Orgasmically Ever After

“I’m feeling these ripples, like an orgasm, all over my body,” she says. “Right now it’s moving up my spine…and here in my hands too!”

The woman opposite me extends her hands, her green eyes widening. “I am excited to be with you, and that might be what brings it on,” she adds. I’m really pleased to see her but not exactly to the point of orgasm. Her face creases into a grin; she erupts into laughter and then continues, “It keeps happening out of the blue —starting in the hara, waves of orgasmic joy rippling through me. It’s really sensual… sensual rather than sexual.”

I’m at the Osho International Meditation Resort. And no, I’m not talking to some juicy young newcomer but to a much-loved old-time friend, Jeevan.

Prem Jeevan showed up for the first time in 1975 at what was then the Pune ashram. I bet I’m not the only one to have felt, within a short time of meeting her, how apt her name (love, life) is. These thirty-five plus years on, I can’t remember her ever being anything other than fun-loving, always quick to see the amusing angle, very ‘out there’ with her feelings… your original burn-the-candle-at-both-ends kind of a woman.

Now 85 years old, Jeevan still effervesces. Seven years on she continues to collect jokes and to send them to the over 200 of us on her emailing list, as well as to spend 2-3 hours each day working at her computer. Involved for many years in the Osho Multimedia department, though now working from home, currently she is typing up one of the darshan diaries. That’s interspersed with her also helping the Italian ‘Osho Times’.

What is happening to her energetically these days – the orgasmic ripples she described – is extraordinary not only because of her age but because she has recently been told that she has bone cancer.

Four years ago, when she was first found to have cancer, her bladder was removed. She is not remotely fazed by the need to wear a urostomy bag, simply commenting ‘It’s been very easy to have’. She’s been told that the newly detected bone cancer – currently in her left femur – means that she may have as long as 2 years to live.

“I am very happy, delighted,” she volunteers, “with the 2 years. If it is less or more it’s okay with me. I’ve lived a very full life. I am very content; there is nothing I wish for. I have had the good fortune to sit at Osho’s feet for so long, to be part of his work.’”

There is still a sense of unreality about it, she continues, though “Death is something I walk with all the time,” and says she is not afraid of it, only of pain – which her doctors assure her they can deal with, and are dealing with.

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It was her opening remark, made within minutes of our reconnecting after several years, that prompted me to ask if I could interview her. A few days later, having posed for our photo shoot and settled into an easy chair, she explains that she’s been celibate for almost 30 years.
Then, “When I was in hospital last year, very sick and in pain – they couldn’t get to the bottom of what was happening – I started caressing myself, loving myself. In the orgasmic release the body let go of everything. There was a bit of a mess in the wake of that… but I was a lot better!

“Over the subsequent year occasionally I would do this and then two weeks ago – before I got this news – I was again feeling an orgasmic energy that would take over my whole body. This morning I woke with pain in my hip. I started caressing myself and all of a sudden I was orgasming – with the pain: the orgasm was here and the pain was there. The pain had a whole different feeling: because the orgasm is so delicious, the pain is secondary. That’s now triggered this recent whole-body orgasm that can come over her at any time. She laughs, “I could get up and dance with it!”

She pauses and says, “A part of my mind says I should be ashamed of all this; the other part says I have to talk about it, to tell other women, particularly – I don’t know if it would be possible for men. It’s so all-encompassing and continues for minutes at a time. I think being multi-orgasmic, the orgasmic state being a generalised sensation rather than localised, is something that comes more naturally to women than men. I am so used to this total orgasm now that I don’t think I am going to lose it; I feel confident that it doesn’t need to be brought on any longer; it is part of my life. “Though”, she adds with a laugh, “that doesn’t mean I don’t want pain pills!”

“I have a door that says ‘Future,’” Jeevan explains, “and I never go in that room. The one exception was when I asked the doctor how long I had.” She pauses, then adds, “I don’t want people to commiserate: I am happy… I welcome what is happening.”

When you really become orgasmic, this happens: even without any genital sexuality you may feel orgasm happening.

“Don’t be afraid of this orgasmicness. That’s what ecstasy is: to be orgasmic without any sex. By and by orgasm will become non-sexual. Then anything gives you an orgasm and you can have as much orgasm as possible. The ultimate state of orgasm is to live in it continuously; then each moment is orgasmic. Eating, there is orgasm, taking a shower, there is orgasm. Moving, looking at the trees, you are orgasmic. That is the goal of Tantra: to make you so orgasmic that each act becomes ecstatic and becomes free of sex.

“Something immensely valuable is by the corner. Receive it!”

Osho, The Open Secret

Maneesha received sannyas in 1974. She edited all the darshan diaries and wrote, at Osho’s suggestion, what he referred to as ‘the historical documentation of my work’ : a trilogy on the evolution of his work through the various communes. She is now based in Devon, UK, and is creating – along with an ever-growing team – The Sammasati Project. The project, based on Osho’s vision, is a support for those wanting psychological and/or spiritual support in health, in sickness, on the road to recovery or in passing through dying. maneeshajames.com – thesammasatiproject.co.uk