Eroto-comatose lucidity is a technique of sex magic known best by its formulation by English author and occultist Aleister Crowley in 1912, but which has several variations and is used in a number of ways by different spiritual communities.
[3] He points out that Paschal Beverly Randolph ("arguably the single most important figure in the rise of modern sexual magic")[4] called this ritualistic state the "sleep of Sialam.
"[3] Randolph first discussed the "sleep of Sialam" in his 1873 work Ravalette, but described it at the time as a once-in-a-century prophetic trance.
[5] In later writings, Randolph used the term as a more general form of clairvoyant sleep used to understand spiritual things.
[3][5] Later, Blavatsky altered her understanding of the rite to mean that drug-induced trance-like state in which a new initiate first comprehends spiritual things.
[5] This was described in Blavatsky's 1888 work Secret Doctrine,[3][5] and she taught that the ritualistic state allowed the individual to either commune with the gods, descend into hell, or perform spiritual acts.
[1] Religious scholar Hugh Urban, however, concludes that, for Crowley, aides of the same gender as the ritualist (e.g., homosexual activity) was the highest stage of practice of this ritual.
[1] This step is repeated indefinitely until the ritualist reaches a state between sleep and wakefulness in which communing with a higher power may occur.
[1][8] Jason Newcomb, however, concludes that sexual exhaustion achieved through repeated orgasm may also lead to the ritualistic state and does not necessarily end the rite.
[2] A similar rite of sexual exhaustion described by Crowley leads not to spiritual communing but a sort of vampirism.
His concept of Luciferianism incorporates Crowley's ideas about sexual exhaustion, but concludes that the ritualist's will is what sends the spirit forth to bond with higher power.