Reuniting - September 2007 Newsletter

Reuniting - September, 2007

The Brutish Brain

Recently an intriguing paper came to our attention, which summarizes research done in Germany. It's not clear when the summary was prepared, although friends have helped us to track down a German web page that has a similar summary. If any of you are able to find links to any of the underlying research, we'd be very grateful. Meanwhile, we can't resist running this article because the research mentioned dovetails perfectly with the predictions in "The Legend of the Great Stupa" in the next column.

For decades German scientists have been measuring the sensitivity of human senses in 4,000-person groups using the same sounds, smells, tastes, and so forth. About 20 years ago something ugly began to happen. People's senses were measurably becoming...deadened. Or, to put it more accurately, people's brains began responding only to increasingly harsh stimuli. ...
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Have A Laugh at the Gender Gap

Visit September's Humor Page

Letters from the Trenches

While reading your book, I looked over my behavior since having orgasmic sex with my lover, and noticed that I had a hangover that was so extreme it's really surprising that I didn't attribute it to the sex. This new lover had said he had had stomach and digestive problems ever since travelling in India, and since then had also experienced reduced energy and lethargy. In the few days following our hookup, I felt totally drained of energy and with a slight upset stomach. One day I slept ten hours, came home from class totally tired, took a three hour nap, then went to bed early that night. I felt drained and had difficulty focusing in class that whole week.

It's strange that I didn't attribute this to the sex. There are just so many factors. Especially when you're in a relationship and having sex regularly, I think it's hard to separate the effects of orgasmic sex from other consistent factors. But when you have casual sex once in awhile, it's more striking.

I remember once when my ex was feeling weird and depressed and we made love later that day and I went from feeling totally happy and upbeat to having his symptoms. I had literally internalized them. I wonder if women feel this transfer of emotional states more, being on the "receiving" end? H.

PEACE BETWEEN THE SHEETS News

We will be phasing in website design changes beginning this month. We hope to make the site easier to use by creating visually distinct designs for different types of content.

Some lively bloggers have been sharing their explorations and reflections about passion, life, spirituality, and the challenge of achieving greater balance. Care to join in the discussions? Want to start your own blog?

Visit blog discussions

Dominant males' pheromones stimulate brains of females

New research shows that females' brains are programmed to find the pheromones of dominant males more stimulating than those of subordinate males - at least to the olfactory bulb and hippocampus in their brains. Pheromones are chemicals secreted externally to send information to members of the same species.

Could this be one reason that women often choose mates unwisely?

Link to research

The Legend of the Great Stupa

The Great Stupa is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist legend. It teaches that the world's only hope for overcoming increasing chaos is to learn to tame the animal passions using the spiritual path of tantra, or "controlled indulgence." (Making love without conventional climax.)

The Great Stupa itself is both a three-dimensional Tibetan religious monument, supposedly constructed by people who were pure of faith in a past age, and a physical symbol of the non-physical essence of Buddhahood. The legend tells the story of a brigand turned holy man. However, from a sacred sexuality perspective, that's not its most interesting feature.

According to the legend, time moves through aeons, or ages. The current aeon, the last of three, is known as the "Fortunate Aeon." That is both good news and bad news. It's good news because one-thousand Buddhas are predicted to incarnate during this aeon to liberate those imprisoned in sensuality.

The bad news is that we're in the final era of that aeon, the Kaliyuga. The Kaliyuga is the time just prior to the destruction of the world. It is characterized by: unchecked lust, vicious and selfish living, materialistic philosophies and belief in the inevitability of a general meltdown. The

... Mind screams away from its peaceful center in search of the objects of its desire or retreats from objects which repel it. ...

The legend predicts that unless the teachings of tantra are heard and practiced, the destruction of the Great Stupa's outer form is inevitable. Hope lies in the incarnation of tantra teachers, or Bodhisattvas who have accumulated enough merit in previous lifetimes to have the courage to tame mankind's overstimulated and inflamed animal senses. (Bodhisattvas are enlightened being who, out of compassion, forgo nirvana in order to save others.) ...

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