Shocking as it is for most people to hear, both women and men can have multiple orgasms. In this book, both you and your partner will learn how to experience multiple whole-body orgasms. However, this is just the beginning of the sexual knowledge that we present. When you and your partner are both multi-orgasmic, you will each experience far greater individual pleasure. You will also be able to harmonize your sexual needs and to reach ever more fulfilling levels of intimacy and ecstasy together.

Multiple Orgasms for All Men

Few people know that men can have multiple orgasms. While this fact has been known for several thousand years in the East and has been confirmed in the West by Alfred Kinsey and other sex researchers since the 1940s, it still remains a surprise to most men and women.

In our earlier book, The Multi-Orgasmic Man, we reviewed the most recent scientific evidence and presented ancient techniques for helping men become multi-orgasmic. We tried to give men a manual for a healthier and more satisfying experience of male sexuality. In this new book, we have tried to give couples a guidebook, or what the Taoists called "a pillow book," to deepen both partners' ability to experience pleasure, health, and intimacy.

Multiple Orgasms for All Women

While the fact that women can have multiple orgasms is well known, more than 50 percent of women have never had multiple orgasms or are not regularly multiply orgasmic. In this book, we will show all women how they can become consistently multi-orgasmic, and for those who are already multi-orgasmic we will show them how to expand and intensify their orgasms.

Harmonizing Sexual Desire

Lovemaking in which both partners are multi-orgasmic allows couples to reach many peaks of orgasmic pleasure together. Equally important, it allows men and women to harmonize their often different sexual rhythms and desires so that they can have a deeply satisfying and profoundly intimate love life.

But sensual pleasure, as exquisite and enjoyable as it can be, is only the beginning.

Physical Health, Emotional Intimacy, and Spiritual Growth

This book draws on thousands of years of sexual knowledge to show couples how sexual energy can be used to cultivate all other aspects of their relationship, including their physical health, emotional intimacy, and even spiritual growth. In the modern world, we have torn ourselves apart: we have separated our genitals from the rest of our body and our body from our spirit. In this book we show couples how to put the pieces together again for a level of health, intimacy, and spiritual union that many may never have known was possible.

The Loss of Sexual Wisdom

In the modern world, we have lost most of our sexual wisdom. We live in a time of great sexual freedom but also great sexual confusion. Sexuality is everywhere used to titillate us, but there remains an enormous amount of shame. Many readers may feel embarrassed about simply picking up a book on sexuality (multiple orgasms, no less!) in the bookstore. This is understandable since most of our churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples view sex through a narrow lens of fear and moralism. Most of us are left feeling profoundly anxious if not downright ashamed of our sexual needs and desires.

Even people with "healthy" attitudes toward sex still find it difficult to talk with their partner about what they want sexually. We may have little problem telling our partner where to rub our shoulders, but most of us are much more reticent to tell our partner where to rub our "privates." A major part of overcoming the shame that restricts our sexuality is learning that it is natural and discovering a more holistic and healthier view of human sexuality.

Discovering Sexual Wisdom

In this book, we present the sexual wisdom of the Taoist (pronounced DOW-ist) tradition. Originally, the Taoists were a group of seekers in ancient China (around 500 B.C.E.) who were devoted to understanding health and spirituality. In this book, we will call the Taoist sexual tradition "Healing Love" since lovemaking was seen as a powerful way to heal ourselves and each other. It was also called "Sexual Kung Fu." Kung Fu simply means "practice," so Sexual Kung Fu simply means "sexual practice." (Rest assured, you will not be breaking any bricks with your forehead or karate-chopping each other in bed.)

Sex Is About Health

The Taoists were doctors and were concerned with the body's overall well-being as much as with its sexual pleasure. For the Taoist then and now, sex is about health, not morality.

The Taoists deeply investigated the healing power of lovemaking. In addition to giving their patients pills, Taoist doctors would often prescribe making love in various positions to help cure different illnesses.

Taoist sexuality -- or, as we will call it in this book, Healing Love -- began as an important branch of Chinese medicine, and an active sex life was understood to be an essential part of health and longevity. In studies of older adults, modern medicine has recently confirmed that sex is in fact vital for our long-term health.

Among the early Taoists, sex was a serious science to be studied and understood like any other branch of medicine. In this way, the Taoists were like proto-sexologists, early Masters and Johnsons, you might say. Just as we study nutrition to prepare healthy food and study cooking to prepare delicious food, one was expected to study sexuality to make it both healthful and more enjoyable.

Sexual Harmony and Love for a Lifetime

The Taoists saw sexual harmony as essential for marital satisfaction. Indeed, this was one of the prime motivations in the development of the bedroom arts. They knew, like any modern-day couples' therapist, if there are problems in the bedroom the whole relationship suffers. Sexual harmony, however, is not always easy to achieve. Partners often have very different sexual needs. While not all women or all men are identical, it was understood that women's sexual arousal and sexual response often differ dramatically from men's.

The Taoists referred to these differences as the result of male and female sexual energy (which they called yang and yin). We will explain to couples how these energies influence our sexuality and how to use this understanding to satisfy both partners' needs.

It is worth mentioning that while the Taoists were primarily concerned with harmonizing male and female sexuality, the practices are equally valuable for gay and lesbian couples. For the Taoists, all people have masculine (yang) and feminine (yin) energy, and they knew it is essential for couples -- straight, gay, or lesbian -- to harmonize the differences that exist between the partners. In addition, the practices for pleasure, healing, emotional intimacy, and spiritual relationship are equally powerful and important for gay and lesbian couples.

A New Sexual Evolution

While many of the Taoist practices for sexual fulfillment and physical health are now over two thousand years old, they remain extremely effective today. Over the past twenty years, since these long-secret Arts of the Bedchamber have started to be introduced to modern couples, there has been a quiet but profound sexual evolution in bedrooms and in relationships around the world. We hope the sexual arts and sexual science that we present in this book will help your relationship as they have helped the thousands of others who have practiced them.

Before you and your partner can explore the heights of Healing Love, it is important for each partner to cultivate his or her own sexual potential. In Part 1, "Solo: Multiplying and Expanding Your Orgasms," we first discuss how both men and women can become multi-orgasmic. Then, in chapter 3, we discuss how couples can expand their sexual energy to experience whole-body orgasms. The ability to circulate energy in your body will be important for the practices introduced in Part 2, "Duo: Sharing Passion, Healing, and Intimacy with Your Partner."