While cruising the web the other day I came across the website of Leola, Talk Tantra to Me, and found a blog post from June 18, 2023, entitled “The 4 types of Sex,” where she talks of reproductive, recreational, restorative, and transformational sex. I realized that, while the first category doesn’t apply to music, the other three obviously do. I then did what I find myself doing quite often these days, consulting a chatbot. I uploaded Leola’s typology to Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonata and asked Claude if three of her categories applied to music. Claude agreed that they did. I then uploaded an earlier version of this document to Claude and asked Claude to review it against those categories. Claude did so.
So, I present that material below. First, I’ll give you Leola’s typology. Then I quote a passage from an essay by my teacher and colleague, the late David Hays, in which he talks about the restorative effect of watching performances by the New York City Ballet. Last, I present my conversation with Claude.
I have attached the information in this post to my compilation: EMOTION and MAGIC in MUSICAL PERFORMANCE. Download it here: https://www.academia.edu/16881645/Emotion_and_Magic_in_Musical_Performance_Version_13.Four kinds of sexual experience
Here is Leola’s post about 4 types of sex: https://www.talktantratome.com/post/the-4-types-of-sex
These are the four kinds, along with her brief characterizations of them:
Reproductive sex is exactly what it sounds like. It is sex with the intention of making a baby. It is my experience that reproductive sex is the most acceptable across the world. There are many religious institutions that claim reproduction should be the only motivation for sex.
Recreational sex has the intention of enjoying bodily pleasure and passing the time. And that’s about it. Just for fun… for the orgasms. It is my experience that this is the intention for most sexual behavior.
Restorative sex is using intimacy and life force energy to heal the body, mind, heart, or soul. Restorative sex can manifest in many different ways and heal innumerable parts of ourselves, but it all comes down to energy and emotion. Emotion is energy in motion (e-motion). When we avoid, minimize, or bottle up our e-motions, it may manifest as a dis-ease in the emotional and physical bodies. When you have restorative sex, intentionally or not, you are actively moving energy… you are inviting e-motion to release, clear, and heal. For this reason, restorative sex can be very cathartic… it can bring up past traumas… it can feel like therapy.
Transformational sex offers the divine experience of changing your life, the way you see the world, or the ways you connect with others. Transformational sex can lead to cosmic orgasms - those in which you feel like you’ve left your body. It could also mean exploring new things in bed, like kink or new positions or connecting with more than one other person. These sorts of sex-plorations can reveal new and transformative paths to pleasure and presence, shifting the way you perceive yourself and the world.
The restorative effect of watching the New York City Ballet
Back in 1993 David Hays published an essay entitled, “The Evolution of Expressive Culture,” https://www.academia.edu/9547332/The_Evolution_of_Expressive_Culture.
He had spent the last decade and a half of his life in New York City, where he became interested in the ballet. He bought season tickets to performances by the New York City ballet. While the article is about expressive culture in general (the plastic arts, music, dance, theater, and religion), he takes ballet as his central example.
Hays asked:
Why and how does ballet achieve its powerful effect? At a typical performance of the City Ballet, a large part of the audience are naive. They are not familiar with the pieces being danced; many have never seen them before (the intake of breath that can be heard when the curtain rises on an effective stage set is evidence enough). They are not much expert in the art; the accounts that tie published in newspapers and magazines are generally superficial, often in my judgment missing the essence of the work altogether. Audiences give ovations for performances that seem to me mediocre. Yet the difference in the crowd between entrance and exit is almost tangible. Watching the ballet has changed their mood in a favorable way. Is such a change to be seen between those entering and leaving a great museum of painting or sculpture?
A clue appears in a work that is highly idiosyncratic in both substance and form, Peter A. Bucknell’s (1979) Entertainment and Ritual 600 to 1600. He deals only with England, and says (p. 189):
The ‘magic’ contained in these dances was something that even the dancer could not explain or understand. Because there was something outside the world around him which only dancing seemed to contact–like private prayer–so dancing was pursued in secret.
In secret, but not in solitude. The people of a village would go into the woods at night to dance together, as the people of bands and villages have danced, probably, through the whole history of our species. Bucknell quotes Stubbes (Anatomy of Abuses, 2nd ed., 1583) to the effect that two-thirds of the girls who spend the night in the woods around the Maypole are “violated” (p. 185). Such activities are not acceptable to Catholic religion, or to the Anglican Church that followed it in England; and the Church was inordinately powerful in England at the time. But, reports Bucknell, the Church could not stop these dances (p. 186).
My intention is not to emphasize the sexuality; ‘magic’ is what I think is most important. Balanchine captured that magic, brought it under artistic control, and the New York City audience came into contact with something “outside the world around.” For an audience that probably cannot achieve that contact by prayer, the effect is truly spectacular. Without the artistic control, and the creative genius, Balanchine’s predecessors and contemporaries achieved effects of a much lower order.
While Hays does not use the word “restorative,” that is clearly what he has in mind when he observes: “Yet the difference in the crowd between entrance and exit is almost tangible. Watching the ballet has changed their mood in a favorable way.” That, changing our mood in a favorable way, is the purpose of expressive culture.
Three kinds of music
Finally, we come to my conversation with Claude 3.7. First, after uploading Leola’s typology (which I reproduced above) I asked it whether or not it thought three of the types, recreational, restorative, and transformation, applied to music. Here is Claude’s response:
That's a fascinating parallel! Music and sexuality do share some interesting commonalities across those three categories. Let me explore this connection:
Recreational Music: Just as people engage in recreational sex for pleasure and enjoyment, music is often consumed purely for entertainment and pleasure. Think of dance music, pop songs, or any music that people enjoy casually. The focus is on immediate gratification, fun, and passing time enjoyably. This might be listening to your favorite playlist while commuting or dancing at a club - the primary goal is enjoyment in the moment.
Restorative Music: Music therapy is a well-established field that uses music for healing emotional and psychological wounds. People often describe certain music as "healing" or use specific playlists to process grief, reduce anxiety, or manage stress. The cathartic release that comes from both listening to and creating music mirrors the emotional release described in restorative sexual experiences. Consider how people turn to certain songs during breakups or use music to "cry it out."
Transformational Music: This is perhaps the most striking parallel. Many people describe profound, life-changing experiences through music - whether at a transcendent live performance, during deep listening experiences, or while creating music. The "cosmic" quality described in transformational sex has its equivalent in musical experiences that people describe as transcendent or mystical. Think of religious music traditions, certain psychedelic music experiences, or the overwhelming emotional response some people have to particular musical pieces.
In both domains, these experiences involve surrendering to something larger than oneself, altered states of consciousness, and potentially profound shifts in perspective or identity.
This framework offers an interesting lens for understanding why music has such a powerful presence across human cultures. Like sexuality, music connects the physical (soundwaves, rhythm, bodily response) with the emotional and even spiritual dimensions of human experience.
Then I uploaded an earlier version of this document and asked Claude for comments:
I've reviewed the document you shared, “EMOTION and MAGIC in MUSICAL PERFORMANCE.” This collection of anecdotes and testimonials is fascinating and directly connects to our conversation about the parallels between sexuality and music!
The document provides rich examples of musicians experiencing states that align perfectly with the three categories we discussed:
Recreational Music Many musicians in the document describe playing for enjoyment, but then something shifts. Penn Gillette's story about being overwhelmed by his bandmate Jonesy's solo represents this recreational experience turning into something more profound.
Restorative Music The document contains numerous accounts of emotional release and healing through music. Bill Benzon's own experience with the "lump in the throat" while recording "A Still, Small Voice" shows how music can move emotions and create catharsis. Stephanie Burrous's description of feeling like she's "sitting on the back porch of heaven" when singing deeply resonates with the restorative concept.
Transformational Music This is perhaps most abundantly documented in the collection. Musicians describe:
- Ego loss (“I felt myself dissolve into white light and pure music”)
- Being a channel (“It wasn't really about us. You know we were being a channel for creativity to express itself”)
- Altered states (“I suddenly get the feeling that I'm standing next to myself”)
- Collective consciousness (musicians describing becoming "one organism" with their fellow players)
Leonard Bernstein's quote is particularly striking: “I don't know whether any of you have experienced that but it's what everyone in the world is always searching for... you completely forget who you are or where you are and you write the piece right there.”
This collection provides compelling evidence that musicians regularly experience states that parallel the restorative and transformational aspects of sexuality we discussed earlier. The same kind of surrender, healing, connection, and transcendence appear in both domains.
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