Life's most sacred energies of intimacy, connection, and awareness are bound up in our sexuality. Nicole Daedone, a fierce student of the human ability to flourish, has brought out a medically studied, meditative protocol for harnessing those energies in order to unleash the instinct to thrive.
The consensual, structured practice of stroking a woman's clitoris actively engages both partners in a meditative experience, activating brain changes that highlight tactile stimulation paired with strong connection bonding, as per fMRI and EEG. It takes 15 minutes from start to finish for both participants to begin to live and function with the expanded consciousness, the state of flow, and ease that is our birthright.
If we as a society can accept that a woman can be touched where she wants to be touched, everything becomes possible.
Practitioners of Orgasmic Meditation (OM) have found the modality to be the fastest, most reliable, sustainable, and safe way to access flow and the mystical state. By training the attention and harnessing sexual energy through this highly protocoled practice, individuals are able to do what was previously only attained slowly—through modalities such as meditation or yoga—or with high risks—through modalities such as extreme sports or psychedelics. Through the practice of OM, individuals build the muscle memory to live in the mystical and flow states continuously, ultimately leading to a eudaimonic life, one of human flourishing.
Due to the unique ability of this practice to bring individuals into the mystical and flow states, scientific research has been undertaken on the practice, to study its benefits and the mechanisms by which these benefits are achieved.
"It appears that Orgasmic Meditation (OM) optimizes our own biology, our own nervous system, to disable the sense of wounding, the neurotic storytelling, the operatic internal arias around our personal tragedies. By combining sexual arousal with a mindful turn toward what we have been trying to keep locked up, we release the body's energy that fuels the great states of joy and well-being that are the birthright of being human."
—NICOLE DAEDONE
Conventional approaches to healing start with the mind. New approaches activate flourishing at the level of the body. For more than a century, science and medicine have wrestled with addressing profound areas of psychological wounding that are obstacles to wellness, including:
Pharmaceuticals and a top-down therapeutic approach focused on the mind have been the main methods for mitigating the intensity of the feeling of woundedness. In the case of trauma, in particular, the focus has been on avoiding triggers in order to not flood the system with negative emotions and states of mind.
New areas of research are exploring approaches in which flourishing can be triggered instead. Some of these modalities include:
Months or years of meditation on altruism and compassion (Stanford, Emory)
Approaches to happiness that require months or years of cultivating a more spiritually integrated approach to living (Harvard, University of Pennsylvania)
Harvard lecturer Amy Cuddy discovered a stance that induces feelings of confidence called the power pose. Cuddy endured years of attack and bullying over this idea, but in 2020 (Elsesser, 2020) it was finally proven. The effect is conclusive: A shift in the body induces changes in the mind.
This is the beginning of a revolution in which the body—without the aid of external substances—can change the mind. Even more robust approaches are emerging that are revolutionizing the way we understand how to get to not just base-level psychological health but to peak states of human flourishing. We now know that this can happen through a combination of sexual arousal and meditative concentration, delivered through the methodology of clitoral stroking in OM.
OM is a structured attention-training practice conducted between two people who follow a predefined set of detailed instructions. The practice involves one person gently stroking the clitoris of the other person for 15 minutes while both place their attention on the point of contact and notice what they feel. Nicole Daedone initiated the research into OM. She felt sure, from decades of practicing Orgasmic Meditation, that science would confirm the extraordinary benefits she had personally observed. She and a group of colleagues set out to gather the proof.
Researchers such as neuroscientist Andrew Newberg of the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health and others have observed intriguing brain changes in both stroker and strokee that occur in just minutes instead of years of practice. These brain changes rival the brain changes and brain connectivity observed in study participants who have received strong and prolonged doses of psychedelics and in those who have practiced meditation for decades.
OM is proving highly effective in studies, with participants who range from healthy to depressed, whether suffering from chronic anxiety or symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And OM leverages the body's own neurobiology to do it through an observable resonance. The intensity of the experience for one participant is correlated with the activation of several brain structures in their partner.
The effectiveness of OM comes from turning the strongest force in a human body—sexual arousal—mindfully toward our biggest wounds. In this process, the well-being of sexuality unleashes neurobiological and neurochemical changes that provide one of the strongest possible foundations for healing. OM has the potential to leapfrog modes of psychological healing to deliver practitioners to the threshold of truly transformative states.
Newberg tells us that the practice of OM rewires the brain in ways that can be associated with positive states of flourishing. "We are getting the first hints of how all of this happens," he says. "This is so promising, and we are hoping to look at how neurohormones such as oxytocin (bonding) and serotonin (well-being) are involved.
These neurotransmitters are believed to be crucial in spiritual experiences—particularly the feeling of connecting to something larger, to dissolving that sense of separateness that so many report as central to a feeling of purpose. And what role does dopamine play? We don't know yet, but it will be what we study next. It's an exciting possibility to see how the brain's reward systems are leveraged in this unique approach" (Newberg et al., 2021).
"OM science shows that the practice of Orgasmic Meditation entrains the brain to the positive, to the good. By laying down new habits and new neurocircuitry, OM helps us build the emotional resilience to face and work with our darkest, most difficult psychological material. It trains us simultaneously to peak states of consciousness and human connection."
—NICOLE DAEDONE
There is growing evidence that Orgasmic Meditation has profound, broader health benefits. These include:
The findings listed below reflect a cross-sectional summary of the four peer-reviewed papers published on studies relating to the practice of OM. These studies were conducted by independent universities and research institutions such as Thomas Jefferson University, University of Pittsburgh and Liberos (Biotechnology Company)
A June 2021 study with 250 participants conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Liberos
Found that people with more adverse childhood events, including sexual trauma, reported higher sexual arousal post-OM session than those with less youth trauma (Prause et al., 2021)
Suggests the contained setting of OM may provide people with a history of sexual abuse an environment that feels safe enough to experience arousal
Conclusion based on comparing adverse childhood experience (ACE) scores and self-reported sexual arousal (from both stroker and strokee) between those who varied in ACE experience
Decreased arousal is associated with depression, which is a focus of future research
November 2021 study at Thomas Jefferson University with 40 advanced practitioners
OM was shown to affect heart-rate variability (HRV), a marker of resilience to stress (Newberg et al., 2021)
Could be an exciting area of future study
March 2021 study by the University of Pittsburgh and Liberos with 250 OM practitioners
Found OM decreases negative emotions like anger and anxiety and increases happiness (Prause et al., 2021)
It is rare for a modality to expand emotional range; most current modalities aim to limit the range
By liberating emotional range, OM allows access to a wider range of positive emotions, with implications for addressing negative states in clinical disorders
November 2021 study with 40 advanced OM practitioners at Thomas Jefferson University using fMRI
Found OM affects the brain's functional connectivity similarly to changes in long-term meditators engaging in practices to strengthen emotional regulation (Newberg et al., 2021)
Suggests OM practitioners likely have greater self-control under positive or negative stress and greater emotional resilience
Brain changes measured at resting state
July 2021 online study by Dr. Vivian Siegel (MIT) with 780 OM practitioners (Siegel & Emmert-Aronson, 2021)
62% reported mystical experience in previous OM on par with 2nd highest dose of psilocybin, rated by validated MEQ 30 measure
Follow-up study: 23% attained "mystical experience" in most recent session, strong correlation between partners
Psilocybin treatment linked to large reductions in depression, addiction, and other mental health disorders long-term
Raises questions about OM potentially being effective for mood and substance disorders
November 2021 study with 40 advanced OM practitioners at Thomas Jefferson University using fMRI
Found OM creates connections between brain regions responsible for self-judgment and cognition (insula and temporal lobe) (Newberg et al., 2021)
Connections between these regions shown to lead to strong emotional bonding with others, including higher compassion levels
The practice of OM trains the attention and harnesses sexual energy, offering practitioners access to heightened states of consciousness. From this place, we can access healing and eudaimonia, or human flourishing. Orgasmic Meditation is the most effective way we’ve found to reach this state. Scientific research supports the benefits practitioners have experienced for years, and researchers continue to find more benefits of the practice—from addressing trauma, dissolving feelings of isolation, and deepening joy and intimacy.
