Chester Mainard

Chris first met Chester on the set of a video production for Joseph Kramer’s The New School of Erotic Touch. Joseph, founder of the Body Electric School, had met Chester in the 1990s and invited him into teaching massage and erotic touch. We’ll share more about Joseph’s legacy and our shared lineage soon.

Chester Mainard was one of the great teachers in the Body Electric School lineage of erotic touch and queer sex wisdom. He taught at Body Electric from the 1990s until his death in 2007.

Chester Mainard was the primary teacher of massage and touch for the Body Electric School for many years. He was also the primary innovator of the anal massage techniques, bringing his love and reverence for the body to this most sensitive of areas.

Chester Mainard was also a fearless explorer of breath work, developing what he called “The Anal Breath” to draw our attention to the pelvic floor’s involvement in human breathing.

For three years, from 2003 – 2006 Chris studied and worked with Chester with the urgency of new love. Chris trained with Chester in the modalities of massage, breathwork, erotic touch and Sexological Bodywork.

Chester was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, an invasive brain cancer in 2006. The night before surgery, at his request, Chris sat with Chester in the Berkeley hills and read him Walt Whitman’s poetry for hours.

Chester woke up from his brain surgery unable to speak, swallow and with no movement down his right side – but he woke with an urgency to live. He sang before he spoke, learning to use his half-paralyzed tongue to once again share his sharp wit and boundless wisdom.

For the next 9 months, Chester lived with brain cancer. Chris lived with him, offering him daily care and support, wheelchair dance parties and lots of gentle touch.

Chester Mainard died on his family land in the arms of loved ones.

We are forever grateful for the life and teachings of Chester Mainard.

The post Chester Mainard appeared first on Pleasure Mechanics.