Body Mind Soul -Intimacy, Vulnerability and Commitment

This is an excerpt from a recent article that was published in the GLT  http://www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?issue=1116 by John R. Ballew, M.S., L.P.C. . I have had the good fortune of working with John and truly admire his gifts as a man and a instructor. Please visit his website and read some of the wonderful articles he has written ove the years.

“An unarmed encounter between two vulnerable individuals” is my favorite definition of intimacy. Most of us understand the “unarmed” part of that equation without too much difficulty. But “vulnerable?” That’s tougher. Especially for men; toughness is associated with masculinity – vulnerability is something we’re taught to avoid.

Vulnerability is a paradox. A friend recently talked to me about how much closer he felt to the person he was dating after getting food poisoning while on a skiing trip. The experience of being cared for while he was weak (and not very attractive!) helped him to genuinely feel the loving words his boyfriend had been speaking for several weeks. He’s not eager to feel that sick again, but he recognized that amid the misery, he received an offering that was very intimate and loving. Full Article

Many more Article on Sex & Sexuality, Dating & Single Life, Coming out, Emotional Well bing, Intimacy Skills & Issues etc.. can be found here.

Body of Knowledge – Erotic massage aims to teach the intimacy often missing in sex

Friday, Mar 27, 2009 | By: MATT SCHAFER | COMMENTS | 

Having a sexual relationship with someone doesn’t mean there is an intimate bond.

“Usually people think they can achieve intimacy through porn star sex, but that’s not typically how it works,” says sex expert Michael Alvear. Alvear, who is gay, gets thousands of questions sent his way as part of his “Need Wood” column in David Atlanta magazine and his blog at mikealvear.com.

“People don’t usually ask about how can I be more intimate with my partner, it’s, ‘How can I be closer to my partner?’” he says.

Bob Findle, the owner of the Body Electric School, is working to change the way men love each other.

“A lot of time the focus is put on penetration,” Findle says. “And after that what happens? You roll over and go to sleep.”

Findle’s school aims to teach men how to become better lovers, more intimate partners and more self-aware individuals through classes in erotic massage.

Read Full Article

Living an electric life- Body Electric celebrates 25 years

by Jody Dalton

Published Thursday, 16-Apr-2009 in issue 1112 GLT (Gay and Lesbian Times) San Diego

Twenty-five years ago, sexual revolutionary Joseph Kramer had a vision of what would become Body Electric, now based in San Diego.

He christened his creation with the title of a poem by Walt Whitman (who surely would have attended Body Electric’s workshops with gusto had they been available).

The first stanza of “I Sing the Body Electric” reads:  “The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them; They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul.”

Whitman eloquently sums up what many feel are three of Body Electric’s many components: community, connection and change. People sometimes think or hear Body Electric is just about massage. Not so. The work is about providing people the space to experience their potential as fully integrated, loving and self-aware beings through touch, conscious breath, deep connections and honoring the wisdom of the body. The work is about using erotic energy to generate pleasure, healing and transformative insight. Plus, Body Electric offers, in abundance, the opportunity to just laugh and have fun with some of the most wonderful souls you’ll ever meet.  Read full Article

Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male- Alfred Kinsey

The history of medicine proves that in so far as man seeks to know himself and face his whole nature, he has become free from bewildered fear, despondent shame, or arrant hypocrisy. As long as sex is dealt with in the current confusion of ignorance and sophistication, denial and indulgence, suppression and stimulation, punishment and exploitation, secrecy and display, it will be associated with a duplicity and indecency that lead neither to intellectual honesty nor human dignity. — Alfred Kinsey, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male (1948)