HuffPo, Tim Ferris, and persistent arousal

Hey there,

Marnia, I hope you get a chance to read this. . . I just had to comment on your recent article on the huffington post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marnia-robinson/intercourse-vs-orgasm_b_31...). It was a good article, of course, but the thing that piqued my interest was that it was picked up and linked on Tim Ferris' twitter feed.

Tim Ferris is a social entrepreneur / life-hacker / blogger with a pretty big internet following. I would be surprised if your most recent article didn't get a big spike in traffic from his tweet; which, roughly paraphrasing, posed the question: "Intercourse or Orgasm, which is better?"

I've read CPA after seeing your hour-long relationship video (I truly forget where it was linked from), and it has definitely opened my eyes in a big way.

I am pseudo-solo right now (have a girl, but only casual) and I have started abstaining from orgasm. I have been tracking my level of sexual arousal for the 3+ weeks I have gone without orgasm. It has been peaks and valleys. On a 1-5 scale, 5 being wall-climbing sexual frustration, it has only retreated to a "3" a few days. Mostly it hovers around a 4. This is interesting, since from your book I had expected it to settle down to a lower level after the first 2 weeks.

I have studied neurobiology, so I understand there is a lot of room for individual differences here. I will continue tracking my level of arousal, but I thought it was an interesting data point. It may have something to do with the fact that I went 300+ days without intercourse prior to reading your book. I'm still trying to disentangle my emotional, social, spiritual and physical needs for intimacy (touching), sex (hard intercourse), orgasm, and bonding (just spending time with a woman I consider attractive and worthwhile).

It is an interesting journey.