Recommended Resources

Recommended Self-Development Centers & Organizations:

 

  • Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) (Phoenix, AZ): A private college and community-healing center for Holistic Healthcare careers and continuing education, dedicated to providing professional, affordable education for those interested in entering the healing arts profession, for those interested in continuing their education, as well as to those seeking personal and spiritual growth.
  • Esalen Institute (Big Sur, CA): A non-profit organization that has been devoted to the exploration of human potential since the 1960's. Residents and guests participate in an incredible variety of alternative education and personal growth programs in subjects ranging from meditation to massage, yoga, psychology, ecology, spirituality, art, music, and much more. Esalen Institute is renowned for its healing natural hot springs, and has long been recognized as a world leader in alternative and experiential education.
  • Omega Institute (based in Rhinebeck, New York; various national locations): A nonprofit organization that offers diverse and innovative educational experiences that inspire an integrated approach to personal and social change.

 

Recommended Movies (Wellness):

 

  • The Secret: The Secret explains, with simplicity, the law that is governing all lives, and offers the knowledge of how to create - intentionally and effortlessly - a joyful life.
  • The Moses Code: Focusing on the power of "soul manifestation," The Moses Code draws upon our own innate spiritual power to produce miracles everywhere we go. It goes beyond the worldly goods we think we need and shows us how to instead "give" from the soul, automatically attracting spiritual blessings to us. Available on Amazon.com.

 

Recommended Movies (Sexuality and Gender):

 

  • Short Bus: American comedy-drama film about a sexually diverse ensemble of colorful characters trying desperately to connect in New York City. The characters converge in a weekly Brooklyn artistic/sexual salon loosely inspired by various underground NYC gatherings that took place in the early 2000's. The film attempts to "employ sex in new cinematic ways", and it includes a variety of explicit scenes containing non-simulated sexual intercourse with visible penetration and male ejaculation.
  • Young People Fucking (Y.P.F.): A Canadian romantic comedy that intertwines the stories of four different couples and one threesome over the course of one sexual encounter, with specific chapters for each one: prelude, foreplay, sex, interlude, orgasm and afterglow. Available on Amazon.com.
  • Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Girls in Love: An adventurous love story between two young women of different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves going through all the typical struggles of a new romance. Available on Amazon.com.
  • Red Shoe Diaries: An erotic drama, soft-core porn series that aired on Showtime from 1992 to 1997. The story-lines usually have a thin plot revolving around some intrigue and the sexual awakening of a girl or woman who often also narrates. Sensuous love scenes with nudity as well as sultry, moody music are characteristic for most episodes. Some episodes are available to watch on hulu.com and on Amazon.com; others can be purchased on DVD.
  • Two Spirits: A documentary that interweaves the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son with a revealing look at a time when the world wasn’t simply divided into male and female and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of integrated genders.
  • Inside Deep Throat: An American documentary about the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat and its effects on American society. Available on Amazon.com.
  • Gen Silent: A documentary that asks six LGBT seniors if they will hide their friends, their spouses, and their entire lives in order to survive in the care system. Their surprising decisions are captured through intimate access to their day-to-day lives over the course of a year.  It puts a face on what experts in the film call an epidemic:  gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender older people so afraid of discrimination by caregivers or bullying by other seniors that many simply go back into the closet.

 

Recommended Books & Authors (Sexuality and Gender):

 

  • Boy Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities: Offers perspectives from the fields of anthropology and history, along with extensive evidence from ethnographic and literary sources. The essays explore such topics as woman-woman marriages, early reports of Malagasy "berdaches," male homosexuality in contemporary West Africa, alternative gender identities among the Swahili, the regulation of sexuality in colonial Zimbabwe, and the portrayals of homosexuality in modern African literature.
  • 8 Erotic Nights: The seductive activities within each of the eight nights show you and your partner how to use erotic conversations, sensual breathing and kissing, seductive massage, and more to understand and fulfill each other’s sexual needs and desires.
  • Mating in Captivity: A provocative look into the waning of sexual desire that often plagues couples in long-tern relationships. Fitting for the professional, the book is an important source of information for the lay consumer wishing to add passion into his/her relationship. It is full of provocative prose and entertaining case illustrations.
  • Return of Desire: This book fearlessly confronts head-on the profit-driven medicalization of women's sexuality, employing a unique holistic, positive approach to better understand the rich complexity of desire and sex.

 

 

Recommended Books & Authors (Wellness):

*These are books that I have read, loved, and keep on my personal bookshelf

 

  • The Awakening Course, by Joe Vitale: Provides a step-by-step approach for finding and achieving your goals and desires, and shows how you can reach these goals while pursuing complete mind, body, and spiritual transformation.
  • Molecules of Emotion, by Candace Pert: Establishes the biomolecular basis for our emotions and explains these new scientific developments in a clear and accessible way, which empowers us to understand ourselves, our feelings, and the connection between our minds and our bodies in ways we could never possibly have imagined before.

 

Recommended Websites (Kink/Leather/BDSM):

 

  • Fet Life: A free social network for the BDSM & fetish community.

 

Recommended Websites (Sexuality):

 

 

Recommended Blogs:

 

Recommended Online Retailers:

 

Recommended Podcasts:

 

  • Erotic Awakening: An informative and entertaining exploration of all things erotic. From sacred sexuality to fetishes, Power Exchange and polyamoary, BDSM to erotic spirituality, non standard relationships to alternative love styles, as well as simply fun kink.
     

Recommended Sexologists, by location:

 

  • Reece Malone (Winnipeg, Canada)
  • Tory Clark (Reno, Nevada): Dr. Tory Clark seeks to provide a sex-positive space for her clients  where she helps guide them toward discovery and resolution of their sexual concerns.

 

Recommended Articles:

 

Recommended Kinky/Leather/BDSM Events:

 

  • Southwest Leather Conference (Phoenix, AZ; annually in January): With its emphasis on education and the interpersonal and spiritual dynamics of D/s relationships and SM practices, SWLC provides its attendees with opportunities for a profoundly deeper experience of BDSM, irrespective of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, nationality, or religious/spiritual affiliation. SWLC also provides a vehicle for regional leather clubs, organizations and individuals to gather and celebrate the leather tribe of which we are all a part.
  • Thunder in the Mountains (Denver, CO; annually in July): A national, pansexual BDSM conference.
  • Desire - Leather Women Unleashed (Palm Springs, CA; annually in June): A unique weekend for leather and kinky women which provides the opportunity for women to celebrate their sexuality and kink freely. It is an educational weekend committed to providing outstanding learning opportunities and experiences for all — from novices to advanced players.