Veronica Monet, ACS Certified Sexologist and Sex Educator, interviews sensual researchers Sheri and Rebecca from Welcomed.com on her Live Talk Radio Show The Shame Free Zone discovering what went on in the making of the explicit DVD A Guide to Your Orgasm.

VERONICA MONET: Hey Welcome to the Shame Free Zone. This is your host, Veronica Monet. Joining me this evening is Sheri Testerman and Rebecca. They are both from the Welcomed Consensus. Now I only recently heard about the Welcomed Consensus but I am finding it quite intriguing. They’ve actually been demonstrating, doing public demonstrations of women experiencing one hour orgasm since 1992. They have been around for quite some time. You can visit their website at www.welcomed.com We’ve got a special event going on this evening…they’re actually going to giving away 10 free copies of their brand new DVD which is entitled, A Guide to your Orgasm to the first ten people who go to the welcomed.com website and fill out a contact form with your request for a free video. So that’s pretty cool.

Let me tell you just a little about Sheri Testerman, she’s a sensual researcher and a sex educator. She’s one of the founding members of The Welcomed Consensus. She’s spent the last 21 years teaching men and women about orgasm, friendship and how live a rich and gratifying life. And Rebecca, is a graduate of SF State University, has been a student and a researcher of sensuality with the Welcomed Consensus since 1999. She’s passionate and dedicated to spreading this information to others who want to have more pleasurable and gratifying lives. These are two very intelligent and uplifting women and I’m really proud to bring them into the Shame Free Zone. Rebecca and Sheri, welcome.

SHERI & REBECCA: Thank you.

VERONICA MONET: It’s good to have you guys. Where’s Welcomed Consensus located?

SHERI: Actually, in both locations. We teach in San Francisco and we also teach in Northern California. We do our retreats and the upper level courses in the Northern California area pretty close to the Oregon border. It’s gorgeous up there.

VERONICA MONET: It is beautiful up there. Do you go up into Ashland at all?

SHERI: Actually we do.

VERONICA MONET: I’m looking at the home page on your website which again is welcomed.com It’s a beautiful page you have got quite a few of your videos on here. Lots of healthy, smiling faces. And I think that it really speaks to what the whole idea about leading a pleasure-based, orgasmic life is about. Sheri, I was wondering, can you speak to that a little bit? Why is it even important? For some people it is fodder for jokes. I don’t think they would think it would be something you would want to study or make a daily practice. Can you tell us a little bit of your perspective on that?

SHERI: Are you speaking of sexuality, sex?

VERONICA MONET: Orgasm. Specifically about orgasm.

SHERI: Well, people don’t tell the truth about how much they are interested in orgasm. And, you know, people do make jokes about it but they are still thinking about it. We’re all sensual, sexual beings and orgasm is part of our nature. And if asked, if you ask anyone, if you could have a better orgasm or you could have a gratifying orgasm and that was available to you, would you like that? I think everybody would say, yes, they would. And it is available for anyone and everyone. It’s really just about having training, having information, being educated. Because as you well know we are lacking in sexual education in this country and many other countries, too, just world-wide. So, educating people on just some of the basics of sex and orgasm it is really quite expanding. Everyone can be orgasmic, have a sex life and a relationship with their partner that continually gets better and better and is more and more fun.

VERONICA MONET: I think that is really a misunderstood fact and as a sexologist, my clients I am often struck with by how many people think “well, it’s downhill from here because I’m getting older”. Or, “we’ve known each other for 20 years so what do you expect, of course it’s going to be boring”. It’s really sad to me because I do believe that sex is meant to be a journey. It’s just like anything else in life if you are reaching a point where you are feeling bored or things are not working as well as they used to it’s usually an invitation from the universe to grow, change and move into something new even if that’s just a state of mind, or level of intimacy or something like that.

SHERI: Right, absolutely.

VERONICA MONET: Rebecca, what role do you think orgasm plays? Why is this something that you are wanting to study that you have devoted so much time to? You are a researcher of sensuality. What pertinence does that have to life in our modern age?

REBECCA: I thought both of you made really good points about it and in particular, people do think about it all the time. And it really is so entwined with human happiness… to have that connection with another human being in a pleasurable way. That’s really the most pleasurable way that you can experience your body is orgasm. You can feel that even when you’re not having sensual activity, you can feel that orgasm in your body. You can feel it in your relationships with other people. For me as I have expanded my orgasm in studying this, it’s been a path for me for having everything in my life get better, my relationships get better and being more happy person. And when I’m a happier person everything goes better, I’m more productive, I do everything better, you know, I can think better.

VERONICA MONET: Absolutely. And it’s also a great adjunct to being healthy.

REBECCA: Oh yes, I agree. I totally agree with that. I mean one of the things that we experience is that hardly any of us get sick or you know, those kind of things break down. I think a lot of times I can feel at times when my body has that orgasm flowing through it. It’s just feels healthy, feels good. I just know it’s good for me. I can feel there have been times where say I’ve taken a trip and I just haven’t had my attention on having that orgasm. I can feel the difference in my body. I just really believe it does add to your health.

VERONICA MONET: Absolutely. You know one of the things when I go over to welcomed.com I notice all these bright, smiling faces. I think people who are having a vibrant sexual life have a twinkle in their eye. And they carry themselves different. More alert, more buoyant, you know there is life.

SHERI: Right, a vitality.

VERONICA MONET: Yes, vitality, verve, joy for life, an engagement and connection to everything that’s going on. And I think it has some profound effects on creativity, too. Now I’m wondering, Sheri, at Welcomed Consensus, the kind of research that one does when being a sensual researcher, can you explain that? What exactly are we talking about here?

SHERI: Well, that’s a very good question. When we started this over 20 years ago, a group of friends that had common goals we wanted to make the most out of our experience in life. We felt that life was to be celebrated and really to extract the most pleasure from every component of it. So we asked ourselves, what does that really mean? And how does one do that? And so, we started with talking to each other and since the group of men and women both the dynamic of men and women and talking to each other and telling the truth. That became one of our basic foundations of our relationships with one another was the willingness to tell each other the truth. And so it started from there.. of a woman, me, talking to my friend, a man, and telling him the truth. Which was something I had never done before. And then in turn, he was telling me the truth, then we were telling each other the truth and building from there. We were DOing each other, the Deliberate Orgasm, where two people put their attention on one person’s body for the optimum amount of sensation, by agreement. From there, that opened up a whole new world, an arena of what orgasm is. So we began to research orgasm and the experience in different ways in our bodies than we had ever imagined before. That leads into well, then you experience your world more sensually, like food takes a different gratification. You just automatically slow down and you’re taking in your senses easier, more readily, you want to because we were experiencing gratification from our friendships with each other and gratification in our sex life and communicating a lot. And it’s been a ride. Of course there are the highs and there are the lows but that is life. The range of experience and we would discuss all kinds of things through these 20 years. Like, what does this mean?, what does that mean?, and just slowing down and taking pause and considering things. Not just taking what society says as the way things are. You know, automatic.

VERONICA MONET: Sure. And what do you think society does tell us about orgasm and pleasure?

SHERI: Well, first that you have to pay for your pleasure.

VERONICA MONET: And when you say pay, are you talking about prostitution or ….?

SHERI: No, no. It’s the whole