by Barry Stein
When I came to Orgasmic Meditation (OM), I wasn’t a young man. I was the age at which most people retire. I had just been retired, as it happens, and very much against my will. After a long career as a scientist and an advocate, I lost my job after speaking out against radiation exposure at the hospital. I was pushed out of my position because I wanted the state to investigate it.
So much of my life had been working up until that point. I was part of a close-knit Jewish community, and my faith had always been central to my life. Because of this controversy with the hospital, many people in my own congregation turned against me. They accused me of violating an obscure point of Jewish law, and though it was absurd, I had to leave. I considered moving to Israel, which is what they call making aliyah. I just didn’t feel strong enough or in the right state of mind to do it.
I was very depressed at that point, and I had developed diabetes. I felt at absolute rock bottom.
I started going to 12-step programs. I was willing to try anything. One night, I heard this remarkable speaker and stayed after the meeting to talk to her. It was raining, so I gave her a ride home. On the drive, she told me about Orgasmic Meditation (OM) and how it changed so much for her. It gave me hope: it sounded like just what I needed.
My first Orgasmic Meditation was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. I saw this beautiful, delicate woman offering her most vulnerable self to me. I was so taken with love for her at that moment, and I had a tremendous desire to offer whatever I could to the experience. I was very much a novice at OM, but that single moment transformed my entire relationship with women; they ceased to be objects of fear to me. There were the awkward bits, too – trying to find the clitoris, what it looked like, and how to touch it – and it was humorous in that regard. Still, there was this underlying sense of awe, wonder, and love for this beautiful creation called women.
Orgasmic Meditation made me look at myself and go deeper in a way I had never done before. For the first time, I was able to question this whole need for approval and acknowledgment. I shifted my focus to what I could bring to a relationship and not just what I wanted out of it. What could I bring to a woman? I began to bring sensitivity from within myself and offer it in the OM, tuning into the stroking and my partner, finding resonance. I started to see that an OM is the ultimate unconditional transaction between two people. You don’t go there with expectations of this or that, not even an orgasm in the traditional sense of the word. If an orgasm happens, it’s great, but it’s not the goal.
I always tend to think three steps ahead. Orgasmic Meditation brought me into the present. If my mind starts to wander, I bring it back. I ask, what am I offering myself in this process? Am I giving this my full attention moment by moment? Am I sensitive to her? Do I notice her breathing? Do I notice her feelings?
I offer her my being in that moment. And as I kept doing that, I began to transform. It wasn’t instant. It was a process of gradually becoming more comfortable in myself. I began to ask for the things I wanted. It was, I think, a healthy masculine renaissance, something I didn’t think was possible at this point in my life.
If you’d asked me what I wanted when I first came to Orgasmic Meditation (OM), I’d have said I wanted a romantic relationship with a woman. I wanted relationships very badly. Now, I don’t have a romantic relationship, and I’m not at all concerned. What I have now are friendships with women that are caring and loving. I’ve got women in my life with whom I feel good, with whom I’m comfortable. I’m myself with them. I don’t feel needy or inadequate. I just feel close to them.
I have three or four of these deep friendships, and they are so valuable to me. I don’t feel any desperation to get married again or meet someone to care for me. I’m not as focused as I was on caring for a woman either. Instead, there’s just a lot of mutual support and friendship. I see myself as a man with them.
I’m not lonely, even without a romantic partner. That sense of myself is entirely due to Orgasmic Meditation (OM).
I guess that if you want to distill Orgasmic Meditation down to one thing, it’s love. OMing is all about love for your partner, love for yourself, love for everything. I’m forever grateful to have this practice in my life.
