ƂUᴉLᴉƎƆ ƎꞍꞱ UO ƂUᴉɅᴉL

I practiced sensual full-body massage for almost 20 years, here in Toronto. Shortly after I came out at 45, I did a weekend workshop with the Body Electric School of Massage and Erotic Touch out of Oakland Calif. I felt it would help me discover myself as a newbie gay man. The experience was an epiphany for me. It’s not hyperbole to say that it changed my life. I had no idea that I could engage with men -with life, on such a different plane. After a few years of extensive reading and research and connecting with other men on the same path, I made the jump to providing this experience for other men and imbued this ritual with the spiritual gravitas that it deserved. I really wanted to share what I had learned with those men who so often seemed confused, ashamed and broken, as I had been. I think I enjoyed giving the massage as much as those men did receiving it. It showed in their eyes -and in the fact that most of the men returned again and again. They would often sit and talk about how they had a different sense of themselves and their relationships with others. We discussed the need to understand that our bodies belong to the universe and touch will help us to access that esoteric knowledge. For me, it was such a rewarding experience seeing their personal growth in real time and just knowing that I was able to help others on such a profound level. – Leo

Hey Leo, thanks for that sharing. Speaks clearly to me of the universe that I inhabit. Touch with another man, a man who is able to reciprocate as beautifully as I give myself to the meeting, to him, is profoundly connected, through our bodies, through our intimacy to a more expanding sense of living, of being. I long for spaces where I can show up as I am, naked, aroused, in joy, in connection. May it be so. – Amar Rama