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Hello, my name is Viviane, and I am a Barbara Carrellas groupie. I first spotted Barbara Carrellas striding across the dining room during my first Dark Odyssey Summer Camp, in 2006. I wondered “who is that person with the blond hair with pink streaks? Those huge glasses? I have taken any number of classes with her over the years. One was a erogenous massage class where we breathed and shook along with the demo bottom, as she held, and released, held, and orgasmed. In another, I was in yab yum with a partner (him cross-legged on the bottom, me on top with my legs around him) – we breathed together as I pulled clothes pins off him. It’s pretty difficult to put into words these transformative classes, which is why I’m delighted that she has written Ecstasy is Necessary: A Practical Guide, so she can share this work with a wider audience.
In this book, she teaches us how to discover, nurture, expand, and embrace our authentic, ever-evolving, sensual, sexual self (from the Amazon.com page):
Everyone goes through different phases of sexual expression and desire, and there are an infinite number of erotic and ecstatic possibilities available at all points along the way. The insights readers will gain in their journey with Carrellas will help them confidently approach sex and relationships in a way that works for them no matter where they are in their sexual evolution. They will get tools for solving the inevitable challenges that arise. They’ll even receive permission not to have sex at all, if that’s what’s right for them, because it is possible to create ecstatic experiences even when sex itself is not possible, available, or appropriate.
Using stories and simple exercises, Carrellas helps readers understand how they are wired for sex and relationships, what their personal warning signs look like, and what they need for optimum care. Plus, they’ll learn how to effectively communicate this information to others so that they can be loved more easily and effectively.
As readers discover their authentic sexual selves, they will learn how to create the conditions that allow more and more of their experiences and relationships to be opportunities for—and invitations to—ecstasy.
On March 3rd, she’s also going to be teaching a new workshop based on the book: Ecstasy is Necessary: A Tantric Approach to Life and Love. Unlike the classes Barbara teaches at national events, this is a full day event, and shouldn’t be missed.
Barbara first learned how to have an breath and energy orgasm in the late 1980s during the AIDS crisis. Here’s an excerpt from the book about that experience:
A woman named Jwala facilitated the small workshop in which I had my first breath and energy orgasm. Jwala, whose name means Love Fire, would soon become my first Tantric teacher. I met her the way I met a lot of my teachers in that period-she had come to the Healing Circle as a guest speaker. Jwala was the ultimate hippie. She had no permanent home. She spent a great deal of time studying with her gurus in India. She was not like any spiritual seeker I had ever met. She was as sexual as she was mystical. Although in her that combination seemed natural and easy, I was initially skeptical. Something deep in my ex-Catholic background and career-driven New York personality bristled at her intense dedication to freedom, sexuality and spirituality. I was envious of how happy she seemed. But Jwala was generously willing to teach me everything she knew, and the first was how to have a breath and energy orgasm.
We all sat in a circle on the floor as Jwala explained how the technique worked. “With each breath,” she said “imagine filling up each of your chakras-the seven major energy centers of the body-with energy.” To demonstrate, Jwala lay on her back in the center of the circle and began to breathe. We watched her use her breath and imagination to pull energy from the earth into her body. She began with the first chakra (perineum), and moved up, chakra by chakra. Within a few minutes she was laughing and vibrating and writhing around on the floor. It was one of the juiciest and most joyous orgasms I had ever seen. And then it was our turn.
Jwala offered instructions in the form of a guided meditation. It wasn’t sexual at all and at first I didn’t feel anything. But I heard Jwala say, “Don’t worry, just keep breathing,” so I did. I imagined pulling energy up, chakra by chakra. By the time the energy reached my heart, I felt a tingling in my arms that started to spread into my chest and down my legs. I began to giggle. I felt like I’d like been picked up by a huge wave that got taller and stronger with each breath. I discovered that all I had to do to stay on the wave was keep breathing. Jwala was still guiding us up the chakras but I was in freestyle. I laughed hysterically. I cried in big gulping sobs. I tingled all over. It felt like lightning bolts were shooting out my fingers. I felt like I was being animated by the gods. And it went on and on and on.
How could I not have known this existed? Why didn’t everyone know how to do this? This ecstasy is what I imagined that sex could be-but seldom, if ever, was. And, oddly enough, this breath and energy orgasm had happened in every nook and cranny of my body except my genitals.
This ecstatic experience went far beyond pleasure. It was a profoundly transformative event that took me through all my emotions (including a few I hadn’t met before). It was like body surfing in a whirlpool at the convergence of rivers named Emotion, Intuition, Mysticism, and Sex.
I was hooked. Breath and energy orgasms became the foundation of my personal erotic practice and the cornerstone on which I later built a career as a workshop facilitator and author.
You can see who else is participating at: http://ecstasyisnecessary.com/
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