Coitus reservatus

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Coitus reservatus (coitus, "sexual intercourse, union" + reservatus, "reserved, saved"),[1] also known as sexual continence, is commonly thought of as a form of sexual intercourse in which the penetrative partner does not attempt to ejaculate within the receptive partner, but instead attempts to remain at the plateau phase of intercourse for as long as possible avoiding the seminal emission. Another term used for this kind of relationship is the word karezza.

According to its creator, Alice Stockham, the word karezza is derived from the Italian word "carezza" meaning "caress". However, Alan Watts believed, in error, that it was a Persian word.[2] The concept of karezza is loosely akin to maithuna in Hindu Tantra and Sahaja in Hindu Yoga.[3]

The Rosicrucians have used "coitus reservatus" or "karezza" as an esoteric practice.[citation needed]

Control of ejaculation is a key aspect of Taoist sexual practices (known as "cai Yin pu Yang" and "cai Yang pu Yin").[4]

The practice of Karezza

Stockham writes, "... Karezza signifies 'to express affection in both words and action,' and while it fittingly denotes the union that is the outcome of deepest human affection, love's consummation, it is used technically throughout this work to designate a controlled sexual union." So that in practice, according to Stockham, it is more than just self-control, but mutual control where the penetrative partner helps the receptive partner and vice versa. According to Stockham this is the key to overcoming many difficulties encountered in trying to control sexual expression on an individual basis.[5] Stockham's contribution was to apply this same philosophy of orgasm control to women as much as to men. A form of birth control, the technique also prolongs sexual pleasure to the point of achieving mystical ecstasy, according to J. William Lloyd, a practitioner of Karezza, whose own experience of cosmic consciousness appears in Cosmic Consciousness, a book written by the Canadian psychiatrist Richard M. Bucke, a friend of the American poet Walt Whitman.[6] In this practice, orgasm is separated from ejaculation, making possible enjoyment of the pleasure of sexual intercourse without experiencing seminal ejaculation, while still experiencing orgasm.

Some would have the principles of karezza applied to masturbation, whereby a person attempts to delay orgasm as long as possible to prolong pleasure in a process known as "orgasmic brinkmanship", "surfing", or "edging" but this is different from the heterosexual practice of "karezza".[7] In Latin literature, this is known as coitus sine ejaculatione seminis.[8]

One purpose of karezza is the maintenance, and indeed, intensification of desire and enjoyment of sexual pleasure within the context of relationships. According to Alice Stockham, a 19th Century author, it takes from two weeks to a month for the body to recover from ejaculation ..."Unless procreation is desired, let the final propagative orgasm be entirely avoided".[9] Stockham advocated that the 'honeymoon period' of a relationship could be maintained in perpetuity by limiting the frequency of ejaculations or preferably avoiding them entirely.[10]

General

There is a slight difference between karezza and coitus reservatus. In this practice, unlike karezza, a woman can and does enjoy a prolonged orgasm while a man demonstrates self-control; similarly, in the context of two male sexual partners, the receptive partner can enjoy the stimulation of his prostate for a longer period of time than he would otherwise.[11]

Like coitus interruptus, coitus reservatus is not a reliable form of preventing a sexually transmitted disease, as the penis leaks pre-ejaculate prior to ejaculation, which may contain all of the same infectious viral particles and bacteria as the actual semen. Although studies have not found sperm in pre-ejaculate fluid,[12][13] the method is also unreliable for contraception because of the difficulty of controlling ejaculation beyond the point of no return in over-reaching the orgasm. Additionally, if it follows an earlier orgasm, it is possible for pre-ejaculate fluid to pick up sperm from a previous ejaculation, leading to pregnancy even when performed correctly.[14]

Views on coitus reservatus

English novelist Aldous Huxley, in his last novel Island wrote that Maithuna, the Yoga of Love is... "the same as what Roman Catholicism means by coitus reservatus."[15] Getting to the point by discussing coitus reservatus, Alan W. Watts in Nature, Man and Woman notes: "...I would like to see someone make a case for the idea that the Apostles really did hand down an inner tradition to the Church, and that through all these centuries the Church has managed to guard it from the public eye. If so, it has remained far more secret and "esoteric" than in any of the other great spiritual traditions of the world, so much so that its existence is highly doubtful..."[16] The Welsh writer Norman Lewis, in his celebrated account of life in Naples in 1944, claimed that San Rocco was the patron saint of coitus reservatus: "I recommended him to drink -- as the locals did -- marsala with the yolk of eggs stirred into it, and to wear a medal of San Rocco, patron of coitus reservatus, which could be had in any religious-supplies shop".[17] Coitus reservatus was admittedly part of the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding sexual intercourse and was generally a permitted form of intercourse but was subject to the same arguments as coitus interruptus.[18]

The psychologist Havelock Ellis writes: "Coitus Reservatus, – in which intercourse is maintained even for very long periods, during which a woman may have orgasm several times while the penetrative partner succeeds in holding back orgasm, – so far from being injurious to a woman, is probably the form of coitus which gives her the maximum gratification and relief".[19]

The Oneida Community, founded in the nineteenth century by John Humphrey Noyes experimented with coitus reservatus which was then called male continence in a religiously Christian communalist environment. The experiment lasted for about a quarter of a century and then Noyes went on to create Oneida silverware and establish the Oneida Silver Co. that grew into Oneida Limited.[20]

The Rosicrucians

The AMORC Rosicrucians declare openly that they do not engage in sexual practices of an occult nature. This has been so since their First Imperator H. Spencer Lewis, Ph. D. made it public knowledge.[21] Their rival organization Fraternitas Rosae Crucis led by Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer engages in sexual practices for the sake of race regeneration. Dr. Clymer is completely opposed to the practice of Karezza or coitus reservatus and advocates instead a form of sex intercourse in which the couple experiences the orgasm at the same time[22] Imperator Lewis declares the FUDOSI acknowledged AMORC as the genuine Rosicrucian representative in North America. However, the Secretary of the FUDOSI, a French Sexologist, heartily approves the practice of Karezza as an American import to establish harmony in the family as well as in the world by preventing the waste and misuse of sex energy.[23]

Dr. Arnold Krumm-Heller established the Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua (FRA), a Rosicrucian school in Germany with branches in South America, having the following formula of sexual conduct: "Immissio Membri Virile In Vaginae Sine Ejaculatio Seminis" (Introduce the penis in the vagina without ejaculating the semen). Samael Aun Weor experimented with that formula and developed the doctrine of The Perfect Matrimony.

Controversy

Dr. Alice Stockham was taken to court and forced to give up teaching the practice of Karezza in the United States of America. Like many other of the sex reformers, Stockham was arrested by Anthony Comstock.[24] Comstock was backed by Morris Ketchum Jesup, an American millionaire philanthropist who was a founder of the New York YMCA and the Museum of Natural History. Together, they established the New York Committee for the Suppression of Vice which attracted many prominent, powerful and wealthy Americans including J. P. Morgan. Comstock lobbied in Congress for a stronger federal antiobscenity and antireproductive control law. Within months, Congress would sign the Comstock Act into law and Comstock would be appointed special agent of the U. S. Post Office to enforce the law. He jailed for long terms a variety of spiritual marriage reformers including Paschal Beverly Randolph who had been a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln.[25] Ida Craddock committed suicide after being repeatedly jailed for peddling pornography.[26] The Oneida Community was attacked in the press and Noyes was forced to flee to Canada June 22, 1879. From there, he advised others to follow St. Paul's plan of either marriage or celibacy, and to obey the commandments against adultery and fornication.[27]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Cassell's Compact Latin Dictionary, Dell Publishing Co. Inc., 1963
  2. ↑ Watts, Alan W. (1970). Nature, Man and Woman. Random House Inc. Vintage Books Edition. p. 172. LCCN 58-8266. 
  3. ↑ Coomaraswami, Ananda K. (1957). The Dance of Shiva. New York City: The Noonday Press Inc. p. 124. LCCN 56-12296. 
  4. ↑ http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SEN/CH23.HTM#b1-TAOISM%20AND%20SEX
  5. ↑ Stockham, Alice B. (1896). Karezza. New York City: R. F. Fenno & Co. p. 22. 
  6. ↑ Bucke, Richard Maurice, M. D. Cosmic Consciousness, p. 284, Citadel Press, 1961, ISBN 0-8065-0211-8
  7. ↑ Ruth Marie Griffith Born Again Bodies, p. 92, University of California Press, 2004 ISBN 978-0-520-24240-1
  8. ↑ Lloyd, J. William The Karezza Method Health Research, 1964, Mokelumne Hill, California
  9. ↑ Stockham, Alice B. Karezza, p. 25, R. F. Fenno & Co., New York City, 1896
  10. ↑ Stockham, Alice B., M. D., Karezza, p. 15, R. F. Fenno & Co., New York City, 1896
  11. ↑ Dr. Rudolf Von Urban, M. D. Sex Perfection and Marital Happiness, Dial Press, 1949 ISBN B001AA3TWA
  12. ↑ "Researchers find no sperm in pre-ejaculate fluid". Contraceptive Technology Update 14 (10): 154–156. October 1993. PMID 12286905. 
  13. ↑ Zukerman, Z.; Weiss D.B. Orvieto R. (April 2003). "Short Communication: Does Preejaculatory Penile Secretion Originating from Cowper's Gland Contain Sperm?". Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics 20 (4): 157–159. doi:10.1023/A:1022933320700. PMID 12762415. 
  14. ↑ "Withdrawal Method". Planned Parenthood. March 2004. Retrieved 2008-03-28. 
  15. ↑ Huxley, Aldous Island, Harper & Row, 1962
  16. ↑ "Watts, Alan W. Nature, Man and Woman, Ch 7, Pantheon Books Inc. 1958
  17. ↑ Norman Lewis Naples '44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy, De Capo Press, 2005 ISBN 0-7867-1438-7
  18. ↑ Vern L. Bullough Encyclopedia of Birth Control, p. 75, ABC-CLIO, 2001 ISBN 978-1-57607-181-6
  19. ↑ Ellis, Havelock Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. vi, p. 552, F. A. Davis Co., Philadelphia, Pa., 1910, Kindle Edition 2008 ISBN B0016PEMOS
  20. ↑ Ellis, Havelock Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. vi, p. 553
  21. ↑ Lewis, H. Spencer Rosicrucian Manual, p. 5, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1978
  22. ↑ Clymer, R. Swinburne MD, The Mystery of Sex and Race Regeneration, p. 223, The Philosophical Publishing Co., 1950
  23. ↑ Marc Lanval, editor, Lumière et Liberté, Organe Officiel de la Ligue Belge de Propagande Héliophile, Octobre-Novembre 1933
  24. ↑ John P. Deveney Paschal B. Randolph, p. 393, SUNY Press, 1997 ISBN 978-0-7914-3119-1
  25. ↑ Paschal B. Randolph Ravalette: The Rosicrucian's Story, p. 64, Kessinger Publishing, 2005 ISBN 978-0-7661-9160-0
  26. ↑ Vern L. Bullough Encyclopedia of Birth Control, pp. 76-9, ABC-CLIO, 2001 ISBN 978-1-57607-181-6
  27. ↑ Patricia Gutek Visiting Utopian Communities, p. 137, University of South Carolina Press, 1998 ISBN 978-1-57003-210-3

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