Reporter's Notebook: Attending an Eye-Opening Tantric Sex Workshop
Tantra Brings to Mind Images of Sting, but It's Really More Than That
By SIRI E. NILSSON, ABC News Medical Unit

*July 18, 2006 —* - I didn't think I could stare a stranger in the eyes
for more than 30 seconds without giggling.

I also couldn't ever imagine wanting to confess my deepest emotional
needs to a total stranger.

My perspectives on life and sexuality changed completely when I did
these things -- at a recent workshop on tantric sex.

Despite the workshop's title, it was actually quite the educational
experience -- and totally clean, I promise.

I attend medical conferences as part of my job with the ABC News Medical
Unit. Some conference agendas are fairly straightforward and dry, but
the agenda of the recent meeting of the American Association of
Sexuality Educators, Therapists, and Counselors actually made for a good
read, like the conference's discussion on "triads" -- or couples that
include one more person in the sexual relationship.

The association is the the only national professional organization that
certifies qualified health and mental health practitioners to "expertly
and ethically deal with the sexuality concerns of individuals and couples."

Wandering around the conference, I stumbled into a room full of
qualified practitioners who would soon know me a little bit better.

It was a workshop on tantra -- a sort of spiritual practice that many
people think is about sex and only sex.

But "tantra is not just about sex," said Sally Valentine, a sex
therapist who ran the workshop.

"Tantra can be very healing to individuals and couples and can enhance
sexual, emotional and spiritual intimacy."

I was a bit skeptical.

However, I soon found myself practicing "tantric methods of intimacy and
honoring," all of which were entirely nonsexual and involved no physical
contact.

The exercises I did, like reciprocal breathing and "soul gazing," are
supposed to help people become more "present" so they can be more aware
of and comfortable with their feelings.

That makes sense because the word "tantra" comes from ancient Sanskrit,
meaning "expression of awareness."

"Tantra is supposed to be a sort of life meditation," said Dr. Judy
Kuriansky, a clinical psychology professor at Columbia University and
author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tantric Sex."

"Much of it is about breath and controlling the movement of your own
energies. It's very spiritual."

Tantra came into existence as a spiritual practice, and existed in India
and other parts of Asia before political, religious and cultural
upheavals forced the practice underground.

The practice is now gathering attention in the United States, as a
"spiritual practice that reveres spiritual sex," Valentine said.

Experts emphasize that, although tantric practice reveres sex, it has
nothing to do with the "bigger, better, longer, faster" sexual messages
that fill most magazines and movie screens.

Those sexual messages led to the idea of tantric sex, such that most
people think only of Sting and silk sheets when they hear the word
"tantra."

Perhaps the most-famous tantric practitioner is the rock star, Sting,
who, like sex therapists, takes issue with its misinterpreted reputation.

"It's about a 'journey,'" he said to the U.K. newspaper The Guardian.
"There is some serious information about couples and how they can
relate, and sex is only a tiny proportion of it."

In reality, tantra is more than that -- it helped me to focus on myself,
if only for a few hours.

I was even able to comfortably hold hands with a person I had never seen
before that workshop, and I felt remarkably at peace for the next few days.

I think that's what it comes down to: relaxation.

Relaxation -- like the sort provided by a massage, a vacation, or a
workshop on tantric sex -- often leads to happiness. In or out of the
bedroom.

Click *here* <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/popup?id=2206178> for tantric
breathing exercises.

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