Sexology of the Vaginal Orgasm (9 page)

1.) If you don’t have PELflex handy, take the opportu- nity to do a supplemental exercise every once in a whi- le. This exercise is considered by Taoist philosophy (ancient mystical healing teachings from China) to be very good for the sexual energy. Sit on the edge of the seat of a chair. Place the soles of your feet firmly on the ground and keep your back straight. The Taoists believe this position to better enable Kundalini energy to flow to your brain and replenish it with energy. Now squeeze and relax your PC muscle in one-second inter- vals. This timing is geared to the 0.8-second pulsation

which the MPC automatically adopts during orgasm. This way you can accustom your PC muscle to this rhythm. If this is too difficult for you, increase the interval between the contractions until you are able to easily distinguish between contraction and relaxation phases. The main goal of this exercise should be to increase your stamina until you are able to easily keep up with this quick tempo and no longer have the fee- ling that you are stumbling over a tongue twister. Maintain a playful approach and stop before it gets boring.

2.) The second supplemental exercise goes well with the basis training: Imagine your PC muscle is an elevator. Count from one to four – each number should take one second.
One
represents the first floor up and your PC muscle is a little tensed. It feels like a slight lifting in your pelvic area. At
two
you contract a little more and go to the next floor with your PC muscle. At
three
you get to the floor below the top floor and at
four
you are at the top floor of your womb, and your PC muscle is contracted as tightly as possible. When you release the muscle, you count down again from four to one, gra- dually relaxing the PC muscle “floor by floor” waiting one second at each level until all the tension has been released. You can repeat this “elevator ride” as many times as you like, although more than 20 repetitions are not necessary.

Motivation is the single most important factor in determin- ing the success of any exercise program. Arnold Schwar- zenegger writes in his book,
The Education of a Body Build- er
, that since the spirit motivates you to train your body, it is necessary to first train your spirit” (1978). You will only

have the necessary discipline if you have already made the decision to meet your goals. Half-hearted attempts do not pay off. On the other hand, you don’t have to go overboard to become a vaginal muscle athlete.

In the course of studying the sexological function of the PC muscle, I wanted to determine the particular muscular characteristics exhibited and training methods employed by girls in Bangkok who earn their living performing scur- rilous feats with their vaginas. As is well known, in night- club shows these girls use their vaginas to open cola bot- tles, shoot arrows through blow guns to burst balloons, serve a ping-pong ball and blow smoke rings. The studies conducted in cooperation with the local medical university demonstrated that some of these girls were able to exert vaginal pressure which was as much as six times greater than the maximum average for Viennese girls of the same age (Stifter, 1984). In principle the exercising methods used by the
showgirls
in the studies are very similar to those out- lined above.

7.

Raising Vaginal Awareness

One research project demonstrated that orgasm depends not only on the strength of the Kegel muscle, but also on the extent of awareness and deliberate control a woman has of this part of her body (Stifter, 1995). In stark contrast to the penis, the vagina has neither image nor imago. How, then, can such uncharted physical territory provide pleasurable sensations? How can women control, train or sensually experience something of which they are not even aware?

This striking lack of awareness observed in the pelvic dia- phragm explains, for example, why women lying on their backs in pre-natal exercise classes lift their pelvises when simply instructed to contract their pelvic floor muscles. Due to this underdeveloped muscle sense, many patients are unable to muster the motivation necessary to do the system- atic training prescribed for gynecological or urological treatments; or if exercises are indeed performed, then often the incorrect muscles are used and thus the desired thera- peutic effect is not achieved. Even some books professing to teach orgasm technique also recommend tensing the but- tocks (e.g. Berman et al., 2002; p 81).

The pelvic floor reacts in interplay with other groups of muscles, such as the diaphragm, the leg and, in particular, stomach muscles. (Sapsford, et al. 2001). However, the success of training suffers considerably when attention is detracted away from it. The interplay alluded to entails, of course, that the state of the pelvic floor has an effect on body posture in general. In addressing posture it becomes clear that our mind and body are one.

As a result of this interplay, our entire posture is impacted by the state of the pelvic floor. The notion of posture reflects this psychophysical unity, and in this sense we refer to “Haltung bewahren” in German, which is literally translated as “main- taining posture”, and alludes to adopting a level-headed sta- te of mind, or “Haltung einnehmen” in the sense of adopting a position, literally translated as “adopting a posture”, as well as “Geisteshaltung”, one’s state of mind, or literally the postu- re of one’s mind. We adopt a certain position (or posture) and being “aufrecht” (erect) in German does not only imply our posture, but the word can also be used as a synonym for hone- sty. Self-awareness, pride and an energetic charisma become manifest in our body language while an upright posture, on the other hand, also influences our emotions.

According to far eastern tradition, an important energetic center is located in the pelvic floor, the
Muladhara
, also referred to as the root charka. Its energy also influences our legs and thus also the way in which we move. In a figurative sense the
Muladhara
is “our root, the earth on which we stand,” says C.G. Jung (1932). “It is a symbol for our earthly, conscious, personal existence.” (p. 83)

If the eyes are the mirror to the soul, then the pelvic floor is certainly the stage upon which important physiological affects are played out. Fear, denial, and reluctance, for instance, are associated with tension; one avoids or refrains from something. In extreme cases fear can lead to loss of control of the sphinc- ter. Aggression, anger, rage, but also tender moods are accom- panied by changes in the tension in this area. But many affects, moods and emotions are not experienced on a conscious level because the floor has literally been pulled out from under them.

More than 50 years ago Moshé Feldenkrais, who did pio-

neering work on the psychological implications of body posture, stated that “
Pelvic control is to the body what the key- stone is to the arch
” (1992). He spread the knowledge that fear resolution is subjectively experienced as recovery of greater freedom of movement in the center of the pelvic diaphragm. He deemed the recovery of body awareness to be so important that he attributed the success of “purely” psychotherapeutic treatments only to the indirect and coincidental release of muscle tension and resulting correction of posture.

1. Learning from the Indians
   

   It was the following experience that opened my eyes to the vast significance of pelvic floor awareness and control in the treatment of coital anorgasmia:
   

   During the
   First International Conference on Orgasm
   , held in New Delhi in 1991, I heard a rumor about the women of an Indian tribe in Brazil whose vaginas were three times stronger than those of a control group consisting of white women from a major Brazilian city. After an extensive search, I was finally able to locate Dr. Moysés Paciornik, who had recorded these measurements. Indeed, he had used an old
   perineometer
   , which functions on the principle of a com- pressed balloon, to measure the tribal women’s extremely strong vaginas. He had, at the time, already been working for twenty years with the
   Caingangues
   in the province of Paraná as a rain-forest witch doctor in the best sense of the term. He told me that these women had never heard of incontinence and were astounded when they heard that many white women did not experience orgasm during inter- course. For them, this was a new concept.
   

   I was let in on the secret of the women’s extraordinarily well- developed PC muscles during the course of my visit to the reservation. First Parconik pointed out that the tribal women’s neck muscles (
   musculus sternocleidomastoideus
   ) are three times stronger than the neck muscles of women in our part of the world. He believed there was a direct correlation between the neck muscles and the Kegel muscle (
   pubococcy- geus
   ). This is a result of the fact that these women carry their children and other loads on their backs and use a belt which they strap across their foreheads to hold them. They have to counter-balance against the strap with their upper bodies in order to keep their balance. This is only possible if they also contract their PC muscles.
   

   The second method of training these muscles in an unin- tentional and unknowing manner stems from the fact that this tribe does not use chairs, instead, they spend hours each day squatting. Squatting produces the same results as the harness mentioned above: In order to maintain balance and prevent falling backwards, the perineum is once again activated and stretched, which is also important.
   

   But in terms of awareness, what was even more impressive than their muscle strength was the completely different image the women had of the vagina. From my many discus- sions with tribal members, I learned that the vagina was viewed as a “hollow muscle” and intercourse was described as “playing flute on the penis”. This is fundamentally dif- ferent from our view. This tribe characterizes the vagina as something active and dynamic. The female genitalia does not exist solely to receive the penis; it is not just a repository, a sleeve or birth canal, as is often heard, rather it is some- thing to be used deliberately and actively, to
   consciously
   take something (Paciornik, 1991).
   

2. Perineum and Awareness
   

Here at home, however, the vaginal awareness can be quite detrimental, as one particular reseach project aptly illustrates. I should first explain about the three typical electro-myogram biofeedback curves. A tampon-like, computer-linked sensor equipped with silver electrodes is inserted into the vagina in order to measure the muscle strength by ascertaining the bioelectric nerve flow which controls the muscles. The tension is measured in microvolt increments and correlates to muscle strength. The corresponding tension level is depicted as a graphic curve on the computer screen. This feedback enables the patient to become aware of her current muscle status and provides an effective tool for establishing and increasing control over it.