Author Venus O'Hara shares her journey to Orgasmic Manifestation

This Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting women who are building bold, independent businesses in the pleasure and sexual wellness space. From authors to educators to founders, these creators are helping reshape the conversation around intimacy and embodiment. In the essay below, Venus O’Hara shares how she turned her work around orgasmic manifestation into both a practice and a book.

How I discovered The O Method, aka Orgasmic Manifestation
written by Venus O'Hara
edited by SHAG staff

In March 2018, my life looked almost perfect from the outside. I was following my passion and living in Barcelona, Spain, in a penthouse apartment by the Mediterranean Sea. 
I had what many people told me was the best job in the world: reviewing sex toys and sharing my philosophy on sexuality through my website and YouTube channel. I proudly called myself an orgasm activist, a professional title I had coined for myself years earlier.

And I meant it.

My mission was simple: to raise orgasmic awareness and help people—especially women—experience more pleasure, confidence, and freedom in their sexuality. The fact that I was getting paid to do this work felt almost surreal. Few forms of activism are as joyful as helping people improve their sex lives.

Almost every week, I received messages from women around the world telling me how my work had transformed their relationship with pleasure, their bodies, and sometimes even their marriages. Those messages meant everything to me. They reminded me that what I was doing mattered. It never felt like just a job. It felt like a calling.

Although I was following my purpose in my dream city, beneath the surface, things were far less glamorous. Freelance life can be unpredictable, and the instability was starting to weigh heavily on me. Although I loved my work deeply, my income was inconsistent. Some months were good, others were stressful. At that time, my earnings barely covered my expenses, and debts had begun to accumulate. The financial pressure was constant. What most people didn’t know was that I didn’t even have a proper pillow.
Instead, I slept with my head on a folded blanket placed on top of an old mattress that had already been in the apartment when I moved in. I tried not to think about how many people had slept on it before me.

My back and neck hurt constantly. I dreamed of something as simple as a professional massage, but even that felt like a luxury I couldn’t afford. The apartment was poorly insulated and always cold, which only added to the physical discomfort.
At the same time, my social life had quietly disappeared. Several of my closest friends had left Barcelona the year before. Anyone who has lived in an international city understands this pattern: people arrive full of excitement, stay for a few years, and then move on. Suddenly, I found myself spending long stretches of time alone.
I decided to use that period of solitude to make some changes in my life. Not long after my friends left, I finally gave up alcohol and tobacco—two habits I had been wanting to quit for years.

Without my usual party friends around, it felt like the perfect moment to focus on building a healthier lifestyle. Eventually, I discovered a vegan group on Meetup that organised dinners at plant-based restaurants around Barcelona. Being meat-free in Spain often meant feeling like the odd one out—especially in a country where jamón is practically sacred. But with this group, I felt welcome.

One Friday evening, they organised a dinner at a restaurant I had been curious about for a while. The menu cost fifteen euros. That might not sound like much, but at the time, it forced me to pause. Money was tight, and the beginning of the month meant rent and bills were approaching. I stared at the event page for a long time, calculating whether I could justify the expense. After debating with myself for hours, I decided to go.
And I’m glad I did. The evening was warm and lively. The food was delicious, the conversation stimulating, and for a few hours, I felt connected again.
But when the dinner ended, reality returned.

It was raining heavily outside, and I realised I couldn’t afford a taxi—or even an umbrella. So I began the long walk home through the rain. By the time I arrived at my apartment, I was completely soaked. Standing there in my small, cold studio, I felt the weight of my financial situation more strongly than ever. That night marked a turning point.
The following day, I went to the beach and sat on the sand watching the waves crash violently against the shore. I felt mentally exhausted and emotionally drained.
Something had to change.I couldn’t continue living with this level of uncertainty and stress.

When I returned home, I opened my laptop and began searching for personal development content. At some point during that search, I came across a book I had heard about many times before: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. First published in 1937, it remains one of the most influential success books ever written. As I browsed through the chapters, one title immediately caught my attention.

The Mystery of Sex Transmutation.

My curiosity was instantly sparked. In this chapter, Hill proposes that sexual energy is one of the most powerful forces available to human beings. According to him, when this energy is consciously redirected, it can fuel creativity, ambition, and success.
The concept fascinated me. Reading it felt like discovering a hidden room inside a house I thought I already knew. But there was one problem. Hill’s interpretation seemed to suggest suppressing sexual expression in order to redirect that energy. As someone who proudly identified as an orgasm activist, that idea didn’t resonate with me at all.
I wasn’t willing to give up orgasms for the sake of success. So I kept searching.

Eventually, I stumbled across a video that introduced me to something I had never heard of before: using orgasmic energy to manifest intentions. The idea was simple.
Instead of denying sexual pleasure, you use the heightened emotional and mental state created during orgasm to focus on a specific desire. At the moment of climax, you release that intention into the universe. I was intrigued. The next day, I decided to try it.

During my self-pleasure ritual, I focused on something symbolic of abundance: avocados and cashews. They were foods I loved but couldn’t afford at the time.
As I approached orgasm, I imagined myself standing in the supermarket choosing them for a beautiful salad. The following morning, something extraordinary happened.
A client paid an invoice that had been overdue for months—money I had nearly written off completely. The funds suddenly appeared in my account.
I felt a wave of relief and disbelief. I could finally pay my rent without stress—and yes, I could buy avocados and cashews. Standing at the supermarket checkout with those ingredients in my basket, I couldn’t stop smiling.
It wasn’t just about the money. It felt like proof that something powerful had shifted.

That day—March 5th, 2018—marked the beginning of a practice that would transform my life. Over the following months, I continued experimenting with intentional erotic energy. I developed my own techniques and rituals, learning how to combine sexuality, imagination, and focused intention. Gradually, my circumstances began to change.

I paid off my debts. I moved into a larger and more comfortable apartment. My social life blossomed again. Opportunities began appearing in ways I could never have predicted.
Looking back now, I realise something important. The moment I felt most desperate was also the moment everything began to transform.

Sometimes rock bottom isn’t the end.

Sometimes it’s the doorway to an entirely new way of living.

Venus O'Hara is an internationally renowned sexual wellness expert. Since 2009, she has been sharing content on a variety of different topics related to living a conscious lifestyle. Her mission is to encourage others to live a more self-loving lifestyle, in all areas of life. She uses her own experiences and insights to inspire others. Here, she shares the affirmation meditations that have helped her on her own journey to inner peace, success and abundance. You can follow her on Instagram @VenusOhara