An Orgy of Orgasmic Meditation

Tracy Clark-Flory Salon.com defends the One Taste Urban Retreat Center, a commune dedicated to the female orgasm, whose members have been accused of being too self-absorbed.

Spend a few years living in San Francisco and the city's many public celebrations of sexual transgression will no longer shock you. But Sunday's New York Times profiles a community located on Folsom Street, home of the world's largest BDSM and leather fair, that registers as subversive to even longtime residents like myself: a commune dedicated to the female orgasm. One Taste Urban Retreat Center aims to start a female-focused "slow-sex movement"; it's much like the "slow food movement," only it is lady parts that are being savored.

At this stop, only ladies are allowed aboard the Orgasm Express

Bright and early each and every morning at One Taste, roughly a dozen fully clothed male residents caress the nether lips of half-naked women. It might sound like the stuff of most straight women's fantasies -- save for the fact that eye contact is banned, the men are known as "research partners" rather than lovers, and it all takes place in the same room. It's an orgy of orgasmic meditation, also known as "OMing." Devotees explain it as "hydration" of the self and a strengthening of human connection. That search for intimacy, however, does not include reciprocation: At this stop, only ladies are allowed aboard the Orgasm Express. Read more