In his book, Integral Vision, Wilber explains that every "I" is in relation with other "We's". This implies that every "I" is a member of numerous "Us". These "Us" not only represent a subjective individual conscience, but also an inter-subjective one. (Wilber, 2007, p. 73) This inter-subjective conscience is a representation of the interiors of this space of "ours". These interiors are known as the cultural aspects, which are the values and feelings shared by a collective community. We just reviewed how interiors are interpreted and investigated through hermeneutics, and what their role can be in the conjugation of a couple's sexual orientation and styles. Now, the external representation of the cultural space, that is, how a culture looks from its exteriors, is what Wilber called Inter-objectivity. Like subjectivity, objectivity and inter-subjectivity, a culture's exterior aspects-or in other words, social systems-evolve towards more complex forms as a result of the expansion of the awareness of elements in the four quadrants.  This evolution in the quadrant of inter-objectivity of human reality, takes place when for example, tribal groups evolve toward nations and even global systems. The techno-economic ways of production of a certain group, are a reflex of the exteriors of the culture. An investigation of these modes of production and its ties to sexuality, might give us a track of the reason why non-traditional sexual orientations are more popular in some social contexts than in others. In fact, a simple glance to the evolution of the different social systems that have emerged across the history of humanity can allow us to understand how these modes of production have influenced in the configuration of the role of sexuality and the differences of genre. For example, in the modes of agrarian production, the fact that the women could not use certain types of tool gave place to the transition between the matriarchy and the patriarchy. (Wilber, 1996, p. 78) The emergence of the corporate states was one of the factors that allowed the economic growth of the working feminine class, which also modified certain norms of behavior in couple relationships.  Another example is the association Ince points out between social systems and sexuality: "...the more powerful our sexual fears, the more likely we will favor hierarchic relationships in our family, religion or government." (Ince, 2003, p. 13)

The hermeneutic circle for Mark and Ana's sexual practices has their correlations in the inter-objective world (external exchanges in a specific ecosystem). A swinger community on the internet or an open relationship couples' festival in the Netherlands work as a platform for the hermeneutic circle of swinger sexual practices to spread and consolidate. The inter-subjective agreement that takes place among multiple couples and individuals in an event of this type can nurture Mark and Ana's motivation and sensation about what's appropriate in their sexual practice and give them energy to create a swinger community in their own town.

A healthy interpretation of the mutual resonance experiences among traditional and non-traditional couples would be one that takes into account not only that pleasant sensation that others share interiors-whether to perpetuate the prevailing sexual nexus or to transcend it-but also to consider that there are other psychological, social and physiological aspects that play in the sea of possibilities that bring about a specific sexual behavior among human beings. The fact that other couples-whether monogamous or polygamous-understand each other perfectly in terms of their interior and shared feelings regarding a healthy sexuality, it does not mean that the rest of sexual orientations are bad, immoral, or the result of any type of repression, alienation or dissociation that takes place in any of the dimensions of reality. 

This integral vision about the factors that tetra-interact to configure the individuals' sexual behavior is key for the variety of healthy erotic practices that are welcomed and tolerated.  In this way, their healthy development will be possible, in a pleasant path towards integral evolution of human sexuality that allows for the discovery of a new horizon that transcend but yet include previous erotic experiences, leaving open spaces for the inclusion of a range of possibilities to fully enjoy our sexual and romantic strength in this earthly life.

Continued from last post...

If subjectivity has an internal aspect to it, -Mark's interpretation of the present moment-, inter-subjectivity also has an internal aspect that is not tangible.  An example of this is when at a specific moment in a conversation with a friend; suddenly we look at each other's eyes and feel that we understand each other perfectly. We feel that at that precise moment we share the same emotion, a similar experience, a pleasant sympathy. That feeling of resonance is the internal part of a cultural space. That internal resonance-or dissonance-is what allows me to understand or interpret, within a collective space between two or more people, another person's internal spaces.  The discipline that deals with how I can understand and interpret someone is hermeneutics, "which is the art and science of interpretation." (Wilber, 2007, p. 156)

Hermeneutics plays a very relevant role in the dynamics of sexual orientation in couples. Going back to Mark's case, if he wishes to have an open relationship due to the way in which his inner and outer circumstances interacted, it can be that he will get in trouble if his cultural space is not in line with his values and his wish to form a relationship of that type. This can lead Mark to feeling culturally isolated in his sexual expectations, and his fragmented interpretation of this isolation can lead him to break several relationships due to his feeling of being unsatisfied with them. 

Clearly we were able to see in the part about subjective intentionality, how the way Mark internalized and incorporated family experiences to his inner world contributed to the construction of his Ego structure and sexual preferences. The dynamics of how these interpretations and internal feelings overlap with the rest of members of his culture and his family corresponds to the cultural dimension of reality. In this case, communities of people that share a swinger life style have shared interiors regarding that specific topic.

The authentic application of hermeneutics tries to understand the interiors of another sentient being. According to Wilber, hermeneutics as mode of inquiry can only comprehend the cultural space in a group of people in terms of their past (Wilber, 2003). Through dialog, a couple can discover which aspects of their cultural and personal past led them to having a specific preference for traditional marriage or an open marriage. If they discover that both have a predisposition to an open marriage, both will be in the same dominant Sexual Nexus. Let us remember that a Nexus is a "...space in which two holons touch in any fashion." The Nexus will run the interactions these individuals have, and therefore will make them more prone to getting together as a couple and seek other relations whose interactions are influenced by that space.  

At this moment we are focusing exclusively on internal features of collective spaces shared by couples open to non-traditional practices. These cultural networks can be called inter-subjective; they have latent or manifest aspects, conscious or unconscious, and here is where the importance of hermeneutics comes in for the discovery of this type of dynamics.  If Mark and Ana go to a resort exclusive for open couples and start to talk with Nancy and George-another couple staying at the hotel-at the time they start to communicate, Nancy and George will no longer be strangers for Mark and Ana, and they will start to exist as "others" in both of their internal subjective spaces.  This incorporation of Nancy and George into Mark and Ana's internal space is what will allow them to get close as potential companions in an open relationship that comes about as a result of a mutual resonance of such internal spaces. The key question here is which are the common experiences these two couples can have so as to allow them to have this mutual resonance.

Many swinger couples, for instance, justify their behavior and perpetuate their practice on the basis of this shared subjectivity that they feel when interacting with other couples with similar interiors. Although often times this type of open relationships base their practice on biological and scientific grounds-like the influence of sexual hormones in the search for a variety of erotic experiences-, many more have actually built a world, a reality based on symbols and experiences and mutual interpretations of these sexual experiences. These experiences get imbedded in the cultural environments and can be accessed through some type of inter-subjectivity. Mark and Ana can exchange with George and Nancy on the multiple occasions in which their previous partners were unfaithful to them, how religion retrenched their sexual potential, or how the sexual flaccidity of their sexual relations with other people moved them to have a more open sexual life style. George and Nancy look at each other in excitement and show with enthusiasm how similar experiences led them to choose a swinger life style. This means that both couples interpreted these experiences in similar ways, which generates an authentic resonance among the 4 of them.    This resonance will give certain foundation to such interpretations, "...hermeneutic validity claims can be redeemed in the circle of inter-subjective solidarity." (Wilber, 2003) This is what Wilber calls inter-subjective justness or appropriateness and what represents the axis of validity in hermeneutics. 

Continued from last post...

We could start getting clues as to whether it is possible to positively integrate both worlds: sexual variety and harmonic family stability. 

We could conclude that a person who has managed to cope with his shadow -"denial of my own feelings, impulses, thoughts and desires"- (Wilber, 2007, p. 124) and who has managed to figure out the lies they tell themselves about his sexual orientation, has reached a level of awareness that will perhaps allow them to understand if that sexual openness is the result of a evolving envelopment, or a psychogenous pathology.

From this point of view, what is important for a thorough investigation of the psycho-sexual subjective dimension to unveil, would be to understand to what extent the subject is aware of the aspects of his determinism (Kosmic Karma ) that define his preference for monogamy or polygamy-or any sexual orientation that is not accepted by the prevailing nexus- and which are guided by his ability to free will or his contact with his true Self. This means that the emergence of sexual conducts is in general always guided by the karmic past of the individual, but also that this karmic past combines with free unfolding of our creative novelty. Wilber explores this topic in the second part of Excerpt C as follows: "This intentionality or agency is freely emerging or unfolding in each moment, and enfolding or enveloping its previous moment (free will plus determinism, creativity plus karma)"  (Wilber, 2003)

The key question here is which of these patterns rising from this combination of karmic past with creative novelty are healthy and which are not. The answer, undoubtedly, will depend on what perspective it springs from. Different forms of acting and figuring out reality will bring different answers. At first sight, you could say that what is healthy or unhealthy has equivalence in each dimension of reality. In the subjective dimension, what's healthy will be determined by the game of association/dissociation, alienation/integration, denial/transcendence of the internal aspects of the psyche. But also an individual who has discovered that his alternative sexual orientation is healthy, could have a clash with his cultural and social prevailing nexus, which might have a totally different notion of what is sexually healthy, according to the socio-graph  that has built that notion. In the same way, the objective-empirical dimension of reality will present several challenges to healthy practice of non-traditional ways of sexual bonds. A mistake could lead participants to get a sexually transmitted disease that could end with their life. Without mentioning other aspects that are not to be separated from the perspectives of what is healthy in a specific sexual behavior, such as lines of development (multiple intelligences), typology (e.g., male or female) or the level of awareness (altitude) from those who build such perspectives.  

Going back to phenomenological and structural subjectivity of non-traditional sexual behaviors, what these ways of approaching reality cannot discover, are the cultural, physiological and social aspects that determine a couple's tolerance to having alternative sexual practices. Just like Freudian psychosexual development cannot determine the dynamics of the human being just based on interpretation, reflection or introspection of  an individual's childhood experiences, the way people get together as couples does not only respond to the psychological factors of those who make up the relationship, but also are linked to aspects of the other horizons of reality.

Let us explore now the cultural horizons and how their intersections influence the construction of our sexual behavior within non-traditional couple relationships. In regards to subjectivity aspects seen from outside, it is still pending, amongst other things, to go into the different forms of sexual orientations that might rise at different altitude levels , depending on the level of awareness of those individuals who act it, as well as all the vicissitudes related to the verticality of sexual behaviors.