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I double-check my setup: the Hitachi Magic Wand is plugged into the power-strip shared by my monitor and PC. My webcam is on, the streaming software functioning with a decent refresh rate. I load a separate cam window, turn on my speakers, and listen to a man implore, “Take your time…we don't have to arrive at our destination simultaneously. In fact, there's no pressure to arrive at all. We just want to share a path and mindset and raise the energy level around us.” Abstract as it may sound, John Halcyon Styn (Halcyon, for those in the know) is talking about an orgasm, or rather, many simultaneous orgasms. This, my friends, is Globalgasm, and I’m about to get off with a couple hundred other people for the greater good of the world. “I believe that sexual energy, at the moment of climax, is transcendent.” Halcyon continues, flipping his long hair over a bare shoulder. “Visualize tapping into the divine at the moment of orgasm, and channeling that back toward the earth. As we join in a sexual experience, we are also doing social work. Put that on your resume,” he chuckles, and explains that the goal time for the global orgasm is 8pm Pacific. After the pep talk, I wander digitally through the “rooms” of Globalgasm, which is hosted at CitzenX.com. Like Halcyon, Globalgasm is flamboyant, almost exclusively straight, and a bit kinky. In the first chat room I enter, I find a “citizen” on-cam wearing a scandalous Snow White costume. I can’t hear her (no-one besides Halcyon has an audio feed), but the chatters in her room have assumed names like MirrorMirror and PoisonApple. Snow White, online role playing form, “*picks up the mirror and says* ‘mirror mirror in my hand, where is the prince of Globalgasm land?’” |
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Having a webcam is not required to participate in Globalgasm, and perhaps only half of those online are streaming live images. Unlike your standard jack-off cam portal, however, most Globalgasm participants have their cams on their faces, not their crotches. Missing were the disembodied engorged dicks protruding from anonymous jeans ubiquitous at most cam sex sites. Later, I’m told that there are typically more “men sharing,” but I see not a single one. Instead, I find a webcam streaming a fully dressed young man playing with glowsticks. “I am not going to masturbate to this,” I think, and click elsewhere. I’ve arranged myself so that my cam sees only some of my bra and my legs, ensuring that my senate run is safe. Clearly not worried about politics, Halcyon has his webcam pointed at his computer screen where I can see a video feed of him and his girlfriend, Miss M on, their bed. Via the live audio-feed, I hear their accompanying moans. Since I’ve got a somewhat revealing webcam stream, I start receiving suggestive instant messages: “my god your [sic] beautiful...and very sensual. i am captivated just watching you...” It’s a little creepy, but then I receive the instant message from a couple informing me that they’ve decided to have my webcam up while they’re enjoying Globalgasm, which negates the VoyeurDorm feeling. Overtaken by the moment, I close my eyes and tip my head back. For a few seconds, it’s just me, my Hitachi, and dozens and dozens of our virtual friends. When I open my eyes and check the clock, it’s 9:00 on the button. I’m never late to a party. Founded January 1st, 2001, Globalgasm is a monthly digital orgy with intent. While only one to two hundred people participate online, many hundreds of others, across the United States, Europe, and Australia, participate offline, relaying their experiences via Globalgasm’s message board or email. Halcyon, the 30-year-old founder of the project, is a former Webby winner, and a self-proclaimed “Digital Explorer and Love Ambassador.” Initially inspired by his experiences at an Amsterdam sex club, Globalgasm combines an orgy atmosphere with Tantric spirituality, the “no spectator” rule of Burning Man, and the timed communion aspect of EarthDance (a worldwide Save Tibet rally which culminates with dancers worldwide hearing the same song simultaneously). Halcyon is a Character with a capitol C, an “unrelenting extrovert” who has appeared on television shows like “STUDS,” recently presented awards at SXSW [South By Southwest, a major conference/trade show for the music, film, and new media communities]wearing an oversized pink cowboy hat, and is one of those people who ends every online conversation with a “((HUG)).” To call him self-absorbed would be plagiarism: his personal website is CockyBastard.com. |
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Not unlike the Masturbate-A-Thon sponsored every May by Toys in Babeland, Globalgasm works to combine the inevitable with the hopeful: personal pleasure for a greater good. Halcyon’s partner, Miss M goes, so far as to compare Globalgasm to Christian prayer circles and Buddhist practice of collective intention. “One person alone practicing peace effects a growing area of the universe, and a group of people focused on the vision of a peaceful planet can change the face of world consciousness.” Miss M isn’t the only one with an overwhelmingly optimistic opinion of Globalgasm. “Calygirl,” a 30-year-old married mother from Philadelphia, is convinced that her and her husband’s online participation in Globalgasm has improved their communication offline: “Years ago my husband told me he wasn’t into talking dirty, [because] he didn’t know how to react to his sweet wife saying such things. Now he’s a lot more open in the bedroom--Had it not been for Globalgasm, we might still be silently wanting to speak up.” Incidentally, this married mother is the same woman who was dressed up as Snow White. “Every month I go out and treat myself to a new outfit like it’s a big holiday,” She confesses. “I dress up for every Globalgasm, and I always try to have a theme.” She and her husband participate separately from different floors of their house while their four-year-old sleeps. They have sexy conversations with others online while masturbating. It sounds like digital polyamory to me, but when I ask if she and her husband of 7 years have an open relationship, she quickly says no, but does offer, “Globalgasm is a way for us to explore without the worry of dangers.” A graduate student from Southern California, who insisted on being identified only as “Celestialcharm,” compared Globalgasm to being on Ecstasy. She spoke of a deep sense of connection and empathy, and then confirmed again that I’d respect her anonymity to protect her academic career. “Brainporn,” a Canadian woman in her early 20s, reminisced about the first time she logged onto Globalgasm, when she found a couple having sex on-cam. “They were amazing,” she remembered, “Not like porn, but love…and sharing it with the rest of us.” It’s a point Globalgasm participants stress repeatedly, almost defensively: this isn’t pornography, this is love, this is healing, this is therapy. Porn hounds are discouraged: Halcyon explained that the 30-minute introduction before every Globalgasm is both for education and because “people looking for pornography are quickly bored.” When I ask about persistent voyeurs who may wait through the introduction simply watch others, a 29-year-old IT freelancer from San Diego muses, “If you are just there to watch, then you are intruding on a group of like-minded people, kind of like breaking into someone’s home.” His metaphor may seem a little excessive, but there’s clearly a deep sense of ownership and protectiveness around this project, a solid collective coming together (har har) to effect change and build community. One cute display of this community was how, after the event, all the chatters added “-gasmed” as a suffix to their handles. The talk was cozy and familiar. I was unable to wrestle a single negative perspective out of those I interviewed?everyone seemed to be radiating this ooey-gooey positivity. The attitude seems vaguely familiar, and I finally place it as vaguely reminiscent of Young Life kids I avoided back in high school. Despite the “come join the church, kind brother!” happy sex zealot vibe, Globalgasm participants don’t proselytize. Well, not much anyway. Halcyon defends this overwhelming response by explaining that, for many participants, Globalgasm is their first group sex activity. “Wouldn’t you expect them to be excited and positive?” he asks. For the skeptical, Globalgasm seems easy to dismiss: “So it really is possible to change the world by just sitting around jacking off. I knew it,” a friend of mine droned sarcastically. While having an orgasm with a couple hundred people isn’t going to feed the hungry or stop deforestation, I can attest that the effects of that focused energy did indeed tingle. At the very least, as Halcyon says, “whether you believe it or not, it certainly can’t hurt.” I’m not sure if I believe it, but realistically, social work never felt so good. |
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12.07.06: Scarlet Letters -- in case it isn't glaringly obvious -- is currently
on an extended hiatus. The web has changed, we've changed, and
we're trying to figure out how we both fit together now, which isn't a process we want to rush. If you're looking for more current SL-related content, you can
have check out upcoming books from editor Heather Corinna and previous co-editor Hanne Blank, check out Heather's current sexuality sites, or explore sites through the femmerotic network. We hope to be back with you soon, as fresh, challenging and
unexpected as ever.
In the meantime, by all means, enjoy our years of past content,
all of which still remain in the public and subscription areas.
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