Long-term practitioners of Orgasmic Meditation show unique brain activity patterns

A new study published in Frontiers in Neuroimaging has found that long-term practitioners of Orgasmic Meditation (OM)—a partnered mindfulness practice involving sexual stimulation—show lower brain metabolism at rest compared to non-meditators. The research highlights differences in specific brain regions linked to emotional processing, attention, and sensory awareness. Notably, women in the OM group exhibited particularly reduced activity in the thalamus and insula, areas closely associated with sensory and emotional integration.

Meditation practices have been extensively studied for their effects on the brain. Previous research has shown that long-term meditation can alter both brain structure and function, influencing emotional regulation, attention, and cognitive processes. However, most studies focus on traditional forms of meditation like mindfulness or transcendental meditation. Orgasmic Meditation (OM) offers a unique opportunity to explore how a mindfulness technique centered on bodily sensations affects the brain over time.

“I have had a long interest and career in studying various religious and spiritual (R/S) practices and experiences. This arose initially out of an early interest in understanding the nature of reality and why there are different belief systems,” said study author Andrew Newberg, a professor of integrative medicine and nutritional sciences at Thomas Jefferson University.

“Over the past 30 years, I have studied many different types of R/S beliefs, practices, and experiences. This has included an ongoing program of research evaluating many different traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. In addition, much of my early work focused on the nature of rituals and the brain as an entry into the study of R/S practices,” Newberg explained.

“We recognized the power of rituals in R/S as well as many other aspects of human life (e.g., politics, education, sports, etc.),” he continued. “My late colleague, Dr. Eugene d’Aquili, and I were particularly interested in the evolution of rituals in the brain. In particular, we noted that human rituals would likely have evolved from animal rituals. But all animal rituals are mating rituals. Thus, there was most likely a connection between mating and sexuality, and various human rituals.

“But the specific study of this would have to wait until the current research, in which we were able to study a practice that incorporates sexual stimulation as the focus of a spiritual practice. My hope was that this would help to demonstrate the link between sexuality and spirituality, a topic I address directly and more fully in my most recent book, Sex, God, and the Brain.”

The research team recruited 40 experienced OM practitioners—20 men and 20 women—who had been practicing regularly for over a year (2–3 sessions per week). For comparison, a control group of 19 healthy individuals with no history of meditation was included.

To measure brain activity, researchers used 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), a neuroimaging technique that tracks glucose metabolism in the brain. Higher glucose metabolism generally indicates increased brain activity, while lower metabolism reflects reduced activity. Importantly, all participants underwent brain scans while at rest, meaning they were not engaged in meditation or any specific task during imaging.

The researchers found that OM practitioners exhibited lower activity in several brain regions while at rest. These regions include the frontal lobes, which are associated with attention, planning, and higher-order thinking; the temporal lobes, important for memory and sensory processing; and the parietal lobes, which play a role in self-awareness and spatial orientation. Additionally, lower metabolism was observed in the anterior cingulate cortex, which helps regulate emotions and cognitive control, and the thalamus and insula, two areas critical for sensory and emotional integration.

“This study showed that people doing this practice over long periods of time alter the baseline function of their brain,” Newberg told PsyPost. “We have observed this with other practices and it implies that there are long term changes in the brain.”

While traditional forms of meditation, such as focused attention practices, often show increased activity in areas related to cognitive control and focus, OM appears to produce a distinct effect that reduces activity in regions linked to sensory awareness, emotional responses, and self-referential thinking. This pattern aligns with OM practitioners’ subjective experiences of deep relaxation, calmness, and heightened emotional awareness during and after the practice.

“While we found many changes we expected, we never know exactly what we will find,” Newberg said. “We found changes in many of the brain areas during this practice that combines sexuality and meditation—changes we have also found in other practices. There were also powerful changes in the autonomic nervous system that show how the brain and body are connected. This is also how rituals work to evoke a strong experience not only in the mind but in the body as well.”

The researchers also observed gender-specific differences in brain activity among OM practitioners. Women demonstrated lower metabolism in the thalamus and insula, regions that are central to integrating sensory input and emotional responses. This finding is particularly interesting because the thalamus and insula have also been linked to sexual arousal and climax. The changes seen in female practitioners may reflect the unique combination of sensory stimulation and meditative focus that defines the OM practice.

In contrast, men showed reduced brain activity in areas like the cerebellum, cingulate gyrus, and regions of the temporal lobe. The cerebellum’s involvement may be linked to the coordination required for the physical aspect of providing stimulation in the OM practice, while the cingulate and temporal regions are associated with emotional regulation, social processing, and memory. These distinctions between men and women suggest that OM impacts the brain differently based on the roles participants play during the practice—those receiving sensory input versus those providing it.

Despite its intriguing findings, the study has some limitations. First, the sample size was relatively small, which may limit the generalizability of the results. Future research with larger groups could help confirm these findings. Additionally, the study relied on self-reported information about participants’ OM experience, such as practice frequency and duration, which introduces the potential for recall bias or inaccuracies.

The correlational nature of the data also prevents conclusions about causality, meaning it is unclear whether OM practice directly caused the observed brain changes or if other factors contributed. It would also be valuable to investigate whether the observed changes in brain activity correlate with specific psychological or health benefits reported by OM practitioners, such as improved emotional well-being or stress reduction.

Looking ahead, Newberg and his team hope to continue studying a wide range of religious and spiritual practices. “We hope to more deeply understand how R/S affects us as individuals. There are implications on many levels, including health-related effects. For example, we can observe how such practices may reduce stress, anxiety, or depression. We can infer how the brain works as a complex network that supports various experiences we have about the world. And ultimately, there may be implications in terms of how we experience reality during various mental states, including mystical states.”

The study, “Neuroimaging evaluation of the long term impact of a novel paired meditation practice on brain function,” was authored by Andrew B. Newberg, Nancy A. Wintering, Chloe Hriso, Faezeh Vedaei, Sara Gottfried, and Reneita Ross.