Beverley Drumm, a former business analyst in London, experienced a yogasm at the first yoga class she attended. "It was so intense I cried," says Beverley, 50.
"I went up to the teacher afterwards and said I wanted to learn more."
That was six years ago. She now teaches the technique in her own yoga classes.
According to practitioners, the yogasm requires not a specific position but a state of mind - it may take weeks, months or years of physical workouts to achieve it. But it is most often achieved during Kundalini, a form of deep meditative yoga designed to lead to spiritual awakening.
"The Kundalini orgasm is not just a physical orgasm, but far beyond it," explains Drumm, "like a huge release of energy. I get involuntary spasms and a ripple of energy through me, and experience the most intense ecstasy."
But how does it work? Barbara Carrellas, a 60-year-old former Broadway producer and author, has been achieving - and teaching others to achieve - yogasms for three decades.
The trick, she says, is to focus your attention not on your Lotus asana, but on your breath.
"It's about working the pelvic floor," she explains.
"What we don't understand so well in the Western world is that orgasm is an energetic event and not just a physical one. It's holistic and has to do with your breath changing. If you take away the genital stimulation, all the other stimuli remain, which are much more a part of orgasm than we realise."
A yogasm does not always feel the same as a physical orgasm, but is experienced all over the body.
"Some people do have a genital orgasm at the same time, though, and spontaneous orgasms can happen, too," she says.
Anyone can achieve yogasm, she insists - even men.
"If you believe it's possible, it is. I teach people to breath more fully and deeply than they usually do. I ask them to use their imagination and move this energy through their body. It's like meditation."
A male Australian friend who has attended Kundalini classes reports having enjoyed the experience a little too much.
"It was so relaxing, I fell asleep," he says.
"All the women were having a very different experience. I closed my eyes because I didn't know where to look, with all the moaning and groaning."
According to Carrellas, the body is naturally primed to climax, and only social conditioning and self-control stops it happening spontaneously more often.
"The reason more people don't orgasm on a beautiful day in London is they don't permit themselves to," she says.
"Orgasm is the body's natural way of releasing tension, so it will seek out ways to go there if we let it."
My own yoga teacher, Susan Yates, has yet to witness anyone in her class having an yogasm - but says that the practice is beneficial in the bedroom.
"People will sometimes text me saying that they felt euphoric after a class or that they have had better sex because of it.
"They feel more alive in their relationships, and from that they might have a better sex life."
For me? Well, that's between me, my husband and my yoga mat.
