# Orgasm at will **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2000, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695 "2000-05-16T21:06:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aramis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@aramis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aramis)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2000, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/1 "2000-05-16T21:06:05Z")
I’ve alway wanted to ask other people about this but never found a good context to bring up the subject. I can do something that seems unusual and I’m curious if other people can do it too. I am able to experience a feeling very similar to orgasm, though not quite as intense, almost any time I want to, just by thinking about it. I first discovered it when I noticed that the feeling of chills you sometimes get when reading something scary is similar to the feeling of an orgasm. Just by thinking about, I can bring on that feeling at will, though in a considerably more intense form than I’d get just from scary story. Although I don’t have to move to do it, there does seem to be some kind of muscular involvement since I have to be sitting or lying down; it doesn’t work if I’m standing up. I know a lot of people will think “if I could do that I’d never leave the house”, but actually, I don’t do it very often. If something reminds me of it – or sometimes if I’m in a boring meeting – I’ll do it a few times. The only outward manifestation is a slight tremble in my hands. No erection or even erotic stimulation is required and no ejaculation accompanies the feeling – it just feels good. ---
**Author:** ![Wood\_Thrush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b38774/32.png) [@Wood\_Thrush](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wood_Thrush)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2000, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/2 "2000-05-16T21:31:32Z")
You seem to have discovered the powers within us that most ignore. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2000, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/3 "2000-05-16T21:39:44Z")
We sure could have used you when Cecil was writing his [Psychic Orgasm](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000505.html) column. Welcome aboard. ---
**Author:** ![dpr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dpr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dpr)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2000, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/4 "2000-05-17T03:03:12Z")
I don’t know whether to be envious or scared… But actually, I have experienced orgasm-like sensatons under other conditions. The most obvious one is an itch that you won’t scratch beneath a warm shower. ---
**Author:** ![RonaldBarnhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@RonaldBarnhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RonaldBarnhardt)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2000, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/5 "2000-05-17T03:37:00Z")
I can do that too! I thought I was the only one. No erection or ejaculation, but everything else. All I have to do is concentrate for a few seconds and it happens. I can be sitting, lying or standing, but I have to be still and have my eyes closed. And it only lasts about two seconds and then I have to wait a couple of minutes before I can do it again. Otherwise, I can do it on demand. Like aramis, I don’t do unless I’m reminded of it or I’m bored. I know I’m probably not having an orgasm in a physiologic sense(my heart rate doesn’t go up and I don’t get sleepy afterwards), but like you describe, a very orgasmic experience. Aint it cool? ---
**Author:** ![seriousart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@seriousart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seriousart)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2000, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/6 "2000-05-17T03:53:30Z")
I can do that too! All I need is a rope and a gym class and pow! Well maybe it’s not really at will… Gotta get more ropes into those long meetings I guess. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2000, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/7 "2000-05-17T13:41:28Z")
I thought orgasms were all “at will”; that is, you’re doing _something_ to encourage them. It’s not like they hit you randomly like a sneeze or a yawn. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2000, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/8 "2000-05-17T14:04:14Z")
_a la Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest’s characters on SNL:_ **BC:** Just the other night I was reading a… **CG:** National Geographic? **BC:** No. **CG:** Playboy? **BC:** No. **CG:** Penthouse? **BC:** No. **CG:** Hustler? **BC:** Yeah, that’s it. And there were these pictures of a woman who was… **CG:** Spreading her legs wide and splaying her labia enough for you to have performed a gynecological exam? **BC:** Yeah, there were dozens of them! And all of the sudden my pants started getting tight. I unzipped my pants and there was … **CG:** A diamond-back rattlesnake? **BC:** No. **CG:** A lead pipe? **BC:** No. **CG:** Your penis? **BC:** Yeah, and it was swelling, but not in a bad way. So I started rubbing it and rubbing it. Then all of the sudden… **CG:** It shrank? **BC:** No. **CG:** It started ejecting a viscous, pearly white fluid? **BC:** Yeah! But I wasn’t expecting that, and it got all over my magazine. So I wiped it off as best I could and put it away. But the next night, I went to read it again, and… **CG:** The pages were stuck together? **BC:** Yeah! And no matter how careful I was to reopen it, the pages were just ripping. **CG:** I hate it when that happens… **BC:** yeah… ---
**Author:** ![jayron\_32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jayron\_32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayron_32)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2000, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/9 "2000-05-17T14:10:43Z")
Who’s Will, and why are people orgasming at him? Sorry, gross, but it had to be said sooner or later… ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2000, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-at-will/19695/10 "2000-05-17T16:55:30Z")
Originally posted by me: > [@](#): > > \*\* > I thought orgasms were all “at will”; that is, you’re doing _something_ to encourage them. It’s not like they hit you randomly like a sneeze or a yawn. 😃 > \*\* Then I read this true article on Snopes: > [@](#): > > Claim: The drug clomipramine has been known to cause orgasms in yawning patients. > Status: True. > > Origins: This 1995 article sums it up quite nicely: > > Some people prescribed an anti-depressant drug have found an unexpected side effect: they have an orgasm when they yawn. The drug clomipramine usually elevates mood and boosts physical activity and appetite. However, the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry reports four patients on the drug had orgasms on yawning. > “There is a small subset of people who are affected this way,” commented Dr. Martin Godfrey, a London GP who has prescribed the drug. “I understand they find this side effect quite pleasant.” > > One woman who took clomipramine told researchers it cured her depression but she wanted to go on taking it because of its peculiar properties. She found she could experience an orgasm even by deliberate yawning. And a man who had also taken the pills said he was “highly satisfied” with the drug’s usefulness. > > Around five per cent of clomipramine users report the side effect, though for most people the drug inhibits the ability to reach orgasm. The New Scientist says that the drug’s users have been comparing notes on the Internet and speculating on its unusual consequences: people who experience it would presumably seek out the most boring person they could find at parties. I stand corrected.