Secrets of Western Tantra: The Sexuality of the Middle Path

As a fan of Christopher Hyatt's it's not likely that I would say anything bad about anything written by him because I've never found anything to criticize or complain about. He is one of the most intelligent and sensible psychologists and occultists I have ever run across. Certainly we need a tantra designed for Westerners just as we need a government designed for Americans, not European socialists/communists. I think one of the most interesting comments he makes in this book, which was written in 1989, is on page 43 where he talks about the "Instant Titty" being a 60's fantasy first created by Dr. Benjamin Spock (No, this is not Mr. Spock of Star Trek. This is a pediatrician that many young parents of the 60's thought was God. If you don't like the way a lot of people born during those years act, you can blame him). Hyatt goes on further to say that the children of the 60's demand instant gratification as well as no competition, no frustration and no struggle for life. They have developed notions of mystical equality where all individual differences would be summed and a golden mean achieved, in other words communism, which has been clandestinely embraced in the Christian West; that is, in my words, not his, until now. These are the people who elected Barack Obama. They want the world changed to their vision of how it should be, and they want it done now, just like Obama, no matter what the consequences, possibly because neither they nor he have thought far enough ahead to figure out what the consequences might be. Hyatt calls them "elegant consumers, waiting to be fed just because they are HERE." In other words it's all "ME, ME, ME" and "NOW, NOW, NOW."This is a small book, but as in all of Hyatt's books that I have read, he packs it full of information and good advice, but if your mind is closed, don't bother to read it because you won't like it. Another quote I like that appears on page 138 is "There is little Love in this world. However, there is much talk of it. Those who talk so much are in love with the idea of love; however, on close examination they know nothing of it. If there were all this Love in the world then why is the world so unhappy? Why is there so much misery, frustration and madness?" Why indeed?

A prospective reader of this book may also be interested in books by the same author: "Pacts with the Devil" and "The "Psychopath's Bible."

Whenever something deep and profound comes from the East to the West it gets corrupted into something totally unlike what it originally was. Yoga is one thing heavily corrupted into little more than exercise with light meditation. The situation of Tantra is even worse. Pierre Bernard (1905) looked at a very small part of Tantra, from the Kaula school made up a bunch of nonsense co-opting Tantra and the Kaula school and invented Western 'Tantra' (aka sex magic). Gullible Westerners who are typically not skillful enough to research sources for nuage materials typically respond with their wallets rather than their brains.Tantra is a practice using a structure of mantra, yantra, meditation, and sometimes asanas, to connect with the energy within, all by yourself, no genital stimulation involved. Tantra in the West as anything that was primarily about sex is just plain wrong and dumb with a profit-oriented motivation. This great error and deviation continues today only because there is money to be made from Westerners who are always looking for better ways to spend time on their lower chakras/genitals.If you want anything like real tantra, then there are plenty of reputable Buddhist Vajrayana teachers who know what Tantra is. There are fewer teachers from the Hindu streams but they exist as well.If you want something in a book to give you a head start then there are much better and more accurate sources like:Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of YogaThe Shakti Coloring Book: Goddesses, Mandalas, and the Power of Sacred GeometryTantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition

Looking at the negative reviews you see exactly what Hyatt spends a lot of time in his book criticising. So called "Tantrics" who arn't even liberated enough to leave behind their own sexual prejudices and spiritual boogeymen. If you arn't prepared to face both your "higher" and "lower" Self then you would best leave this Work alone.This is the best work I've read concerning Tantra. Most other Tantra books spend chapter after chapter obsessing about particulars concerning chakra details, a topic which this book deals with in one chapter. The rest is left up to the student to explore through WORK. It's the seeming simplicity of the instructions which causes this book to be so effective. Instead of endless pious affirmations towards a vauge "goddess," Hyatt's techniques put you into a mental state where the Goddess slowly becomes revealed in all her ineffible Glory (or Horror for some).If you are really willing to LET GO and experience the Dance of Shiva, I heavily recommend this book as a cornerstone of practice.

The techniques in this book have had a very profound effect on me. It is a very rigorous program that combines Reichian breathing techniques (similar to rebirthing/hyperventilating) and prolonged sexual ecstacy in an attempt to activate each of the chakras in turn. The big difference with this tantric technique is that unlike most forms of Eastern Tantra, the focus is actually having an orgasm...not an ordinary orgasm but a fully body orgasm that will send you outside space and time. Believe me it will blow your mind! But as I said, the preparations are rigorous and requires real work and committment over a long period of time to obtain the results (several months on the non-sexual pre-exercises alone). It has had a profound effect on my life (for the good) and I wholeheartedly recommend this book and the techniques in it.

more esoteric b/s by a shill