phil shining
chapters
Sex Life Cultivation: Ars Erotica as an Alternative to Sex Education and Sex Therapy
In Sexuality and Eroticism in a Post-pandemic World: Beyond the Biopolitics of the New Normal (Brill, 2023)
Pages: 393–452
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004549388_014
Introduction to the “New Normal:” Biopolitics, Sexuality, and Eroticism in a Post-pandemic World
In Sexuality and Eroticism in a Post-pandemic World: Beyond the Biopolitics of the New Normal (Brill, 2023)
Pages: 1–80
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004549388_002
Embodying “The Little Death” of Orgasm: An Interdisciplinary Research on Sexual Trance
In Exploring Sexuality and Spirituality: An Introduction to an Interdisciplinary Field (Brill, 2021)
Pages: 318–386
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004437869_012
Introduction to the Sexuality and Spirituality Field of Research: A History of the Intersections Between Sexuality and Spirituality
In Exploring Sexuality and Spirituality: An Introduction to an Interdisciplinary Field (Brill, 2021)
Pages: 1- 54
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004437869_002
Orgasm has been associated with death by diverse cultures throughout history, from spiritual traditions to artistic schools and eroticism in general. Particularly, the expression “the little death”—originally developed in French language as “la petite mort”—captures this intrinsic relation between sexual ecstasy and death. The exploration of this perennial association only can be approached in all its depth and complexity through an empirical-constructivist model of interdisciplinary research on sexual trance and ecstasy tracking the nucleus of convergence between scientific, philosophic, artistic, spiritual, and/or religious sources—plus registers of empirical experimentation.
Continuities and discontinuities are traced between both Eastern and Western heterogeneous forms of knowledge associating orgasm and death, including the practices of ancient spiritual traditions, avant-garde poetry, post-structuralist philosophy, and neurophysiological models of explanation. As a research conclusion, a transdisciplinary isomorphism can be consistently traced after comparing the registers of empirical experimentation with the study of scientific explanations, philosophical conceptualizations, religious beliefs, spiritual teachings, and also poetic outlines referring to orgasm and/or sexual trance. The isomorphism that can be found in all forms of knowledge associating orgasm and death is the death of the self: selflessness seems to be the structure that bridges the ecstasy in a body and the infinity of the cosmos.
Indeed, the activity of the brain reduces to the minimum during orgasm, becoming empty of all self-narrative production; selflessness constitutes the neuropsychological foundation of trance experiences—not metaphorically, literally. This is why the expression la petite mort functions as a highly accurate description of the neurophysiological core of the sexual trance embodiments, of trance in general, and of all mystical experiences in general. When the brain achieves this type of selflessness functionality the consciousness of the practitioner is able to perceive—and feel through its body—the quantum field “embedded” to the universe, the intangible and continuously permutating subatomic warp invisibly penetrating all existence.
But “the little death” captures much more than a scientific explanation; it is an expression encapsulating the radicality of the experience and the physical impact of the embodiment. In this way, this chapter outlines a new, immanent model of mystical experience, grounded on the empirical evidence of neuronal and physiological, but also behavioral and ethical states of selflessness lived by humans. A mystical experience is a sublime immanent experience in which a cessation of self-narratives in the brain permits to experience or have direct access to the “void” of the universe, that is, the quantum field, through an exercise of consciousness without mind activity. That’s why a mystical experience is an experience of ultimate reality and, at the same time, an experience of divinity.
Orgasm and the embodiment of sexual trance are contrasted in this chapter with three key problems: selflessness, death, and absolute ultimate reality. Which is the death intrinsic to orgasm, as suggested in the expression la petite mort? The implicit death alluded by sexual and spiritual traditions is no other than the death of the ego and the dissolution of the self; this is why the death of the ego is the core of any authentic spiritual practice: because only learning how to lose its constant self-consciousness and self-centeredness the practitioner can access to live the experience of melting within the absolute—the cosmos, or what religions call God—, that is, becoming one with nature.
In common mainstream terms, to access the experience of divinity it is required the action of “transcending” ourselves to merge with the infinity of the cosmos; expanded awareness only begins when self-awareness has become “transcended.” Yet, there’s no necessity of believing in transcendent worlds or transcendent gods to live a mystical experience, because divinity is embedded with nature—sexual ecstasy constitutes the uncontestable empirical evidence supporting this assertion. Sex—as entheogens or meditation—, is a portal. Sexual trance, as an immanent mystical embodiment, is a gate to ultimate reality: the subatomic reality of the quantic field that only selflessness states of consciousness can perceive.
Divinity is immanent to nature, as orgasm, sexual trance, and sexual ecstasy can easily prove it. Orgasm implies melting with the other, even being alone, becoming one with everything surrounding us. Ecstasy is the quintessential human embodiment of the death of the ego and the most powerful experience of selflessness that a body can live. Truthful episodes of sexual trance proof that mystical experiences are something real, tangible; moreover, accessible to anyone. In this sense, sex is much more than the opportunity to reset the biological structure of our body, from our mind to our cardiovascular system.
Although it is common to associate sexual pleasure with patriarchal egoism, the liberating potential of sexual activity is real—it just has not been studied enough yet. Sex can be the primordial territory for spiritual growth and the development of practice-oriented spirituality: to practice how to cultivate orgasms—for ourselves, but also for the other as well—as a way to practice individual and collective empowerment without ego. In times of individualistic ways of life and egocentric ethics, when sex is mostly used as a vehicle of self-expression, what becomes revolutionary is the opposite. To use sexual activity as a way to understand and, actually, feel the relevance, the benefits, and the power of dissolving the ego: the practice of cultivating solidary ecstasy used as a spiritual strategy to cultivate selflessness and selfless ways of life.
Keywords:
Bataille, Georges – bliss – death – divinity – ecstasy – ego death – embodiment – emptiness – immanence – la petite mort – limit-experience – meditation – mysticism – nothingness – orgasm – quantum field – selflessness – self-narratives – Tantra – trance – transcendence.
Introduction to the Sexuality and Spirituality Field of Research: A History of the Intersections Between Sexuality and Spirituality
In Exploring Sexuality and Spirituality: An Introduction to an Interdisciplinary Field (Brill, 2021)
Pages: 1–54
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004437869_002