The Lover Within: Opening to Energy in Sexual Practice

by Julie Henderson

Book Overview

A pioneering and revolutionary work on emotion, intimacy and sexuality. Seventy six practical exercises (alone or with a partner) to explore your erotic, emotional, and physical energies and increase the sensitivity, intensity, and joy of awareness in your relationship to self and others. The Lover Within raises sexuality to another level.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0882680498
• ISBN13: 9780882680491
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Station Hill Press
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Nothing Else Like It

If you are working with your body, your consciousness, your awareness, your energy levels, or all of the above...you are in the right place. This is the book that takes concepts and practices buried in traditional obscurity and makes them clear. Couldn't recommend this book too highly. It is changing my life and feels like a fountain I've been searching for - for a long time.

Excellent for people doing psychotherapy and related work

I bought this book for a friend who has an enormous libido, but secretly I knew it was about using the breath for a variety of purposes and definitely not just sex. I have been just skimming the book every once in a while for many years, actually. It's not so much a how-to book than a basis for using your breath/energy/chi/whatever you want to call it. This means it can help you tune in to clients if you're a therapist, coach, etc. You need to use the breath in martial arts, esp. tai chi. Helps in meditation, of course. And is helpful if you're going through something difficult or complex or contemplative. Short book, easy to read, very deep!

manual for working with sexual energy

This book is an excellent how-to manual for working with your sexual energy. It might alter both how you think about love and sex and what you do in intimate practice. The focus is on neither manipulative technique nor personal history but on the process of energy itself. It provides exercises to be experienced alone or with a partner and offers instruction on how to move, collect, heighten, and share energy.

A Great Source of Wise Kindness and Kind Wisdom

It is worthwhile to read *The Lover Within.* It is even more worthwhile to try one, two... or even all 76 practical exercises. Dr. Hendersons' kind guidance will lead you from one to the next refining and ripening of energetic experience... The beauty of Julie Henderson's language and her unusual way of expressing herself take the reader gently on the path of exploring the powerful exercises she describes. The abundant reminders of what to pay attention to and how, and the sure touch of Dr. Henderson personal experiences tempt you to try out what she is writing about. *The Lover Within* calls for rereading, unexpectedly, as your experience ripens. Each time, each approach, is surprising and new - a rediscovery as much as a rereading.

OK, I'm sold...

I read this book with a skeptical eye. After all, so many people talk about "energy" but don't teach anything useful.Henderson seems to be the exception. Her very clear exercises teach about energy, how it interacts with the body, how it defines our boundaries, and how it permits us to merge with others or to maintain a space of our own.The book was so good I sought her out. I learned genuinely useful and compassionate energy work from her, and each lesson made me realize how much of her knowledge she has put in this book. This is American Tantra, taught by a woman who knows it.