RACHEL CARLTON ABRAMS, MD, MHS
Rachel Carlton Abrams, MD, MHS, received her Medical Degree at the University of California-San Francisco and a Master’s Degree in Holistic Health and Medical Sciences from the University of California-Berkeley. She is Board Certified in Family Medicine and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice. She is also Board Certified in Holistic Medicine and a member of the American Holistic Medical Association. Dr. Abrams co-founded and is the medical director of Santa Cruz Integrative Medicine & Chi Center in Santa Cruz, California (www.santacruzintegrativemedicine.net), a multi-disciplinary clinic which offers a dynamic and effective approach to healthcare by fusing the profound wisdom and ancient practices of the East with the cutting edge medical advances of the West. The Chi Center offers regular workshops and ongoing classes in the movement arts to complement the healing and energizing effects of its integrative practitioners.

Dr. Abrams has been a student and teacher of Taoist sexuality, with Taoist master Mantak Chia, since 1994. She and her husband have published three books on Taoist sexuality, the best-selling The Multi-Orgamsic Man, The Multi-Orgasmic Couple, and now the much anticipated The Multi-Orgasmic Woman. She teaches workshops regularly at the Chi Center (www.santacruzchicenter.com) and at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California (www.esalen.org) as well as teaching and lecturing throughout the country. Rachel loves the ocean and the redwoods and spends as much time as possible in each. She enjoys cycling, gardening, traveling and cooking. Most importantly, she is happily married to her husband and co-conspirator, Doug, and the mother of three fabulous children, all residing in Santa Cruz. California.

MANTAK CHIA
Mantak Chia is the world's best-known teacher of the Taoist arts, from Tai Chi to Taoist sexuality. He is the co-author of the bestsellers The Multi-Orgasmic Man and The Multi-Orgasmic Couple as well as the twenty other books, including the self-published classics Taoist Secrets of Love and Healing Love Through the Tao. He lives in Thailand and teaches in throughout the world. You can order other books by Mantak Chia or view his workshop schedule through his website www.universal-tao.com.

What are women saying about

"In The Multi-Orgasmic Woman Rachel Abrams is like sitting down with an MD girlfriend who focuses on women's sexual health AND knows everything about the ancient art of Taoist sexual practice. More women will have expanded access to their sexual pleasure and the possibility of multi-orgasmic sex thanks to her uncomplicated directions and illustrations. A step-by-step guide for women to explore being multipli-orgasmic."
- Lou Paget, Best-selling author of How to Be a Great Lover and The Big O.

"This fun-to-read book offers down-to-earth and clear descriptions of ways women may enjoy sensual and sexual pleasure. I love the focus on pleasure and not just on orgasm or multiple orgasms. The combination of Eastern and Western information and exercises will help women to enjoy sexual health across all ages--whether they are single or in a relationship with a man or a woman."
-Beverly Whipple, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Coauthor of the The G-Spot and Other Discoveries about Human Sexuality

"I began doing the healing love practice several months ago and I can't remember the last time I felt so alive! I feel so sensual, womanly and juicy. Even my friends have noticed that my color looks better. I have rosy cheeks!"
- Carol, 44-year-old nurse from Pittsburgh, USA

"These practices allowed me to feel my desire for the first time."
- Jeanette, 41-year-old artist from France

"The Healing Love practices make my orgasms stronger, longer and I can feel them throughout my body."
- Colette, 56-year-old therapist from France

"Before I had only a single clitoral orgasm. Now I feel my multiple orgasms throughout my body. I feel so much love and so much orgasmic pleasure."
- Inga, 44-year-old yoga instructor from Switzerland

"Now I can be a woman whose sexual energy is fully activated even without a man. . . .Usually when I am celibate I get sexually frustrated. I'm so horny that I want to pounce on anything. But when I did the practice, this didn't happen. It became more and more exquisite the feelings in my body and the subtleness. I would have constant orgasms all day long. They were like little bubbles, always rising."
- Lila, 28-year-old masseuse from Canada

"I have a deeper connection to my partner. I'm so much more alive and I feel things so strongly. This practice is really about women coming into their own."
- Calla, 48-year-old teacher from Portland, USA

Health and Aging:

"I started menopause early and had very low sex drive but when I did the practices I started menstruating again and had huge amounts of sexual energy."
- Roia, 45-year-old economist from Turkey

"The Healing Love practice has helped many of my patients diminish the pain, blood loss, tiredness, and sadness with menstruation."
- Nicole, 56-year-old acupuncturist from France

"I have been doing the Healing Love practices for years and when I entered menopause I had no symptoms: no hot flashes, no insomnia, no irregular or heavy bleeding. My period stopped and I felt wonderful with no change in my sex drive."
- Kate, 60-year-old acupuncturist from San Francisco, USA

"The Healing Love practice and the six healing sounds completely cured me of my insomnia."
- Calla, 48-year-old teacher from Portland, USA

"When I feel my body and how good it feels inside my body, then I don't care if I have a little cellulite."
- Lila, 28-year-old masseuse, Canada

"When I use the Healing Love practices my gray hair goes away and I feel sexy. When I don't do the practices my gray hair comes back!"
- Susan, 72-year-old environmentalist from Canada

Overall Well Being:

"The Healing Love six healing sounds keep my energy in balance. ...I feel like a calm lake after doing this practice."
- Colette, 56-year-old therapist from France

"When you do this practice, you become extremely powerful, beyond what you can possibly imagine. ...If I look at someone across the mall and say "come here", they come. And they don't know why they're standing in front of me. Because of the power the practices give me, I need to be responsible and the practice helps me develop my compassion. The Healing Love practices return women to a sense of wholeness and a sense of their own inner wisdom."
- Lila, 28-year-old masseuse from Canada

Introduction

The Power of Pleasure

A woman's pleasure is as powerful and intoxicating as any force on earth. You may not yet feel it, but within you is a wellspring of vitality that can transform your sexual pleasure and illuminate your life. We often think of sex as separate from the rest of our lives, but nothing could be further from the truth. Our sexual life mirrors our general health, our relationships, and our emotional well-being at the deepest level. It is certainly true that who we are and what we have experienced affects our sexuality, but it is also true that making changes in our sexual lives can transform the other parts of our lives, including our relationships.

Taoism, an ancient Chinese system of healing and spirituality, has always understood the fact that sexuality is an integral part of our health and wellness. The ancient Taoist physicians would ask about desire and sexual activity as a routine part of assessing one's health. They might even prescribe lovemaking at certain times of day or in certain positions to treat illnesses. In this book, Mantak Chia and I will combine this Taoist knowledge with insights from modern medicine to offer an effective program that will kindle your desire and magnify your sexual pleasure.

As a holistic physician, I am committed to offering the best of traditional and complementary medicines to address the issues that are most pressing in women's lives. I have repeatedly seen that a woman's overall health and well-being is dramatically affected by the quality and frequency of her sexual experiences. And sadly, too many women are not experiencing the pleasure and sexual satisfaction that they need and deserve. According to surveys, one-third of all women in the United States have never had an orgasm, another one-third are not regularly orgasmic, and even fewer women, only one in five, are multi-orgasmic.

Some of us experience our most profound joy, connectedness, and spiritual oneness during lovemaking. Many of us may have had only rare glimpses of what is possible in intimate sexual union. And still others of us may have been blocked from claiming our full sexual potential by painful sexual experiences. This book will lead you on your own personal journey to discover your sexual power and pleasure, and it will show you how to use this power to transform your life.

In chapter 1, you will develop a "Personal Sexual Satisfaction Plan" that will help you to focus on the chapters, techniques, and exercises that will be of greatest help to you. In chapters 2 and 3, you will learn to cultivate your desire and balance your energy. In chapters 4 and 5, you will discover what prevents you from having the full pleasure of your orgasms and learn the best techniques for you to orgasm easily--and often. In chapters 6 and 7, I will show you how to expand these orgasms into whole-body orgasms and to extend them with your breathing into longer and more intense multiple orgasms. Finally, in chapters 8 and 9, I will help you to maintain your sexual health and healing over the course of your life and show you how you can begin to use it for your emotional and spiritual growth.

Cultivating your multi-orgasmic ability requires that we explore your sexual energy and your pleasure anatomy. By "sexual energy," I simply mean your desire, your passion, or your libido, as doctors sometimes say. The more sexual energy or desire that you have, the easier it will be for you to orgasm. The Taoists see sexual energy as the most powerful source of our overall vital energy, or <I>chi<$>, which is responsible for our health and livelihood. If your energy is being drained by demanding work, family responsibilities, financial stress, ill health, or addictions, it will be harder for you to have the sexual energy you need for satisfying lovemaking.

Not only does low sexual energy make it harder to orgasm, it makes it less likely that you will even want to have sex. A recent in-depth study determined that the number one reason that couples don't have sex is fatigue. This is certainly the case for the women who come to my medical practice. In part due to their physical and emotional exhaustion, many of these women are less interested in sex and when they are, they cannot orgasm regularly or at all. The Taoist practices that Mantak Chia and I will teach throughout this book will teach you how to draw energy and inspiration from the desire within your own body.

As an expert on the various medical and complementary options available, I can say that Taoist sexual practices, called Healing Love, are uniquely able to help women with low energy and low libido to have satisfying multi-orgasmic lovemaking and to increase their overall vitality. Carol, a 44-year-old nurse from Pittsburgh, explained her experience: "I began doing the Healing Love practice several months ago, and I can't remember the last time I felt so alive! I feel so sensual, womanly, and juicy. Even my friends have noticed that my color looks better. I have rosy cheeks!" For women who already have high levels of sexual energy, the Healing Love practices will help them to channel this energy and to access it when and how they like as a source of vitality in all aspects of their lives.

But while Healing Love sees orgasm as an important source of joy, energy, and health for women, it does not minimize or in any way overlook the rest of your sexual experience. The Healing Love practices offered here will allow you to enjoy your pleasure before, during, and after orgasm. As you'll see, orgasm is not the goal of sex. It is simply one of the highlights on a journey of personal pleasure and discovery.

Another part of this journey to sexual satisfaction involves exploring your "pleasure anatomy"--that is, your body's particular sensual response pattern--and learning what arouses you. In chapters 4 through 7, I will show you how to intensify your sexual enjoyment all along the way to orgasm and from crescendo to crescendo. You will discover what your unique "hot spots" are and use the latest--and some of the oldest--techniques from both Western and Eastern traditions to guide you in your pleasure. Whatever your current experience with orgasm--whether never having had one to already being multi-orgasmic--the techniques and exercises throughout this book will help you to enjoy the ever greater bliss in your body that is your birthright.

Taoist Secrets of Sexuality

Taoism is the foundation of Chinese philosophy and medicine. It is a comprehensive physical and spiritual system that helps individuals to reach their highest potentials. It is perhaps best known in this country as the basis for Traditional Chinese Medicine, which includes acupuncture, herbal therapy, nutrition, massage, the energetic meditation called Chi Kung (pronounced "chee kong"), and the martial art called Tai Chi Chuan ("tie chee chwan"). The Universal Tao system was developed by Master Chia to teach Taoist meditative and exercise techniques to balance the body and increase one's vital energy, or chi ("chee"). The sexual practice, or Healing Love, is an essential part of this system.

"Chi," the Chinese word for life energy, is the force within our bodies and within the universe that engenders life. The word itself has many translations, such as energy, air, breath, wind, or vital essence. I will be using the word "energy" throughout the book when referring to chi, as it is the closest approximation in our language. But chi is not equivalent to energy; it is more subtle, akin to the force behind all life and movement. There are 49 cultures around the world that understand the concept of chi in one form or another; examples include Ki (Japanese), Prana (Sanskrit), Lung (Tibetan), Neyatoneyah (Lakota Sioux), Num (Kalahari Kung), and Ruach (Hebrew).

"Western culture" and allopathic medicine, often called Western or conventional medicine, is one of the few cultures that does not have a similar concept, although it recognizes the role of energy at the molecular level. Western medicine is extremely effective for treating acute disease and traumatic injuries. However, I believe that it is, in part, the absence of this concept of "life force" that limits its effectiveness in treating chronic illnesses. Western medicine is just beginning to recognize what the Taoists have known for more than 2,000 years, that directing the flow of our life force, our chi, can improve our health and vitality. One such method of directing this life force is with acupuncture, a Taoist healing tradition that uses fine needles to direct the flow of chi in the body. In the past decade, standardized clinical trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of acupuncture for a large number of illnesses. We've even begun to explain just what it is that happens in the body when chi flows; acupuncture modulates subtle body processes, such as blood flow, hormone release, nerve activation, and immune system stimulation.

You will probably be relieved to hear that we will not be suggesting that you use acupuncture needles in your sexual practice. It is possible to control the flow of chi in your body and have these energetic and health benefits without using needles. Master Chia and I will teach you, with simple exercises, to use your concentration and your breath to activate and move your energy; this practice is called Chi Kung. It involves both concentration exercises and simple movements to facilitate the flow of chi. Used throughout China and now widely practiced in the United States, Chi Kung is an ancient and effective practice. I often refer to the Healing Love sexual practice as "Chi Kung for the bedroom."

Once you become aware of your chi, you'll find that it's rather easy to notice and feel it. Try this simple exercise. Briskly rub your palms together until you produce heat. Now slowly separate your palms until they are about an inch apart. You should feel a "cushion" of air between them that may feel like pressure, heat, or tingling. This sensation is the chi passing between your hands.

As you increase and move your chi, you will also be able to move your sexual energy, called jing chi , as well. The ability to expand and move your sexual energy is what allows you to increase your pleasure and intensify your orgasms. It will also give you a great deal more energy out of the bedroom as you live your life in the world.

Master Chia has refined the Healing Love practices that are in this book over the course of 3 decades teaching students. I encourage you to try all of the practices and exercises as written. The purpose of this book, however, is not for you to perform all of the exercises correctly. It is to experience and adapt these teachings so that you feel the luxurious joy of your own life force, your sexual energy, streaming through your body and that you are able to use that energy to find fulfillment in your life. To do this, you need to be aware of your own responses as you practice these exercises. You should take from the practices what you need and add whatever feels right to truly make them your own. The purpose of doing these Taoist practices is not to become a Taoist expert, but to become more fully who you are.

The practices use the natural energy of your own body and are safe when performed in a balanced way with loving attention. I'll teach the Inner Smile and Healing Sounds practices first because they encourage loving self-regard and will help you to refine your energy. These practices improve the quality of your chi, while the sexual practice helps you generate a greater quantity of chi. If you learn and practice the Inner Smile and Healing Sounds, you are much less likely to have difficulties with the sexual practice because your chi be more refined and will flow more smoothly.

I give instruction throughout the book on how to keep the practices fun and effective. But because each human body is different and we all bring our own experiences to the practice, different people will struggle with different parts of the practice. After each practice, I provide a "troubleshooting guide" for the most common problems, from "I can't feel my chi" to "My chi is keeping me awake at night." If for any reason you have trouble with the practice, it might be helpful to have an instructor to guide you in the practice and to consult if problems arise. A resource for Healing Love instructors is available at the end of the book. There are hundreds of them throughout North America and Europe and in most countries around the world.

You can integrate the insights and practices in this book in whatever way suits your needs and your life. Since you will be learning a variety of practices throughout the book, I encourage you to try each of them to find what works for you. They are rich and powerful enough to do for hours each day, but flexible enough to energize you or help relieve physical or emotional stress in minutes. The sexual practices initially take some time to understand and feel in your body, but they can then be seamlessly integrated into lovemaking with astounding results: more pleasure, intimacy, and vibrancy than you've ever experienced.