p. 206

"the rapture generated by transcendent sex ... becomes very spiritual, the spiritual quest."

p. 208

"Individuals whose sexual fields are so strong that they invite transcendent experiences in others" : a woman of this nature "was being sought for the experiences she produced in others. ... [However,]

If her lovers were unable to go with her into transcendent realms ..., she held back in order not to endanger them. ...

{They would be "unable to go" if they were too impious to be admitted into those "realms" by the deities guarding those realms’ it that case the exposure of their impiety could "endanger" them by making them liable to punishment (for their impiety) by such guardian-deities.}

She didn’t want to have relationships based on the altered states she could provide for her partners".

p. 209

"A partner may come to be associated with altered-state "highs" and ecstatic feelings, creating the potential for ... extremely strong power".

p. 225

"people who are considered "spiritual sensitives" ... comprises individuals who have had difficulty most of their lives in screening out awareness of others’ psyches

[p. 302, n. 10:4 : "In a condition well documented as "thin boundaries" (Hartmann, 1991)."],

Ernst Hartmann : Boundaries in the Mind. NY : BasicBooks.

and those whose sensitivity is adventitious, such as the result of near-death experiences."

p. 226

"When he was in this exalted state, he could "see the mystic picture of the world from everybody’s perspective I knew," including those of his lovers. This enabled him to have transcendent sex."

p. 246

"Several individuals have had their only, or most moving, altered-state sex just after a physical or emotional crisis. ... Others had extraordinary episodes in the wake of great personal loss, such as the death of a loved one, when they were emotionally exhausted".

p. 247

"Sex experts suggest creating a sacred space using candles, incense, draped fabrics, and the like ..., elaborately decorating a "love pad" ... exclusively for sex."

p. 248

touched each other with ... feathers or furs."

"Protracted, deep kissing. or repetitive stroking ... focuses a relaxed kind of attention on ... the "flow" of the experience."

p. 249

visions that arise in their minds."

p. 250

"It’s abut getting lost in the process of making love and forgetting about any possible goal. Just as the practice of meditation is a path that is spoiled by grasping for a goal, so is transcendent sex."

"High levels of arousal and repetitive stimuli during sex bring about altered states just as they do in spiritual practices such as trance dancing."

[f] "You have to be pretty excited, in a high-passion connection. ... You have to be physically excited and mentally engaged."

p. 250

"Many people found that their transcendent states, especially out-of-body and past-

p. 251

life experiences, actually began when they were relaxed but exhausted after orgasm."

"the intentional sexual paths, such as Taoism and Tantra, do indeed exist and have for centuries. In that respect, yet, transcendent sex is ... a spiritual path for those looking for a discipline. ... Transcendent sex unifies all the dimensions of human experience. ... it’s

[m] "way more intense than anything life meditation ... as a spiritual experience." ...

[m] "Sex felt like six different meditation practices all ... happening at the same time ... in an integral, transformative practice.""

p. 257

The [formerly] most skeptical materialists in my study said their understanding had changed as a result as a result of these experiences; they could now appreciate that reality was far more mysterious and

p. 258

Experiencers now felt filled with a greater capacity for love, ... often including humanity at large as they began to be less critical, more accepting of the flaws and foibles of others. They became more self-accepting and full of compassion for humankind as a whole. At the same time, this opening to love tended to make people revere sex all the more ... . ... The sacralization of sex itself healed".

p. 259

[m] "There is a poem or song in Venezuela that was very inspiring for me about a farmer talking with a priest, and saying, "Well, Father, ... I think the skies are in the eyes of [my lover] and every night after I pray my Hail Mary,

I find God in [her] womb."

{Many Vajra-yana tantra-s commence with the words, "The Tathagata was dwelling in the vagina of the goddess".}

"And. finally, transcendent sex can pack so much transformational power that it becomes a "conversion" experience that reorients everything in a person’s life. It convinces [quondam] atheists and [quondam] agnostics that Spirit is real".

p. 260

"There’s no question Spirit can visit us with more force and power through sex than perhaps through any other venue. ... Lovers, like other aspirants and near-death experiencers, understand the world in a different way and are transformed by that understanding ... . ...

How would we live if we believed our bodies and the life-celebrating and potentially

{This is the message of tantra.}

p. 261

life-creating act of sex were the way?

If we believed embodiment was no different from Spirit? ...

{Samsara is no different from nirvan.a, say the vaipulya sutra-s.}

Transcendent sex is just that : going beyond the bodies that encapsulate our separate selves, our senses, our egos, our climaxes, ... but without leaving those bodies behind. They become the vehicles for a grace that transfigures all of the human condition."

[m] "Transcendent sex gives you a glimpse of the Divine always present in all of us. ... You open yourself to God, and you find that you are divine at the same time."

p. 273

"An experience of the Third is defined ... by Jungian analyst John H. Haule.

J. R. Haule : Divine Madness. Boston : Shambhala, 1990.

It is a felt sense of an autonomous, invisible, impersonal field or force that seems to exist between two lovers ..., and cannot be reduced to them or to their relationship. It seems to exhibit its own transpersonal intelligence. ...

p. 274

The sense of the Third was variously described as a nameable entity". {i.e., a known deity, praesumably one presiding over matrimonial relations}

"people ... felt they were transported back in time and space as other individuals in past-life experiences. They seemed to "see" or experience themselves moving through scenes belonging to previous eras and different locations."

"OBEs involve ... having the personal sense of self and agency leave the spatial confines of the body ... . People in fact are startled to find themselves outside their bodies. Displacement ... is discerned through a realistic change in visual vantage point to a location outside, and usually above[,] the body. ... participants ... experienced leaving their bodies, most often after coitus."

"Visions usually consisted of other beings appearing in the room located at a distance from the partner (and thus distinct from trespasso). ... . ... persons saw human or supernatural imagery".

"Unio mystica ... is a formless, dimensionless, infinite awareness typically suffused with light and ecstatic bliss".

"Shapeshifting .... refers to a form of possession, in which individuals in the here and now have ... their ... ego ... taken over by another, typically an animal, but sometimes a plant. ... the body itself is also experienced as changing in form, sensation, and appearance."

{Could this appear to be a variety of dream of false-awakening?}

"Plants and animals are experienced as having their own intelligence, which can now be entrained with that of the participant.

{This is commonly experienced among, e.g., Amerindians during vision-quaests.}

Natural forces, especially the earth, may be perceived to be animate."

"trespasso, an involuntary, here-and-now vision of another head, or a succession of heads (usually but not always human) superimposed on the lover’s head."