CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new study published by researchers from the Institute of OM Foundation in California found that Orgasmic Meditation (“OM”) can trigger a substantial mystical experience in both partners. The study, published in the journal F1000 Research, found that the effect of Orgasmic Meditation is equivalent to a moderate dose of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound found in certain types of mushrooms.
“Given that OM apparently can trigger a mystical experience of similar power to psilocybin, and that psilocybin has shown promise in the treatment of mood and substance disorders, this study raises intriguing questions about whether OM might also be effective in the treatment of these disorders,” said Vivian Siegel, Ph.D., the lead author of the study, and currently a lecturer in biology at MIT.
Orgasmic Meditation, known as “OM” to practitioners, is a structured practice that lasts 15 minutes where one partner manually stimulates the clitoris of the other partner. The only goal is to feel sensations, not necessarily to climax. The partners are referred to as the “stroker,” the person (any gender) providing manual stimulation, and the “strokee,” the woman receiving the stimulation. The practice emphasizes safety and consent at each step, and both the stroker and strokee are encouraged to describe the sensations they feel during the practice.
This study employed the 30 question Mystical Experience Questionnaire (“MEQ”) developed by Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The MEQ is designed to quantify four aspects of mystical experience: mysticism (feeling of “oneness”), positive mood, transcendence of time and space, and ineffability, or the sense that an experience cannot be described adequately in words.
High MEQ scores have correlated with promising treatments for a number of medical conditions. For example, prior studies using the MEQ have shown that the hallucinogenic substance psilocybin triggers a mystical-type experience, and the strength of the mystical experience has correlated with potential treatments for nicotine addiction, depression, and other mood and drug use disorders.
This study consisted of two different surveys. The first survey included 780 participants who were asked to complete the MEQ questionnaire with “a single powerful OM in mind.” On average, participants in this survey reported moderate to strong mystical experiences, with moderately strong correlations between MEQ total score and how frequently the participant reported engaging in OM. Of the participants in this study, 62 percent reported having a complete mystical experience during an OM.
A second survey was completed by 56 couples who were asked to complete the survey immediately following an OM. Participants in this survey also reported moderate mystical experiences, with no statistically significant difference in total mysticism scores between strokers and strokees.