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.