Originally Posted by
Daily Mail
A sex coach and author has claimed that she can reach orgasm merely with her breath, and she’s helping other women achieve this, too.
Barbara Carrellas, 59, from New York, says that through her sessions, women turn themselves on 'in a molecular sense' by lying on the floor, doing a breathing exercise and clenching their muscles.
According to Salon.com writer Tracy Clark-Flory, who tried out the therapy with Ms Carrellas, she did indeed have a 'deeply in-body experience', as the sex coach called it, though she was left somewhat skeptical about whether it was caused by sexual arousal or hyperventilation.
To get women to 'think off,' Ms Carrellas asks them to lie fully-clothed on the ground, limbs splayed, and follow her instructions as to the length and intensity of their breath.
Rocking their hips back and forth and letting out 'power sounds' can help the process along, the sex coach told Miss Clark-Flory, as can doing Kegel exercises to contract the perineal muscles.
The writer's 'breath and energy orgasm' was ultimately achieved by taking 'fuller, faster breaths' and then holding her breath while clenching and pushing her body into the floor.
Miss Clark-Flory says she did indeed have 'a deeply in-body experience' which consisted of numbness, tingly fingers and a dry mouth, and left her unable to move from one spot on the floor for ten minutes afterwards.
But she noted that her experience wasn’t particularly sexually arousing, nor was she sure whether or not it could be simply attributed to lightheadedness caused by hyperventilation.
Ms Carrellas' technique was inspired by 'rebirthing', a therapy popular in the Seventies that was believed to help people re-experience traumatic instances in their lives through breathing.
While there has been no definitive scientific research to support the effectiveness of either rebirthing or Ms Carrella's orgasm therapy, some studies have indeed found a link between breath and sexual arousal.
A study conducted by clinical psychologist Cindy Meston found that women who hyperventilated before watching an erotic film 'had significantly higher levels of genital sexual arousal … compared to women who just watched the erotic film.'
And a 2007 article in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that hyperventilation - such as that used in Ms Carrella's sessions - can lead to an altered consciousness that 'may be related to a transient hypofrontality.'
This 'hypofrontality' means low activity in the brain's frontal cortex, which is reportedly comparable to other altered states of consciousness, like drug-induced states, during meditation or when half-asleep.
In any case, Ms Carrellas' sessions certainly do lead to some sort of bodily reaction, which she refers to simply as an 'ecstatic experience'.
'[I wish people would] stop calling orgasm just something that happens when a sex organ is directly stimulated,' she said.
Can you think yourself to orgasm?
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