You would think that we knew more about orgasms than we do, given just how much men have strived and sacrificed for them over the past several thousand years. Yet still, the underlying mechanics of the money shot remain a mystery.

A neuroscientist from Northwestern University believes he may finally have a handle on it. But the best analogy he can muster is pushing someone on a swing.

Adam Safron, PhD, believes that rhythmic sexual activity influences brain rhythms, and such rhythmic stimulation enhances “neural oscillations” at the right frequencies – that “swing” analogy. The process has a name – neural entraiment – and Saffron believes thatif sexual stimulation is intense enough and goes on long enough, this synchronized activity could spread throughout the brain. When it does, the sexual activity trumps your usual self-awareness for access to your very consciousness. The result is a trance, a condition he believes might be crucial to trigger the mechanisms of orgasm.

“Synchronization is important for signal propagation in the brain, because neurons are more likely to fire if they are stimulated multiple times within a narrow window of time,” Safron said. “Otherwise, the signals decay as part of a general resetting mechanism, rather than sum together. This then caused me to hypothesize that rhythmic entrainment is the primary mechanism by which orgasmic thresholds are surpassed.”

There is a clear therapeutic angle to Safron's research. Focusing more on the rhythmic aspects of sexuality may benefit people suffering from sexual dysfunction. After all, tantric sex – a slower, more intimate “weaving and expansion of energy” – has been a “thing” in certain Eastern cultures for over 5,000 years.

“The idea that sexual experiences can be like trance states is in some ways ancient. Turns out this idea is supported by modern understandings of neuroscience,” Safron said. “In theory, this could change the way people view their sexuality. Sex is a source of pleasurable sensations and emotional connection, but beyond that, it’s actually an altered state of consciousness.”

Saffron also connects the dots separating orgasm, seizures, music and dance. For example, both sexual climax and reflex seizures, rhythmic inputs into sensory channels result in an explosive process after certain stimulation thresholds were surpassed. He does not find it coincidental that rhythmic song and dances are nearly universal parts of mating that can be traced back hundreds of millions of years to our common ancestors with pre-vertebrate animals such as insects.

“Before this paper, we knew what lit up in the brain when people had orgasms, and we knew a lot about the hormonal and neurochemical factors in non-human animals, but we didn’t really know why sex and orgasm feel the way they do,” Safron said. “This paper provides a level of mechanistic detail that was previously lacking.”

Safron published his research in Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology.