The Sexuality and Spirituality Research Network (S&SRN) is a not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to the production and diffusion of interdisciplinary research on sexuality and spirituality. We focus on adult sex education, alternative sexualities, arts of living, erotic arts, and non-religious spirituality.

Our network provides an online location for researchers inquiring about the interrelations between sexuality and spirituality to engage with each other and work together in multi, inter, and transdisciplinary activities. We bring together scholars, professionals, practitioners, and communities all over the globe exploring alternative approaches to sex, gender awareness, relationship, and subjectivity.

We develop our own interdisciplinary research projects and academic publications. But we also diffuse our research outcomes beyond academic circles: we produce social media contents—posts, videos, podcasts, infographics—, conferences, and virtual events. Furthermore, we convert interdisciplinary research outcomes into programs, curriculums, guidelines, manuals, or activities, and design strategies to diffuse and share the information among people around the world. The intent here is to help to bridge the gap between the academy and everyday life.

Our mission is to generate knowledge about sex and sexuality that could be helpful for individuals and communities trying to improve their erotic skills and trying to enhance their sex lives. Understanding and experiencing sexuality as a central dimension of human flourishing and as a fundamental ground for the embodiment of ethical principles, we discuss models and create tools to prevent sexual abuse, sex addiction, sexual indifference, and sexual dissatisfaction; we offer adult sex education, sex life cultivation, gender empowerment, and arts of living programs; we diffuse selflessness alongside critical consciousness and promote alternative ways of life.

The objective of the S&SRN is to contribute to the formation of new ethics and new ways of life as an alternative to the hegemonic individualistic ethics and mainstream egocentric ways of life destroying our planet today. The models of post-individualistic ethics and post-egocentric ways of life that we promote are grounded on agency, freedom, and self-determination, but are driven by spiritual values as selflessness, solidarity, and environmental consciousness.

This is why the ultimate focus of the S&SRN is to generate knowledge for sex life transformation: because there’s no other better way of cultivating a responsible and selfless ethics than cultivating a responsible and selfless sexuality. The foundations of conscious and solidary ways of life in the 21st century are more gratifying sex lives and more responsible and selfless sexualities among individuals and communities. The sex life transformation needed depends on each case of the particular lived situation: we don’t promote any normative model. We just embrace a multiplicity of non-normative sexual, ethical, and spiritual perspectives.

Our strategy is to assemble critical theory and practice-oriented spirituality: a critical perspective on mainstream sexuality and hegemonic ways of life, on the one hand, and a spiritual perspective on sex, gender awareness, relationship, and subjectivity, on the other. We consider critical consciousness and selfless sexuality key values for a new sex positive culture grounded on ethical approaches. The intersections between sexuality and spirituality, therefore, constitute not only an interdisciplinary academic field but, above all, a source of values, practices, and techniques, a fruitful source of tools for the quotidian construction of conscious and solidary ways of life.

In this way, adult sex education, alternative sexualities, arts of living, erotic arts, and non-religious spirituality constitute alternative sources of values and practices to the mainstream sources of today’s self-centered sexualities, individualistic cultures, and egocentric lifestyles. The S&SRN tries to bridge contemporary spiritual practices and scholarly research—including not only scientific inquiry, but also cultural studies and philosophical models of conceiving reality and social life. Our intent is to contribute to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and everyday life knowledge.

Connecting researchers from all over the world—scholars and experts on specific subjects, areas of study, disciplines, and fields of research related to sexuality and/or spirituality—plus starting the networking processes required to develop multidisciplinary debates, interdisciplinary publishing projects, and transdisciplinary activities.

Recollecting data/material, compiling essays, articles or chapters for books, and diffusing research outcomes produced by research fellows or research associates supported by academic institutions, or by independent researchers.

Contributing to the dialogue between scholars coming from heterogeneous disciplines, fields and spheres, including natural sciences, social sciences, religious studies, arts, humanities, and more.

Facilitating the collaboration between scholars, professionals and practitioners, supporting real-world problem-solving research and empirically-grounded research.

Supplying the know-how to translate interdisciplinary research outcomes into programs, curriculums, guidelines, manuals, events, and activities designed and targeted to promote a sex positive culture and sex life transformation.

Providing advisory and counselling services to institutions and organizations trying to implement adult sex education, sexual health, sexual wellbeing, sex life cultivation, gender empowerment, or arts of living programs among communities around the world.

Selecting and contacting the adequate and required experts of the field demanded in each specific case, and helping them to create and design strategies to diffuse and share pertinent information and relevant practices among people in general or some communities in particular.