BACK to MAYA-GAIA SITEMAP Update 10 20 06
My review of Transcendent Sex by Dr. Jenny Wade
In regards to Dr. Wade's book "Transcendent Sex", one can appreciate her contribution in the challenge facing the scientific community to develop coherence out of the confusion of issues that arise from altered consciousness interfacing with phenomenal reality. Although I found her book rewarding, I felt that the great majority of the 92 accounts of transcendent sexual episodes presented, fell more in the category of occult phenomena characterized by their variety and uniqueness rather than the classical experiences that tend to have major features involving loss or ego and becoming one with God that resemble one another. I believe classical episodes provide a more significant view into the faint anatomy of the transcendent hologram. I'd certainly agree that occult-like phenomena are part of the hologram but they are most subject to blurring with other aspects of our consciousness- imagining, trancing, hallucinating, etc. and provide fewer consistencies for our understanding. Not sure how Crookall's investigations fit into contemporary transpersonal psychology theory but I certainly could relate to many more of the episodes presented in his research than those in Dr. Wade's.
Since the time of my only transcendent episode, I have experienced a number of what Dr. Wade might catagorize as transcendent sex experiences. One occurred on a wintery, windswept mountain top while I was huddled down in a grassy crevice on the hillside where I was having sex with a young girl and seemed to become possesed by the spirit of a Norse god. Another time I was transformed into an amorphous cosmic being and emerged into the cosmos to have sex with multiple celestial bodies. Perhaps because of my comparison to my previous classical transcendent experience, these later episodes weren't taken seriously. They were simply regarded as intense fantasies that sometime arouse during my sexual sessions, whether with or without booze or grass, and were never given any significance in my personal history of mystical experiences. This is not to say that such experiences might not have powerful and transformative effects on those experiencing them but that can be said about the potential for all of the many psychic manifestations of occult phenomena- which I consider distinct from transcendent events.
I can understand why Dr. Wade tried to elliminate any account of transcendent experience that involved any and all drugs but that may be precisely why there were so few of her examples of altered consciousness rising close to the level of a classical samadhic realizations. The entire body of historic transformative spirituality and specifically the Vedantic traditions featuring samadhi enlightenment has evolved in partnership- under the psychotropic influence-of cannabis for thousands of years. I'm looking forward to Dr. Wade continuing her investigations into the subject with an expanded scope and scale- perhaps even including those transcendent episodes occurring under the influence of this sacred plant.
Update 05/06: It seems reasonable that as time passes and information regarding features described in accounts of transcendent experiences is widely published on the internet, books, magazine articles, etc. that the more subsequent accounts are likely to incorporate some of those features. As both contemporary and historical accounts reflect features from religious, mythological or cultural belief constructs held by the experiencer- it should be expected that future research will be increasing challenged to find accounts that are not contaminated by forehand knowledge of authentic, naive reports which may get programmed into accounts of a transcendent experience. EF
For another perspective on Dr. Wade's book here's a review by John A. Speyrer.
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