by Patricia Taylor

What are Expanded Orgasms? And, how does Expanded Orgasm fit into the greater,
overall practice of Expanded Lovemaking?

First of all, you can, as giver, take someone into Expanded Orgasm (EO) through manual
stimulation, oral sex or intercourse. In fact, you can actually bring your partner to EO
from any point in your mind/body system–with your intention or touch, anywhere on
your partner’s mind/body system--but, for our discussion, let’s assume, you begin by
stimulating your partner’s genitals.

Now, let’s contrast EO with “regular” orgasm (RO), which is always defined to be one
that is genitally focused. In RO for men and women, you stimulate your beloved until he
or she “goes over the edge,” or climaxes (“explodes”), measured by contractions
averaging 0.8 seconds apart.1

As to the exact way, or sequence, of going over the edge, let’s consider the types of
orgasm one might have:

Regular: You’ll go over one major climax (or peak) and come down the other side.

Multiple regular: You’ll go over a major peak, come down somewhat, go up and climax
again, come down some, go up again and over, until you come down to a stable,
“detumesced” state of non-arousal.

Extended: You’ll go up and over an edge or climax, and stay there, on a plateau of
extended orgasmic sensation.

Expanded: you begin feeling sensation in your genitals and then spread that sensation
throughout your body into your abdomen, thighs, chest, hands, feet, head, and beyond.
You also spread the sensation into your heart, mind, energy, and spirit. Some people
spread the energy to include their partner, and even more, such as into the whole room, or
even the into entire world. Thus EO is often experienced as occurring (and being felt in) a
very large—even infinite—space. Many EO practitioners describe their experience as
being disconnected from time too—being perceived in an instant, or as lasting for many
hours as if the EO state were always available “just below the surface.” Many view this
energy as a way to connect with the divine.

1 A large body of sex research literature reports on the typical time course of the physiologic, biochemical, and hormonal events of RO in great detail. However, there is virtually no similar body of quantitative research literature reporting on EO, so we’re pioneers. Even the qualitative literature (narrative descriptions) is very limited.

As you may one day see for yourself, there is no particular sequence that’s consistent all
the time, even for any one person. And lots of people have some or all of the above types
of orgasmic experiences over time.

What does EO feel like?

Like RO, expanded orgasms can have a wide range of intensity, complexity, and depth
(the experience of occupying a large proportion of perceptual “space”). You can have an
explosive “fire-gasm” or two inside your expanded orgasm… and then, a floaty,
diaphanous “cloud-gasm.” You can have “laughing-gasms” and “oh-my-god-I’ve-neverfelt-
anything-this good-before-in-my-entire-life-before-gasms” – lots of those… and,
since you are expanding time… you can often have some or all of these in the same
multiple expanded orgasm.

Why EO?

An EO can last from as little as a moment to many hours. Many EO sessions have carried
me into incredible and prolonged ecstasy. I’ve had EO practice sessions where my
favorite part of the date was the joy and turn-on I felt from connecting with my partner,
arising from all the full engagement, multi-level communication that occurred.
While the benefits of EO are many, our intention in creating a single EO session can
range from simply wishing to experiencing a whole lot of fun or exploring our capacity
for experiencing greater pleasure, to embarking upon a profound journeys of healing and
connection.

A Practice of Full Engagement

This practice, more than any I’ve ever seen, includes every part of your being. As such,
you engage your nervous system, your endocrine system, quite possibly your immune
system, your emotions, your intellect, your mood, your love of life, your thoughts, your
imagination, your desires, your dreams –just about everything you can think of that you
want to include! The more you include the richer and fuller your experience will be.
Because you also include your nerve-rich and pleasure-rich, endorphin-engorged genitals,
you create your own body as a super-sonic vessel that can truly transport you into
powerful, magical and transcendent realms.

In EO we begin by stimulating genitals, since that’s where men and women have the
highest concentration of nerve endings. Yet this is a path of full engagement, and the
engagement in EO is full-being even when, at the physical level, the engagement appears
to be genitally focused.

Women are built very differently from men

It’s a well-known fact that only 33% of women orgasm directly from penile stimulation
through intercourse. Yet it’s also true, that in Expanded Lovemaking, the more fully
engaged you become, the more you feel everything in your partner feels. So it makes
good sense to ensure that your partner will feel as much as possible. For this reason,
learning to give and optimize female orgasmic pleasure through manual stimulation
makes amazingly good sense. An additional treat comes from knowing that many
women, when suitably stimulated and aroused through manual stimulation, will then
become able to enjoy orgasm through intercourse! Talk about the rich getting richer!

Men can learn to last longer through EO

Very little has been written about expanded orgasm for men. But men have just as much
opportunity to learn how to extend and expand their pleasure as women do. It only
makes complete sense that both partners learn as much as possible about how to give
themselves and their partner delicious, delightful, expanded pleasure.

It has to feel good to both partners to go there reliably

If it only feels good to one or the other partner, pretty soon the Expanded Lovemaking
practice will slow down. In fact, it won’t be Expanded Lovemaking any longer. When
both partners can learn together, or, when one partner can train a willing “other partner,”
the couple has the greatest opportunity to learn how to take rapturous Expanded
Lovemaking journeys that will surprise, amaze, and delight them beyond their wildest
imagination on a regular basis.

I have covered many of the how-to details in my book, Expanded Orgasm, and in my
DVD, Expand Her Orgasm Tonight!

For more information please visit my website, www.ExpandedLovemaking.com

© Patricia H. Taylor, PhD 2006 All rights reserved