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Women
of the night—women of the light: Who is she today? Without a continuing lineage, without a temple, the contemporary sexual initiator/healer/teacher has many faces. Today she is The
Sex Surrogate Nine women share their work, their lives, and their insights. Their personally written stories in this book bring us to a deeper understanding of our sexuality and our humanity. | |||||||||||
| Dr. Eleanor Hamilton "Surrogates and Prostitutes; Sexual Saints Or Sinners?" An old friend of mine, Ken Ray Stubbs, PhD. has conceived and edited a remarkable book about the profoundly moving experiences of nine living women who are, as he calls them "the New Sacred Prostitutes." His 1994 book, "Women of the Light," (published by Secret Garden) is an extraordinary illumination of what motivates such women and of the services they provide. Ray has aptly named them "sacred," for these women in telling their own stories create the feeling that not only would the lives of their clients have been diminished without them, so would the social heritage of all of us. Ray is careful to point out the difference between the woman of the street, whose primary object is to earn as much money as they can, and those women who use their own bodies to enrich their client's concept of loving and being loved. In his forward, Ray writes, "These pathfinders represent both what we have been and what we can become, sexually and spiritually. Each has risked and stepped outside the common culture and found a more meaningful path that others might also explore. "Touch, the body, the sensual, the sexual, the spiritual--these are the common themes throughout all the chapters, for these temple priestesses are embodiments of profound teachings. Beyond these themes, the stories present a wide spectrum of human sexual experiences. Their sexual lives are far from the ordinary. To the extent that we have repressed our sexual feelings and expressions, we may find reading about these lifestyles to be challenging... "My hope is that these personal accounts will open doors of understanding. These women of the light have chosen a different path than most and have discovered a wisdom available to us all. Their lives, if we are willing, can shed light on our own." Along with the stories, Ray has given us a quick picture of how society over the centuries has treated its "women of the light." From the days of the temple priestesses, through the chilling murder of "witches," to today's highly trained, but barely tolerated, sex surrogates, it is a history that can make us shudder. There is probably nothing so calculated to bring out the best and the worst in human beings as the acceptance or rejection of the sexual side of our nature. Over and over, patients have told me--and I know it from my own life experience--that at the moment of orgasm, we feel at one with what we think of as God. We also feel at one with ourselves and another human being. There is probably no experience in which the physical mates with the spiritual with more positive results. But when people have been made afraid of their sexual nature by those who would control them, something else very sad happens. Fear leads to suppressed anger and hate. Soon a force for good is converted into something evil. We have all been the victims to some degree of that conversion. In fact, the current political and social atmosphere of encouraging sexual repression is creating its share of victims. As a result, a book like Ray's
is all the more valuable, for it provokes us to take a second look at those teachers
of sex he describes. We may not choose their path, but we cannot help but open
our eyes to the ills that they have set out to alleviate. Nor can we fail to appreciate
the kinds of healing going on at their hands.  The
Journal of Sex Research These life stories are profound teachings and will confront and enlighten the readerÉ Typical images of the prostitute include the women of the street and the drug-addicted victims of oppressive economics. The Women of the Light clearly do not fit this stereotype. These sexually affirming stories sharply contrast with the repressive fundamentalist view widely held in our society. These authors view sex and sexual expression as a choice, as a right, and as consensualÉ The life stories of these women will force you to think of the many women and men who are keeping our sexual expression free, honest, and positiveÉ The writing is straightforward and understandable. There is a refreshing lack of jargon and righteousness. It is difficult to find the unpretentious middle ground between the extremes of scientific writing and spiritual writing that these authors have achieved. The Women of the Light show that sexuality arises from a spiritual center, and their stories light the path for the journey. February 15, 1995 This is a truly radical book, one that documents living women bringing together spirituality and sexuality in surprising and moving ways. It will, unquestionably, disturb those who wish to believe that spirituality can be expressed only incorporeally, but those who do find embodiment a spiritual condition will be challenged and excited by the stories in it, such as that of a nurse who helped a quadriplegic man to transcend his paralysis and experience his firstÑand onlyÑorgasm and later attended his death, leading him through a similar release. Others who tell their storiesÑa masseuse, a sex surrogate, a call girlÑare, to the conventionally minded, hardly spiritual leaders, but they and the other storytellers consciously regard sexuality as metaphysical as well as physical. A possibly controversial book for some libraries, but good enough to risk a hubbub. Whole Earth Review
This fascinating and highly readable book makes the convincing case that sex work (that rather euphemistic job category covering everyone from strippers and call girls to sex surrogates and full-service masseuses) can be a source of sexual healing, psychological growth, and spiritual awareness. If this seems like an unlikely proposition, I simply urge you to read Women of the Light and think again. The
nine women who tell their stories recount numerous touching incidents (including
that of a nurse who risks her career by helping a quadriplegic man to have an
orgasm). Entering into temporary intimate encounters, while keeping the full humanity
of themselves and their clients intact, these women embody the ancient role of
the sacred prostitute, harking back to early Goddess worship, when sex was part
of religious observance.
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