In The Atrocity Exhibition] Traven explores what most people would regard as pretty frightening pornographic imagery; he explores with the kind of eye of a forensic pathologist. He treats sexual desire as if it was something stretched out on an autopsy table; he takes a woman’s body and dismantles it – not literally, but almost literally – and constructs a kit which is literally that. I mean inside of a suitcase, as you show in the film, there is a set of the key elements that we respond to when we become sexually aroused – a pair of latex breasts, nipples, detachable pubic hair…

Eroto-comatose lucidity is a technique of sex magick known best by its formulation by English author and occultist Aleister Crowley, but which has several variations and is used in a number of ways by different spiritual communities. A common form of the ritual uses repeated sexual stimulation (but not to orgasm) to place the individual in a state between full sleep and full wakefulness as well as exhaustion, allowing the practitioner to commune with God.

The ritual as described by Crowley involves one "ritualist-seer" and several aides. Donald Michael Kraig advises that the more sexually experienced the aides are, the better the ritual works, and that the aides be members of the opposite sex. Religious scholar Hugh B. Urban, however, concludes that, for Crowley, aides of the same gender as the ritualist (e.g., homosexual activity) was the highest stage of practice of this ritual.

In the first part of the ritual, the aides seek to both exhaust the ritualist sexually as well as repeatedly sexually arousing the ritualist. The ritualist is generally passive in this regard. There is disagreement over whether sexual arousal is enough, or sexual orgasm must be eventually accomplished. Crowley and others argue that orgasm must be avoided. Although other practitioners conclude that orgasm does not need to be avoided, that was how Crowley originally formulated the ritual. Most practitioners agree with Crowley that every means of arousal may be used, such as physical stimulation, genital stimulation, psychological stimulation, devices (such as sex toys), or drugs (like hashish, marijuana, or other aphrodisiacs). There should be enough aides so that if one aide tires another may take his or her place. Eventually, the ritualist will tend to sink into sleep due to exhaustion.

In the second part of the ritual, the aides seek to come close to awakening the ritualist through sexual stimulation alone. The goal is not to fully awaken her or him, but rather to bring them to the brink of wakefulness...

This rosewood bed, encrusted with silver and the figures made of bronze, was created for Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan Abbasi V of Bahawalpur in 1883. The four figures at the corners represent women of France, Spain, Italy and Greece. With clever mechanisms, the statues were able to wink and wave fans and fly whisks... [T]he bed was fitted with a music box that played a thirty minute interlude from Gounod's Faust, activated by a button...

World's Strongest Vagina
Meet Tatiata Kozhevnikova, the 42-year-old Russian woman with the world's strongest vagina. No, seriously, she broke records to attain that title. Incredibly enough, she lifted 14 kilograms worth of weights-- almost 31 pounds-- to achieve such notoriety. She has been exercising her intimate muscles for fifteen years, and has already made her entrance into the Guinness Book of Records as the possessor of the world's strongest vagina. “After I had a child, my intimate muscles got unbelievably weak. I read books on Dao and learned that ancient women used to deal with this problem using wooden balls,” she said....

Twenty-six local, national, and internationally-based designers and artists
give a two-minute ode to an alphabet letter or typographic character.