Brings the basics of Tantra down to earth for couples & singles to explore as well as the more advanced concepts.

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Product Description

Authentic and engaging, this illustrated guide is unique in its holistic approach—showing how Tantric practice not only greatly enhances your sexual pleasure but also leads to richer and more satisfying experiences in every area of your life. Relevant for anyone, regardless of relationship status or sexual orientation, Tantra for Erotic Empowerment features original techniques, self-exploration exercises, and provocative selections from classical and contemporary Hindu Tantric literature to help you discover the source of your own erotic power and transform your life.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97851 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"Tantra for Erotic Empowerment is creative, authentic and engaging. The wisdom, reflections and meditations engage readers' intellect and inspire thoughtful self-exploration. At the same time, the exercises make the process highly experiential." -- SirReadALot

"Folks interested in a holistic method of reevaluating their spiritual and sexual practices will enjoy the most benefit from this book." -- Jane's Guide Website, Aug. 2008

Tantra for Erotic Empowerment has been named a National Best Books 2008 Award Winner in the Health: Sexuality category, and is an award-winning finalist in the Religion: Eastern Religions category. --National Best Books 2008

"[A] clear-sighted, accessible, and...nonsalacious approach to Tantric practice and sexual consciousness-raising, aimed at couples and singles of all orientations." -- Chronogram Magazine, May 28, 2008

"It is an excellent resource for the novice or seasoned practitioner, providing numerous exercises for personal empowerment at the end of each chapter (dala). I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants an experience of authentic tantric practice." -- Gayle Michaels

"This book is a great study guide for those who want to learn the real practice and mentality of tantra." -- Eden Fantasys

"This book is about enlightening, not frightening, and as such gives sex the good name it deserves." -- Frontiers Magazine, May 2008

"This book opened my minds to the realms of loving that even Western influences can't tarnish." -- Bad Girls Guide Journal

"Together with their previous books, Tantra for Erotic Empowerment provides a dynamic and consciousness-expanding awareness of our sacred sexuality." -- TCM Reviews

"Unlike many books written about tantric practices--which can get really esoteric--this one provides a clear map for the beginner, as well as deeper insights for the tantric practitioner. Even if all the content is not for you, there are enough thought-provoking exercises to keep the book interesting long after the sun sets." -- Hitched Magazine, May 2008

Tantra for Erotic Empowerment was selected as a finalist in the New Age Non-Fiction category for the National Indie Excellence Awards 2008. -- Indieexcellence.com

From the Publisher
"Mark and Patricia have written a book on Tantra that deals with my favorite kind of sex-- with oneself. Let's face it, many committed couples will end up practicing sex with themselves. Even a professional masturbator like me learned a few new tricks that will further my own Erotic Empowerment."
Betty Dodson, PhD. author of Sex for One

"Tantra for Erotic Empowerment is a very authentic Tantra book, but perhaps more importantly, it's commonsensical and easy to understand. Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson present Tantric principles and philosophy in clear, accessible ways. So even those with no background or interest in Eastern traditions can benefit from the great treasures Michaels and Johnson have to offer. Read it and be erotically empowered, because you're worth it."
Dr. Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D., author of Dr. Sprinkle's Spectacular Sex: Make Over Your Love Life

"Tantra for Erotic Empowerment is a sublime and subversive treat. Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson show us how expanded awareness and respect for pleasure can free us from the restraints of religious, social, and political conformity. A totally liberating book!"
Barbara Carrellas, author of Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century

"If you are embodied enough to seek authentic teaching about your erotic potential, try out the wisdom, exercises, reflections and meditations that make up this book. Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson are teachers whose intention is to guide and inspire you on your own exuberant journey. Their approach is astonishingly creative."
Joseph Kramer, Ph.D. The New School of Erotic Touch

"Tantra for Erotic Empowerment combines traditional wisdom and insight with true sensitivity and compassion, to become a valuable guide for the modern Tantric seeker. Mark and Patricia weave classic teachings with the reality of living in the modern western world in a thorough and grounded way, accessible to students of all orientations."
Christopher Penczak, author of The Mystic Foundation and Gay Witchcraft

"With Erotic Empowerment, Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson have risen to the challenge of writing a practical guide to Tantra. They have taken a tricky subject that could easily have been mishandled, and created a useful tool that could easily become a classic preparatory text in this genre."
Raven Kaldera author of Pagan Polyamory

"Tantra for Erotic Empowerment combines a clear-eyed overview of Tantra with multi-faceted Tantric insights in a rare method, allowing readers to pursue Tantra using traditional learning methods, but at their own pace and to the appropriate level of their current (and soon to be expanded) understanding.
This book achieves its ambition to inform the casual reader, challenge the student of Tantra and inspire diverse communities to spiritual growth."
Bruce Anderson (Somananda) author of Tantra for Gay Men

"This is a fearless and brilliant work, at once scholarly, technically accurate, challenging, and immensely readable. The writing is economical and lucid. The exercises are absorbing and profoundly therapeutic in the 'human' sense. It is a genuine original, and I enjoyed it immensely."
Paul Skye (Swami Ajnananda Saraswati), author of The Mastery of Stress, award-winning poet and short story writer

"Informative, challenging, inspiring and readily accessible to the serious student of tantric practice, Tantra for Erotic Empowerment is unquestionably one of the best books on tantric sexuality to be recently published in English. The exercises and specific instructions it offers are powerful, enjoyable and enlightening. Although it is provocative and even controversial in certain respects, this is an outstanding source of teaching and required reading for anyone open to tantric ways of growing and becoming more empowered in our lived bodily experiences."
Barnaby B. Barratt, PhD, DHS, author, What is Tantric Practice? Director, Center for Tantric Spirituality, Past President, American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists

"Michaels & Johnson are a Masters & Johnson for the 21st Century. Written with clarity and a passion for mystical experience and rigorous logic, Tantra for Erotic Empowerment is grounded in ancient spiritual truth, practice, wisdom, and personal experience. Radical, practical, and open-hearted, this book is a straight-forward transformative guide to self-knowledge. Michaels &Johnson's vision of Divine pleasure as a spiritual and sensual path of liberation is a gift to all seekers--for the curious, the novice and initiate alike.
Donna Gaines, Ph.D., Sociologist, author of Teenage Wasteland and Misfit's Manifesto, and Usui Reiki Master/Teacher

"Tantra for Erotic Empowerment is packed full of useful exercises that can help individuals and couples discover their best erotic selves and find a holistic way of making sexuality a positive force in their lives and in their relationships."
Helen Boyd, author, She's Not the Man I Married and My Husband Betty

"With illumination should come empowerment and the exercise of illuminated power. Mark and Patricia have once again given generously of themselves to all seekers fortunate enough to read this marvelous and enlightened work. Profound, practical, and precisely what the western psyche is ready for!"
Lon Milo DuQuette, author of The Magick of Aleister Crowley

About the Author
Mark Michaels (Swami Umeshanand Saraswati) and Patricia Johnson (Devi Veenanand) are the authors of The Essence of Tantric Sexuality, based upon the works of Dr. Jonn Mumford. A devoted married couple who have been teaching Tantra and Kriya yoga together since 1999, their popular workshops have been featured in several publications, including the Village Voice, Now Magazine, and Breathe Magazine.

The authors are senior students of Dr. Jonn Mumford (Swami Anandakapila Saraswati), and have been named lineage holder of the OM Kara Kriya® system for the Americas and Europe. Sunyata, co-author of The Jewel in the Lotus, named Michaels his lineage holder in 2001. Michaels and Johnson have studied Bhakti Yoga with Bhagavan Das, Tantra with Dr. Rudy Ballentine, and have been featured in Dr. Judy Kuriansky's Idiot's Guide to Tantric Sex.

Michaels is a graduate of New York University School of Law and holds Masters Degrees in American Studies from NYU and Yale. Patricia Johnson is a professional opera singer. They reside near New York City.




Patricia Johnson (Devi Veenanand) and Mark Michaels (Swami Umeshanand Saraswati) are the authors of The Essence of Tantric Sexuality, based upon the works of Dr. Jonn Mumford. A devoted married couple who have been teaching Tantra and Kriya yoga together since 1999, their popular workshops have been featured in several publications, including the Village Voice, Now Magazine, and Breathe Magazine.

The authors are senior students of Dr. Jonn Mumford (Swami Anandakapila Saraswati), and have been named lineage holder of the OM Kara Kriya® system for the Americas and Europe. Sunyata, co-author of The Jewel in the Lotus, named Michaels his lineage holder in 2001. Michaels and Johnson have studied Bhakti Yoga with Bhagavan Das, Tantra with Dr. Rudy Ballentine, and have been featured in Dr. Judy Kuriansky's Idiot's Guide to Tantric Sex.

Michaels is a graduate of New York University School of Law and holds Masters Degrees in American Studies from NYU and Yale. Patricia Johnson is a professional opera singer. They reside near New York City.

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Customer Reviews

Michael Woodhead- TCM Reviews
If the authors' previous book The Essence Of Tantric Sexuality can be considered theory, then this new book can be the practical workbook.

Replete with fifty-two exercises, dozens of examples, explanations, and experiences, there's a cornucopia of material with which Tantric practitioners or novices can use in order to enhance and enrich their sexual life, focusing on "consciousness, an experimental attitude, and, above all, pleasure".

The authors suggests approaching the material slowly but steadily, studying and experimental with one chapter per week. All of the exercises can be explored by persons of any sexual orientation or gender identity.

The book begins with an examination of Tantra itself, then moves on to sexuality, both physical and spiritual, and how the two can be integrated.

This study is followed by chapters that examine pleasure and desire, with exercises that focus on helping readers to discover various aspects of their own sexuality, what turns them on and off; what forms of foreplays and love-making they enjoy; what their sexual history was like; what does or doesn't happen when they yield to sexual desires; and how they breathe during orgasm, all to help them understand more about their sexual selves.

"From the Tantric perspective, everything that exists is imbued with energy, or Shakti". So follows an explanation of sexual energy: why it happens, how to recognize it, and how to create and manage it.

Following these are informative and enlightening chapters on such things as meditation, reverence, bliss, imagination and other concepts vital to a working knowledge of Tantric sex.

Together with their previous books, Tantra for Erotic Empowerment provides a dynamic and consciousness-expanding awareness of our sacred sexuality.

Fantastic!

In a culture where sex and sexuality is so often shunned and scandalized, it's refreshing to see a book focused on this sacred aspect of our human nature. Being one of our greatest gifts as humans, sex can empower and spiritually connect us. With wisdom and maturity, the authors present a concise guide to the magickal, powerful force that dwells within us--one that we often fear or take for granted. Contrary to popular misunderstanding, the authors clarify that the practices and beliefs of Tantra are not solely focused on sex. Going well beyond the realm of sexual energy, Tantra for Erotic Empowerment covers significant elements of sensual mysticism, including proper techniques for consciousness expansion, meditation, gender exploration, cultivating balance, and how to evolve in one's loving relationship with another, others, or oneself. Gorgeously written and practical, this book is a must for anyone seeking to strengthen their connection with the Divine and incorporate expanded bliss into their spiritual path.

-Raven Digitalis

Good follow up to first book
This book continues the work from the first volume with more snippets of info from classical tantric texts made accessable for the western reader. The reader is then free to do more detailed reading/study of the classical texts if they wish on their own.

The authors do make an effort to present their ideas in a way that is "gender inclusive" so if you are gay, straight, queer, of have a different relationship style, you will find that this info is helpful too.

I like the fact that the authors are willing to share more of their own personal opinions of their work, (and the work of other "tantrikas")in an open and honest matter.

Make no mistake if you are looking for a fluffy new-agey book, you'd better look elsewhere. If you are ready to do work for your own spiritual growth and enlightenment, not to mention cultivating a new sexy intimate relationship with yourself and the divine spark that resides within you, this is the book for you