Exploring potential in non-biological parts: trans phantoms, energetic cocks, and other possibilities.

Plus a free embodiment exercise!

For the culminating project of my Somatic Sex Education (SSE) training, I explored increasing capacity for sensation and pleasure in a non-biological cock using tools I learned during my training. The process of embodiment, becoming more connected and aware of sensations occurring in the body, is central to SSE. In SSE embodiment tools are often used to increase sensation in numb areas of the body or to find new pathways to pleasure. I was curious, might these tools be able to do the same for a strap-on cock? 

Over the course of my project, I experienced difficulty finding resources which discussed the possibility of sensation and pleasure in a prosthesis. I knew that other people must be doing similar things – I just wasn’t finding them. While I won’t be going in depth on my entire process (boundaries!), my hope is that sharing some of my experience might help others who are searching in the same way I was. In the months after I finished my training, I encountered writing that would have been useful while deep in my process. Later in this post, I’ll share some of the ideas I learned about. Lastly, I’ve shared a free embodiment practice for exploring non-biological or imagined parts on this page. 

You’ll find that I use different terminology throughout. I use energetic parts, imaginary parts, and trans phantoms to refer to nonmaterial phenomena. I use prosthesis, strap-on, or non-biological (non-bio) to refer to a material part or extension of your body that you weren’t born with. Different terms feel better depending on the person, and I may not have used any of the words you prefer. I’d love to learn what they are if you’re open to sharing.

During the six to eight months of my project, I felt myself moving through the process of mystification and re-visioning that Lucie Fielding describes in Trans Sex: 

Coming into passionate relationship with the embodied sexual self is a stance that allows our clients to, ultimately, re-vision their relationship to their sexual bodies–to both re-author (or queer) how they storify themselves as sexual beings and to re-map how they relate to or draw pleasure from their bodies. To do so requires acts of imagination as well as some distancing from how they might understand how their bodies work and how their bodies experience pleasure. They must become as Mira Bellwether colorfully puts it in Fucking Trans Women, “sexy mad scientists” and “genital cartographers.” This re-visioning is facilitated by what I understand as a process of mystification. (Fielding, 2021, p. 79)

As part of this mystification and re-visioning, I tried many different practices and tools. Some that I found particularly useful included guided visualization, fantasy, mindful erotic practice (MEP), masturbation coaching, breathwork, mirror work and towards the end of my project timeline, receiving erotic bodywork. I worked with a few different practitioners throughout which was integral to my process.

After the completion of my project, I was asked if I was surprised by anything. I laughed and answered, “That it worked.” Even though I felt confident that I would experience a change in relationship with my strap-on cock, I still felt surprise and awe that I could feel sensation and pleasure there. This required working through unearthed expectations around what I thought or hoped the sensations and pleasure would feel like. When I was able to let those expectations go (a thing that came and went), I was able to enjoy the sensations I was experiencing. Another delightful outcome of this project was a merging of my energetic cock and strap-on cock. This began emerging during MEP, and I was inspired to spend time intentionally cultivating this connection by visualizing the merging. 

Recently, I encountered the work of S.J. Langer. Through Langer’s work I was introduced to the concept of trans phantoms. According to Langer (2022) “trans phantoms are phantom phenomena in trans people of gendered body parts that are gender affirming, such as a phantom penis in a transmasculine person or phantom breasts in a transwoman.” According to Langer trans phantoms are not materially present but are instead an interoceptive experience, the experience of awareness of sensation within the body. This offered me a new frame of reference for the concept of an energetic cock and expanded it to include more parts of the body than I’d considered.

Langer (2022) also proposes that the proprioceptive drift shown during the rubber hand illusion (RHI) has the potential for mapping sensation from a trans phantom onto that of a prosthesis. 

In the RHI a participant has one hand hidden from their view and instead can view a rubber hand. A researcher strokes both the biological hand and rubber hand synchronously leading to a sense of ownership of the rubber hand and proprioceptive drift, where the participant feels in their body that the sensation is occurring in the rubber hand. While I was unaware of Langer’s work during my project, a practitioner I worked with during my project introduced me to the RHI. I kept proprioceptive drift in mind during practices, and I believe it is at least partially responsible for the sensation I experience in my non-bio cock. 

Langer (2022) suggests that trans phantoms might be used for incorporating a neo-phallus or neo-vagina post gender-affirming surgery such as phalloplasty or vaginoplasty. This is something I can envision as part of the prehab and rehab for gender-affirming surgery. There are SSE practitioners currently who provide scar work remediation, embodiment work, and bodywork as part of gender affirming and post surgical care. I am curious if any of them are incorporating the trans phantoms or energetic parts. I suspect that some are!

Not all who experience a phantom that is incongruent with the gender they were assigned at birth identify as transgender. Some might even experience phantoms which are not present in most of our species (e.g. tails, antlers, or wings). For some, exploring embodiment in prosthesis might be integral to gender-affirming care. For others, this might be a more playful exploration.

Langer’s work took what I personally experienced and showed me the broader possibilities. The tools of SSE are well suited to this type of exploration and embodiment. If this is something that interests you, I would be honored to work with you. Maybe there’s another possibility you have in mind I haven’t named. If so, I hope you’ll share it with me. You can schedule a free consultation call with me here. 

For now, here’s a free embodiment exercise I created to explore non-biological or imaginary parts of the body. I hope it’s useful to you! 

References

Fielding, L. (2021). Trans sex. In Routledge eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429318290

Langer, S. J. (2022). Gender Is a Complex Number and the Case for Trans Phantoms. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 23(2), 136–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/15240657.2022.2072577