Sunday, November 19, 2006 (SF Chronicle)
Anti-war couple conceive new way to generate peace
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

Living on their houseboat off the Marin County coast, anti-war activists
Donna Sheehan and her partner, Paul Reffel, concocted a way for the world
to communally create a lot of peaceful vibes.
They want everyone to have an orgasm on the same day.
On Dec. 22, they’re asking the world to contribute in their own way to the
Global Orgasm for Peace. Sheehan said not to worry if you don’t have a
partner.
Busy multi-taskers shouldn’t despair about trying to cram this global
activism into their busy schedules, either, she said. Take any time during
the 24-hour period at the beginning of the winter solstice to join the
demonstration. Just make sure to think of peace before or after
participating.
Once you’ve committed, there’s even a secret sign to show others that you
plan to take part: Flash the universal “OK” sign and wink. Or, as it has
been redubbed, “The O” sign.
Reffel and Sheehan are not just tossing off this idea. They’re pros at
launching global peace demonstrations. In the run-up to the U.S. invasion
of Iraq four years ago, Sheehan and a few dozen of her new best friends
stripped naked and spelled out “Peace” on a Marin County field. As photos
of their naked activism spread, similar so-called Baring Witness
demonstrations were replicated dozens of times from Australia to the
conservative nether regions of Utah.
Their activism was rearoused recently when they heard about two U.S.
warships camped out around the Middle East, activity they fear portends
war with Iran.
Having experienced the futility of petitioning international leaders
through mass nudity before the Iraq war, the pair decided to ramp up their
tactics.
While the Global O may sound much like other collective actions attempted
over the years, the O’s organizers promise something more on their Web
site: “The combination of high-energy orgasmic energy combined with
mindful intention may have a much greater effect than previous mass
meditations and prayers.”
Just pick a time.
“We wanted to make it during the cocktail hour,” Sheehan said. “But since
everybody is on a different time, then it would be harder for everybody to
participate.”
In a manner that could only be birthed in the fertile energy fields of the
Bay Area, the Global O for Peace ties together activism, sexual identity,
gender roles, the fledgling effort to measure global consciousness and the
movement of battleships. The GOP — initials likely creating the only link
to the Republican Party deep in liberal Marin County — is about more than
the latest anti-war tactic.
Personally, Sheehan’s experiences with the Baring Witness demonstrations
opened up new avenues of self-exploration for the 76-year-old artist.
Since then, she has learned more about how women can initiate courtship,
sex and peace, culminating this year in a book she and Reffel wrote,
“Redefining Seduction.”
Not surprisingly, the Global O isn’t the first effort to synchronize
pleasure in the name of peace. Or even just in the name of synchronized
pleasure. For several years, a weekly climax has been coordinated online
(Webcams optional), and sexuality experts say there have been several
other attempts to link pleasure and peace.
“Yes, the vast majority of global orgasm coordinations have been firmly
rooted in San Francisco,” said Carol Queen, the staff sexologist at San
Francisco’s Good Vibrations store and a nationally recognized expert on
sexuality. “It is natural to link pleasure and peace. If you’re
experiencing pleasure, you’re not engaging in aggressive, destructive
behavior. ”
Not all such efforts have been successful. Queen’s partner, Robert
Lawrence, who is president of the Center for Sex and Culture, remembers
participating in synchronized pleasure-for-peace demonstrations in the
early 1990s.
The results?
“Shortly thereafter, I left my partner at the time,” Lawrence said. “It
wasn’t exactly the peace I was looking for.”
Queen said the orgasm-challenged shouldn’t be discouraged from
participating Dec. 22. In fact, knowing their efforts are going toward
creating world peace “might actually relieve some of the anxiety they feel
around their sexuality that leads to problems in that area.”
While Queen plans to set aside “20 minutes to two hours” for her Dec. 22
demonstration, her partner, Lawrence, is not.
“I think I’ve got a meeting that day,” Lawrence said. “I’m really busy.”
But you’ve got 24 hours to participate.
“Oh, all right,” Lawrence said. “I think I can work it in, then.”
While this is one anti-war demonstration sure to leave its participants
smiling, measuring its global impact might be more problematic.
What’s troubling some activists is that the carrier Eisenhower has pulled
into the Arabian Sea to replace the Enterprise, which was scheduled to
return to Virginia on Saturday, according to a Navy spokesman. The Boxer
Expeditionary Strike Force, warships loaded with Marines and their battle
equipment, is in the Persian Gulf now.
Getting them to turn around will be challenging.
Pentagon spokesman Air Force Maj. Dave Smith said he has never heard of
coordinated global energy affecting the battleship movements before.
“But I’ve only been here since June,” Smith said. “I’ve been told that
there are no absolutes about anything.”
Would that preclude his plans to participate in the Dec. 22 demonstration?
“I’m not going to answer that one,” Smith said.
No matter how many people participate, don’t look for any increased
seismic activity to show up on the Richter scale.
“The filters we have screen out any man-made activity, like a truck
rolling past, or uh, the activity you described,” said U.S. Geological
Survey spokeswoman Stephanie Hanna.
So when somebody says, “Baby, you just made the earth move,” that’s just
hyperbole, huh?
“I guess reality is whatever you perceive it to be,” said Hanna, speaking
seismically. She was equally vague on her Dec. 22 plans.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Hanna said. “It sounds like, uh, an
interesting idea.”
Perhaps the only way to measure its effect will be through the New
Jersey-based Global Consciousness Project. Run by volunteers who monitor a
network of dozens of random number generators around the world, the
project looks for any correlation between the numbers produced and
significant, shared events like elections, terrorist attacks or New Year’s
Eves that could signal the existence of some sort of global consciousness.
Project director Roger Nelson said he will look for any data blips around
Dec. 22 if the Global O Project becomes a significant worldwide event.
Regardless, Nelson has no qualms about potentially corrupting his data by
taking part in a little global activism.
“If luck befalls me,” Nelson said. “Who knows?”
Even skeptics like Jim Underdown, who investigates paranormal matters in
California for the Center for Inquiry-West, plans to join in the fun –
even if he believes there is no way to transmit energy from one’s brain to
achieve a physical result.
“You don’t need a good reason to have an orgasm,” he said. “Even a stupid
one is OK.”

http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2006/11/19_t/mn_0_global_o_18_0051_t.gif

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/19/GLOBAL.TMP
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read this sa inquirer. couldnt find the article online so i settled for a similar story about it on the net

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