This post is part 3 of a three-part series about Alice B. Stockham MD (Part 1 and Part 2). This part addresses the spiritual aspects of the practice.
Stockham makes it clear that, “conservation is not so much the result of retained secretions as the transmutation and transformation of vital forces”. She adds:
Although woman has not the semen to conserve, yet equally with man she has the thrilling potency of passion, that when well directed, heals sensitive nerves, vitalizes the blood and restores tissue. In this deeper, truer union, the very heart of Karezza … has a therapeutic value not equalled by any remedy of pharmacopoeia, or by any system of healing.
Consummation and frequency
When the appointed time arrives, the couple, without fatigue or unrest of mind, calmly engages in physical touch and expressions of endearment and affection. They follow this with quiet union of the sexual organs.
During a lengthy period of perfect control, the whole being of each is merged into the other, and an exquisite exaltation experienced. This may be accompanied by a quiet motion, entirely under subordination of the will, so that the thrill of passion for either may not go beyond a pleasurable exchange. Unless procreation is desired, let the final propagative orgasm be entirely avoided.
With abundant time and mutual reciprocity the interchange becomes satisfactory and complete without emission or crisis. In the course of an hour the physical tension subsides, the spiritual exaltation increases, and not uncommonly visions of a transcendent life are seen and consciousness of new powers experienced. …
To secure the greatest good, the husband and wife equally conserve their forces under a wise control.
Before or during union, she recommends that lovers consecrate their union with the following acknowledgement of the synergy possible between lovers:
We are living spiritual beings; our bodies symbolize soul union, and in closest contact each receives strength to be more to the other and more to all the world.
She adds that the time and frequency of Karezza can be governed by no certain law. In her experience, it was more satisfactory to allow an interval of at least two to four weeks. She wrote that deep soul union fills lovers with enduring satisfaction, rendering the demand for physical expression less frequent.
Curious about your life purpose? Dedicate your Karezza session to finding out! Listen to your intuition or Higher Selves in the silence of the soul. When so consecrated, sexual expression also leads to the peace of increased internal strength and power.
Sex and spirit
It’s likely that Stockham was influenced by Swami Vivekananda, a brilliant sage who spoke at the famous 1893 Worlds Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Stockham, in fact, hosted Vivekananda in her home at 222 Burnham Place in Evanston.
In Karezza, Stockham advised that the sexual urge emanates from spirit. Far from being tainted, it is always a signal that a greater power is ready to be channelled into some noble endeavour. In fact, desire directed wisely, enables lovers to experience an at-one-ment with universal principle itself.
Because she believed that the sexual impulse is the call of Spirit, rather than evil or guilt-ridden, some of Stockham’s fans claim she endorsed masturbation. However, in her book she advises a woman concerned about her addiction to masturbation to treat her sexual urge as a call to do Spirit’s work in the world instead. Stockham suggests that she selflessly pour her sexual energy into some beneficial undertaking. She explains that both growth and satisfaction are attained through altruism.
In Stockham’s view, creative (or sexual) energy has important implications for the world. Through love, training and self-control, partners can, by the union of the spiritual forces of their two souls, accomplish results greater than can be accomplished separately. This same concept is, of course, behind the choice of the name “Synergy Explorers” for this website.
A union of the sexes on the spiritual plane accomplishes results greater than could be accomplished separately. The artist has visions of new creations, the author has inspirations for new works, the inventor has new plans and models for machinery and devices. There is no limit to the power of true soul union. It specifically increases the gift of healing.
As the creative potency of man becomes understood, and this knowledge is applied, men and women will grow in virtue, in love, in power, and will gladly and naturally devote this power to the world’s interests and development.
These powers are given through the act of copulation when it is the outgrowth of the expressions of love, and is at the same time completely under the control of the will. By contrast, the ordinary hasty spasmodic method of cohabitation…is deleterious both physically and spiritually, and is frequently a cause of estrangement and separation.
Stockham encourages Karezza lovers to be patient and determined.
The reward will come in happy, united lives, in the finding of the kingdom of heaven in your own hearts.
She quotes Frenchman Édouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye, who originated the idea of a monument presented by the French people to the United States that resulted in the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor:
The passions take the place in the soul which the will does not occupy, and there may yet be discovered a process by which passion may be transmuted into intellectual fibre. This is, indeed, the last and highest possibility of human culture.
Alice B. Stockham MD – Karezza’s creator (Part 1)
