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This episode is a largely academic/scholarly comparison of these two mystical/spiritual traditions, Kabbalah and Tantra.

Have you ever had a near-death experience? What was it like, being near death and then coming back -- changed? In this episode of my acclaimed podcast I talk about my personal near-death experiences as well as looking at such experiences from a psychological philosophical perspective. What does the research tell us?Quite a lot that will surprise you! ALSO: What is the relationship between sex, love and longevity? Does sex help you live longer? Ring in the New Year with Ecstatic Sensuality!(Life, Death and Sex illuminated by philosophers and psychologists including Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernst Becker, Martin Heidegger, Otto Rank and others. Plus: Want to live longer? Having pleasurable sexual intimacy may help!)

This episode is about Constance Dowling, Doris Dowling, Cesare Pavese, The Moon and the Bonfires, Death Will Come and Will Have Your Eyes, Elia Kazan, Artie Shaw, suicide, John Lilly, LSD, Dolphins, TheActors Studio, impotence, NelsonEddy, Ivan Tors, Flipper, Belasco Theater, Shelly Winters, Goldwyn Girls, Knickerbocker Holiday

It's true! The memory of Great Sex can help you live longer by twenty-six years! It's not marriage, it's not being in a relationship... It's sex! Find our more by watching this titillating promo for our upcoming episode: "Sex and Death/Near Death Experiences" here on your podcast, Explore Ecstatic Sensuality! With your host, "Mr. Sensuality", Randolph "Gabby Cadaver" Pitts.

In a literature overview entitled Psychedelics and sexual functioning: a mixed‑methods study in the open access journal “Scientific Reports”, researchers from The Department of Medicine, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, and the Psychedelics Division, Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, begin by asking the following question:Do psychedelics affect sexual functioning postacutely? Anecdotal and qualitative evidence suggests they do, but this has never been formally tested. While sexual functioning andsatisfaction are generally regarded as an important aspect of human wellbeing, sexual dysfunction is a common symptom of mental health disorders. It is also a common side effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a first line treatment for depression. Naturalistic use of psychedelics was associated with improvements in several facets of sexual functioning and satisfaction, including improved pleasure and communication during sex, satisfaction with one’s partner and physical appearance. Convergent results were found in acontrolled trial of psilocybin therapy versus an SSRI for depression. In this trial, patients treated with psilocybin reported positive changes in sexual functioning after treatment, while patients treated with the SSRI did not.Despite focusing on different populations and settings, this is the first research study to quantitively investigate the effects of psychedelics on sexual functioning. Results imply a potential positive effect on post-acute sexual functioning and highlight the need for more research on this. The most significant changes seen as a result of the use of psychedelics were in seeing sex as a spiritual or sacred experience, satisfaction with one’s own appearance, satisfaction withone’s partner, and experience of pleasure.

As eminent psychologists Roy F. Baumeister and Dawn Dhavale told us back in 2001 almost no one in the world escapes the craving, depression, fear, and rage that rejection can create. Among college students at Case Western Reserve University, 93% of both sexes reported having been spurned by someone they adored. Moreover, 95% said they had rejected someone who was deeply in love with them. We have addressed almost every aspects of love, relationships and intimacy on our five years doing this podcast but thus far not this one. So let’s dive into this subject and see what other researchers and prominent authorities have to tell us. There are two types of “love” we are going to discuss: First, one person has a crush on someone that is not returned; and second where one person in a relationship decides to end it when the other does not wish to – in other words, a relationship breakup initiated by one party. Here again there are two sides: The person in the role of the person being (as it were) “rejected” – the “rejectee” as it were; and the person doing the “rejection” – the rejecter. Have you ever played either of these roles? Or perhaps both? Statistics say that you probably have. How did you navigate this difficult situation? What effects did it have on you? Were aware of what the effects were in your brain and in your heart – your actual heart, not your metaphorical heart? Then this episode is for you. As its CEO Randolph Pitts turned a small, new film production company, Lumière Films, Inc., into the most successful independent producer/financier in Hollywood, best known for the multi-award winning film "Leaving Las Vegas", for which Nicolas Cage won the Oscar as Best Actor. Today he is a widely respected international motion picture producer and production company executive. He holds Summa Cum Laude degrees in Social Psychology and Egyptology from the University of California Berkeley, and a Masters Degree in Motion Picture Production and Entertainment Law from UCLA. He has also done advanced research for the Department of Psychology at UCLA, concentrating on couples and relationships dynamics. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the American Philosophical Association, the organization of university professors of philosophy. He is also an associate member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has a lifelong interest in the relationship between philosophy, psychology and history. He is the founder, writer and host of the Explore Ecstatic Sensuality podcast, the number one sex and sensuality podcast in the world. The first volume of his eagerly anticipated tetralogy of novels will be published during the third quarter of 2025. Pitts' spellbinding novels deal at an unrelenting fever pitch with eroticism, mysticism, terrorism and crime on a global scale. And also… with women and men falling in love. Advance praise for one of Randolph Pitts' novels: "A sexy thriller that shows New York City in the grip of terrorists, natural disasters and voodoo magic, while at the same time being a moving meditation on love, sensuality, and twenty-first century man's fate in the universe. Possibly the greatest novel of our time. I am going to nominate it for the Pulitzer Prize." #rejection #romance #romantic rejection #breakups #rejection sensitivity

ORGASMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, the most pleasurable and profound intimacy a man and a woman can have in this lifetime -- and the Essence of Spirituality. As its CEO Randolph Pitts turned a small, new film production company, Lumière Films, Inc., into the most successful independent producer/financier in Hollywood, best known for the multi-award winning film "Leaving Las Vegas", for which Nicolas Cage won the Oscar as Best Actor. Today he is a widely respected international motion picture producer and production company executive. He holds Summa Cum Laude degrees in Social Psychology and Egyptology from the University of California Berkeley, and a Masters Degree in Motion Picture Production and Entertainment Law from UCLA. He has also done advanced research for the Department of Psychology at UCLA, concentrating on couples and relationships dynamics. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the American Philosophical Association, the organization of university professors of philosophy. He is also an associate member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has a lifelong interest in the relationship between philosophy, psychology and history. He is the founder, writer and host of the Explore Ecstatic Sensuality podcast, the number one sex and sensuality podcast in the world. The first volume of his eagerly anticipated tetralogy of novels will be published during the third quarter of 2025. Pitts' spellbinding novels deal at an unrelenting fever pitch with eroticism, mysticism, terrorism and crime on a global scale. And also… with women and men falling in love. Advance praise for one of Randolph Pitts' novels: "A sexy thriller that shows New York City in the grip of terrorists, natural disasters and voodoo magic, while at the same time being a moving meditation on love, sensuality, and twenty-first century man's fate in the universe. Possibly the greatest novel of our time. I am going to nominate it for the Pulitzer Prize."

Maximum Sensuality is essential for a more exciting sex life, whether you are with one lover or with many. The Explore Ecstatic Sensuality podcasts shows you how to make this happen in dating, casual sex, short and long term monogamous relationships, open relationships and polyamorous relationships, explaining how maximum intimacy and depth may be achieved in each of these. Sensuality is also the path toward spiritual love and spiritual sex. Your sensual self is your spiritual self. Sensuality is the essence of pleasure! and spirituality and pleasure are the same! The erotic/spirituality/pleasure/levity/levitation/transcendence/immortality. Pleasure is spirituality. Giving and receiving pleasure is a spiritual experience. Therefore pleasure is spirituality. Giving is kindness. Thus pleasure/spirituality is morality. This is my message to you. #pleasure #spirituality #sensuality #relationships #intimacy #morality #transcendence #imortality

Women who carry certain variants of the vasopressin receptor gene are much more likely to engage in “extra pair bonding,” the scientific euphemism for sexual infidelity – cheating. A psychologist at the University of Queensland, Australia, has tried to determine whether some people are just more inclined toward infidelity. His study found a significant association between five different variants of the vasopressin gene and infidelity – cheating -- in women. Forty percent of the variation in promiscuous behavior in women could be attributed to genes. So men, should you have your girlfriend tested for this gene before you get married? The answers to this and other pressing questions are to be found in this week’s episode!As its CEO Randolph Pitts turned a small, new film production company, Lumière Films, Inc., into the most successful independent producer/financier in Hollywood, best known for the multi-award winning film "Leaving Las Vegas", for which Nicolas Cage won the Oscar as Best Actor. Today he is a widely respected international motion picture producer and production company executive. He holds Summa Cum Laude degrees in Social Psychology and Egyptology from the University of California Berkeley, and a Masters Degree in Motion Picture Production and Entertainment Law from UCLA. He has also done advanced research for the Department of Psychology at UCLA, concentrating on couples and relationships dynamics. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the American Philosophical Association, the organization of university professors of philosophy. He is also an associate member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has a lifelong interest in the relationship between philosophy, psychology and history. He is the founder, writer and host of the Explore Ecstatic Sensuality podcast, the number one sex and sensuality podcast in the world. The first volume of his eagerly anticipated tetralogy of novels will be published during the third quarter of 2025. Pitts' spellbinding novels deal at an unrelenting fever pitch with eroticism, mysticism, terrorism and crime on a global scale. And also… with women and men falling in love. Advance praise for one of Randolph Pitts' novels: "A sexy thriller that shows New York City in the grip of terrorists, natural disasters and voodoo magic, while at the same time being a moving meditation on love, sensuality, and twenty-first century man's fate in the universe. Possibly the greatest novel of our time. I am going to nominate it for the Pulitzer Prize."Intermission music: Excerpt from “Der Shatten Eines Traumes” by your host.

The focus of today’s episode is sex work: Not primarily on sexworkers, but on what sort of men use the services of sex workers and why. I am preparing this podcast at a time when a motion picture about a sex worker – or should I say more accurately a stripper who has sexual relations with men formoney – has just won five Oscars. It is not for me to comment on whether the situation portrayed in that film was typical or atypical of the relationship between a sex worker and herclient. It strikes me that the “client” in the case of this movie was probably not a typical client of a sex worker, but I will let that pass and move on to academic and scholarly research on the subject. In 1948 Alfred Kinsey published his book “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.” Kinsey and his associates reported that atthat time 69 per cent of the total white male population of the United States visited a prostitute at some time, and from 15 to 20 per cent visited prostitutes more than a few times a year. They also reported that single men visited prostitutes from three to four times as often as married men, and that thelower socio-economic groups were most likely, while college educated men are least likely, to visit prostitutes. To fast forward to 2015, a report entitled “Who Buys Sex” by the organization Demand Abolition estimated the annual size of the US commercial sex market at $5.7 billion.As its CEO Randolph Pitts turned a small, new film production company, Lumière Films, Inc., into the most successful independent producer/financier in Hollywood, best known for the multi-award winning film "Leaving Las Vegas", for which Nicolas Cage won the Oscar as Best Actor. Today he is a widely respected international motion picture producer and production company executive. He holds Summa Cum Laude degrees in Social Psychology and Egyptology from the University of California Berkeley, and a Masters Degree in Motion Picture Production and Entertainment Law from UCLA. He has also done advanced research for the Department of Psychology at UCLA, concentrating on couples and relationships dynamics. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the American Philosophical Association, the organization of university professors of philosophy. He is also an associate member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has a lifelong interest in the relationshipbetween philosophy, psychology and history. He is the founder, writer and host of the Explore Ecstatic Sensuality podcast, the number one sex and sensuality podcast in the world. The first volume of his eagerly anticipated tetralogy ofnovels will be published during the second quarter of 2025. Pitts' spellbinding novels deal at an unrelenting fever pitch with eroticism, mysticism, terrorism and crime on a global scale. And also… with women and men falling in love.Advance praise for one of Randolph Pitts' novels: "A sexy thriller that shows New York City in the grip of terrorists, natural disasters and voodoo magic, while at the same time being a moving meditation on love, sensuality, and twenty-first century man's fate in the universe. Possibly the greatestnovel of our time. I am going to nominate it for the Pulitzer Prize."