What is the future of love on an imperiled planet? What's the global, cultural, emotional, spiritual, and body ecology of love? Will sex save the planet? What combination of 'free' love, polyamory, and imaginative styles of erotic expression will do the job of making peace with Gaia, our mother Earth?
The connection between sex and the environment has been on people's minds lately. As top-rated writer of conscious love Tinamarie Bernard has put it, "At first glance, sex and the environment don't make obvious bedfellows. How can the answer to our environmental problems . . . possibly be found in the satin sheets of lovers? According to a growing number of greenies, free love may just save the planet." We have only to look around us to see that this salvation hasn't happened yet. Why not? Is the whole idea of a politics of love just a flakey new age fantasy? Or have we not taken it far enough? Has the wisdom of love been forgotten, distorted, and misunderstood for so long we are only now starting to penetrate this mystery?
On July 3rd, three brilliant, passionate, and courageous avatars of polyamory will address the theory and practice of loving in freedom, consciousness, and compassion. We'll integrate the wisdom of our bodies, hearts, souls, and minds in guiding this fast moving experiential journey into love.
Dossie Easton, Deborah Anapol, and Serena Anderliniare all authors of groundbreaking books on polyamory. Their combined poly life experience totals well over 100 years! Each is an incredible teacher in her own right and by choosing to join forces they have co-created the most amazing context ever for sharing of wisdom of love. Don't miss this rare opportunity to stand on the shoulders of these pioneering leaders! From this vantage point we'll appreciate how your intimate, erotic life is instrumental in weaving the web of life we call Gaia.
If you are among the first 15 people to register, you will receive a complimentary copy of ONE of the following books at the event:
Dossie Easton. The Ethical Slut. Celestial Arts, 2009.
Deborah Taj Anapol. The Seven Natural Laws of Love. Elite Books, 2005.
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio. Gaia and the New Politics of Love. North Atlantic Books, 2009.
Interested in Work Trade/Press Pass/Fee Reduction? Contact:
Dossie dossie@dossieeaston.com until June 1st, Serena serena.anderlini@gmail.com after June 1st
See also www.lovewithoutlimits.com Bios
Deborah Taj Anapol, PhD, is a relationship coach who leads seminars on love, sex, and intimacy all over the country and around the world. She is the author of Polyamory: The New Love Without Limits, Compersion,The Seven Natural Laws of Love. Polyamory in the 21st Century (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010) will be available in July! Website: www.lovewithoutlimits.com. facebook fan page: Polyamory in the 21st Century. "Let jealousy be your teacher."
Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD, is a professor of humanities at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. She is the author of Eros: A Journey of Multiple Loves, and the editor of numerous collections. Her latest book, Gaia and the New Politics of Love is Silver Winner in Cosmology and New Science for the 2010 Nautilus Book Awards. She teaches courses, workshops, and seminars on the practice of love and the science of Gaia. She blogs at http://polyplanet.blogspot.com "A world where it is safe to love is a world where it is safe to live."
Dossie Easton is a licensed psychotherapist working with individuals, couples and moresomes in her private practice in San Francisco. She is co-author with Janet Hardy of The Ethical Slut, now in its second edition, and Radical Ecstasy, among others, and she lectures and leads workshops on polyamory and ecstatic spiritual practices at conferences and universities in the United States, Canada and Europe. Dossie has been an active sex radical since 1961. Website: www.dossieeaston.com."Each relationship will seek its own level like water if you let it."
A Gut Feeling: Anal Pleasure, Holistic Sexual Health, and Interpretations of AIDS
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio
Part # 4
“You were going to tell me all about Freud and anal pleasure” I said when G and I resumed the conversation.”
“That’s right,” she concurred. “You were wondering if he tried anal sex.”
“Did he?”
“I suppose he didn’t, not directly at least,” G replied. “At the time a man who enjoyed being penetrated would be considered mentally ill. So Freud would have lost his license and none of his writings would exist. But he might have experienced anal pleasure in sublimated form. “
“How?” I asked.
“Well, for example, if some of his female lovers liked it.”
“Do you know that some did?” I probed.
“To be honest, I don’t,” G replied, defensive. “But many took the hint from him.”
“For example?”
“My parents,” she said. “They were from the generation that heard about Freud’s writings when they were still forbidden. They grew up during Fascism, when many good books were off-limits. But people heard about them. Then, when Mussolini was defeated, they all rushed to read those forbidden books.”
“Forbidden books,” I commented.
“Right,” said G.
“Like yours,” I teased.
“Exactly. I am also the author of forbidden books. I take pride in it. It gets intelligent people to want to rush and read them. But that’s for another story,” said G, rhapsodic. “Let’s stay on topic now.”
“OK.”
“My parents read Freud and used to joke about anal pleasure in relation to bowel movements.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, when we were kids, we had a large bathroom with a wall-to-wall mirror. We all used it, and, as you know, no locks were allowed, so someone could be sitting on the toilet when one walked in.”
“Pushing?” I taunted.
“Yeah . . . pushing—sometimes,” she giggled. “We had a family joke about how one’s voice sounds squeezed if one talks while ‘doing it’.”
“Sure . . .” I considered, “you’ve told me about that peculiar clothing-optional family of yours.”
“Have I?” G asks, curious. She often gets confused about what she tells. One has to be a bit guarded with her kind of background, especially a foreigner.
“Yes you have. There were no locks on the bathroom doors and your mother was very beautiful--your father a bit more scrawny and skimpy. Why are you thinking about it this time?”
“If you caught my father while doing number two, he’d tell you what a pleasure it was to have a bowel movement. ‘Ah, what a relief,’ he’d say, and add a comment about how psychoanalysis approved of this--since Freud confirmed that anal pleasure was deeper and richer.”
“Was your father gay?” I teased.
“Not that I know of,” she giggled. “Besides,” she continued, eager, “let’s not define anal pleasure as gay, ok? It was common in the era among people who’d read Freud to be familiar with his theories about anal pleasure, and how feeling this pleasure was good for the rectum, even if just in the context of bowel movements.”
“Wouldn’t that inspire one to experience anal pleasure in sex?” I probed.
“Yes, but being receptive was not admissible for a man,” G replied, defensive, “and so one would sublimate that experience into proposing anal sex to one’s spouse.”
“Did your father do so?”
“I’m not sure. But my mother was more of a constipated type than he was, and off and on I’d hear him tell her things like, ‘oh, if you were less inhibited (sexually), you’d be less constipated too,’ meaning, ‘if you started to experience bowel movements as anal pleasure, you’d have more fun with them and maybe you’d let me play with your ass too, which might further help with your constipation.’”
“I see, so it was a bit self-interested,” I pondered.
“What do you mean?” G asked, defensive.
“Well, maybe your father was too inhibited to try anal sex as a penetrated partner, and wanted your mother to submit to him.”
“My mother would not submit,” G reacted, incensed. “She’d decide what to do. And he was only trying to propose something new to her.”
“Do you think she agreed? I mean, did she do it?” I insisted.
“I don’t know,” she replied, sad. “My mother didn’t live long enough to tell me. When she died of cancer I was only 13.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear,” I offered.
“It’s way back now. It really hurt me then. But I’ve healed. She was a very progressive woman. Told me everything about how babies are born. Even so, she would not have talked about anal sex with a child my age.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “And you don’t think your father’s comments were damaging to her?”
“Well, they might have been, if he insisted too much, or made fun of her,” she conceded. “But to be honest, I feel that was part of family banter, an in-joke if you will. At times she did complain about constipation and he only meant it for her to benefit too. “
“Perhaps she wanted to try out anal sex but constipation made her feel squeamish,” I offered.
“Exactly. A bit of a Catch 22. If you consider. She was 48. It was her colon--it betrayed her. That’s where the cancer grew. It killed her,” G concluded, confident.
“Ouch!”
“And over the years, as I was coping with the fear that I’d end up like her, I kept thinking of my father, the way he took pride in the anal pleasure of his bowel movements. After all, he was not constipated and he lived to be almost 80.”
“Ok. And how does this relate to you?” I asked, puzzled.
“Well, when my long-time boyfriend proposed anal sex, back in graduate school, I said yes. I was curious. We lived in California, the gay Mecca where ‘sodomy,’ the practice of anal sex, that had been so demonized back in the Middle Ages, was becoming the great rage--the thing to do.”
“Aha.”
“So I did it. I was afraid. I trusted him. He went slowly. He excited me properly so my system would gradually open up. And there I was. I realized why Freud called this the richest, the deepest pleasure there is. In fact, I felt sorry for my boyfriend who could not experience it.”
“No Carol Queen videos back then.”
“No.”
“No Tristan Taormino guides to anal pleasure.”
“No. This was in the early 1980s, before the outbreaks that came to be known as AIDS. I love Bend Over Boyfriend, and I’ve learned a lot from it. There were no sex-positive educational videos back then, only plain porn.”[1]
“Did this anal sex have a good effect on your rectal ecosystem?” I teased.
“Good question. I’m not sure,” G giggled. “The system worked quite well then: I was young and of course everything about good health seemed easy. But over the years, staying in good health became more difficult. It required more effort. And as I became more holistic, I started to relate to my ass as an erogenous area on a regular basis. I invited partners to stimulate it, and often did it myself. It was now an area where I regularly experienced pleasure. That helped me feel good about my gut and keep its elimination function active even when I had not yet found the right diet yet.”
“What kind of diet would that be?” I probed.
“Well, you know. I don’t use medicines, and so I rely on nutrition to regulate my health. My food is my medicine, and I stay tuned to the ecosystemic needs of my body. Now I do mostly raw foods, and also, often, liquid foods, including juice fasting periods to detox the system.”
“So, do you get an anal orgasm when you have a bowel movement?” I asked, curious.
“Uh?” Giggled G. “Not quite an orgasm, dear. But a sense of pleasure. And you?”
“Me too. I like to feel my gut active in its metabolic function. I feel connected to it. I integrate it in my holistic sexual health maintenance,” I offered.
“Good. And what about anal sex? Do you enjoy it too?”
“I do. But in moderation. And only when I’m very aroused in a natural way and with a lover who is very, very careful about me.”
“Right,” G approved, blissful.
“So, when you heard about AIDS Dissidence, did it ring a bell for you?” I asked.
“Of course it did, and I’ll tell you all about it in a few days.”
A Gut Feeling: Anal Pleasure, Holistic Sexual Health, and Interpretations of AIDS
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio
Part # 5
“We were talking about AIDS Dissidence and why it rang a bell for you when you first heard,” I said when G and I connected again.
“Of course it rang a bell,” G replied, convinced. “I didn’t jump to conclusions, though. Scientists of the highest reputation were now saying HIV was not a problem. I tend to respect research independent of pharmaceutical companies. But I would typically play it safe, just in case. What about you?”
“In many ways I did the same. I still rarely fluid bond. For one thing, not all lovers really inspire one to do so. Many have fluid-bonded partners of their own, and one would have to negotiate with them. Nonetheless, the ideas of the dissenters helped to keep my focus on the strength of my immune system,” I offered.
“Over the years, I’ve navigated the AIDS era as a sexually active bi woman with multiple partners and with a taste for the richness of anal pleasure. My immune system has maintained its function thoroughly thanks to the holistic health practices I chose more that two decades ago.”
“We’ve done well,” I concurred. The suddenly my mood changed. G must have felt it.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, perplexed.
“This seems all well and good--but I’m not sure I can go along with the political implications,” I replied, nervous.
“What do you mean?” G inquired, alarmed,
“Well, put yourself in the shoes of a gay man like Tony Lance, for example. Do you realize what it means for him to be ‘telling’ on his people? To spread the word to ‘straights’ that what gay men did in bed back then made them sick--not a bad bug?”
“Oh, I know what you mean. That’s how his first video begins. He explains how difficult it is to be a gay man, a ‘poz’ person, and a dissident--all at once. It gives you a community of ‘zero’ people, he says.”
“Right. Are your surprised?”
“No. Look at my poly friends. First the public humiliation by a poly gay man in a New York bookstore. [1] Then the book review that paints Sub-Saharan Africa as the abysmal land of promiscuity and infection, and falls short of blaming me for importing its bad bugs to pristine poly America.”[2]
“Right. See what I mean. And you’d think poly’s would know better.”
“Some do. Many people came to my rescue. And the concept was established that dissidence deserved to be called by its own name.”[3]
“All right. If you don’t mind.”
“It’s not that I don’t mind. It’s more that I know that new ideas meet with disagreement at first. There is a central paradigm and it has the power to keep itself in place. It won’t yield of its own accord. One has to push against it. And push. And push again. There’s a power imbalance here. Big interests are at stake. Politics. That’s why it’s called dissidence. And yet, it’s from disagreement that knowledge evolves.”
“So, does Lance disagree with everything allopathic medicine recommends?”
“He points to the paradoxes of current wisdom and to how the hypothesis of intestinal dysbiosis explains them. But he also admits that some of the treatments actually work.”
“For example?”
“Well, when you have dysbiosis, your gut becomes depleted of its natural flora that would help do its job. You lose your symbionts. These are replaced by fungi, known to cause trouble, as in Candidasis, which then can give you Pneumocystis. ”
“Ok.”
“In the allopathic interpretation, you take Anti-Retroviral Drugs to treat HIV with the protease inhibitors as active ingredients. It turns out, claims Lance, that protease inhibitors also attack fungi. So, in the holistic interpretation, that’s how ARVs help to alleviate the dysbiosis.”[4]
“Then the holistic interpretation does not rule out the presence of a virus altogether.”
“Right, that’s besides the point. It’s a matter of interpretation.”
“Turns out, if I understand you correctly, that intestinal dysbiosis can explain what we came to know as AIDS as a plague of the gay male population back in the 1980s with or without HIV, and it also explains why the current tests and treatments work for this group in some roundabout way.”
“Right. That shows how important it is to listen to those with a different explanation. Imagine that by some strange twist of fate intestinal dysbiosis turns out to be the correct interpretation, don’t you think we better know?” Asked G, passionate.
“Of course. I bet that’s why Lance went forward, exposed himself.”
“Consider, he is vibrant with health after 13 years: a role model --a beacon for others ‘poz’ people also seeking to heal themselves from AIDS in a holistic way.”
“But I was getting at something different. Health is also made of physical freedom, freedom to love, to fall in love, to express oneself erotically. And if you become a dissident--if you embrace this cause--you immediately become profiled as a sexual offender even if you are celibate.” I observed. “It’s a very difficult to be in if you’re a sexual healer or educator--if you practice or advocate some alternative style of love or are part of a sexual minority.”
“Tell me about it. The flack I got from the Loving More board. They basically profiled me as profligate even though they know I exercise a lot of restraint. They did it because they’re afraid.”
“I know, G, but that’s not comparable to what a ‘poz’ gay man who embraces dissidence can face.”
“I’m not sure what you mean. Can you explain?” G asked.
A Gut Feeling: Anal Pleasure, Holistic Sexual Health, and Interpretations of AIDS
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio
Part # 6
“We were talking about the legal threats a ‘poz’ gay man faces as a dissident,” G remembered as son as we connected again.
“Yes.”
“What about them?” she asked.
“Well, as a result of the allopathic hypothesis about AIDS, statutes that regulate the sexual behavior of ‘poz’ persons are now in place in a number of states.”
“I’ve heard. That’s the basis for the Darren Chiacchia case, correct?[1]
“Correct,” I concurred.
“Do you have more details?” G asked.
“Well, suppose you’re ‘poz’ and you start going out with someone who’s not. You tell them. They agree to have unprotected sex with you. Then they change their mind and go to the police to accuse you of attempting murder. They have the right to do so, based on the law.”
“I suppose if you’re ‘poz’ you better use protection or have sex with other ‘poz’ persons,” G offered.
“And most of the time that’s what happens, I hear. It’s called ‘sero sorting’,”[2] I concurred.
“All right.”
“But then now, with Tony Lance, the new theory is that lubes can further dry out your mucous and make your dysbiosis worse.”
“Well, he does advise caution about that. Does not talk about condoms. And he is right I believe, since that’s an interpersonal, case-by-case decision to be made.”
“What do you mean? Can’t you see that he can be accused of promoting reckless behavior for his own benefit?”
“All dissidents are vulnerable to that.”
“But can you see that as a gay man who at least at some point has tested positive, his whole theory can be constructed as a self-serving ploy,” I probed.
“Sure. That’s why I think he is so brave. If his interpretation acquires credibility in sex-positive, liberal, holistic circles, then some fundamentalists will try to discredit it as a seductive ploy. But is that really credible? The article cites some 75 references. It’s sound research. Just thinking about it as mere perversion is perverse.”
“Still, I can’t really see how the transition between interpretations can happen without causing problems,” I commented.
“Of course. Shall we leave that for next phone call?”
A Gut Feeling: Anal Pleasure, Holistic Sexual Health, and Interpretations of AIDS
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio
Part # 7
“We were talking about the transition between interpretations, correct?” G asked as we connected again.
“We were,” I said. “Have you thought about it?”
“Yes. It’s part of switching to the holistic health paradigm. The allopathic paradigm is based on what’s called patriarchy in feminism. It’s a way to interpret health as war against disease. It translates as ‘barrier’ when it comes to sexual health, as in ‘do as much ‘war’ on my body as I am willing to say yes to, and barriers will protect the ecosystem that’s me.’ The holistic paradigm is based on connectedness. It creates health by respecting life, by treating its ecosystems as part of the feminine divine. It translates as fluidity when it comes to sexual health. Understanding the flow of life and using pleasure to enhance it.”
“But how do you navigate the transition in a way that is safe?” I probed.
“Good question. I guess it depends on where you’re at when you start the journey. Lance talks about proportion. He never says that using a condom in a one-night stand will kill you. In fact, I bet he’d agree that barriers are quite appropriate for those occasions. But when it comes to healing from AIDS, when it comes to finding one’s own balance between pleasure and health, the emphasis really is on proportion. Being conscious, feeling connected to one’s body and its ecosystems, practicing that connection in ways that bring together the erotic and the sacred, that minister pleasure to the body as they generate health. “
“Right, but suppose you’re a gay man who is positive and has AIDS. How do you get from point A to point B without being criminalized or thrown in jail?”
“Good question again my friend. I guess you’d need a lot of good luck and patience. But suppose you focus on getting proportion. Then there is the leaky mucous, remember? The impurities in your blood that get you to test ‘poz’ in the first place. Keep looking at it from a holistic perspective. Suppose you’ve tested positive because you’ve got a mild case of intestinal dysbiosis. You can practice abstinence or protection with moderate amounts of sex until you get better. Then you may test again, and maybe it will be negative. Another option is becoming active in the AIDS dissidence movement, meet others who are healing themselves from intestinal dysbiosis and no longer have AIDS. Lance was one of them.”
“Right, that’s if you’re lucky and very determined. It could also happen that you get profiled as a sex offender, lose your job, lose your home, and end up in jail.”
“I know. And if you’re already, for some reason, subject to being profiled in a negative way, like say as part of a minority that’s considered hyper-sexed, that makes it even worse.”
“Like, for example, if you’re black, or Latino, or bi , or poly, or all of the above?” I asked.
“Exactly! But wait a minute, are you implying that this is Tony Lance’s fault? That the problems you’re describing are a result of his research?”
“No. But the severity of these problems is, I think, what makes all LGBT institutions react so negatively when they hear about AIDS dissidence. They’re afraid.”
“I know. It’s sad.” G reflected, somber.
“Besides, consider this. Experiencing anal pleasure in moderation, practicing holistic sexual health: those are wonderful ideas. But who will truly understand them? The minute some fundamentalist sect hears about them, they’ll be upon us. They’ll will simply turn the whole concept around and claim that science found out that anal sex is bad, that it’s the true cause of AIDS, and will use this to claim that those who have it only deserve what they got.”
“I have no doubts that some people will hear that, unfortunately. Not everybody on Earth can be sex-positive. But consider the situation we have today. Suppose Tony Lance is right. Suppose intestinal dysbiosis is really what causes AIDS, not a virus. Then everyone can heal from it, and continue to practice anal sex proportionally to the time and energy they have for this to happen naturally and in a holistic way.”
“That would be nice,” I offered.
“Right,” G approves. And she continues: “Then people will understand that love is an art that can be practiced in many different ways, that there are many styles of pleasure and it’s good to learn about all of them. People will learn to integrate the arts of loving with the arts of healing themselves. The entire human species will become more holistic, healthier, and happier. Don’t you think that the hope for such a world is worth the effort of facing the hostility of those who are sex-positive in principle, and cannot see the light of this vision yet?”
“Oh well G,” I responded, “you always get so wrapped up in your utopias. You’re incorrigible. I’m not sure all that can happen. But I’ll admit that if Tony Lance is right, if AIDS turns out to be just a bad case of intestinal dysbiosis that can be cured with proper nutrition and respect for one’s rectum, then the world will be much better off than it is today.”
“Oh, great! I’m so glad you can see that,” G exclaimed.
“For one thing,” I continued, “people will stop being afraid of one another. They’ll lose the fear of their own desire for closeness, for intimacy, that now so often turns into repression and hatred. More people will become proactive about being happy and loving and healthy. They will overcome their dependence on products that can mechanically generate those states. This will lower the cost of health care and free us of the twin tyranny of the pharmaceutical industry and medical profession. It will pave the way for affordable and organic universal health care. And it may even afford people more free time and vacation to enjoy amorous company, healthy sex, and conscious loving.”
“So, you see how important what Tony Lance did can be? Doesn’t he deserve a medal?” G asked.
“He does, especially if he is right,” I observed.
“Yes, and it’s easy to find out, and inexpensive. All it takes is really an experiment. Try douching a few rats, giving them wide spectrum antibiotics, having them inhale poppers, and sodomize them daily with plenty of lube and condoms. I bet their gut would cave in quickly enough to diagnose them with intestinal dysbiosis.”
“But G dear,” I said, “it seems really unfair to take it out on rats. Don’t we have enough sickness already?”
“It was really just a suggestion,” G responded. “People tend to trust laboratory experiments. That’s how allopathic science has operated for the past few centuries. Personally, I don’t need this kind of evidence. I find it in those long-time ‘poz’ people who are healthy and have healed themselves.”
“The experiment you were suggesting could be a shortcut, though. It could help redress health policies,” I offer. “For example, those statutes about murder by infection . . . “
“Right. And if you consider the damage that acting on the wrong hypothesis can cause, if you consider all the earthquake devastation that comes from poverty that is often interpreted as AIDS in countries where poor sanitation causes all kinds of intestinal problems, if you consider all the money spent in programs that cannot be effective because they do not bring people what can cure their intestinal dysbiosis, if you consider how this fear of love, fear of expressing the erotic energy of love in natural ways, is transmuting into hatred, war, destruction, and devastation of entire bioregions and their population, if you consider that all the money spent on these futile projects could be used to stop global warming and create the climate stability that can save us all, then, you know, if sacrificing a few rats can to the trick, if it can persuade the powers that be, or at least the honest people in them, that dysbosis is worth considering as a legitimate cause, then so be it, I say.”
“That’s a nice thought. Now, is Tony Lance alone?”
“No. He is part of a team, he presented his work at the first edition of the conference Rethinking AIDS, in Oakland last November.”
“What other scientists were there? Where did they come from?”
“There were vernacular and professional scientists, as well as activists and clinicians, I understand. Many of the professional scientists are based in the US, but they are of foreign origin.”
“Do you think that’s why they don’t get profiled very favorably?”
“That’s part f it, of curse. They can be dismissed as Un-American, in a new form of McCarthyism, as some would say.”
“Perhaps they can afford to be more honest because they are less involved with the pharmaceutical companies. I mean all those marketing efforts to create the need for a drug by persuading average Americans that they suffer from some under-diagnosed ailment.”[1]
“Yes, pharmaceutical companies pay lavish money to professors of medicine ready to act as consultants who promote their drugs and the medical disorders invented to market them.[2] Foreign scientists can do that as well. It’s just that some of them are not game.”
“I get it. Even though, of course, being a foreigner is not a plus in that role since the public tends to trust your vintage American better.”
“You have a point. That’s why, also, people like Duesberg, form Germany, and Bauer, from Austria, have trouble getting heard.”[3]
“But again, when you think of Tony Lance, and other American heroes like him, who self-trained as scientists to save their lives, and are now sharing their knowledge to save others at the risk of losing everything, you see that it’s happening. Dissident science is making inroads. It’s pushing against the paradigm that generates so much paradox that it almost fall of its own weight, like a giant that can no longer walk because it’s too heavy with its own false consciousness.”
“Are there any other countries where holistic interpretations of AIDs are being researched?”
“At the Oakland conference there was a scientist from the University of Florence, Italy, Marco Ruggiero.[4] His team focuses on AIDS and body ecology, including the effects of chemicals.”
“Interesting.”
“Yes, and remember that in these countries where health care is universal, the government has to pay for curing all disease outbreaks, including those caused by pharmaceutical companies eager to sell the wrong meds for the wrong diseases. So that’s an incentive to fund studies that disagree with the main paradigm as well: A way to force integration of allopathic and holistic methods for the common good.”
“Yes. So there is hope.”
“Being the author of a ‘forbidden book’ that has become controversial on account of my intellectual honesty about AIDS, I can tell only one thing for sure: No one on earth (Nobel laureate or vernacular scientist) knows everything that there is to know about AIDS. That’s why it is necessary to open up to all avenues of investigation. The criminalization of knowledge is the crime. Fear the true enemy.”
“Let’s hope fear evaporates then.”
“Let’s,” said G.
“Meanwhile, congrats to Tony Lance and good luck to all of those who are healing themselves from intestinal dysbiosis.”
“Yes, for all those volunteer scientific efforts the world will be absolutely grateful. Knowledge always evolves by disagreement. It’s the same data. But now they make a whole lot of sense. It’s always a matter of interpretation.”
“Science is an art,” I offer as a way to wrap up the conversation.
“Isn’t it? I’ve always claimed we need more people trained in critical theory like myself.”
“Stop bragging about your specialties, G,” I giggle.
[2] Lane, Christopher. Shyness. Yale University Press, 2008. (A study of the invention of recent mental illnesses in the sociability spectrum.)
[3] Peter Duesberg. Inventing the AIDS Virus. New York: Regnery, 2007. (A classic of non-infective AIDS theory.) Henry Bauer. The Origin, Persistence, and Failings of HIV/AIDS Theory. New York: McFarland, 2007. (A recapitulation of and reflection about the inconsistencies of mainstream theories.)
[4] First Rethinking AIDS Conference. Oakland, CA: November 2009. Online proceedings. RethinkingAIDS-Program. Prof. Marco Ruggiero, Univ. of Florence: http://www.marcoruggiero.org/
Disclaimer: This Tale does not constitute medical advice in any way. Readers are invited to consult their own healers and health care providers.
We plan to publish a series of dialogs on anal pleasure and holistic sexual health. The idea is that the two go very well together--in moderation. In anticipation, we offer the vernacular science available on the topic. Today's science often serves profit. See expose of corruption in Our Daily Meds. Vernacular science is science by the people and for the people.
The author of the main source is Tony Lance, an American hero who self-trained as a scientist to save his own life and now is sharing his knowledge to save others . . .
As we learn from Reduce the Burden, Tony Lance is a healthy gay man who turned 'poz' 13 years ago. He refused conventional treatment and practices holistic health.
"His experience of the AIDS era has made him feel increasingly lonely and isolated. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, like many gay men, he performed the sad New Year’s Day ritual of crossing out names in his address book of friends who had died of AIDS.
. . . . .
Lance witnessed the shocking transformations his friends went through. 'These were strong, vibrant men turned in a matter of months into ghoulish caricatures of what they used to be,' he recalls. 'Their hair turned grey, their skin turned a purplish color, their gums receded and their teeth fell out; they lost weight; and some couldn’t leave the house because of uncontrollable diarrhea. . . .
The impression convinced Lance that, 'if my time came, if I tested HIV positive, I would not take anti-viral drugs.' . . . .
Later he discovered Peter Duesberg's book (Inventing the AIDS Virus, 1996) in a gay and lesbian book store. He read it in one sitting and became a dissident."
When some of his fellow dissidents died of AIDS, he was crushed. Initially he felt guilty and wrong. Then he began the process of training himself as a scientist and doing research on Intestinal Dysbiosis.
His article explains almost everything we know as AIDS in LGBTQ communities in terms of Intestinal Dysbiosis. It's an admirable piece of genuine science: science by the people and for the people. A must read for any lover of anal pleasure like yours truly.
GRID = Gay Related Intestinal Dysbiosis?
Explaining HIV/AIDS Paradoxes in Terms of Intestinal Dysbiosis
by Tony Lance
tony.lance@gmail.com
One thing that those who reject the HIV/AIDS hypothesis agree on is that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. But when it comes to alternative theories of causation, disagreement abounds. And some of the most vexing questions surround the earliest cases of AIDS, those that were initially dubbed Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID). Why did it originate in some gay communities? Why did this happen in the late 1970s and early 1980s? Why in the particular form of PCP (Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia), candidiasis, KS (Kaposi’s sarcoma)? And why still do gay men so often test “HIV+”? Why do some “HIV+” people thrive without medication while others get ill? Here’s a suggestion that answers all those questions in a coherent way.
Dossie Easton is a licensed psychotherapist working with individuals, couples and moresomes in her private practice in San Francisco. She is co-author with Janet Hardy of The Ethical Slut, now in its second edition, and Radical Ecstasy, among others, and she lectures and leads workshops on polyamory and ecstatic spiritual practices at conferences and universities in the United States, Canada and Europe. Dossie has been an active sex radical since 1961. Website: www.dossieeaston.com. "Each relationship will seek its own level like water if you let it." 
