Conscious Choice Cover art by John Beske

The Multi-Orgasmic Man (and Woman, too!) by Richard Cox - interview with Walter L. Beckley Universal Healing Tao Senior Instructor

One of the primary premises of Tantric sexual practices is that men have the ability to be multi-orgasmic and that the ability to harness this orgasmic power can vastly improve their health, their lovemaking, and their ability for intimacy. These are pretty strong claims, especially in our Western culture where these Taoist teachings have few advocates. Fortunately for those interested in finding out more about Tantra, there is a new book that clearly lays out the philosophy behind them. It is appropriately entitled The Multi-Orgasmic Man, and was written by Taoist Master Mantak Chia and Douglas Abrams Arava.

The book is well written, informative, and provocative, while presenting a solid case for the benefits of this style of lovemaking for men and women. One of the most intriguing aspects of the work is the assertion that male orgasm and ejaculation are actually two separate functions. It claims:

“Over three thousand years ago, the Chinese recognized that men can achieve multiple orgasms by delaying and even withholding ejaculation. This is possible because orgasm and ejaculation are two distinct physical processes, although they have long been equated in the West.... [In] the 1940s pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey reported similar discoveries. Yet even several decades later, after his claims have been proved repeatedly in the laboratory, most men remain unaware of their multi-orgasmic potential. Without this knowledge and without a clear technique, men are unable to feel the difference between the crescendo of orgasm and the crash of ejaculation.... Male sexuality in the West remains incorrectly focused on the inevitably disappointing goal of ejaculation ("getting off") instead of the orgasmic process of lovemaking.”

The Multi-Orgasmic Man provides realistic evidence that this is possible. Of particular interest is the section describing the work of several sex researchers on male multiple orgasms. It describes the results of a number of scientists including the laboratory work of Marilyn Fithian and William Hartman on 33 men who claimed to be multi-orgasmic. In this study, these researchers determined that the men they monitored had an average of four orgasms per lovemaking session — ranging from two to as many as 16!

Chia and Arava claim that ejaculations drain a man’s energy and that too many ejaculations can have a negative impact on overall health and well-being. They make the point that each ejaculation can contain between 50 and 250 million sperm cells and that over a lifetime a man can ejaculate over one trillion sperm. The book quotes a New York Times cover story concerning male sperm production. The article concluded that “new work suggests that ceaseless sperm production takes its toll on a male, perhaps requiring the use of complex enzymes or biochemical processes that have harmful metabolic by-products.”

The Multi-Orgasmic Man also makes light of the stereotypical lovemaking session in which a man immediately falls asleep after sex, yet explains it from a physiological perspective. “The image of the unsatisfied woman whose lover ejaculates, grunts, and collapses on top of her is so common that it has become a cultural joke, but the exhaustion that men feel after ejaculating is as old as the first coital groan. Peng Tze, a sex adviser to the famed Yellow Emperor, reported almost five thousand years ago:‘After ejaculating, a man is tired, his ears buzz, his eyes are heavy, and he longs for sleep. He is thirsty and his limbs feel weak and stiff. In ejaculating he enjoys a brief moment of sensation but then suffers long hours of exhaustion.’”

What is the solution? The book suggests techniques that men can use to avoid ejaculation and achieve multiple orgasms for themselves and their partner (male or female). Much of the process involves the development of higher levels of awareness so that men can channel the sexual energy back into their body.

“If ejaculation isn’t being used for procreation, this system can help men channel the orgasmic energy towards productive uses inside the body for both pleasure and health,” claims Walter Beckley, a Senior Instructor of Mantak Chia’s “Healing Love” workshops based in Chicago and contributor to a number of Chia’s books. “This sexual energy can help heal the balance between one’s physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.”

These Taoist teachings provide benefits for women as well as men. “Most women prefer their men’s lovemaking after they learn these techniques,” claims Beckley. “When men and women are able to spend more time in the multi-orgasmic and healing love process, the energy exchange can bring them to heights they have never experienced before.”

This energy exchange is a high level goal of Taoist sexual practice. Called the healing love by Chia, it essentially consists of sexual energy that is exchanged and channeled in a circular path (known as the microcosmic orbit) throughout the bodies of both partners. According to The Multi-Orgasmic Man, “The mutual opening of the microcosmic orbit of two lovers is the true fusion of sexual and spiritual energy. It can eventually result, after refining your sexual energy through elevated lovemaking and through meditation, in a prolonged orgasm and even an altered state of consciousness.

Walter Beckley is a strong believer in this model, yet he warns that the sexual practices are just a small piece of a much bigger system. “The Healing Tao teachings and training reawakens you to the inner flow of the beauty and grace of the force of life. Proper training in this work begins with learning to activate your internal energies, moving these energies within the body, storing these energies, and utilizing these energies in other situations. Certainly, developing this type of practice takes discipline and a great deal of practice. In the long run it is undoubtedly worth it, for when a couple is able to exchange energy in this manner it is truly deserving of the term‘ecstatic union’.”

The Multi-Orgasmic Man by Mantak Chia and Douglas Abrams Arava (Harper Collins) is available at bookstores.Women may be interested in the book Healing Love Through the Tao: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy, by Mantak and Maneewan Chia (Healing Tao Books).

Walter Beckley leads workshops on “Healing Love” and “Multi-Orgasmic Men and Women” in the Chicago area. Call 708-481-9128 for more information.