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Let's Occupy Pleasure

Fri, 10/28/2011 - 15:33
Submitted by Lawrence Lanoff

Here’s my big question today: what is the opposite of pleasure?

This week I thought I would share a frame shift that I use in sessions and in workshops. It’s a powerful change in the way we view our sexuality, our bodies and our pleasure.

Let me first say that, if you are like a majority of the people of the world, you have been brainwashed by the principal behind your answer above - that the opposite of pleasure is pain.

For most of us, we have been completely dis-empowered by religious ideas about pleasure, ideas that have embedded themselves in our consciousness, regardless of whether or not we were raised in a religious environment.

We all know how much Jesus, oops, I mean Mythra, wait, uh, Horus, no Krishna, suffered for our sins. This spiritual brainwashing is intended to keep us in the delusion that feeling bad, in fact suffering, is a good thing. Just shut up and accept your miserable lot in life, you sinning, sexual bitches.

Black and white thinking regarding pleasure implies our deepest, uncomfortable feelings about feeling good. We know we can have moments of pleasure - but anxiously await the invisible pleasure-hall-monitors to drop the other shoe of pain and suffering upon us.

I ask you to consider this: the opposite of pleasure is more pleasure.

The idea I’m asking us to try on is that we can continue to expand our limited ideas about pleasure. Consider the possibility that we can make more and more space in our bodies for more and more pleasure. In my experience, the path of pleasure is infinite.

I know I sound radical here, but it’s actually OK for you to feel good. In fact, it’s a necessity if you want to enjoy your life at all. Feeling good shouldn’t be an exception - but rather a birthright.

Yes, let’s occupy Wall Street - but let’s also Occupy Pleasure.

Reality Hacker. Sex Educator. Geek.
lawrencelanoff.com

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the pleasure principle

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 12:19
ksolo (not verified)

i totally agree with your point (though i submit that the opposite of pleasure is guilt) - our society has civilized us to the point that pleasure and the thorough, unabashed enjoyment of it is seen as a dysfunction. 
all that leads to is: unnecessary feelings of guilt, shame, or avoidance. which, in my opinion, then becomes real dysfunction and, ultimately, perversion. 
there are a million little pleasures to be enjoyed in a day: the breeze on your cheek, the taste of your morning coffee, your lover's laugh. the ability to recognize and enjoy little pleasures make the big pleasures that much more pleasurable. in my post 'recipe for a good woman', i list the ability to receive and give pleasure as a key ingredient.
btw - you know what makes pleasure better than capitalist wealth? the more it's shared, the better it gets. ;-)
sincerely, 
the pleasure 1% (aka, bon vivants)

Occupying Pleasure Is Win-Win

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 21:28
Craig Hallenstein (not verified)

The opposite of pleasure . . . Who cares?  It's the concept of more that's intriguing.

If the earliest Christian leaders understood anything, they
understood more. The more sexual sins they could convince us we had to atone
for, the more gold would flow into their coffers. Two thousand years later,
nothing has changed. The Christian right is still
demanding more—more for the one
percent. Theirs is a win-lose conception of more, where wins come strictly
at others' expense.

Contrast that with the win-win model of more that lies at
the heart of both tantra (more pleasure) and poly (more love). Ever wonder why
Christian extremists seem angry and dispirited while tantra and poly practitioners
are full of life and teaming with Spirit? In the joy of opening ourselves to
ever-increasing love and pleasure, we experience the world as a place of abundance,
believing that there's enough to go around. And then some. And then some more. Win-lose, on the other hand, is
based on the presumption that we live in a world of scarcity. That might be true
in terms of oil, and water in the not-too-distant future. But love and pleasure
are our birthrights. For those of us who long-ago jettisoned one or the other
or both, it's time to take them back. It's time to reach for more.   

Craig Hallenstein resides at http://kidsandsexblog.com

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