Coitus reservatus
Coitus reservatus (coitus, "sexual intercourse, union" + reservatus, "reserved, saved"),[1] also known as sexual continence, is a form of sexual intercourse in which the penetrative partner does not attempt to ejaculate within the receptive partner, but instead attempts to remain at the plateau phase of intercourse for as long as possible avoiding the seminal emission.
Alice Stockham coined the term karezza, derived from the Italian word "carezza" meaning "caress", to describe Coitus reservatus, but the idea was already in practice at the Oneida Community. Alan Watts believed, in error, that karezza was a Persian word.[2] The concept of karezza is loosely akin to maithuna in Hindu Tantra and Sahaja in Hindu Yoga.[3]
Control of ejaculation is a key aspect of Taoist sexual practices (known as "cai Yin pu Yang" and "cai Yang pu Yin").[4]
Practice of Karezza and Tantric (sexual) continence
Stockham writes, "... Karezza signifies 'to express affection in both words and action,' and while it fittingly denotes the union that is the outcome of deepest human affection, love's consummation, it is used technically throughout this work to designate a controlled sexual union." So that in practice, according to Stockham, it is more than just self-control, but mutual control where the penetrative partner helps the receptive partner and vice versa. According to Stockham this is the key to overcoming many difficulties encountered in trying to control sexual expression on an individual basis.[5] Stockham's contribution was to apply this same philosophy of orgasm control to women as much as to men. A form of birth control, the technique also prolongs sexual pleasure to the point of achieving mystical ecstasy, according to J. William Lloyd, a practitioner of Karezza, whose own experience of cosmic consciousness appears in Cosmic Consciousness, a book written by the Canadian psychiatrist Richard M. Bucke, a friend of the American poet Walt Whitman.[6] In this practice, orgasm is separated from ejaculation, making possible enjoyment of the pleasure of sexual intercourse without experiencing seminal ejaculation, while still experiencing orgasm.
Some would have the principles of karezza applied to masturbation, whereby a person attempts to delay orgasm as long as possible to prolong pleasure in a process known as "orgasmic brinkmanship", "surfing", or "edging" but this is different from the heterosexual practice of "karezza".[7] In Latin literature, this is known as coitus sine ejaculatione seminis.[8]
One purpose of karezza is the maintenance, and indeed, intensification of desire and enjoyment of sexual pleasure within the context of relationships. According to Stockham, it takes from two weeks to a month for the body to recover from ejaculation ... "Unless procreation is desired, let the final propagative orgasm be entirely avoided".[9] Stockham advocated that the 'honeymoon period' of a relationship could be maintained in perpetuity by limiting the frequency of ejaculations or preferably avoiding them entirely.[10]
Kalman Andras writes, "Inasmuch as sexual togetherness is not limited into the physical world and does not mean quick wasting of sexual energies, by this we give free way to higher dimensions in the relationship. Effected by this we may be gotten into the state of flow experience (abbreviated as flow) and in the course of this the couple charges up with energy, while – with focused attention (Dharana) – the couple is submerging in which they are having pleasure. This state of mind is connected with the achieved beneficial effects by tantric restrain and transformation. At first the definition of positive philosophy was defined by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi and since then it is referred beyond the professional line. According to the professor the Flow-experience is an entirely focused and a motivationally intensified experience where in the course of this people can entirely focus and properly command their feelings for the best performance or learning.
One of the most certain signs of Flow-experience is the spontaneity when we feel exuberant joy while we are resolving a given task. The Kegel and other PC-muscle contraction exercises have been well – tried for centuries in the Chinese sexual culture which are good for controlling the orgasm, the seminal emission or even the menses. In ESO (Extended Sexual Orgasm) described by American authors and in Karezza (“caress”) the Coitus reservatus (sexual continence literally in Latin), used by both methods, differs from the yogi process originally known from Maithuna (tantric uniting). By the prior methods maximum “dry orgasm” or retrograde ejaculation can be achieved and the question arises if we can do anything with we managed to preserve skillfully in the course of the sexual intercourse.
On the contrary the Tantric Continence is a kind of spiritual realization when we transform our energy source – which is also considered as our vitality and our undeveloped spiritual powers - into Ojas Essence and disperse in the body. According to the Ayurveda this inner elixir gets inside us into the potentially sublimatable seventh state (in form of sperm or ovum) after establishing of the six matrices (dhatu). However we lose this inner elixir in an ordinary sexual intercourse, the body subtracts the necessary energy from the tissues for reproducing.
General
There is a slight difference between karezza and coitus reservatus. In coitus reservatus, unlike karezza, a woman can enjoy a prolonged orgasm while a man exercises self-control; similarly, in the context of two male sexual partners, the receptive partner can enjoy the stimulation of his prostate for a longer period of time than he would otherwise.[11]
Like coitus interruptus, coitus reservatus is not a reliable form of preventing a sexually transmitted disease, as the penis leaks pre-ejaculate prior to ejaculation, which may contain all of the same infectious viral particles and bacteria as the actual semen. Although studies have not found sperm in pre-ejaculate fluid,[12][13] the method is also unreliable for contraception because of the difficulty of controlling ejaculation beyond the point of no return in over-reaching the orgasm. Additionally, if it follows an earlier orgasm, it is possible for pre-ejaculate fluid to pick up sperm from a previous ejaculation, leading to pregnancy even when performed correctly.[14]
Views on coitus reservatus
The Oneida Community, founded in the nineteenth century by John Humphrey Noyes, experimented with coitus reservatus which was then called male continence in a religiously Christian communalist environment. The experiment lasted for about a quarter of a century and then Noyes went on to create Oneida silverware and establish the Oneida Silver Co. that grew into Oneida Limited.[15] Noyes identified three functions of the sexual organs: the urinary, the propagative and the amative. Noyes believed in the separation of the amative from the propagative, and he put amative sexual intercourse on the same footing with other ordinary forms of social interchange. Sexual intercourse as Noyes defines it is the insertion of the penis into the vagina; ejaculation is not a requirement for sexual intercourse.[16]
English novelist Aldous Huxley, in his last novel Island wrote that Maithuna, the Yoga of Love is... "the same as what Roman Catholicism means by coitus reservatus."[17] Getting to the point by discussing coitus reservatus, Alan W. Watts in Nature, Man and Woman notes: "...I would like to see someone make a case for the idea that the Apostles really did hand down an inner tradition to the Church, and that through all these centuries the Church has managed to guard it from the public eye. If so, it has remained far more secret and "esoteric" than in any of the other great spiritual traditions of the world, so much so that its existence is highly doubtful..."[18] The Welsh writer Norman Lewis, in his celebrated account of life in Naples in 1944, claimed that San Rocco was the patron saint of coitus reservatus: "I recommended him to drink -- as the locals did -- marsala with the yolk of eggs stirred into it, and to wear a medal of San Rocco, patron of coitus reservatus, which could be had in any religious-supplies shop".[19] Coitus reservatus was admittedly part of the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding sexual intercourse and was generally a permitted form of intercourse but was subject to the same arguments as coitus interruptus.[20]
The psychologist Havelock Ellis writes: "Coitus Reservatus, – in which intercourse is maintained even for very long periods, during which a woman may have orgasm several times while the penetrative partner succeeds in holding back orgasm, – so far from being injurious to a woman, is probably the form of coitus which gives her the maximum gratification and relief".[21]
Rosicrucians
The AMORC Rosicrucians declare openly that they do not engage in sexual practices of an occult nature. This has been so since their First Imperator H. Spencer Lewis, Ph. D. made it public knowledge.[22] Their rival organization Fraternitas Rosae Crucis led by Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer engages in sexual practices for the sake of race regeneration. Dr. Clymer is completely opposed to the practice of Karezza or coitus reservatus and advocates instead a form of sex intercourse in which the couple experiences the orgasm at the same time.[23] The Secretary of the FUDOSI instead heartily approves the practice of Karezza to establish harmony in the family as well as in the world by preventing the waste and misuse of sex energy.[24]
Dr. Arnold Krumm-Heller established the Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua (FRA), a Rosicrucian school in Germany with branches in South America, having the following formula of sexual conduct: "Immissio Membri Virile In Vaginae Sine Ejaculatio Seminis" (Introduce the penis in the vagina without ejaculating the semen). Samael Aun Weor experimented with that formula and developed the doctrine of The Perfect Matrimony.
Controversy
Dr. Alice Stockham was taken to court and forced to give up teaching the practice of Karezza in the United States of America. Like many other sex reformers, Stockham was arrested by Anthony Comstock.[25] He jailed for long terms a variety of spiritual marriage reformers including Paschal Beverly Randolph who had been a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln.[26] Ida Craddock committed suicide after being repeatedly jailed for peddling pornography.[27] The Oneida Community was attacked in the press and Noyes was forced to flee to Canada due to a warrant being issued for his arrest on a statutory rape charge on June 22, 1879. From there, he advised others to follow St. Paul's plan of either marriage or celibacy, and to obey the commandments against adultery and fornication.[28]
See also
References
- Lloyd, John William (1931). The Karezza Method or Magnetation: The Art of Connubial Love. Forgotten Books. ISBN 978-1-60620-046-9. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- Stockham, Alice B. (July 2004). Karezza Ethics of Marriage. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4179-3969-5. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- Robinson, Marnia (2009). Cupid's Poisoned Arrow: From Habit to Harmony in Sexual Relationships. North Atlantic Books. ISBN 9781556438097.
- Urban, Rudolf Von (1949). Sex perfection and marital happiness. Dial Press. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
Notes
- ↑ Cassell's Compact Latin Dictionary, Dell Publishing Co. Inc., 1963
- ↑ Watts, Alan W. (1970). Nature, Man and Woman. Random House Inc. Vintage Books Edition. p. 172. LCCN 58-8266.
- ↑ Coomaraswami, Ananda K. (1957). The Dance of Shiva. New York City: The Noonday Press Inc. p. 124. LCCN 56-12296.
- ↑ http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SEN/CH23.HTM#b1-TAOISM%20AND%20SEX
- ↑ Stockham, Alice B. (1896). Karezza. New York City: R. F. Fenno & Co. p. 22.
- ↑ Bucke, Richard Maurice, M. D. Cosmic Consciousness, p. 284, Citadel Press, 1961, ISBN 0-8065-0211-8
- ↑ Ruth Marie Griffith Born Again Bodies, p. 92, University of California Press, 2004 ISBN 978-0-520-24240-1
- ↑ Lloyd, J. William The Karezza Method Health Research, 1964, Mokelumne Hill, California
- ↑ Stockham, Alice B. Karezza, p. 25, R. F. Fenno & Co., New York City, 1896
- ↑ Stockham, Alice B., M. D., Karezza, p. 15, R. F. Fenno & Co., New York City, 1896
- ↑ Dr. Rudolf Von Urban, M. D. Sex Perfection and Marital Happiness, Dial Press, 1949 ISBN B001AA3TWA
- ↑ "Researchers find no sperm in pre-ejaculate fluid". Contraceptive Technology Update 14 (10): 154–156. October 1993. PMID 12286905.
- ↑ Zukerman, Z.; Weiss D.B. Orvieto R. (April 2003). "Short Communication: Does Preejaculatory Penile Secretion Originating from Cowper's Gland Contain Sperm?". Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics 20 (4): 157–159. doi:10.1023/A:1022933320700. PMC 3455634. PMID 12762415.
- ↑ "Withdrawal Method". Planned Parenthood. March 2004. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
- ↑ Ellis, Havelock Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. vi, p. 553
- ↑ Male Continence, John Humphrey Noyes, 1848. http://library.syr.edu/digital/collections/m/MaleContinence-51k/
- ↑ Huxley, Aldous Island, Harper & Row, 1962
- ↑ "Watts, Alan W. Nature, Man and Woman, Ch 7, Pantheon Books Inc. 1958
- ↑ Norman Lewis Naples '44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy, De Capo Press, 2005 ISBN 0-7867-1438-7
- ↑ Vern L. Bullough Encyclopedia of Birth Control, p. 75, ABC-CLIO, 2001 ISBN 978-1-57607-181-6
- ↑ Ellis, Havelock Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. vi, p. 552, F. A. Davis Co., Philadelphia, Pa., 1910, Kindle Edition 2008 ISBN B0016PEMOS
- ↑ Lewis, H. Spencer Rosicrucian Manual, p. 5, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1978
- ↑ Clymer, R. Swinburne MD, The Mystery of Sex and Race Regeneration, p. 223, The Philosophical Publishing Co., 1950
- ↑ Marc Lanval, editor, Lumière et Liberté, Organe Officiel de la Ligue Belge de Propagande Héliophile, Octobre-Novembre 1933
- ↑ John P. Deveney Paschal B. Randolph, p. 393, SUNY Press, 1997 ISBN 978-0-7914-3119-1
- ↑ Paschal B. Randolph Ravalette: The Rosicrucian's Story, p. 64, Kessinger Publishing, 2005 ISBN 978-0-7661-9160-0
- ↑ Vern L. Bullough Encyclopedia of Birth Control, pp. 76-9, ABC-CLIO, 2001 ISBN 978-1-57607-181-6
- ↑ Patricia Gutek Visiting Utopian Communities, p. 137, University of South Carolina Press, 1998 ISBN 978-1-57003-210-3
External links
- Samael Aun Weor The Perfect Matrimony (Audio Book)
- J. William Lloyd Karezza
- Alice B. Stockham Karezza, Ethics of Marriage
- John Humphrey Noyes Male Continence
- Reuniting: healing with sexual relationships
- Caress: the relaxation response
- Kalman Andras Oszlar Tantric Continence & Spiritual Intimacy