Sex, meet spirituality. Spirituality, meet sex.

In a growing offshoot of the world of yoga, sex and spirit are coming together again after a long estrangement.

The most spectacular result of this climactic coupling of intercourse and prayer is ' of course ' transcendent orgasms that last longer and feel better.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Proponents of the spiritual approach to sex say it offers greater emotional awareness, more connected relationships, and a greater sense of fulfillment in life.

"People are hungry for meaning, for spiritual connection," says Gina Ogden, a sex therapist and author of several books about the connection between sex and soul. "This work offers a model for people to channel that which moves them most ' and that might be their sexual energy ' into a larger container that enables them to connect their feelings to the rest of their lives."

Influenced by modern psychology as well as ancient Eastern traditions, the spiritual approach to sex has sparked a startling new conversation about the emotional, mystical and spiritual powers of an act that has long been treated as a physical and psychological phenomenon.

You might have heard of Tantric sex and the Kama Sutra, but this new wave of sexual exploration places these ancient practices squarely in the present, aiming to help modern couples, both straight and gay, find sexual satisfaction.

Nicole Halpern's life was radically changed when she stumbled into the One Taste urban retreat in San Franscisco in 2004. She thought it was a hair salon, but stayed for a yoga class, then began taking courses in sensuality and orgasmic meditation. It was a whole new world.

"I'd always felt uncomfortable, shame around sex," she says. "It felt like something I couldn't talk about, something I had to hide."

One Taste, a sort of sex research lab with a full calendar of workshops, offered a safe place to explore parts of herself she'd long ignored. Eventually Halpern, 34, gave up her job as a political activist to become a teacher and coach at the centre, and she now practises orgasmic meditation daily.

"For me, it's a spiritual practice," she says. "I've learned not to just use my mind as a way to figure things out, but to use my body as a way to know and to have greater understanding."

Fulfillment spreads outward from orgasm into life.

"I've become more grounded," says Halpern. "I know how to channel energy. I have greater access to my body. I know how to ask for the things I want, and I know that I can have them."

The sensuality movement, already going strong in the U.S., is now starting to put down roots here. Toronto-based yoga and Ayurveda teacher Matthew Remski recently taught a 30-hour course examining Eastern approaches to sex, referring to Ayurvedic, Taoist and Tantric texts.

Remski lived in the U.S. and studied yoga all over the world, most notably with Ayurveda expert David Frawley before he opened a studio in Toronto last year and saw a need for a course in sexuality.

"These days, sex is the subject of talk therapy, the currency of pornography and a focus for medicine," says Remski. "But in our hearts we know we can't talk a rose out of the ground, be intimate with fantasies, or cure alienation with pills. So this course is for anybody who wants to feel (his or her) sexual life come into harmony with ... the natural world."

The subject matter appealed to Angeli Chitale, a student of yoga for 12 years.

"My practice of yoga led me to seek something more subtle and satisfactory than the standard trajectory of sex. We see sex so much in the media, but it's very sensational. It's mechanistic, in a way. Those messages have created a sort of unconscious protocol. It's not open. It's not free."

Remski's course was transformative for her. "I've started to embody what I learned," says Chitale, 36. "It's affected my comfort with my own body and even what I choose to wear. I feel more liberated."

The course touches on how to care for the body before and after sex, when and how often to get sexy, how to overcome obstacles to sexual happiness and techniques that may bring spiritual realizations.

Remski, who plans to teach the course again in June, aims to make it accessible even to shy types, using lectures and assigning homework.

For example, one homework assignment involves cultivating sexual energy in the Deer position ' sitting cross-legged with either heel placed strategically in the genital area. Gentle contraction of the muscles brings arousal, but orgasm is not the goal. For men, the practice is believed to be a healthy massage for the prostate; for women, it calms menstruation and increases sexual vitality.

Sex classes aren't the norm at yoga studios, and the subject matter does not pervade the world of new-age spirituality. Many schools see celibacy as the path to enlightenment and sex as empty distraction.

Nor is the subject of spiritual sex strictly limited to the world of yoga.

But the new fusion of Eastern philosophies with the West's scientific approach to human behaviour is accessible and appealing to modern couples, says Ogden, who based her 2006 book The Heart & Soul of Sex on 3,810 responses to a survey she created about the way people experience sex and soul.

"The one thing clients say is: `Isn't there something more to sex than intercourse?'" says Ogden. "Their experiences include ... the body, but also the emotions, the mind, the spirit, our ability or urge to reach out beyond ourselves for something larger."

One key teaching of spiritual sex is that both partners must let go of the goal-oriented drive to orgasm. In fact, experienced practitioners focus on the moment just before orgasm, attempting to extend it, rather than going over the edge to full release.

The technique takes training, but the benefits could be worth it.

"If people had greater access to their sex and sensuality, I feel a lot of the problems of our society wouldn't be there," says Halpern.

"For example, if people have more connection in their lives, they don't need to buy things to feel a certain way.

"When you realize you can have what you want in your life, you stop looking outside yourself for solutions."

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