In Australia, "Tantra" is actually a catchall word used to describe a number of different spiritual practices that have an erotic component; these practices first showed up in the Taoist tradition, in Tibet, in Nepal, and in India. The word Tantra comes from a Sanskrit word meaning "to expand, to weave together." In the cultures that they manifested in these erotic practices were seen as cults: "You're doing what!?!" It's the same thing any culture says about people who are outside of what they consider the norm.

If you're asking about traditional Tantra then we're probably going to have to go another direction, because our understanding from looking at material for the last 20 years with the help of teachers is that there are probably only two people in the Western hemisphere who know traditional Tantra, and I know were not one of them. Most people, ourselves included, simply draw upon the erotic component of what is a huge body of spiritual material.

As far as we can understand, all spiritual systems have their inception with an individual having an altered state experience: the ego boundaries dissolve and there's a connection, there's an acknowledgement, there's a deep knowing of relationship with all things. As we understand Tantra, philosophically it's not unlike quantum physics. we wouldn't purport to be knowledgeable about quantum physics, but our very minimal understanding is that they've broken down matter to a particle, which seems to be the same particle. What that translates to is that there's one of us in this room, there's one of us in this floor, there's one of us in this city.

Tantra essentially says there is one energy, which pervades the universe, and the pain that we experience in our lives comes from our identification with our sense of separateness. We can separate ourselves in so many ways from the moment we wake up: I'm a woman, I'm older, I'm younger, I have more money, we have less money, we have that kind of car, I'm first in line, I'm last in line, I'm too thin, I'm too short. From a Tantric perspective that identification with the separation is where my pain is. There's a huge body of material with meditation and practices to purify the mind, the body, and the emotions so that we can condition our organism to not be in that state of separateness.

There seems to be a part in us, which recognizes when somebody else is not in that state of separation, and can recognize when someone is in an expanded state instead. There have been individuals who have found that if you hang out in high states of arousal for long periods of time, as well as doing all these other practices to purify the mind and the body and the emotions, that you can enter a room of expanded consciousness - this room of boundaries dissolving.

In this country we think we've got the copyright on dysfunctional sexuality, but in almost every spiritual system there's a huge schism between body and spirit. What has happened in this country is that because we're a capitalistic society we've taken that dysfunction and turned it into business. We have so much pain about our ability to connect with another, and so we've got a bazillion books and workshops and audiotapes and videotapes speaking to that part of us which says: "This is supposed to be better!" We've grown up on fairy tales, movies, and romance novels. It would seem that sex has the potential for this union; the ecstatic sense of going into someone else's body and everything about it implies a real sense of merging and connection, but for most people it's about as far from that as it can get.

We don't think there's a quick fix for us as human beings in connecting with each other; I think it takes a tremendous amount of intention and integrity and commitment and work. But, our culture is not built on things taking time, it's built on "I want something right now, we want to fix this right now." So it's a perfect market for books and videos and workshops.

We think in some ways we do the public a disservice when we promise they're going to change their love life and deepen their eroticism with their partner in only a few days.