CONCEPTUALIZATION THROUGH PERCEPTUALIZATION AND IMAGING

Jack Schwarz said he would have been a Yogi practicing positions if he had been born into the appropriate culture, instead he practiced Western Inner Yoga; he could have called it Free Thought “Full Spectrum” Zen Buddhism. Jack pointed out that transcendence is what keeps the universe healthy; saying perceptions rather than static belief systems need to form our conceptions. Perceptions are based upon sensory experience and knowing. He suggested our concepts should be based upon current perceptions projected through a dynamic belief system onto past experiences. Perceptions are generated by our senses, thought processes, and manners of self-expression, alterations in these perceptions will change the types of experiences we have.

It has been said that attachment is the root of all suffering. We construct our own reality to a great extent dependent on our perceptions and concepts. Attitudes and beliefs determine our future experiences. Attempts to transcend our personal reality distortion fields through conscious denial or erasure can be more than frustrating, since nature hates voids and vacuums.  Instead of attempting to detach, the best way to become free of unwanted thought forms and beliefs is to allow yourself to become unattached. Like somebody telling you to not think about pink monkeys, the best way to release thoughts is to replace them. Through substitution or transposition, they can be allowed to dissipate instead of empowered. Most things balance themselves to a natural state if not perturbed by the conscious control of a mind obsessed from ideals, desires, morality, cultures, feelings of guilt, despair, disgust, shame; or deflected and perverted by social programming to the point where universal forces cannot remain in balance. When agitated by passion, frustration, and turmoil, waves and ripples need to be calmed one at a time by taking away the disruptive winds of mind and thought.

Tantra is aimed at depolarization through sharing, facilitating fusion that releases energy. Couples who learn to commune and communicate aren’t dependant on the sex act to remove polarities, share energies, integrate and move into balance. The longer they know each other, and the more history they have as a couple, the more that imaging and memories play a part. Recognition and body language are significant components of a consummate tantric relationship. Trust is a word that doesn’t exist in every language; those who speak Portuguese have to use the word for confidence. The concept of surrender of self to the good will and intentions of another person is almost sacred, and benefits from constant confirmation. One of the most joyous moments in a tantric experience is when you can reflect on the physical reality of a complementary thread that has intersected the other threads in the fabric of your life, to lend stability, strength, love and compassion.

Jack Schwarz told me he didn’t need to be face to face with a person to feel and see their aura, or the ray entering their energy body, that’s when I understood why photographing a person in a manner that reveals their inner being is so interesting. Flowers, scenery, abstract images and animals can be interesting subjects, but nothing like gazing through the open windows of another soul. Personal images, especially loving and erotic content can increase and multiply essences and energies in an exponential manner. The world is information and technology driven. Media content and the Internet can be used to focus the mindstream. Tools, techniques, visual phenomenon and artificial mechanisms exist now that could never have been imagined thousands of years ago. Media that includes recording, playback, and display methods available today have changed the rules for Tantra. Sound recordings can take the place of chanting Mantras, and video displays can substitute Yantras. Ceremonies, rituals, gestures, repetition, prayer, breathing and yoga techniques for the physical body are all capable of being at least partially substituted by Creative Perceptualization and Conceptualization.

Mantras (vibrational stimulation) and Yantras (visualizations), are basic to many meditational practices, be they physically or merely mentally expressed. A very useful tool for combining Mantra and Yantra is waiting for everybody who has a computer with Windows operating systems. Windows Media Player comes with an underappreciated, seldom utilized, mind altering option called visualizations. By right clicking on the screen while playing music, a drop down menu appears. Clicking on visualizations, a sub menu appears with other options. Selecting Alchemy gives you a randomized display of intriguing visualizations capable of taking you on a cosmic journey. Selecting ‘Battery’ provides another submenu containing dozens of options that can be very interesting. Visualizations can also be downloaded from the internet and integrated into the Media Player program. Having the ability to translate sound waves into dynamic visual representations of geometric forms, pulsing and shooting while mutating goes way beyond simply listening to music or a chant while staring at a static image. Attaching a computer to a large panel display or projector, the right music or vibrations can by hypnotizing. Creative visualization, lucid dreaming, and self-guided hypnotic states have much in common. When psychedelic music appeared at concerts in the 60’s, projected loops of celluloid film, together with intense light projected through glass trays of colored gels and oils were needed for an operator to be able to produce something appropriate to accompany the stage show. Using screen capture programs, you can now compose and record content that was not even imaginable in that pre-laser light era. Mongolian and Tuvan throat singing harmonics, simple chanting, trance dance, tranquil music for concentrative meditation, or fusion music for contemplative meditation all produce different visual representations.

By using a projector pointed at the ceiling, or reflected into a mirror, images can be watched while in bed or in a horizontal position. This is also a great way to watch other video, especially personal erotic content. It’s better than a mirror mounted over your bed. Recognition, sensations, and body language are important elements in Tantra. Personal identification with images of love, compassion, empathy and sharing with a partner has never been as easy. Computers and high definition cameras recording with sophisticated circuits ‘democratized’ production of high quality personal videos. Equipment prices came down, and the quality went up when mechanical transports were no longer needed in consumer camcorders. Modern tools have made a reality of our desire to record ourselves in any manner we choose. Flash memory and computers provide a manner to preserve our memories while protecting private content from unauthorized eyes. USB flash drives are available with built in encryption security, and even access protection. Just as with hard drives, content can also be password protected.

The technology behind flash drives has been with us longer than CDs or DVDs, and USB connections are likely to outlast optical and mechanical transports needed to display discs. Most people are unaware flash memory doesn’t wear out from reading the information, it’s writing and erasing thousands of times that can cause corruption. As prices come down, and storage density increases, flash memory will continue to take over. The newest and best laptops from Apple have already done away with optical and mechanical transports. Now of course we have ‘the Cloud’, but before your flash memories are gone, we’ll have crystals or something else for the long term. Privacy is another issue. You can wrap things up in a series of password protected .RAR file ‘containers’, then just make sure you never forget the codes. If you need to write them down, obfuscate the passwords by inserting or deleting a symbol that is easy for you to remember. If your long passwords contain letters, numbers, and also symbols, the computer power and time needed to break the codes of the shells within the shells approaches infinity, making it all but impossible for somebody to violate your content protection unless they have access to US Defense Department Equipment. Even if you store yourself in ‘the Cloud’, you don’t have much to worry about if your content is properly protected. 

We possess capacity for a new neuro-atomic sense, where thoughts and ideas can rapidly change the face and borders of nations. Info-technology and media innovations have only begun to leave their mark on humanity’s evolution as the 21st Century re-wires our brains for changes in society and living conditions. During the last generations, children have grown up with different influences. Their heightened ability to communicate with the “Ghost in the Machine’ is obvious when compared to their grandparents.

We live in the Quantum age, where fractions (quantum) are understood as the basis for our physical reality. When earth, wind, fire, and water were believed to be the only four physical elements that existed, Deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA), space travel, and the internet would have been impossible to explain. Ancient fundamentalists formulated their correlations through traditions and perceptions instead of hard science, reason, or logic. During the journey to Free Thought and Quantum recognition, the human mind, through the collective unconscious, expanded and evolved to new levels along both material and immaterial pathways. Our mind currents became more accustomed to anomalous recognition, out of body experiences, lucid dreaming, remote viewing, astral projection, and uncharacteristic sensory perception. Beginning to understand particles and waves on a quantum level, we developed notions of atomic and subatomic levels involving biological-electromagnetic impulses. The similarity of these electromagnetic pulses to radio and television transmission suggests they likewise radiate outwards forever. This concept allows a rational basis for reasoning and understanding concerning how our thoughts are actual objects, with physical substance and a scientific nature.  What sets us apart from radio or television is our ability to think about what we are thinking, and have bidirectional interaction and interchange. Our consciousness possesses self-awareness because of our minds, a by product our Soul’s individuation from Spirit. Neuron columns and electrical impulses in our brains have no more self-consciousness than a radio; there is more to life than chemicals and electrical current. It’s interaction between Soul and Spirit that imparts life to the physical form manifested through our ethereal bodies, and gives our minds the ability to receive as well as send via wave forms and frequency threads. The more that hardcore mathematicians and scientists explore the reaches of both human thought and physics, searching for the Higgs boson and reality threads, the more the hand of an ineffable Absolute is revealed.

Some find solace in the belief reincarnation does not exist; when you’re dead the game is over. Either life is so bad they don’t want to repeat it, or they are convinced they don’t deserve another chance. Those who have passed through near death experiences, or returned to finish their work after entering ‘Clear Light’ can’t prove anything through the exact sciences, but seem to agree on many things. Once again, neuro chemical phenomenon might be involved, but what if in fact, just as they say happens in other planes, conceptions and beliefs at the time of our passing have much to do with our communion and assimilation, the illusion of separateness ends, but we remain as channels for some sort of divine self-awareness?

Taken metaphysically for its mythical and metaphoric value, the ‘original sin’ fable of Adam and Eve, becoming conscious and then needing to deal with a new reality, can be compared to assuming a savings or debit account belonging to the collective consciousness deposited in the Akasha, the collective history and knowledge of humankind. It’s another way of looking at Karma from a collective viewpoint.  Shamanistic beliefs originating in Siberia, where the word Shaman came from, suggest an account that receives, stores, and distributes resources, receiving energy  and life force essence as deposits to be shared and ‘downloaded’. Others who are synchronized with the account also have access and can distribute available resources.

Sexual energy, the strongest force in universe, the energy of creation, is the most powerful force of spiritual transformation. Love, the basic energy wave from which everything is created, is sexual energy transformed. Sexual communion involving a loving couple carries them back and forth to their divine origin: Tantric lovers use exchange and integration of loving energies during sexual union to become one with the higher self, Oneness, Consciousness, Awareness, or Absolute in cosmic communion. Focusing on where and to who this sacred energy is directly could be the greatest contribution human beings could hope to make. 

Not everybody was born to live with another person, be a parent, touch or be touched. Some prefer to ignore the existence of God or the Devil until one of them bites their ass. Love is impossible to describe to a person who has never experienced it, and easy to deny for that reason. For those who claim love is a biochemical phenomenon, as rock poet-songwriter Lou Reed said in ‘Street Hassle’, “It’s either the best or it’s the worst, and since I don’t have to choose, I guess I won’t”. When Morgan Freeman asked Jack Nicholson at the end of the movie ‘The Bucket List’, what if he is mistaken in his belief God does not exist, Nicholson’s character replies, “Then I win!” meaning he will get a nice surprise.  Only near the end of life’s game does he realize what he missed. The last item on his ‘kick the bucket’ wish list was to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world before dying. He finally has a chance to meet his little granddaughter in his final days, kiss her and feel the love he had shut himself off to.  Belief in love, and the existance a divine fabric isn’t an obligation, it’s an opportunity.

RED TANTRA, DARK TANTRA, BLACK TANTRA, and CLEAR LIGHT YOGA

Tantra is a term that can lead people to hear and believe what they have been programmed for by conditioning. Colors are often used to differentiate between practices, though fine lines certainly don’t exist to separate them. Full Spectrum Tantra is very different from traditional White Tantra. White is a combination of colors visible to the human eye, whereas the electromagnetic spectrum extends far beyond ultraviolet, into the telecommunications frequencies. White Tantra is refered to as the right hand path, dealing with philosophical doctrines of merging masculine and feminine energies within the practitioner, avoiding outward physical sex reaching a climax. It uses orgasmic energy to surrender and become an instrument of the Divine as a way to obtain guidance while on a journey. In this case, orgasms are astral or ‘external’.

These ‘colored’ descriptions for Tantra should not be confused with the practice of ‘Clear Light’ Yoga. Although Yoga is generally considered a form of Tantra, and Yoga refers to ‘union’, certainly an element of Tantra, Clear Light Yoga does not always include elements of compassion and integration with partners, or mankind in general. Like many advanced Yoga disciplines, it involves death, or near death experiences, the time of passing ‘into clear light’ understood to be similar or identical to the experience of a definitive sexual orgasm. The Yogi might take advantage of this entrance in the Bardo to assist other souls or entities to evolve, find release, or unite with the Divine. The practice of Clear Light Tantra might do the same, while remaining connected to the planet earth through the sharing of sexual essences with a partner. Silver threads connecting those in lucid dreams, or astral and out of body experiences with their physical bodies, can be compared to the threads in the fabric of Tantra connecting partners during their sessions.

One reason the guidance of a Guru or capacitated instructor is recommended for students of esoteric practices involves the dangers of out of body experiences, and the loss of contact with the reality shared with other entities. Out of control practices, conceptions, and perceptions can do damage to oneself, along with others; that is why some knowledge, especially regarding things like Black Tantra, is kept secretive. Dark practices, hedonism, and dense energy planes can get complicated, and there are no guarantees when messing around in psychic swamps and the afterworld. Not everybody wants to return from a death experience, the best cosmic surfers and swimmers can take a bad dive. Even those with the experience and capacity of a person like Jack Schwarz can get lost. He had the ability to close his chakras, and then open them up again. A born showman, he used to demonstrate his talent for researchers and students, until one day when he closed his heart chakra, and then became distracted. When he went on to close another chakra, he died. Chakras, being components of the human energy system, need to be able to function in order for the energy body to breathe in and out. Like the serpent in the kundalini chakra coiled 3 ½ times at the base of the spine with its tail in its mouth, the other major chakras also must have vortices rotating 3 ½ times in one direction, and then reversing. Each major chakra is related to organs and the endocrine glands, Jack had shut himself down. Luckily there was a medical physician in the crowd when Jack put on his show, he resuscitated him. It took Jack a while to get over the after effects; he learned his lesson and stopped showing off by closing down his energy system. If Jack could slide and fall, so can other incarnates.

 Just as when looking for lawyer, doctor, mechanic or technician, you can get a guide, guru, or teacher that is less than perfect. Being guided by spirits can be as problematic, just because an entity lacks a physical body doesn’t mean they are superior or have something to offer. I think of communal Tantra with a lover like spiritually swimming or surfing on God’s surfboard while employing the ‘buddy system’. The practice of spiritual Tantra has the advantage and security of communion with a companion, along with the Divine Absolute. Darkness cannot exist where there is light, dense energies are destroyed or rendered powerless by high frequencies. The primary goal of all spiritual Tantra practices includes focusing on the radiance of the mind stream in its essential nature, with either a physical or imaginary partner. White Tantra is less democratic, being the least inclusive form, rejecting many practices it considers aberrations.

If angels have a Tantra, it must be Pink, cultivating love without attachment, possession, or expectations. In the case of this flavor of Tantra, connections are developed without emotional involvement.

Red Tantra is sometimes called ‘Sacred Sex’ in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Refered to as the left hand path, gestures (Mudras), repetition (Japa) sound (Mantra), visuals (Yantra), and breathing may be combined with massage and tactile stimulation to produce full body orgasms. Practiced with a partner or group, communion and integration may accompany physical orgasms in the process of becoming one with the Divine. My understanding is Red Tantra was originally a highly advanced spiritual practice in India, only taught to those who had mastered White Tantra, the focus through Red Tantra being on thoroughly exploring the bliss, ecstasy, and pleasure of love making. It is associated with sex sessions lasting for hours, ideally leading to multiple, seizure type orgasms, without or without ejaculation. Practiced with a partner, the union is considered a form of worship that creates not only an intense physical bond with the partner, but also union with the Universe through the joining of heart, mind, body, and spirit.  All chakras are involved in the connection, directed towards euphoria transcending the physical act of sex, reaching a high level of spiritual vibration.

Dark Tantra is a fusion of Red Tantra with Sex Tantra (or Sex Magic) often including role playing, usually involving either submission or surrender. Since there is no fine line between Dark and Red, or Dark and Black Tantra, nor surrender or submission, it all depends on your projections and point of view. It makes me think about the Masochist and the Sadist, where the Masochist pleads “Beat me, please beat me!”, and the Sadist refuses, being truly cruel by saying “No!”

Dark Tantra is a challenge to define, considered a recent term produced by Western civilization. Associated or confused with Black Tantra, and commonly being promulgated by sex professionals on the Internet who indicate larger financial donations are required for Dark Tantra sessions. Preliminary sessions are normally required before a student can be fully exposed to more intense disciplines, sliding scale rates are charged for the degree of illumination and satisfaction expected from these ‘$piritualized’ sex professionals. The priestess often needs to hear about their client’s fantasies beforehand, since submission, bondage, domination, erotic hypnosis, strap-on toys, teasing and denial, drugs, breathe play and goddess worship may be called for. Some of these ‘spiritual escorts’ claim credibility by calling themselves Dakinis, which is not good news for real life Dakinis.

Dark Tantra was invented in western civilizations out of necessity for those suffering from western religions. Childhoods crippled by repression, subjugation, denial, and desires treated as sinful, usually produces guilt, shame, and blame, often leading to anger and hatred of one’s self. Feelings of worthlessness, or the need to be punished, are evident in many seeking help through Dark Tantra. The unfortunate result of guilt and shame can be a lifetime of carrying around luggage and dark memories. Trying to force yourself to forget, or attempting to disconnect yourself is much more difficult that allowing yourself to be unconnected through expression and release. Most everybody carries denseness of some sort; the path to enlightenment helps us face these shadow forms through the focusing of consciousness, sometimes by playing out the script and facing consequences through role playing. Fantasies involve adult parents with children or their babysitters, uncles with nieces, teachers with students, children with children, photographers with young models, doctors and dentists with their patients and nurses, and of course porn producers with actresses. These fantasies share the theme of guardians and children, or young and old being together, sharing sex and/or love for the purpose of spiritual union or pleasure. Tantra was originally born in a place and time when children and young people were included and treasured for their psychic potential, purity, innocence and rightful position in spiritual ceremonies, pursuits, and practices. Denial of natural latencies and curiosities in a culture where many families don’t openly discuss sexuality can produce walking time bombs that too often express themselves with violence, or some form of psycho-sociopathic disorder. Common to all forms of traditional ‘colored’, along with pseudo-Tantra, is the understanding that repression leads to corruption and sociological abuse, denial increases desire in most cases, guilt and shame that evolve during maturation lead to social ills and suffering by individuals, and all result in societal pollution.

Black Tantra defies strict definition. Black isn’t a color, it’s a total absence of light, pure darkness. Broad interpretations accompany this discipline shrouded in taboos and warnings. It’s used by some, especially traditionalists, to describe any tantric practice that includes ejaculation, considering it sinful. Historically however, it involves dark forces, re-absorption of the sperm, virtually or physically into the urethra, through the power of the mind. Some consider it to be anal sex during Tantra, although for altruistic purposes, this same practice is sometimes considered as Dark or Red Tantra. In more radical and sinister forms, Black Tantra is associated with manipulation of kundalini energy through redirection and control by the mind. A gland near the tailbone is often focused on; its function not defined by western physiologists, but sometimes refered to as the Kundalini gland. Visualizations and rituals involving dense energies are employed to attempt transformation of beings into semi-demons and Black Tantra Magicians. Simply put, Black Tantra utilizes subconscious creative power accessed during sexual arousal that is totally disassociated from love and God, the purpose being to manipulate others. Warnings about needing a guide are based on the dangers of such practices. Plastic Gurus and genuine real-life Drukpas in Asia exploit others and their wallets, turning them into psychic slaves through Tantric Sex Vampirism, and various forms of thought control that feeds off the human energy of others. Many have returned from Asia in much worse shape than when they arrived, very ill and carrying a lot of undesirable baggage along.

For those who insist on the nonexistence of anything Divine, their hopelessness can find refuge in celebrations of a Tantric Black Mass (Black Sabbath). It’s kind of like proclaiming, “OK God, if you really do exist, come down here and kick my sorry butt!” When a Tantric Black Mass is carried out with sincerity to gain personal power, it inverts normal tantric practices. The idea is to become liberated from Christian symbolism through defiance, using eroticism to free individuals from superstition. Rituals, restraints and exchange of bodily fluids might include black candles carefully arranged to allow dark energies access to the fun and games. Re-absorption of fluids, combined with manifestation and exchange of evil essences are intended to provide a long night filled with thrills and excitement, and a permanent reservation where it never gets cold. I think of malevolent flavored Black Tantra as anti-Tantra, an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, since Tantra is illumination accompanied by expansion, liberty, and integration.  Black Magic is a better way to describe a discipline nobody is supposed to reveal or talk about, as if Hollywood movies and certain musical groups haven’t already given us the needed instructions.

In its best manifestations, governed by discipline and integrity, alchemical transmutations can be precipitated by Dark and Black Tantra, but not always controlled. On the path of alchemy, we are all victims and masters, capable of being caught in cosmic crossfire, and prey to some form of astral vampirism. In its worst manifestations, Black Tantra is ‘the Devil’s Tail Tantra’, involving psychic vampirism, hungry ghosts, astral attacks, mind control, brainwashing, and a sidereal swamp of psychosomatic consequences from suggestions planted, and rituals observed. If you like violence and bloody video games, horror films, despair, and taking a chance swimming in some psychic swamp, you don’t have to practice Satan’s version of Black Tantra to experience the dark side if you live near a Blockbuster Video and Game Rental Store. 

ORGANIZED RELIGIOUS TANTRA

At the shallow end of the Neotantra gene pool we have the expansionist plans brought to the Pacific Northwest in the early 80s by Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (i.e. Guru Blessed Mr. Rajneesh) and his organization. Also known as Osho, sometimes refered to as the Sex Guru, he set up his Rajneeshpuram Ashram Carnival in the high desert of Northeastern Oregon near the town of Antelope. At first the immigrants were welcomed by the local ranchers as saviors flooding the community with money, driving up property values, and giving long time residents dreams of wealth. Osho’s ashram threw a lot of money around for social projects, attempting to gain political clout and control of the region. That’s when a modern day range war broke out, with locals fearing they would lose control of their culture and future.

I had my first newspaper job at that time, working in Oregon for a publisher who was a State Politician. He went to the hills representing the people of the State, but got his gonads and neurons worked over. He stayed longer than planned, and came back like an acid-stoned hippie from the summer of love, thinking Oregon should give the newcomers a break. I have to say the change in his demeanor was welcome; he was much easier to get along with. His wife wasn’t exactly on the bandwagon; she brought him back to the reality distortion field they shared. The media had a field day, and contributed to the animosity between the opposing parties.

The newspaper folded shortly after we ran stores and showed photos of the red-robed faithful lined up along the dirt roads like in some banana republic, greeting Osho daily when he drove by in one of his 93 Rolls Royce luxury automobiles. His plan was to become the largest single owner of the most expensive luxury car in the world; his followers wanted him to have 365, one for each day of the year. He also had a small fleet of airplanes, along with an airport at his Ashram.

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada might have been impressed, he was the founder of ISKCON, The International Society of Krishna Consciousness who Osho seemed determined to outshine. For all his charm, charisma, and lovability, the Bhagwan and his inner circle let delusions of grandeur run wild, unable or unwilling to distinguish between the material and immaterial. Compassion for mankind took a backseat, and his message got obfuscated. After Rajneeshpuram folded, Tantra became even more misunderstood by the public, and associated with aspects the religious right uses to threaten principles held sacred by the Moral Majority.

You would have thought Osho’s band learned their lesson before leaving India, where their expansion plans had already been thwarted by the denial of land use permits. Then the government stopped issuing visas to foreign visitors who indicated his ashrams as their main destination. The situation repeated itself in Oregon. Issues once again involved land use, zoning, and attempts to take over local cities (Antelope, the nearest, had a population of 50, whereas 7,000 lived on his 64,000 acre Rajneeshpuram Ashram).  Accused unjustly or not of various infractions, including ‘bio-attack’ poisoning of a restaurant salad bar in an Oregon restaurant, the police raided and confiscated the huge estate, its buildings, planes, and all the limousines. Tax problems were the organizations’ downfall, Oregon Courts confiscated much of what he accumulated, and his lawyers got the rest, bringing the party to an end.

He seemed to have worn out his welcome in his home country, declaring orthodox Indian religions dead, filled with empty rituals, and oppressing followers with fears of damnation and the promise of blessings. Calling Mahatma Gandhi a masochist, Osho authored many books on his version of Neotantra, in addition to volumes concerning meditation, Taoism, Buddhism, mysticism, and what he called his ‘Book of Secrets’. In March of 1984, Osho predicted the death of two-thirds of humanity from AIDS. Followers were required to wear rubber gloves and condoms when having sex, and to refrain from kissing. In fact, public affection and kissing is socially unacceptable in most parts of the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia, even shaking hands is rare. He might have been ahead of his time insisting on condoms, the measures were considered an overreaction back then, not yet commonly recommended for prevention of AIDS. He suffered from health problems, and did everything he could to stay in the United States, dying in New Jersey where he underwent medical treatment during 1990.

Some members of his organization fled the country; some were extradited from Europe and served prison time. The impression is that more than from external forces, Osho was victimized by certain members administrating his organization.  His legacy includes authors, self proclaimed Dakinis, sexologists, massage instructors and convention organizers, some loved and well respected. His Religious Empire and Rajneeshpuram Ashram in the Hills above Baker Oregon might have been a flash in the pan, but at least he pumped a lot of money into the local economy for a while.

For better or worse, the Pacific Northwest inherited a culture of camouflaged Sex Professionals offering Telephone Tantra, Hindu jargon, and Western sexualized Neotantric rituals to stimulate erogenous zones and control body responses, offering vague promises of better orgasms, richer sex lives, and rebirthing experiences. True spirituality often takes a back seat, with the internet and its social pages providing a manner for ‘less than sincere’ people to make connections. Sometimes a dozen or two individuals needing to get their acts together are invited to group grope, kiss, and become familiar. They are encouraged to open their hearts and doors, lowering filters in the midst of strangers, unaware if parasites or physic vampires laden with baggage and bad craziness are included in the mix. Rubber gloves and condoms won’t help in this form of Tantric Russian Roulette. Physical and spiritual threats apart, the mental and emotional ramifications combined with long term effects on the body and soul can destroy families, partnerships, and interpersonal relationships. Polyamory and hedonism both require responsibility, integrity, forethought and consideration, even when practiced in the most spiritually motivated manners. 

Quodoushka - American Indian Pseudo Tantra

You have to love ‘Q’ for being the ultimate turn-on for most any healthy teenage boy. Even synthetic Tantra has something to offer, since the precepts of universals truths are ubiquitous; you can use them for seasoning anything. When it comes to modern-day compiled Tantra, it’ hard to beat Chuluaqui-Quodoushka (CHOO-la-kway Kwuh-DOE-shka), a collection of sexual techniques and theories that ranks as the most entertaining of all Tantra flavors, especially for porn stars and exhibitionists. Famous actresses joined in the song and dance, including Porsche Lynn, Ashley Nicole, Heather Hart, Hyapatha Lee and Madison. ‘Quodoushka, Native American Love Techniques’  came out in 1991, a sex-ploitation film based loosely around what are supposedly traditional North and Central American Indian sexual practices.

Hyapatha Lee and her husband Bud went on to use the theme for other films of the genre. Harley Reagan, the founder, was interviewed on HBO, things were looking good for him, then the real American Indians got hairs under their saddle blankets, and up their behinds.

It was assembled with so much generic, albeit useful traditional practices from other parts of the world, it couldn’t go wrong. Labeling Harley a “Plastic Shaman ”The Cherokee Nation threatened lawsuits against Harley and HBO.  Harley and his wife compiled Q in the 70s and 80s as a tool box for revitalizing energy and healing. Getting rid of guilt and shame by understanding yourself and partner is the theme. Manifestation through manipulation of sexual energy is said to result in an energy sum greater than the parts. Instead of Lion’s breath or Snake breathing, they refer to Fire Breathing. They brought children, along with supposed Native American Rites of Passage into the equation, making most people sign non-disclosure agreements when attending sessions, or receiving ‘Sacred Manuals’. Quodoushka regards children and infants as having sexual needs. Initiation ceremonies herald puberty, with children learning about sex from a teacher of the opposite gender. These ‘Fire Men and Fire Women’ are responsible for teaching the knowledge of spiritual sexuality for several years. The youngsters are broken in by their professors, learning about their physical bodies along with their sexual energies. In late 20th Century America, Harley was asking for serious trouble from the religious right wing.

In addition to doing away with fear and shame, classes involving close-up examination of genitals to classify everybody into animal types are considered fundamental to the learning process. It’s no wonder ‘Q’ remains popular, it’s like some gonzo script Gene Roddenberry might have thought up just before his Star Trek series got cancelled.

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Karezza

Karezza as a specific organized practice was conceived in the late 1800s by a gynecologist named Alice Bunker Stockham. Except for women also being discouraged to climax, it’s practiced pretty much like White Tantra, a spiritually oriented meditation experience involving sex without orgasms, but dedicated towards interpersonal relations rather than divine worship. Similar to how most people practice ‘spiritual’ Tantra, full-tilt boogie orgasm is not prohibited, but in Stockham’s teachings it is discouraged. Total orgasms are understood to take a long time to recover from, and couples are instructed that their honeymoons will last longer if they edge instead. Supposedly deep emotional connections are cultivated by not having to go through hormonal ups and downs. Sex is used for directing energy and emotional focus on your partner instead of your own pleasure, with sexual prowess and performance taking a back seat. The practice was attacked by laws and influential members of society at the beginning of the 20^th Century, being considered a threat to public welfare.

    

Karezza differs somewhat from traditional orthodox Hindu and Buddhist Tantra regarding rituals and practices, and runs counter to the orgone energy concepts of Wilhelm Reich. The Austrian psychoanalyst put forth his controversial theories in the 1930’s, insisting primordial cosmic energy runs everybody’s show, and according to him, is directly linked to sex. He envisioned the pressure of bottled up psychological problems that result from sexual repression and shame as being responsible for the majority of society’s problems.

Barbarella’s Chamber of Dreams companion Smoking Essence of Man through a Water Pipe

The first cinema graphic Hollywood representation of Tantric exchange I know of, showing the assimilation of male essences by a female, was in Barbarella. Director Roger Vadim offered his hyper-sexed, real life wife Jane Fonda in the 1968 film as a futuristic sensual secret agent. Many remember her orgasmic performance in the ‘Excessive Machine’. She overloaded the device meant to kill her with sexual pleasure, blowing its circuits instead, and then pouting with disappointment at its demise.  Arriving in the Chamber of Dreams within the Palace of Pleasure, she found a man swimming in a clear plastic chamber attached to a water pipe, that’s when, according to the movie script, she sampled ‘Essence of Man’. Later on in life, she commented it was perhaps the film least representative of her professional talents as an actress, even if it remains popular. The following year, in 1969, her brother Peter made ‘Easy Rider’ with Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper, another cult classic.

In the early 80’s, when she was still married to ‘Chicago 7’ defendant Tom Hayden, who became a California State politician, I had a chance to visit briefly with them at their Laurel Springs Ranch, located high on a hill above Santa Barbara California. Joe Cocker’s wife Pamela was heading a summer camp for underprivileged kids there. Tom and Jane’s son Troy, who was 7 years old at the time, participated in theater, dance, and arts with other children of Hollywood types who also wanted their kids to have a chance to know what the real world is like. I remember Jane Fonda’s energy and understand how she has remained an inspiration force, her motivations may be unconscious, but her objectives are clearly conscious.