Review of TantraNova’s “Creating Intimacy and Love" DVD

By Lauren Zerbst

When the word Tantra comes to mind, one may think of ancient Eastern practices, intricate sex or images of naked gods and goddesses bursting with light and twisted into most difficult Kama Sutra positions. When you break it down, however, the word Tantra means “weaving” in Sanskrit. Tantra is a wonderful spiritual / sexual practice to weave the creativity and vitality of our own life force energy into our lives and relationships. 

The DVD Creating Intimacy and Love  by TantraNova is an outstanding resource for breaking down the mystical, abstract ideas of tantra and illustrating practices that are accessible to the Western worldview. The DVD is the bridge between the two worlds. It takes the ancient practice of tantra and combines it with the typical Western phrase, “Keep It Simple Stupid,” or K.I.S.S. In this context, it may be more appropriate to change the phrase to use the Sanskrit term Shakti that describes the divine feminine - so, integrating the East and West, we form the new phrase, “Keep It Simple, Shakti!” 

Integrating the Eastern and Western worldviews is what TantraNova does best and the DVD is no exception. The straightforwardness of the material does not take away from the critical sacredness of the tantric experience, but does break down the concepts into tangible ideas and practices.

The first K.I.S.S. approach of the DVD was wonderful in explaining the nature of life force energy, that is sexual in nature, and how to access it and use it in our daily lives to break down barriers, heal sexual wounds, increase awareness and presence, have more balance and satisfaction, harness sexual sustainment and empowerment, and an overall wholeness within ourselves. That may seem like an awful lot to get out of one DVD, but it really is possible if you remember to K.I.S.S.!

The DVD contains real couples and singles that are beginning their own tantric journey and the camera tags along to record their experiences. Dr. Elsbeth Meuth and Freddy Zental Weaver lead the group in breathing, meditation and movement exercises to get warmed up and connected with the present moment. Then, the participants are taught practices that can be used to increase the flow and longevity of life force or sexual energy that can be done alone or with a partner. There is space to grow emotionally, intimately and sexually when working with the practices on your own or with a partner, and does not involve doing “The Indian Headstand” (look it up) on the first try. Those looking for a way to have a deeper and more meaningful connection with ourselves, our bodies, and/or a lover can start here and take the first step on what is sure to be an enlightening journey.

This DVD is a great place to start! 
http://www.tantranova.com/intimacy-tantra-products/intimacy-dvds.html

Lauren Zerbst, MSW, is a freelance writer living in Chicago, IL. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work.

Review of TantraNova Man Show by Lauren Zerbst

Everyone needs a hero. For ages boys and girls have looked up to Superman, Wonder Woman, firefighters, sports figures, and celebrities for inspiration. Heroes give us strength and courage to get through the day-to-day sufferings of life. They are role models for who we want to become when we grow up. When we do grow older, the action figures and posters of our heroes are often left in attics collecting dust. We may or may have grown into something like what our childhood heroes portrayed.

This weekend I was introduced to a new idea of a hero. The hero within. I discovered that we don’t need to look outside ourselves for a hero, but that each of us is a hero in ourselves that is on a personal quest. This idea was born out of a one-man show entitled TantraNova Man starring Freddy Zental Weaver. The show takes the audience on a journey through Freddy Zental’s own heroic journey to find creativity, joy, and pleasure in his life.

As the play opens, the audience sees the birth of intelligence, of the human form from the star dust of the universe. It is a beautiful and interpretive piece that leaves the audience eagerly anticipating what is to come. Through the show we look into defining moments of  Freddy Zental’s life as his own heroic quest is played out for our entertainment and learning. We are first introduced to a curious young boy who hears his parents making love and are taken along as he strives to attain the loving, sexually charged energy of his first experience with sex. The quest includes a very comic recreation of his first orgasm, a vulnerable scene in which the audience sits with his aloneness during his parent’s divorce, his love of basketball, falling in and out of love, and the rejection of the corporate world to create something more meaningful in his life.

Through Freddy Zental’s own musical creations and well-timed jokes, the audience is brought together and feels a sense of “oneness” and togetherness. The story on stage is left to be interpretive and synthesized into the audience members’ own heroic journey. It is the opportunity to break out and transcend our “Samsara” or cycle of suffering and be in the adventure, be in the moment, be in the collective energy.

At the end of the performance, the energy in the room is fulfilling and peaceful, yet buzzing with inspiration and arousal. You can see the difference on the faces of everyone in the audience, each getting something unique for him/herself out of Freddy Zental’s story.

TantraNova Man is more than a show, it is an experience. It opens the earholes and hearts of everyone in the room and encourages them to find their creative energy. It gives birth to the hero in all of us so each member leaves with courage, strength, and connection to his/her own superpowers that will enable their own individual quests. Individually audience members are inspired, and together, through the message of oneness, the whole audience is enlightened. I highly recommend!!

Lauren is a writer in Chicago and is in the process of completing her Master’s Degree in Social Work at Loyola University

Sexual Intelligence: The Key to Fulfillment and Joy

We usually speak about all kinds of intelligences such as I.Q., kinesthetic intelligence, emotional intelligence, etc. However, the term Sexual Intelligence isn’t very well known, nor is it something that is traditionally practiced and developed.  When we refer to Sexual Intelligence, we are speaking of an awareness and cultivation of life force energy, or sexual energy (also known in Sanskrit as Kundalini energy). Let’s look at the concept of energy further in order to bring greater awareness to Sexual Intelligence.

Energy is an elusive phenomenon, as it relates to human energy. We are all quite familiar with electrical energy, and how it runs through the wires to light up the light bulb. We are also aware of frequencies and that cell phones utilize frequencies to operate, and without these frequencies we wouldn’t be able to talk to and hear each other. The same is true of our vocal cords; if our vocal cords couldn’t produce vibrations or frequencies then we wouldn’t receive the frequencies in our ear drums, which would then translate into the perception of sound in the brain.  Just as electrical energy is essential in lighting the light, and frequencies are vital in communication, human energy is very essential—again, it is not something that we traditionally learn in high-school and college—because without it we would not be alive.  At the source of all human energy is sexual energy which is the most powerful energy given that it brings forth life.

We are familiar with this kind of energy in a more subtle way. Within the Western world we become aware of this energy when it shows up in procreation, or when we are having sex. Sexual energy, however, can be much bigger, vaster, and more potent beyond the mere experience during sex. It is the creative energy that can be used to acquire whatever we want to create in our lives such as our health, well-being, relationship or relationships, endeavors, and/or careers.

How can you experience and move your sexual or life force energy throughout your body? To answer this, let’s explore it through an exercise:

• Lie on your back on the floor or on a matt.
• Exhale all the air, emptying yourself totally out until you are out of breath.
• Take in a deep breath and feel the rise of your belly, followed by the chest.
• Visualize your breath moving all the way up, to the top of your head.
• On the exhalation send the breath from the top of the head all the way down, through your torso out of the base of your being into the floor.
• Then again, take in a deep breath, from the bottom of your being all the way up to the top of your head. You may want to visualize filling yourself up and on the exhalation emptying yourself out all the way down through your torso and out of the base into the floor.
• Then again take in a deep breath, filling yourself up all the way to the top of your head and then exhaling the breath all the way down and out of the base of your being.
• Continue with this kind of breathing for another 5 to 6 times and once you are completed with the last deep breath continue in your own rhythm of breathing and notice how you feel right now, notice any sensations in your body, any energy movement, any tingling, just be present to yourself.

This exercise is one example of how to start moving energetic breath (or Prana as it’s called in Sanskrit) up and down the body or the spine. In a more advanced state a student who cultivates his or her sexual intelligence can move this aroused energy through the body from the bottom all the way up to the top, and from the top all the way down to the bottom. With that capability the experience of moving the sexual energy alters. The aroused energy no longer resides just in the sexual center, or the second charka, it actually emanates throughout the body which allows for greater sustainability of pleasure and joy as well as an involvement of the whole body. Frequently this kind of experience is referred to as whole body orgasms, which opens up the possibility for multiple orgasms. At another time, we will discuss how Sexual Intelligence plays itself out between two people. 

Feel free to contact at us, either Dr. Elsbeth Meuth or Freddy Zental, at tantranova@tantranova.com with any questions or inquiries. www.tantranova.com

The Tiger Phenomenon – Chasing the Illusion

Much has been written about Tiger Woods - ranging from psychological analysis to speculation to moralistic assessment. Blame has been placed: It was Tiger's fault; the mistresses were seductresses or his wife was the victim. Who was the predator or the prey? Tiger is from Mars, Elin is from Venus.

The question I'd like to pose is: What can we learn about our cultural conditioning regarding marriage, love, intimacy, fulfillment, happiness ....that is not unique to Tiger and his relationships but rather plays out as an archetypal structure of the human evolution.

Looking from the view of Quantum physics, where particles (or people) are electromagnetically interconnected, we could say that participants within a certain system like relationships, families, communities, organizations, etc., are interconnected. Nothing happens in isolation.

Translating this into Tiger's situation - the interconnectedness between all players becomes apparent: Each of them played their role according to their consciousness. The level of consciousness has to do with what we see or don't see about ourselves. The less I see about myself the more unconscious I am.

The most immediate test for identifying the level of one's consciousness lies in the observation of the results one's actions and behaviors produce. When breakdowns and suffering show up in our relationship(s) we know that those are indicators of unconsciousness. So, how can we shift from unconsciousness (blindness about oneself) to consciousness?

I call this form of blindness in relationship living in an illusion. One core illusion in the relational context is driven by a desire for being loved, approved of, or feeling satisfied. There is a sense of need or a needy feeling. The expectation is that the fulfillment of the desires is attained through someone, something or some circumstance. As long as the illusion remains obscured and unexamined the chase for fulfilling the desire sustains. Moments of excitement and high might be experienced in a fleeting way yet lasting happiness, joy and intimacy are unattainable.

However, there is no cheese down that tunnel. Fulfillment in sex, intimacy, love, relationship or marriage is not available through another or a circumstance. Fulfillment resides within - and that's the re-discovery for us as human beings. This re-discovery of an original state of being will open the possibility for bliss. And this bliss can then be shared with another versus longed for to be sourced by another.

The Tiger phenomenon is a reminder for where we are in our human evolution and a call to examine the illusions each of us might live in. We choose to what extent we are ready and willing to evolve. Frequently the reaching of a critical point of pain is the wake-up call overriding the long held need for secrecy or pretense. The signal could be the SUV hitting the fire hydrant in the early morning hours, the discovery of voice messages or finding out not to not be the only mistress.

Upon the wake-up call, all players - husband, wife and mistresses - have now a tremendous opportunity to evolve themselves according to their wish for consciousness and level of self-generated fulfillment they aspire towards. As a consequence of stepping out of illusion into consciousness, suffering within oneself and in relationship diminishes and ultimately disappears.

Dr. Elsbeth Meuth is an internationally renowned seminar leader, intimacy expert and relationship coach. She co-produced the best-selling DVD series Creating Intimacy & Love Creating Intimacy & Love., and is the co-founder and director of the TantraNova Institute in Chicago. Over the last decade she has assisted hundreds of couples and singles expand their intimate and love life. She and her partner were featured on Showtime’s documentary Sexual Healing.

To learn more about creating lasting intimacy go to www.tantranova.com

TantraNova at Kripalu

Hello everybody - thankfulness and appreciation!

Well, it's been a couple weeks since our first three day seminar retreat "Secrets to lasting intimacy" and "TantraNova Man" show at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. First of all … everything was fabulous. We were met at the airport upon our arrival by a wonderful driver who let us know if there was anything we needed just to please let him know. Yea, I remembered that I needed a basketball for a scene in my show -- and for sure in a couple of minutes he got me this little pink girl's ball which worked beautifully.

At the check-in desk we were met by our program coordinator and her boss, then shown to our beautiful room with a great lake view. The grounds at Kripalu are absolutely breath taking. If you haven't visited there yet then put it on your list of things to do in 2010.

Shortly after getting situated in our room we were introduced to our seminar assistant and taken to the session space… it was very spacious, chairs for 30 participants set up, a great sound system, and more. The three-day seminar retreat was an absolute success all around: there were openings, breakthroughs and aha moments! It felt like the nine years of Elsbeth's and my teaching all came together in one synergistic time capsule at Kripalu!

Saturday was a long teaching day and very rewarding! That evening I had the opportunity to perform my TantraNova Man show. Once again we were assigned a, A/V specialist to see us through… he had a wonderful way with people and lots of sound experience. We couldn't have done the show without his technical assistance.

We were set up to do the show in their new annex building absolutely beautiful, wooden floors great lighting the perfect space. There were 200 people in attendance, lots of laughs, and the message of the show opened things up for people. People came up after the show saying that the show reminded them of why they came to Kripalu in the first place: rediscovering peace, the creative Self within and an intimate familiarity with intimacy!

My personal experience of doing the show is that when I am in front of a group of people there is a tremendous opportunity to transform space and distance and connect to the power of the oneness.

We are looking forward to teaching and performing at Kripalu again sometime in the future!

Love & Light, Zental

TantraNova Man Show

Aloha this is Zental!

Over this last year I've had the opportunity to travel around the country performing my one-man show "TantrNova Man"! One of the things I see is the relevance of this story to many of the people in the audiences. It has reassured me that there is something in the show that resonates in all of us....life force energy!

I named myself Zental about four years ago, it came out of the moments that I embody the highest ideals of our TantraNova practices and teachings, conscious and a full belly breath, present to this very moment of now not in my mind's illusion of a memory, a future plan, or an opinion about what's happening ... mindless consciousness creativity and joy as a way of being.

Zental is a character in my TantraNova Man show who is a Tantra teacher in Africa who in the storyline gives me my first exposure to learning how to draw on sexual energy as a pathway to creativity and joy as a fundamental way of living and being in all areas of life. The show starts with my life at the age of five through the current, good times and bad, it is a hero's journey searching for the secrets to sexual intelligence.

The show is entertaining,humorous, and full of songs and drumming at the same time educating...I like to call it edutainment ideally opening up a new possibility for the uninitiated and inspiring those who are more familiar with the path of consciousness through sexual awareness. What is new about sexual intelligence as I share it in the show is the systemic relationship of creativity and joy that is a primordial fundamental piece to sexual energy. And that one can learn practices of consciousness, focus and intention that will manifest more creativity and joy in areas of life that seemed completely unrelated to sex. One can become more intimately familiar with intimacy ... trusting what feels good and right emotionally, mentally, energetically and physically in work, life and love... allowing a fuller unique expression and contribution in the world not totally buying into the left brain rationalize suffering mind, like "well that's the way it is and there's nothing I can do".

We all have the potential to make a difference in this evolving humanity that we are ... begin and continue to make yours.
With an Open Heart, Zental

What’s Happiness got to do with it ... women, life and pleasure? Try the Tantric Approach!!!

The illusiveness of happiness! What a rat race to find it and then if you were lucky to get it how to keep it. Marcus Buckingham’s research and findings in HuffPost based on his paper "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness" inspired me to reflect on my own progression in life to happiness and on the happiness of the hundreds of women I have worked with over the past 10 years as an intimacy and relationship coach.

What’s happiness anyway? The older I have grown the happier I have become. And that does not just have to do with that I now own a business, making a difference in the lives of women and men, and being in the most inspiring relationship with my Beloved and business partner. That’s rather a result of something else.

After all happiness is a state of being! And how did I arrive at that state of being? For me this occurred through two major life experiences that awoke me to that state: One experience had to do with “accepting “what is” at the present moment and declaring that I choose to be happy which I learned through Buddhist meditation at Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village. That philosophy is totally in line with what Buckingham identifies in his findings: “The women who could answer positively to the questions [regarding happiness] …, simply decided that they were going to be happy. They made that choice.”

The other experience had to do with “weaving” or Tantra. O.K. – what did I learn about weaving? It was about reintegrating my feminine with my masculine or the yin with the yang that is frequently out of balance for women living in this time and age. Most of us have learned to develop our masculine side that is required to compete and make it in the world. Great capacity to have! However, if my feminine got dwarfed because of the dominant orientation towards achieving in the worldly dimension I am just not whole any longer.

Here is what Tantra-Kundalini.com says about the feminine and masculine: ”According to the philosophy of Tantra, the entire universe is a manifestation of pure consciousness. In manifesting the universe, this pure consciousness seems to become divided into two poles or aspects, neither of which can exist without the other.

One aspect, Shiva, is masculine, retains a static quality and remains identified with unmanifested consciousness. Shiva has the power to be but not the power to become or change. The other aspect, Shakti, is feminine, dynamic, energetic and creative. Shakti is the Great Mother of the universe, for it is from her that all form is born.

According to Tantra, the human being is a miniature universe. All that is found in the cosmos can be found within each individual, and the same principles that apply to the universe apply in the case of the individual being.”

The aspects of feminine and masculine show up in women just as they do in men. However, they are not merely to be considered as gender qualifications. To illuminate the principles further take a look at this chart and locate yourself on the right or left in various areas of your life: family, intimate relationship, work and career, body, hobbies, etc:

Masculine / Feminine
Creative Focus / Creative flow
Purposeful presence / Open and connected
Desire for truth / Desire for sourcing and sustaining
Oriented towards vision and goals / Oriented towards love and care
In one’s mind and focused / In one’s emotions & flow
Emotion of compassion / Emotion of trust & gratitude
Looking at life from the outside / Looking at things from within
Fear of failure in life / Fear of rejection & loss of love
Work before intimacy / Intimacy before work
Doing Being / Giving Receiving

Reintegrating the feminine with the masculine, the spiritual with the sensuous, the body with the soul, the giving with the receiving wholeness shows up. Experiencing wholeness is the source of feeling pleasure, joy and yes, HAPPINESS!!! It’s up to each woman to return to that wholeness. The tantric practice provides a guide to that wholeness as shown by transformative shifts in many women who have worked with me here at TantraNova.

Looking forward to your comments and thoughts abut this topic of happiness! Elsbeth