2008 DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTION AWARD - JOSEPH KRAMER

Joseph Kramer was born without a body in 1947. As a teenager, he entered the Jesuits, committing himself to a life of service and celibacy.  As Saturn returned, he got a massage, took a yoga class, read Whitman, and acknowledged his embodiment. His commitment to service was redefined as bringing erotic joy to himself and to the world.  In 1984, he founded the Body Electric School where he trained thousands of professional masseurs, erotic bodyworkers, masturbation coaches and sacred intimates. In 2003, he succeeded in getting approval from the State of California for a new profession: Certified Sexological Bodyworker. He has produced over a dozen educational DVDs teaching erotic massage, and is presently director of The New School of Erotic Touch, which is evolving into an online university teaching somatic sexology.