Tantra and Erotic Trance: Volume 2

In Volume One of this study, "Outer Work," we described managing our orgasmic response so as to cultivate "erotic trance," the altered state of consciousness that is the foundation of all Tantric activity; and we used it to climb the "diamond ladder" of mystical ascent to a rung characterized by the management of overwhelming emotions.

Now in Volume Two, "Inner Work," we turn our attention away from "outer" goals having to do with our physiology and our relation to society at large and its prescriptions, to the much more subtle "interior" changes occurring in our consciousness. Continuing our climb up the rungs of the diamond ladder, we are introduced to the landscape of mysticism, a topography whose several regions are each characterized by the mastery of a different psychological capacity.

Yoga gives us an interior ladder in the form of the subtle body that is comprised of the chakras, each of which opens onto a distinctly different emotional realm. In this work our "feeling function" becomes highly differentiated. Tibetan mandala meditation disciplines our imaginative capacity, as we bring the heavenly palace of copulating gods and goddesses into being. By cultivating emptiness, we pare away our attachments to the memories that have been holding us back and the aspirations that narrow our future so that we can dwell in the present moment, without the props of doctrine and method.

Passing beyond our personal self, we are introduced to the divine oneness of the cosmos, pulsing between accomplished union and the vision of that with which we are united. We return from such ecstasy to live our temporal lives on two planes simultaneously as spiritual wayfarers.

John Ryan Haule holds a doctorate in religious studies from Temple University. He is a Jungian analyst trained in Zurich and is a faculty member of the C.G. Jung Institute-Boston.