The 9th Level of Orgasm - Cathy Cash Spellman

Old magazines can contain some very interesting and informative articles. Over the years, I have "collected" a number of odds and sods - some of which play major factors in my novels - from various sources, including my parents. Late last week I was culling this collection in order to prep our basement for some much needed makeover surgery - an extended dungeon/play area - when I came across a copy of  SELF magazine from March 1991.

Wondering why I'd kept this particular edition, when I had thrown so many others away, I flipped through the pages, scanning the various articles and adverts - Sexy Muscles; Invisible Pores; How To Bribe Your Doctor - and then - I saw it! The 9th Level of Orgasm!

What woman in her right mind would not want to achieve the 9th Level of Orgasm - whatever that was?? Was this why my mother had kept this magazine? I'll have to ask her later!

So, The 9th Level of Orgasm is an article by best selling author Cathy Cash Spellman, and, as its title indicates, it's all about women, with the help and skill of their sexual partner, attaining a level of sexual satisfaction that those of us in the Western world apparently never achieve. Having read the article, I found it interesting enough to reproduce n its entirety here on my blog. I did try to contact Cathy, but her contact email addresses on her blog site didn't work, and she has not responded to my tweets to her. So, Cathy, if you're reading this, drop me a line letting me know how you feel about me reproducing your excellent and informative article.

So, without further ado, I resurrect for you all

The 9th Level of Orgasm

by

Cathy Cash Spellman

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“Western women never reach higher than the fifth level of orgasm,” says my informant. “In China, the ninth level would be considered minimal expectation; one thousand strokes would easily produce such an orgasm.”

“A thousand strokes?” I repeat, my eyebrows raised higher than Mr. Spock’s.

“Oh, yes,” he replies. “A man must train himself for sex as an athlete would. When one hears of men lifting sledgehammers with their penises and women lifting lead weights with their vaginas, these feats are simply part of their training program.”

I told everyone the story over dinner.

“A thousand strokes,” says my husband in evident disbelief. “Could that be cumulative, over a lifetime?”

“A physical impossibility,” states the surgeon to my left. “No woman’s vagina could withstand such an assault.”

“Mine would certainly like to try!” says the surgeon’s wife.

So would this reporter’s. (And mine, too! A.W.)  Which is how I, thinking myself a sexual sophisticate, began my odyssey in search of these sexual secrets.

A man should always ensure that the woman reaches her climax of pleasure. –the Taoist Master Tung

I started my research at the library. The Kama Sutra, Secrets of the Jade Bedroom and dozens of other classic textbooks of sexual how-tos not only deemed one thousand strokes doable, they trained men in the kinds of strokes: the depth or shallowness, the positions to be used and the thrusts. Then I turned to some modern experts.

“The ultimate sexual experience is to melt into each other’s being in such a way that you both become one,” explains Richard M. Chin, M.D., O.M.D., of the East West Institute and the Acupuncture and Qi Kung Manipulative Therapy Center in New York City and an expert on Taoist sex. “In doing so, your bodies supply each other with vital nourishment – mental, physical and spiritual.

“The ancient Chinese masters found that sex replenished and strengthened the life force of men and women. They sought the means to prolong it, in order to prolong life itself. They created exercises to strengthen the body and the body’s energy system. Even the positions and types of strokes recommended are exercises of a sort.”

“In order to prolong the sex act indefinitely, doesn’t the male partner have to learn to control ejaculation?” I ask.

“Actually,” says Dr. Chin, “he must learn to separate ejaculation and orgasm. If you think of the act of love as an art form – a kind of cosmic dance of awareness in which every nuance of your lover’s body is important – you’ll realize it’s not ejaculation that provides fulfillment, but all that leads up to it. Be aware of subtleties of smell, taste, touch. The sound of a sigh…One must be able to go far beyond the Western concept of orgasm. If you are willing to train for golf, tennis or running, why not for love?”

“There are exercises one should do,” says Suhong Kim, O.M.D., Ph.D., who practices traditional Chinese medicine with acupuncturist Aija Lee, O.M.D., Ph.D., at the Aija Lee Acupuncture Center in NYC. “There is a spot in the perineum – acupuncturists call it CV 1 – that should be pressed upward many times. The man should also expose his naked penis to the sun.

“Also, in making love,” he continues, “the man should practice seven shallow counterclockwise strokes and one swift, strong, deep stroke, then withdraw slowly, repeating this act as often as he is able. Controlling ejaculation is the key to healthy sex.”

“Seven shallow, one deep,” I muse, as I leave Dr. Kim’s office. Chin had suggested nine shallow, one deep, then eight shallow, two deep and so on; that, plus the one thousand strokes, and I would need to notch my night table to keep track of all this math.

“Is it true about sledgehammers and vaginal weight lifting?” I later ask Chin.

“If you wish to excel in lovemaking, you must develop the right muscles in the right ways,” he says. “After a vast amount of training in the control of the body’s electrical energy – the Jing, or Qi to a Taoist – a man can lift a sledgehammer with his penis, and a woman can lift a considerable amount of weight using only her vaginal muscles. But, of course, one must realize that these men and women have reached great heights of prowess in order to explore their energy, as well as to share sex on an extraordinary level. Their training can then permit them to achieve the ultimate orgasm – spiritual enlightenment reached through the perfect blend of yin and yang.”

 

Chin then gives me the names of other practitioners of this unique art form. The first, Master ------, will not allow me to use his name. He will speak to me only because a good friend of mine is his trusted devotee, and he has been assured that I mean to pass along the straight scoop. He seems genuinely interested in straightening out my misconceptions.

 

“You must be more than a student of sexuality,” he says. “You must be a student of life.”

 

“Master, what is the difference between here and the East when it comes to sexuality?” I ask.

 

“From what I see here,” he says, “sex is like television. You quickly flip from channel to channel. You say, ‘I want it all now!’ Sex and life must be taken more gently. They must be savoured and explored and learned from.

 

“First, you must feel yourself… the blood in your body, how the energy flows within you. Very gently, slowly, quietly. When you begin to feel these things in yourself, perhaps you can begin to feel them in another person. A powerful shift of energy will take place. You must have body, mind, spirit, working together. You must not leave out one part.”

 

Obviously, there could be no pinning him down to nitty-gritty sexual details, since sex/love/humanity/life/the universe are all one for him. Separating these concepts into component parts would be as foolish as flipping from channel to channel.

 

‘The sensation will expand until the body feels as if it’s going to explode.’

 

My next interview: Mardahler, a computer specialist, who looks like a doctor or lawyer, not a candidate for Oriental-Sex Expert.

 

“Years ago I became involved with Eastern philosophy, not Eastern sexuality,” he says. “I began to feel that the Eastern way of perceiving life was an infinitely better one. Sex is a major part of life, of course, and my sex life changed tremendously after I began studying these Eastern practices – as did my entire life.”

 

I asked him to describe the elusive sledgehammer technique.

 

“These weight-lifting practices are really intensive training in energy control,” he says. “One generally comes to them through the study of martial arts. Soon you learn that it is not so much the lifting of the weights you are after but a true understanding of the energy. You must not struggle against the bulk of the weight but let it fall, and you must go the other way. You do not want to engage the physical body, and that’s the essence of the exercise: because if you are using the energy correctly, you can accomplish it, but if you bring the physical body into it, you’ll be injured. So this becomes a great test for your focus and concentration. It takes many years of practice. And you shouldn’t try the exercises without a proper teacher.

 

“Of course, once you have accomplished this, there will be great changes in your physical body. Your sensitivity will be heightened. That’s why it must be done slowly. You have spent years concentrating, and now the sensations, because of the nature of the sexual organs, will be extremely intense.”

 

I ask him about orgasm without ejaculation.

 

“You must learn that ability by exploring orgasm in infinite detail,” he says. “You must be fully aware not only of what is going on in your genitals, which are really just one small area of your body, but also of this sensation spreading throughout the rest of you. The sensation will expand until the body feels as if it’s going to explode . . . and then you will find another gateway. There are explosions for each gateway that you go through. They’re infinite.”

 

“Do you have time for anything else in life beyond this exploration?” I ask.

 

“I am not saying you must go and live alone in the woods to achieve this. You have a real life to live. But let’s say you’re going to be married to somebody, you’re going to spend time with her. What are you going to do nights? Watch TV? See a movie? Why not spend two evenings a week exploring each other? You have to make choices about what’s important. Which would you rather do – experience the universe and the most wonderful sexuality imaginable, or do The Times crossword puzzle? The choice is yours.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *

 

The lessons of my research, of course, go way beyond funny-looking weights. For weren’t my sources really saying the following?

• That the lover who is truly careful of your body, mind and spirit is the one you’ll remember forever.
• That great sex takes time. And it shouldn’t be placed on your priority list just below “Buy dog food” and “Pick up the suit from the cleaners.”
• That there’s validity in exercising the muscles you need for any extremely important area of your life, and that some muscles are in the genitals, some in the head and some in the heart.
• That really paying attention to your partner’s needs is the most elusive and most erotic act of all.
• That sexual skill, a thousand strokes and all the herbs in China only matter if you truly care about the person with whom you share them.

I thought of that as I left Kim. He followed after me. “I want to tell you something very important,” he said earnestly, carefully searching for the correct words.

 

“The best sexual medicine . . . for man . . . for woman. Better than anything . . . .” I awaited the ultimate secret.

 

“True love,” he said, smiling but with absolute conviction. “True love.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *

Cathy Cash Spellman, author of the novel Paint the Wind, is a student of Eastern philosophy and is writing a book on Chinese medicine and energy.

 

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I hope you all enjoyed Cathy's little article, and that we all get to practice a little, so that we can all enjoy The 9th Level of Orgasm! Leave me a comment below, letting me know your tales and orgasmic successes! :)

 

Love,

Ashen