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Love taking flight
According to an ancient belief, love’s ecstasy can lift women and men out of the material world and let their souls fly high into the sky.
Detail of mural in Qiuci, Western China, Tang dynasty (7th - 10th century A.D.)
Courtesy China Sex Museum, Tongli
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As we have seen, a man’s sexual capacity may diminish over the years, while his capacity for happiness may continue to increase. This is not a new observation, but it raises some interesting questions that are rarely asked:
What is the true essence of the human of sexual experience? Is it forever tied to our physical capacities? Do we need arousal and orgasm in order to find sexual fulfillment? After all, love, indeed erotic love, can keep growing even in the absence of any “sexual” response. Love, once found, does not diminish with our advancing age. Obviously then, our happiness does not depend on our youth and strength. But what is happiness? Is sexual pleasure perhaps nothing more than a foretaste of other possible satisfactions? Is it the beginning of an ever-deepening intimacy, of a meeting of souls? Is it a starting point of a personal transformation, a spititual journey?
Many cultures believed just that and therefore emphasized the transcendental, spiritual aspects of sexual pleasure. For them, it was a pathway to a higher plane of consciousness. Indeed, a heightened sensibility may help women and men to savor the moment, to accept life as transitory and to appreciate each other - joyfully and without reservation - as imperfect, mortal beings. For some, sharing this intensified self-awareness may be the ultimate bliss.
Of course, such beliefs lie outside the realm of science, and we will therefore not explore them here any further. Sexologists have to restrict themselves to what can be observed and measured. They must be content with stating the facts as they find them and can offer only prosaic “little truths” about the human sexual condition. They know that the one “great truth” will forever remain hidden from all of us.
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