Kenneth Ray Stubbs, Ph.D.
This is my story of coming from a semi-rural area of the American south just after WWII, to teaching erotic massage in San Francisco after the hippie days, to producing the documentaries Path of the Sexual Shaman and The Sacred Prostitute, to teaching the ENERGY Training, embracing sexuality and shamanism and leading to the development of the Rainbow Body.
Two sections below: 1. Bio Pics. 2. in bottom portion, a written Biographical Introduction.
BIO PICS
Studious Cowboy Ray, about age 6, circa 1950, on the way to school. House in background was built by my grandfather by hand during the Great Depression. This semi-rural area of North Carolina has lots of pine trees, sand, sand spurs, and little critters called chiggers (they are not nice pets). Behind the house was a barn, a mule, a cow, some chickens, and the outhouse. Yep, in the winter I had cold buns back then.
Junior year in high school, in concert band, 1961
Singing Hoosiers, Indiana University, 1963. My voice was not good enough for the chorus, so they let me play the string bass.
Alpha chapter, Kappa Alpha Psi social fraternity, Indiana University, 1964. An unanticipated series of events led me (rear row) to “pledge” this fraternity. Racially integrated social fraternities were very uncommon then, but being a “frat guy” was what was really unusual for me.
Atlanta, June 1965, training for a voter registration project throughout the South, sponsored by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s organization. I was heading up a team going to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home of the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. From right to left: seated, Martin Luther King, Jr.; next person unknown; Rev. Ralph Abernathy (who took over King’s organization after King’s assassination three years later). I am at the podium. Behind my right hand: Bayard Rustin, very early civil rights leader and gay rights activist.
University of Wisconsin, sociology grad student. Skit about our academic discipline, circa 1966
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, 1969. I did not have enough money for a hotel room when I arrived on the island seeking a school teaching job. So I slept on the floor behind this boathouse bar till I got the job. Those were the hippie days, my friend. I thought they would never end.
Hippie days on the road, circa 1972. My “ol’ lady” and I were migrant workers driving tractors during apple and pear harvest in central Washington, saving money to spend the winter down in Mexico.
Circa 1979. From the short, sex education film “James,” filmed and edited by Laird Sutton at the National Sex Forum in San Francisco. I designed, performed in, and created the music for three short films about touch and sexuality: a male-female erotic massage, a younger male giving a bathing ceremony to an older male (see to the left), and a foot bathing to a pregnant woman. The recipient, James Broughton, was a poet and avant-garde filmmaker — a truly awesome and gifted Being.
My ordination as a lay Methodist minister by 3 Methodist ministers and a gay Catholic priest. It was a spontaneous, “in the spirit of the moment,” and serious ceremony at a 10-day professional sexuality course in San Francisco. I doubt though if the Methodist Church would consider it legitimate.
Photo prior to neck injury, 1991
In full ceremonial dress before beginning SunDance ceremony, circa 2002
Photo from a “sensuous boutique” trade show in Los Angeles, circa 2008. In 1980 I self-published my first book since no publisher accepted it. My Erotic Massage book was the first instructional book to illustrate genital massage and has sold over a million copies worldwide. Now I have written/created over a dozen books, DVDs, and cards on sexuality.
I (seated) was best man at Daniel Preston (my immediate right) and Renee Reddog’s wedding. Daniel was a Tohono O’odham ceremonial medicineperson until his death a few years ago. Most of all he taught me to listen to my inner truth. Daniel, soar high, my dear brother.
My current mesa (altar) with sacred pipe (covered), several “shields” from my 13 SunDance ceremonies, and many crystal friends. My perspectives on contemporary shamanism are in my documentary Path of the Sexual Shaman.
On Tibetan Buddhist meditation retreat with Za Rinpoche, a very important teacher for me. Both Tibetan Buddhism and shamanism have greatly influenced me.
The Tucson International Gem and Mineral Trade Show, 2016. Millions of awesome crystals from all around the world are spread in hotel booths and tents all over the city for 2-3 weeks. Unbelievable beauty and energy! Here you see me in front of an amethyst “cathedral” from Brazil.
This was my first outdoor whispered space: a labyrinth in Dubai. We are now doing long-distance group ceremonies for people around the world via the Internet on the solstices and equinoxes.
This double-rainbow photo was taken from the font door of my Sonoran Desert home on August 28, 2021.
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION
My path to developing a Rainbow Body and to understanding the role of the sexual shaman actually both began in 1968 while working for Planned Parenthood in Chicago as a summer intern. In my spare time there I read and watched all the pamphlets and films on sexuality. I also met a lover who in previous incarnations had developed the energetic patterns of a Rainbow Body, though neither of us realized that at that time. The times they were a-changin’, and a few months later I left grad school in sociology to begin my hippie trip across the US, Mexico, and the Virgin Islands.
After several years of being on the road, I ended up in San Francisco studying massage. I found I was a natural at this and passed all my certification tests the last day of school. Soon giving and teaching massage, I came to realize that the massage profession was deeply ignorant of how to relate consciously to sexual energy.
This led me to teaching what I called erotic massage to people of all sexual orientations throughout North America and Europe. I also began giving individuals a 5-7-hour nurturing ceremony of guided meditation, bathing, feeding, and massage.
In these classes and ceremonies is where I really began to learn about energy. Not just sexual, orgasmic energy, but the primordial energy that is the essence of our being. At the same time I was seeking wisdom from metaphysical teachers, a Tibetan Buddhist lama, and a Chinese Taoist scholar. I knew the energy intensity I was experiencing in my erotic massage classes and my nurturing ceremonies were integrally related to my spiritual path.
But I had grown up in Southern Baptist fundamentalism where the spirit was good and the flesh was evil. That was a paradigm that did not speak to my inner knowing. Something was way off.
The emerging Western sexual Tantra was answering some of my questions, but it was not until I stepped onto a shamanic path that spirituality, sexuality, energy, wisdom, and transformation all came together for me. I was beginning to develop abilities to “read” people’s energy patterns and perceived many energetic similarities between the Tibetan lamas, the Native American medicine people, and some sacred sexuality teachers/practitioners I knew closely.
To share with others what I was learning in my personal reintegration of spirituality and sexuality, I envisioned, edited, and published Women of the Light: The New Sacred Prostitute, an anthology of nine women writing about their journey as a sacred sexuality practitioner. Next came my 90-minute documentary, The Sacred Prostitute, and my 60-minute documentary, Path of the Sexual Shaman: Teachings on Energy, Orgasm, and Wisdom.
For those who wish to develop your own energetic abilities and grow profoundly, I provide these sessions and trainings: live and interactive via the Internet.
1. An extensive, in-depth, 1-to-1 ENERGY Training, based on over 40 years of experience in Western Sexual Tantra, shamanism, and Tibetan Buddhism. My approach emphasizes energy merging and transformation leading to the development of The Rainbow Body.
2. I give Creativity Energy sessions to support accomplishing a goal, objective, or project you are having challenges to start or complete. We focus on opening your inner capability to be more creative. The sessions are neither verbal, psychotherapy analysis, nor motivational “cheerleading,” nor hypnosis, nor guided visualization. The Creativity process we use is from my energetic evolution of studying with, meditating with, and being in ceremony with traditional shamans and Tibetan Buddhist lamas for over 40 years.
3. Additionally, online I lead free weekly meditation circles and post a free podcast-videocast: The Sexual Shaman: Conversations on Sexuality and Spirituality.
A traditional shaman is not what I consider myself. Nor do I lead traditional shamanic ceremonies, though I have participated in many. Nor do I call myself a “sexual shaman,” a concept I think of as a metaphor for spirituality-sexuality-energy-transformation. I consider myself an “Energy Resonator” (how about an “energy dancer”?) that has developed energetic and transformative abilities.
Please explore my vision in this website. I hope it supports your evolution.
Feel free to contact me.
Kenneth Ray Stubbs, Ph.D.
MORE
See an August 2022 interview of me.
See Video Commentaries by Kenneth Ray Stubbs on various relevant topics.
AUDIO INTERVIEWS of Kenneth Ray Stubbs
The Sexual Shaman: Path of Wisdom, Energy, and Intent – audio
Dancing in the Orgasm: The Path of the Sexual Shaman – audio