999, p. x) and that “sexual responses open [us] to a sense of wholeness – a connection of body, mind, heart, and soul; a sense of oneness with their partners, with the universe” (p. 1).
References
Ogden, G. (2006). The heart and soul of sex: Exploring the sexual mysteries. Trumpeter Books.
Ogden, G. (2007). Women who love sex: Ordinary women describe their paths to pleasure, intimacy, and ecstasy. Trumpeter Books.
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