Say a Little Prayer for Sex

New research has found that spirituality has a greater effect on the sex lives of young adults than religion, impulsivity, or alcohol.

New research has found that spirituality has a greater effect on the sex lives of young adults than religion, impulsivity, or alcohol. According to researchers at the University of Kentucky, who used a research measure known as the Spiritual Transcendence Scale, connectedness plays the largest role in spiritual sexuality and leads to more sex with more partners, often without the use of condoms. The study found that spiritual men weren’t sexually affected—in fact, their frequency of sex decreased. The researchers figure men might not view spirituality as sexual because they biologically don’t think of sex as a gateway to emotional intimacy. For women, however, spirituality was the strongest predictor for the number of sexual partners, the frequency of sex, and the tendency to have sex sans condom. A separate review of studies last year found that sexually unsatisfied women who practised Eastern techniques of mindfulness and yoga reported improvements in levels of arousal and desire, and better orgasms.