by William Dean
(01/29/03)
It was a wonderful thing, a beautiful dream, a cyber time and place
where people from around the world could come together, literally.
But now, it seems, it's over. What was a focus for believers in
tantra, sex magick, and just plain universal climax has closed its
site. This is how it began. This is how it was. This is how it
ended.
Imagine you're with your lover. In a sex club in Amsterdam. As
you engage in your various loving acts, you hear, through the thin
cubicle walls, the sounds of other lovers -- some speaking languages
you can't even understand. But you don't really need a translator.
The moans, the cries, the urging whispers all convey the general,
if not specific, event of the moment: orgasm. At that moment, what
wondrous inspirational thought courses through your mind?
Well, if you were John Halcyon Styn, it would be that everyone
ought to share that powerful moment of orgasm. Yes,
everyone. Simultaneously if possible. And globally. For that
was the origin -- only a couple of years ago -- of Globalgasm.com.
Some six and a quarter billion people share our whirling, orbiting
planet. What if all of them came at the same time? Would the world
suddenly shudder, gasp for breath, and yearn for that post-orgasmic
cuddle? That was the hope, the belief perhaps, of the participants in
a monthly digital orgy that was the brainchild of Halcyon Styn.
Maybe you heard Jay Leno mention it on The Tonight Show. Or you may
have seen him a while back on MTV. Globalgasm was featured in a
seven-minute segment in a documentary titled: "Sex2K: Naked on the
Web." While reviews of the segment are mixed, those of the regular
participants of Globalgasms are not.
Jenn Ramsey, host of her own Web site, HiddenSelf.com, is an avid
advocate. "I've spent the last four years of my life helping people
become more comfortable with their sexuality through my site," she
says. "I've never heard of a tool as successful as Globalgasm to get
people to embrace their sexuality. What a wonderful idea -- a monthly
holiday, where across the world, people could bring themselves and
their partners to the ultimate of bodily expressions, and know and
share that there were hundreds of others throughout the world
doing the same."
So, what was it like to hook up -- through modem, Webcam, and chat
programs -- and get off in the cyber presence of your fellow worldwide
orgasmers?
Most people reported that, at first, they were a little shy,
spooked even, but once they'd done the deed, they felt liberated, in
tune with their sexuality in ways mere "behind-closed-doors" folks
cannot comprehend.
Jenn Ramsey explains -- "I had a lot of trouble adjusting to having
sex, or even masturbating, on cam. I'm such a sexual person that it
hurt me to the core to be uncomfortable with my sexuality in any
sense, but the cameras stretched my boundaries to places I didn't
know they could go."
"Fundamentally, I wanted to participate. It was hard for me to find
the compromise between my desire to support the cause and doing so on
cam."
"John (Halcyon Styn), my roommate at the time and one of the
founders of Globalgasm, always stressed to me that Globalgasm was not
a show, but a sharing of positive energy. The first few months I lived
in a Webcam house/art experiment called TheRealhouse.com, I found
something else to do out of the house in order to leave them and their
energy-focusing be. Then, finally, I managed to participate for the
first time, by myself, with wine in one hand and my favorite vibe in
the other (and under 3 sets of blankets). Progress, right?"
So everybody wasn't just fucking. Some were soloists; some were in
groups. Some used toys; some had partners. Some did it in the
shower; some in fetish costumes. One married couple did it on
separate floors of their house. The important thing is that everyone
was "doing it."
The rush of orgasming in conjunction with so many people can be a
powerful and uniting feeling. Jenn Ramsey continues: "Through all
this, what struck me was how the participants were truly understanding
that this was, like Burning Man, a participatory, not a spectator,
event. After a few months of celebrating, I could start to feel the
energy fill the house. I'd hear orgasms from the different rooms echo
through the house and through my spirit. It sounds hokey, I know, but
it was hard to deny."
"The world," said Halcyon Styn, "needs an injection of focused,
positive, sexual energy. If we all do it at the same time, we can
build off each other and elevate the vibe to an earth-shattering
level."
Since the advent of Webcam-based interactive chat programs, the
determined surfer can find someone somewhere engaging in on-cam sex of
some variety or other. And it's not just the pay-per-view Web sites
offering "peek-a-boo." Amateur solitary strokers abound, but recently
couples, too, have joined in the coming trend. Practitioners claim it
enhances the act, adds spice, and allows them to share their sexual
lives with other like-minded folk.
What made Globalgasm different was the organization and scheduling.
Participants shared their sexual pleasures every first of every month.
Another thing which separated Globalgasmers from the run-of-the-modem
on-cam exhibitionists was their "no peekers" rule. You couldn't just
watch, you had to come along, too. One further difference was that
the majority of Globalgasmers had their Webcams broadcasting not their
writhing genitalia, but their faces. That's where the expressiveness
of powerful mutual global orgasming was most apparent.
A few hundred people joined together online on the first of every
month, but hundreds more around the world participated
simultaneously, and then posted their messages of communal orgasm to
the message board.
Devotees of tantric sex practices, sex magick believers, post-1960s
hippies, and those tuned in to the spiritual aspects of sex are using
the new hi-tech medium to help channel their energies toward making
our lives on the planet richer, more fulfilling. Globalgasm was their
signpost, their rallying point, one shining apex.
Jenn Ramsey admits: "I was shocked and thrilled at how much people
were willing to share, and how well most people handled the
openness. Friends of mine who weren't comfortable on their Webcams
would broadcast audio of their celebrations. Others would just log in
before, and then add 'Gasmed' at the end of their online name
after. Knowing so many people were involved, in whatever way they were
comfortable, was a truly amazing experience."
Globalgasm took a hiatus for the last two months of 2002, promising
to return on February 1st. But after attending some conventions in
Las Vegas, Halycyon Styn decided it was time to move on. He closed
down Globalgasm.com, and left a somewhat cryptic message on his
previous personal Web site, cockybastard.com. He decided to shed the
signature sexy pink, furry pants, to end the "come together" project,
and to start out on another leg of his life exploration. We can wish
him luck, surely, but, sadly, with a bitter taste of nostalgia for the
Globalgasm that, for two years, let us all come along, too.
