Originally published on On Being
Esther Perel, one of our SAND Radiant Intimacy speakers, has changed the cultural discourse on relationships with her viral TED talks and her book Mating in Captivity. As a child of Holocaust survivors she asked herself why it was that after atrocity some people didn’t die, while others came back alive. What makes us come alive? She understands the erotic as an antidote to death. For Perel, eroticism is a key ingredient to life — and it’s more than just a description of sexuality. “My work is about eroticism,” she says. “It is about how people connect to this quality of aliveness, of vibrancy, of vitality, of renewal. And that is way beyond the description of sexuality. It is mystical. It is actually a spiritual, mystical experience of life. It is a transcendent experience of life, because it is an act of the imagination. And that is spirituality, as well.”
This video of the wisdom treasures from her On Being interview with Krista Tippett is a must watch.
