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to Table of Contents Pageby Allisone Heartsong © 2004 In God We Trust
Let us begin by recognizing that there are five relatively
distinct levels of human sexual expression.
The first and lowest level is experienced as desecration, which may take the
form of subjugation, degradation, rape, sadistic torture, or bestiality, and
which is characterized by negative judgmental emotions such as guilt, shame,
fear, anger, grievance, or contempt.
The second level is experienced as obligation, which may take the form of
prostitution or marital subservience in which sexual activity is reduced to the
status of work that is virtually devoid of feeling, with the possible exception
of resentment or depression.
The third level is experienced as recreation, where the goal of sexual activity
is limited to the pleasurable satisfaction and physical relaxation that
accompanies and follows the orgastic release of tension either through
intercourse or masturbation.
The fourth level is experienced as reproduction, where rather than being an
accidental byproduct of sexual intercourse, impregnation constitutes the primary
intention or sacred purpose.
The fifth and highest level is experienced as exaltation, where the sacred aim
of sexual union is to raise the energetic frequency so as to expand conscious
awareness from separation consciousness in the third dimension to unity
consciousness in the fourth dimension by temporarily opening the heart chakra to
the positive feelings of love, enthusiasm, joy, gratitude, and ecstatic bliss.
It thus becomes clear that, in addition to its reproductive function and its
recreational function, sexual orgasm also has the spiritual function of
providing a temporary glimpse of unity consciousness by temporarily transcending
the thoughts of the mind so as to access the feelings of the heart.
It is also clear that many people go through their entire lives without ever
discovering or exploring the fifth level of sexual experience for the simple
reason that they are governed by negative judgmental emotions of guilt, shame,
or fear which have the effect of preventing the heart chakra from opening.
On the other hand, those who choose to follow the tantric path in the hope of
achieving spiritual enlightenment through sexual practices would do well to bear
in mind the fact that this was not the path chosen by Gautama Buddha, who
advocated the path of nonattachment, or by Jesus Christ, who advocated the path
of forgiving love, or by Mahatma Gandhi, who advocated the path of nonviolence.
In any case, it is important to realize that there is a fundamental difference
between the male experience of sexual intercourse and the female experience of
sexual intercourse, the essential difference being that, whereas the energy
which is transferred from the male to the female during intercourse is physical
in nature, the energy which is simultaneously transferred from the female to the
male is spiritual in nature, as a consequence of which the male feels inspired,
while the female feels energized.
Once we understand the nature of this energy transfer, we are then in a position
to comprehend why it is that sexuality has such power to attract and unite
physical bodies.
What is even more important to understand is the fact that, whereas the fourth
dimension of consciousness is characterized by a cooperative orientation because
the heart chakra is open, the third dimension of consciousness is characterized
by a competitive orientation because the heart chakra is closed.
Thus, in the third dimension, the masculine principle of will is used to keep
the feminine principle of consciousness contracted and the masculine principle
of thinking is used to keep the feminine principle of feeling suppressed,
whereas in the fourth dimension, the masculine principle of will is used to
expand the feminine principle of consciousness, and the masculine principle of
thinking allows itself to be guided by the feminine principle of feeling.
This also explains why men and women appear to be polar opposites when viewed
from a third-dimensional perspective, whereas the fourth-dimensional perspective
reveals them to be polar complements.
It only remains to add that sex is one of the three universal addictions that
characterize the human ego, by which I mean the illusion of separation
consciousness created by your mind’s belief that you are a separate person.
The three universal addictions of the human ego are: sex, which is the ego’s
substitute for love; money, which is the ego’s substitute for power; and time,
which is the ego’s substitute for wisdom.
Because it lives in separation consciousness rather than unity consciousness,
the fundamental orientation of the human ego is that the universe is
characterized by scarcity rather than abundance.
As a consequence, the essential message of the human ego is that there is never
enough time, never enough money, and never enough sex.
If we wish to arrive at a deeper understanding of why it is that our sexuality
constitutes one of the most fundamental challenges which we encounter during the
course of our human experiences, we may do so by making a simple distinction
between the sacred use of sexuality and the profane use of sexuality.
Whereas sacred sexuality may be defined as love-based sexuality, which has the
effect of validating oneself, profane sexuality may be defined as guilt-based
sexuality, which has the effect of invalidating oneself.
Thus, one of the most crucial issues that we encounter during the course of our
lives is whether we are choosing to validate ourselves with love-based sexuality
or whether we are choosing to invalidate ourselves with guilt-based sexuality.
It only remains to note that, whereas the higher levels of human sexual
expression (exaltation and reproduction) are love-based, and the lower levels of
human sexual expression (obligation or desecration) are guilt-based, the
intermediate level of human sexual expression (recreation) may be either
love-based or guilt-based.