Butterfly Workshops

Life Keeps Getting Better

2008-03-20T00:51:00.005-04:00

The other day while I was driving down the highway in Florida I reflected about my life and about a few lovely men i know who seem to be coming on the market again for yet another round of singleness. I thought, "Wow, I think my old age is gonna be so much fun, so interesting!"

And since I let go of my money concerns with the refunds for the India trip, I can hardly breathe what with the opportunities coming my way.

Life is so full of cosmic jokes! It seems like my real job is to distinguish these jokes and that's all.

I know one thing - I am having a lot of fun.

I pray for more and I am open for it to show up in my life along with more chocolate.

Transformation Again and Again

2008-03-12T04:14:00.009-04:00

Well, I can't sleep so I figure this is as good a time as any to begin blogging again। I last wrote in October '07. Crazy to stay away so long. But I did not want to write. I was going through major transformation and sometimes it just ain't easy.

The India tour in November was very difficult. Some of my best friends and favorite students were with me. Hell, even my 86 year old father was with me. I had great expectations for this one. I tell ya.

And as the sages say over and over again about great expectations, they lead to great disappointment. And so it goes. Anyway, whatever could have gone wrong on a tour did beginning on day one when the wrong size bus showed up, not the one I ordered and paid for.

It was much too small for my plans. I like people to ride through their first part of India with plenty of room and comfort while they get acclimated to this very different culture. Also I like to teach on the bus and have people do everything from sharing intentions to Osho's Dynamic as we cruise along for the first 5 days. In this bus, it was just about impossible.

It did not have enough room for me to teach. It had no mic. It had no shocks. The AC system was poor. People's asses hurt. People breathed lots of pollution. People got disappointed and cranky. Eventually they got mad.

At some point I shut up and shut down. I was horrified watching their faces in such dismay. I wanted them to love India and they were hating it. I mean some amount of all this is to be expected in any third world country. Anything can go wrong and often does. But I so wasn't expecting it on my tour nor were they. After all, I had done this very same trip twice before. I know the ropes so to speak.

Ha ha, joke was on me. And not very funny. I became sullen.

Even though things improved greatly when we left the bus behind and made our way to Varanasi and Khajuraho, we never seemed to get back on the right track.

When everybody left India, I stayed on for a month. I had to get myself grounded and figure out what had taken place and why. I also felt I needed to make some repairs to the relationships after what had happened in my clearing, my space.

While receiving a deep healing massage, I got some insight into the spiritual aspects of what had happened. I saw reasoning behind the craziness. The message I received has to do with the tremendous shifts in consciousness required on the earth at the present time. I saw this group needing to go through a trauma together quickly, not one in which someone dies, but one where there is not much time for drama, just be traumatized and get over it! Prepare for something to come in our lives that we have to get through together at some later point.

Well, when I wrote that to the participants, nobody was having it!

I mean the whole reason I take people to India is to experience SURRENDER like no other place on earth that I know of can supply. That's Tantra is it not? But people had really felt so bad they just couldn't seem to focus on the spiritual aspects of our crazy time together.

So, then I woke up (with the help of one or two of them) to the notion that it was about the economics. They wanted full refunds in many cases. I have never heard of such a thing when it come to tours. As a matter of fact, I don't think any other tour leader in the world would even consider such an idea. But this was different. This was my tour and these were my friends and students. And there was out integrity on my part about what I had promised and what I delivered.

As I struggled with the idea of refunding so much money and the losses, I kept dreaming about how they capture monkeys. They put a banana in a cage that has slats big enough for the monkey to slide its hand in. Once the monkey gets his fist around the banana, it cannot get the hand out. The fist won't fit between the slats only an open hand. Of course the monkey doesn't want to let go so it gets trapped. Oh this recurring dream was driving me nuts!

So I made a decision to make large refunds. And in so doing, I got my hand out of the trap. Boy was it a painful process to let go, but in the end I am glad that I did. Now people can get over it (I hope) and they can return to seeing a spiritual lesson if they choose.

I certainly got one. Somehow abundance is now pouring into my life like never before. It's in the form of students, contracts, radio interviews, potential lovers, assistants, people signing up for courses and money.

Plus, something shifted with my father while there. He came back a much more loving and kind soul. It's like he had a frontal lobotomy. He's the only one who really loved the tour. I can't explain it. He dropped some mean thing that seemed a part of his personality and shifted into nice. Go figure. This was worth it all!

That fits into the abundance thing as well. It's what I always wanted from him - kindness, cooperation, affection more than just mouthing empty words. And so I am receiving that too.

Lately when friends have told me about how difficult it is to be with their aging parents, I've laughed and jokingly suggested they send their parents to India with me!

What transformation!

Dreams Coming True

2007-10-30T01:47:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was the New York New Life Expo. I have participated in this event many times before, but this time was most noteworthy. The panel I participated on about Sex and Sensuality was fantastic. Such a great panel of experts (Nan Wise, Anton Diaz, Barbara Carrelles, Racheli Cherwitz and Michael Jascz) and so much fun. I appeared two other times at the show and met hundreds of people along the way.

As soon as I arrived I had the opportunity to transform myself when I discovered that my regular table had been sold to someone else. I got really hot for a few minutes and then let it go. I figured if I cannot turn on a dime, who can? After a short while it did not seem to matter at all. People found me and I saw that it made no difference. Being able to shift out of my expectations and into what is so, was so valuable.

Yesterday I led a Bliss course in NYC that was the greatest ever in my opinion. There were 28 participants coming from many different places. Some came from the New Life Expo. Some came from my collaboration with teeni dakini. Others came from One Taste and www.MySpace.com. Some came from Sexy Spirits. How cool is that? Collaborating has proved to be extremely beneficial for them and me. I'm convinced that working together and supporting each other, we can all win.

A note: Since 9/11 I have often felt it difficult to get New Yorkers to commit to workshops in advance. I've been teaching Tantra in NYC since 1999 and I noticed a marked difference in advance registrations after the tragic WTC events of 2001. So yesterday's turnout was an amazing treat especially since I did not know how many would actually turn up!

And maybe I have been reluctant to state it as such, but I really believe that being successful in NYC means the world! You remember that line from the song New York, New York - "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere...it's up to you New York, New York. For me, it is a dream come true!

How is Butterfly Tantra Distinct from other Tantra Teachings

2007-10-06T07:17:00.000-04:00

People always ask the question how is Butterfly Tantra distinct from other teachings and forms of Tantra. The answer is simply the difference between teachers. Teachers differ greatly in their philosophies, their methods, what they focus on and their lifestyles.

I will state for the record that I believe Tantra is much, much bigger than sacred sex. I believe that getting stuck in G-spot stimulation is an addiction like any other addiction. I personally do not care if you study Tantra and never have a partner with whom to have sex. I care that you fuel your body continually with sexual energy, the vital life force, and keep yourself circulating that energy to maintain your aliveness.

I care that you become healthy, stay healthy and walk the talk meaning do the practices. I care that you live within your own integrity. I care that you speak your truth. I care that you clear your emotions. I care that you feel orgasmic on the inside and that it reflects outward through your entire being. I care that life becomes a dance with the unknown so that every moment is fresh and new. When and if you do make love, I care that you make love in the unknown.

More on this later. I welcome your comments.

Integrity = Being Your Word + Inner Guidance

2007-09-13T21:32:00.000-04:00

Coming from a crazy family where people's minds changed like the weather, I adopted the policy of being true to my word no matter what. Even if the time came and I didn't feel like doing whatever I had agreed to, I kept my word and showed. I always wanted people to feel like they could count on me. I did not know I had huge underlying safety issues so I sought to enable people to feel safe with me. I figured, if they could count on me (my word), I could count on them. That should have equaled safe. Right?
Wrong!

Then I sought out learning experiences inside of paradigms where keeping your word equals integrity. For me, I felt I could finally feel secure knowing that I could trust what people said. After all, if I gave my word, I'd keep it. So, they must be the same. What was I thinking? People gave their word and made promises all the time. And they broke their word.

Things happened. What, I don't know. I never asked. I was not concerned with their excuses for not keeping their word. I was concerned with the fact that their word had been broken. I found myself making them wrong. I was even sneakier than that. I devalued them and still loved them, but less. I justified this righteous behavior of mine and had no room for their growth and development gap.

So were they safe with me? In fact, no. Did I feel safe with them? No.

Then I began studying Tantra. This Eastern philosophy encourages you to embrace it all, the right and the wrong, the light and the dark. I learned to embrace other's darkness (breaking of word) and my darkness (making them wrong). When this embrace empowered me to come out of the darkness, all of a sudden, I developed a lot of room for it all. I stopped taking it personally when a word was broken. I stopped being attached to outcomes. I became more appreciative of the process of transformation and just what it takes for people to keep their word, other people.

Inside of Tantra, I also became familiar with a powerful process called Latihan.

Latihan is a deep meditation where you go inside and then move following inner guidance. Some people call this authentic movement. During one Latihan session, I met my life's purpose staring me right in the eye. I began to listen to my inner voice rather than being distracted by what was "right" or "wrong" with the outer world.

I have been using this practice for 8 years. It has altered my life and altered my relationship to integrity and word. Now I follow inner guidance inside of my life's purpose when I commit to do something. Usually by the time the event comes about, I still want to do it. I am not merely toughing it out by keeping my word to anything and everything. I am keeping my word to something I have clearly chosen out of my deep commitment to what I am committed to in life. I have given up needing to have people count on me above all else and trying to make them feel safe. I have stopped making them wrong and myself right if things change. I focus on myself, my intentions and the messages I get from within. It is easy to keep my word and be with people exactly where they are. There is no more resentment.

At the end of the day, my word is in alignment with my life's purpose. And when I give it, it is a measure of the commitments that guide my life. Now it really does add up to my integrity, my truth. The bonus is that I'm experiencing many more people these days keeping their word. Something major has shifted in my life.

How to do Latihan:
You stand in a room with eyes closed. Playing on the stereo is ethereal music no lyrics.

The practice starts out by you picturing yourself standing at the edge of a cliff. You are strapped into a harness that is attached to a zip line. The zip line is stretched across a void. In other words, in your mind's eye, if you look down, you see only darkness, nothing - the void. In the meditation, you let go of your foothold and swing out over the void. You hang there attached to the zip line.

Then you reach up and push a red button that unfastens the clasp holding you connected to the zip line. Essentially, you let go and fall into the unknown.

Once you feel yourself falling, you begin to move only when movement moves you. This is not about prescribed movements, postures, dance steps or even asanas. It is simply to notice the impulse to move and then feel your way into the next movement.

Practice this for 10 - 15 minutes at first. Then move to a half hour.
Gradually build up to an hour at least once a week.

Copyright Butterfly Workshops, Inc. 2005

One of my teachers said...

2007-08-29T12:17:00.000-04:00

"In the west there are clean streets - dirty minds
In the east there are dirty streets - clean minds."

Another teacher of mine said...

"India is in your face and if you resist, the mass will only come closer up, closer in. If you just flow with it, it will flow around you. Everything in India is a test for your ego and ego attachment to the way you think things are supposed to be."

Osho said, "India is not a country but a mystery. A mystery of a rising lotus as chaste as the morning dew, delicate and sublime. India is the immanent and the transcendental manifested simultaneously leaving deep feelings of wonder and amazement, just as those experienced by a child. So distant and high as the Himalayas and as close and as near as our breath, ethereal like the rainbow and yet so real and alive."

This is why I prefer India.

Please consider.

New Heights

2007-08-12T23:11:00.000-04:00

South Florida in July.....hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Who would ever go there then? Me.

What a kick I had at the Health Fair in Daytona Beach. Such wonderful people live in the area. There seems to be much interest in Tantra there.

A Sunday Bliss class in West Palm was filled with new students and received powerfully.

And then working with a company committed to transformation was an enormous thrill in the West Pam Beach area. Michele and I had a ball. There will be more work to follow with this company and so great it will be.

All I can say is I live a divine life. It's never boring, always exciting and growing into new and wonderful areas of interest.

Soon there will be more corporate clients and Bliss courses filled to capacity. It's very promising indeed.

Paul Lowe - Another Amazing Gift!

2007-07-15T16:38:00.000-04:00

On Friday, while still basking in the energy of Amma, I was invited by Alan Steinfeld of New Realities TV to a small gathering at a hotel in Times Square to meet and hang out with Paul Lowe. And all I can say is "Thank you for yet another great gift!"

We were seven in all including Paul. He sat with his back to the Times Square skyline, flashing lights, advertisements larger than life. He spoke quietly and powerfully to each of us about life, love, sex, orgasm, waking up to who we are. We asked questions of him and sometimes we didn't, he just had a 'hit' on one of us.

On his website, he is described as "Paul Lowe is an original. His unique view of the world and its future encourages us beyond what we normally think of as possible or impossible. From a perspective rooted in his own diverse experience, he addresses our everyday issues – relationships, money, health, sexuality, parenting, career, communication – with wisdom, compassion and, perhaps most importantly, humour. An encounter with Paul is always provocative, meaningful and entertaining. And for many people, it’s a life-changing experience."

And so it is.

Again the experience of compassion came into my pores. This time it was from a man, shall I say "the Father?" If Amma represents the Mother to me and helped to shift the relationship of me to my mother (who has been deceased since 1995 BTW), then I must say that Paul Lowe did the same thing for me in relationship to me and my father (who you may have read about in previous blogs).

How is this possible in just two days to have such major shifts, to call in such powerful medicine? I don't really know how to explain the phenomenon except to use that phrase again, the one teeni dakini gave me, "in the perfect moment." So for me, the planets must have aligned because I was ready, because I was intending, because I caused myself to be available with not much to do for 2-3 days which has rarely happened in my current life.

What did he say that was so amazing?

Well, for starters, I hadn't said a word and he looked at me and said, "You are having challenges with your father. You take care of him and he is perverse. He resists you, yeah?" Let it go and see what happens. He will come towards you and let go of his resistance.

Then he told me that I had taken 'control' to a new level, that I am controlled because of things that happened to me in my past. He said that I could give that up now and take whatever bumps may come. There is nothing more that I have to guard myself from. Nothing matters, NOTHING!

Finally when I was leaving the gathering, he hugged me and said, "Just get softer and softer. Get soft in every moment. Get more and more vulnerable and watch how you get taken care of like and innocent wallaby." I said, "Okay, I will." Then he added, "We can never be grateful enough for our parents' act of getting us here, giving us life."

Now there are many other things he said over the course of the evening. Some of what he said to the others I have taken on as well like rather than ending a sentence or paragraph with a down stroke such as "I really don't like it there!" which he claims brings down our energetic mass, say, "I notice it's not my preference in a neutral tone." Keep the tonal quality of the words even or on an upbeat.

And I'm back on Fire Island now with my father. My life has shifted enormously. I am aware of how I think and speak about him. I am creating a new reality for us. I will move out and let it all go and I imagine he will come more towards me then. I know have gotten a big piece handled about his life and his continued quality of life and I can move on. And we can both be happy and share love.

Thank you, Paul.

For more information visit www.paullowe.org.

Hugging Amma - What a Gift!

2007-07-15T16:27:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I was supposed to go to DC. There were some things in storage that I needed to get a hold of. But as fate would have it, when I called the storage place in Rockville, MD, I was told that presently the place is too full of storage things and that they could not afford me the opportunity to have them bring down my boxes so I could go access them and sort through things. So I did not go.

I stayed in Manhattan figuring I'd return to Fire Island the next morning. But when I awoke on Thursday morning, I had the thought, let me see what's going on in the City today? Why go back when I'd really rather be here? So what if I did not bring extra clothes with me? Just see what's up!

I called around and discovered that Amma, the "Hugging Saint" was in NYC and decided to go with Om. Previous to this whenever Amma was visiting in a certain city that I was in, I was usually too busy to go to see her. In the interim I have carried her picture around with me and have become increasingly interested in her method of transmission - hugging. I've picked up books by her and saw a special on TV hoping I'd get to see her some day.

It was wonderful to finally experience her and receive one of her hugs. The Manhattan Center was bustling with people and a Indian band was playing devotional music. People were from all walks of life and every ethnic group. All had tokens with numbers, numbers that informed when their time would come to get in line for a hug.

My number was S2 meaning I would wait for two to three hours (a short time according to Ammaphiles). While waiting Om and I sat close to the stage so we could witness her hugging process with other pilgrims. It was amazing to watch. This woman, Mother of Compassion, embodiment of Kali-Ma herself, sits for 15 hours a day and hugs people one by one as they approach her guided gently by the Amma's loyal assistants.

I felt like crying a lot of the time as I watched. Much of the time I was silent. Sometimes I talked to Om or others there who I recognized. At first glance, it appeared to be a gathering of New York's spiritual who's who.

But it was much more than that. There was no pretense. People wore saris, robes, jeans, T-shirts everything imaginable. People talked and shopped in the auditorium while waiting to be called. Some sat in lotus position and appeared to be meditating, but there was no particular way they had to be. It was somewhat chaotic - organized from the feminine aspect. I really liked that about it.

Finally my number came up and I anxiously cued up to get my Amma 'fix'. As I approached I was asked if I was "alone" and what language I spoke. I answered "I am alone in a manner of speaking," and that my language is English. A couple of assistants laughed. Then I was told to wipe my face and forehead with a tissue and take out my hair clip because Amma might hurt herself when she went to hug me possibly getting caught on the clip. During the final approach towards her, it was necessary to crawl very closely behind others in line. When my turn finally came, she grabbed me to her and pressed me hard into her, held me strong and whispered all the while into my ear. I told myself to surrender to her, the Mother, and so I did.

I noticed I had no comprehension of a word she said. I doubt that it was English and what's more I don't care. She let go abruptly, smiled and handed me a chocolate kiss and a flower petal. I looked into her eyes and saw a person deep in trance, yet totally present. I was ushered away to make room for the next in line and I willingly went off to the side, kneeled down and touched my head to the floor to honor her.

Now let's look at this more closely. What actually happened? I was hugged tightly by a powerful woman who claims to be an incarnation of Kali, my patron saint. Rather than exhibit the "cut off your head" rendition of my favorite goddess, Amma personifies her enormous compassion. She sits for hours and hugs people no matter who or what they are. The only question she asks is what language. It's free. It goes on for three days culminating in an all night Kali ritual that lasts until the next morning. WOW!

What did I come away with? Something huge. I got held by 'The Mother'. Somehow it made everything right between me and my mother. It made up for all the times my mother was unable to hold me, comfort me, reassure me that everything would be alright.

This surrogate mother is offering powerful female healing energy, Shakti energy that is very much needed on the planet at this time. The transmission of healing energy comes in the form of hugs. She never spoke at a podium, rather she whispered in my and others ears. Nobody even spoke to her. She just pressed people to her one after the other after the other. The transmission is mother energy something everybody needs, something the earth needs, something that has been missing.

Profound experience. I can say that it has changed me. I will hug more. I will make it a practice at the beginning and end of every workshop and every meeting with people. I will hug in a very conscious way and with intention to offer mother energy. I will hold the person in my arms differently than I have ever hugged anyone before.

If you would like to know when Amma is coming to a city near you or more about her humanitarian efforts around the world go to www.Amma.org.

Perfect Moment

2007-07-15T15:50:00.000-04:00

I started my new Ongoing Sex & Heart Series in NYC on Wednesday and I was quite pleased to see some brand new faces and even people I had met at the New Life Expo two and three years ago who finally showed up to class despite a horrendous thunder storm. I do not mean to imply that I don't like seeing familiar faces in my classes. That to me is the greatest proof of the value of the work when people return for a fresh look and continue to get pressed to new edges. Yet, when the new ones showed up on the recommendation of friends and relatives or after meeting me, but not showing up at class for so long, I really had to say I was excited. It showed me once again not to give up on people. They arrive in the perfect moment and it's not personal if they take their time. Eventually they make it if it's calling them.

And one more thing about this class. The owner of the new location Light House Yoga, Kami Fereidooni showed up in attendance. Now this is a new turn of events. Yes, I am smiling! In the past I have offered the studio owners and managers in the various cities where I teach the option to participate in my classes. While they smiled in my face and paid lip service to me and said nice things about their understanding of Tantra, they did not take me up on the invitation. I can't help but feel if they had come to class a few times, they would have benefited and our relations would have gone smoother. After all, how could they promote a course the likes of which they really had no idea? Yet when it came to splitting the proceeds, they wanted their share to be 50% even if they produced only one attendee from their databases. This never seemed quite fair to me and often I simply chose to stop working at those spaces rather than fight for what I deemed fair. And as you probably already guessed sometimes I did fight. No surprise there.

So when this man showed up for class on Wednesday, not only was I not expecting him, I was tickled and happy to have a studio owner wanting to get to know my work so he can properly promote it. I like working in partnership and this is a great start. Thank you, Kami. I am honored.

For more info go to www.lighthouseyoga.net

It's all good!

2007-07-06T22:22:00.000-04:00

I am back in the States and I am whole and fine. As a matter of fact it's even better than that!

England was so good for me. Who would have thought? England - duh! Really it was. The benefits just keep growing exponentially. In am thrilled.

Here are a few of the outcomes from this last trip:

My father and I are at a truce. So far it has lasted five days. Very good.
I have been invited back for a December Tantra Festival in Dartmouth to present alongside the UK's leading Tantra teachers (Michele Wortman will accompany me and do her magical Moola- Ajna atunement).
I came across a funny article written about our documentary in a UK online magazine. Click this link to go there http://www.channel4.com/4talent/feature.jsp?id=2026
I have finally been approved to lead a series of "Active Meditations" to the stuffy Fire Island crowd (I know it's hard to believe that people here are stuffy, but when you make tons of money I guess you get more conservative - I don't know; I am just happy to finally be able to offer some of what I do here where I live. It's a form of giving back.)
My book Sex & Happiness: The Tantric Laws of Intimacy (as well as my CD; Shamanic Release & Latihan and my DVD: Bliss Beginner's Tantra) will be carried at Mysteries, London's most exclusive store for New Age and Holistic information located in Covent Garden.

What can I say? I am happy. I am getting rest from the crazy pace I have kept since January 5th and I am feeling more prosperous and prolific than ever. Watch out world!

And I can hardly wait to go back to India. Want to come? Contact me right away.

Thoughts On My Father - Not Pretty

2007-06-26T04:00:00.000-04:00

I have just awakened in England with the anxiety of returning to the States and the thought that I have to go home to deal with the absolute domination of this shit head man over me. Even if he has early dimentia, he is still the arrogant prick that he has always been and more so now. He keeps making a mess of things after I bail him out over and over again. I see no end in sight.

Did I tell you that the man I met in India, the one who was going to come for the month of July and use biofeedback to restore my father will not be coming? He says he fell in love and ran off to Canada and then is going back to India. He told me a week ago after I planned July around him for the last six months. Good luck in relationship, Buddy. Breaking word in one place has huge ramifications in other places or so I'm told.

Have I shared that the loan I have applied for to help my father hasn’t gone through because it is just so difficult to prove that there is a real address on Fire Island and to ascertain the value of such a property once it is proven that there really is a house since there is no mail delivery and very few people sell so there are no comps.

I see there is no way to curb my father's arrogance. I must take the compassion I feel for him and the energy generated towards him and use it on myself. My life makes a difference in the world. His life make a sham of my life. I am setting a boundary with him. He feels to me like a vampire. Maybe this is how my mother felt in the end, that he was sucking the life out of her. Interesting thought.

The idea of going back there to him tomorrow is making me sick as I write this. When it comes down to it in the common sense, he is just a man. And as I see it, he is the original man who shit on me and he is the same man who keeps shitting on me. I almost don’t give a damn if he lives or dies anymore. I am pulling in the platter on which I catch the shit. I am walking away and he can continue to make a mess of things until I get him situated in assisted living. Then I can insure his life from as far away as possible.

Maybe my sister was right. Maybe biofeedback would not have helped our father in the long run anyway. We will not know now because I will not spend the time it would take to research and find out. I have spent all the time I am going to spend trying to help my father who does not want my help.

What I know is that I want my life back, all of it. My intention is set.

Sex & Happiness Launched in London!

2007-06-20T09:23:00.000-04:00

Just want you all to know that there was a remarkable launch of Sex & Happiness yesterday as part of an all day Tantralink Summer Event here in London.

The event began at 10am. After a brief introduction with one or two ground rules for conduct, I led the morning with Find the Empty Space, Mirror Dance, Dance Back-to-Back followed by Osho's Gibberish, Silence and Latihan. Then I led London's first Bodyhan. After the Bodyhan, to clear everyone's energy we did Egyptian Balancing Breath and Egyptian Cleansing Breath.

After a lunch break, we came back to do some yummy massage modules led by various other participants and we all got very relaxed just before I was to offer excerpts from my book Sex & Happiness: The Tantric Laws of Intimacy .

I swear, my hair was messed up and my lipstick askew, but there I was - called into the spotlight.

The fabulous book signing was a highlight in this all day event. I read excerpts to a wonderful audience of 36 people. What a delight to be so well received. There were questions and an opportunity for me to give answers and then we had champagne. I signed a bunch of books and posed for photos with many of the individuals in attendance.

I felt so honored and so author-like.

It was great.

After the dinner break we all came back to a trance dance where there was a band improvising to the movements of the group (much like Group Motion in Philly). I danced my ass off and went home totally full and also exhausted from one of the best days of my life.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge Kavida Rei of Tantralink, London and her partner Andrew for their amazing production of the Summer Event and their love and support of me. Also I want to acknowledge Kirsty Allison of Slack Alice Films (part of our film crew from the India tour) for capturing the event on video. What a blessing.

This fall – let's do amazing book launch events in New York, DC, Philly and somewhere in South Florida – oh yeah sorry San Francisco, too! Hell why stop there? New Delhi will come next.

Love to all from London,
Laurie

Beyond Tantra

2007-06-20T09:16:00.000-04:00

The weekend before I left for London, I went to a course in New York called the Opening Course. I was urged by one of my students to take this course to see for myself how it applies to the Butterfly work.

Well, wow another peak experience!

I participated in a wonderful daylong with Nicole Daedone of One Taste. What a great revolutionary woman! Basically she has come up with a new look at a technology originally started at More University. She has made it relevant to the new millennium and brought it into a more socially acceptable paradigm in my opinion.

She calls the basis of what she offers OM meditation. OM stands for Orgasm Meditation. In this technology women receive 15 minutes of clitoral stroking three times per day by a stroker (doesn't have to be the same person each time). Her belief is that if women are filled up with sexual energy, it will make all the difference in the world. So she has provided a way where women can get filled up in a safe and structured way. Now of course, I am oversimplifying for the purposes of whetting your appetite, but I wanted to introduce the concept to you.

I plan to participate in the New York OMing sessions as often as I can and I will do research and development so as to modify any of this that needs to be modified for the greater good. Please note that I plan to sponsor Nicole in Philly, DC and West Palm to deliver this info to all who could use a boost in their Tantric practices. I want people all to get as much from this parallel body of knowledge as possible.

Combined with Butterfly and Osho Emotional Release techniques, this could take everything to
a whole new level.

I will keep you posted on my progress and I will certainly let you know when Butterfly Workshops will make the Opening Course available in places other than SF and NY. Anyone can be a stroker by the way.

Much love,
Laurie

P.S. Did I say how clean this thing was? What a pleasure to find no slime anywhere. Not a predator in the room. Now that's something.

Initiation 2007

2007-06-14T11:57:00.000-04:00

Well, after that last blog about the weekend spent with Charles Muir and my students Shiva O and Shiva H, so much else has happened. I must admit I was changed forever based on that powerful experience.

Recently I was in Northern California facilitating my most advanced course, Initiation – The Mastery of Self-Love. That in itself was an amazing experience. There were ten participants and three staff (including me).

The course is basically about having it all and based on four distinctions: Resistance/Satisfaction, Not Safe/Safe, No Permission/Permission and Negative Intention/Intention.

People took amazing ground in their pursuit of self-love. Each and everyone came away totally shifted into a new personal paradigm for their lives.

I think the important thing here is for me to say how it has impacted me. You can find actual testimonials on my website from people who have been in the course, but for each and everyone following my latest progress, it is important that I share for myself.

I rediscovered that introducing people to a formula for producing self-love through rigorous exercises and body work, plus taking them another step of the way towards sexual freedom releasing past shame, guilt, and societal pressure most assuredly influenced the outcomes of their intended intentions - another amazing experiment in people attaining personal power and self-definition. They now see what powerful creators they are like never before.

First of all, I made the course more juicy than ever before. While I have always had optional naked swimming in this course (and for some this has been the biggest freedom anyone could experience in life), I built in additional things this time. Since Shiva O was in attendance we offered optional OM (orgasmic meditation) sessions as part of our spa which involves clitoral stimulation for 15 minutes by a man who desires nothing in return, but simply to be in the meditation. The men in the course learned about giving to a woman with no other agenda. The women learned to just receive with no reciprocity expected, required, implied, or demanded. What freedom to experience pleasure authentically what a challenge for some. Of course it helped everyone to know that I had gone first. I like myself as a scientific laboratoryJ

With the names withheld to protect their identities, here’s what people said at the end of the course when asked, “What did you bring back from Initiation 2007?”

A clean slate. Opening a fortune cookie, seeing no fortune there; realizing that I have the freedom to make my own fortune.
A new life and vulnerability that deserves care from me.
Crying, and embracing the crying.
Emptiness. Ground zero. A new paradigm for interacting powerfully with men. An opportunity and new paradigm for intimacy with myself.
A roller coaster of expansion/contraction, like a spring going in and out.
New physical sensations, new interactions with my daughter.
Realizing that the Goddess provides in abundance - all I have to do is ask and receive.
New power and appreciation for emotional release.
New paradigm for functioning in the world, while also taking care of myself.
Courage to move into the unknown.
Acceptance of myself and my own humanity.
Calm, secure, powerful awareness of myself and my interactions with others.
I am safe. I have boundaries that I can embrace and enforce.
Ability to move from one space to the next big enough to do it with all of myself.
A new aspect of my power to speak my truth, make peace with others, and walk away loving myself and them better for it.
I found my higher place.

Now doesn’t all of this make you want to be there the next time? Hope so. When I re-read it, I am blown away. I have witnessed that in only seven days people dumped their lifetime shit and came into their power and self-love. I LOVE MY JOB!

Wow What a Weekend! Tantric Healing

2007-05-10T16:38:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I attended Charles Muir's Beginner Tantra course. This was different for me because I never before pictured myself in Charles' course. I had heard stories about him sleeping with students and all sorts of other gossip in the Tantra world so I was just never gonna be a participant in his work.

Then, when Charles and Leah, his fiancee scheduled a course in New York City, I was invited by two people I love and respect totally Dr. Judy Kuriansky and teeni dakini. How could I refuse? The thing that really turned me around though was when I interviewed Charles on my internet radio show Tantra Cafe. What a great show we did and I was so moved by his sharing on the show. I decided to press the red button and go for it.

Well, the course was a blast and very juicy - very red Tantra!

I laughed and cried in some of the sharing and processes (although there were not too many processes). Charles' style is more lecture than I have experienced in Tantra before, yet very entertaining and very informative. I learned little nuances about things that greatly increased my knowledge of Tantra. And he is certainly a master of Tantra and Hatha yoga. At 69 years of age, he is as limber as a youngster. Good show!

Now as to how my life transformed, whoa baby! The homework for the second evening for the couples and singles in the class is to have the men (Shivas) perform shamanic yoni healing on a female partner (Shakti). I already knew this going into the course and I was determined to have a really positive experience for myself. Rather than select a partner from the single men available in the course, I invited one of my Shiva students to attend the course with me and told him of the homework asking him if he was up to doing this process with me. He said YES, he would be honored. I wanted to feel that I was doing this intimate assignment with a man who I could trust and feel safe with as well as one who had been trained by me (and teeni).

As it turns out, another of my Shiva students decided to attend at the last moment and joined us in the course. He is also someone I have a very close relationship with teacher-student and friendship.

When it came time to choose the Shiva to accompany me to my space in NYC, I chose them both believing that the two of them would provide the exact amount of healing I desired and needed. I am so glad I did this and so were they. It took the nervousness and performance anxiety off the assignment for each of them to have the other available. They know I have big energy and now they could relax into the flow of the evening.

So we went to my place. We stopped for some food and wine. We shared our desires for the process, our fears and our intentions. We were all a bit nervous, but we got through it. Each of us showered and then we created a temple in the bedroom.

I got on the bed and they gave me a sensual massage. Then I said it would be okay to start the process. Shaman H asked me if I was willing to forgive and forget anyone and anything that had violated me in my life including me. I answered affirmatively. He then warmed his hands and put them on my heart. Shaman O stroked my genitals and warmed me up in the 2nd Chakra getting my juices flowing while I sang "Light My Fire" by the Doors. Then he inserted his forefinger into my yoni (vagina) and found my sacred spot. With just a little bit of jiggling around or pressing (I have no idea which), I instantly got in touch with the memory of the experience of having been burned at the stake. I cried and yelled a lot. Shaman H held me and said, "It wasn't your fault. They didn't get who you were. Let it go." That was the perfect thing to say.

Once I was done with this process, we began again next round. With a little more jiggling of the sacred spot, I became aware of an early memory of my father that I thought I had dealt with and completed years ago in the EST training. Some of you will laugh while reading this if you were around Landmark Education when I used to use this as one of my shares while leading introductions. When I was three and a half years old my mother was just back from the hospital taking care of my new infant sister in another room. My father was in charge of and feeding me porrage and orange juice in my highchair. I was a very demanding little girl (no surprise here) and I wanted him to strain the pulp out of the juice. I started crying and stamping saying to him, "Mommy would do it for me. I don't like orange juice with pulp." The scene ended with my father throwing the glass of orange juice over my head and walking out the door saying, "I'm done. I won't do this again."

So deep inside me was living the memory of this incident. From this I got the biggest 'aha' as I cried and released it. Here's the breakthrough: I have been very straight in most all situations in my life with speaking my truth, what I want and don't want when it comes to friends and business, but with the men in my life, I have not been quite as honest - afraid to say what I really want, what I really really want because unbeknownst to me, I held deep in myself the expectation that the men would throw something over my head and walk out the door.

WOW WOW WOW!

When that flew out of me, these two Shiva Shamans held me and stroked my body as I cried and cried. I said, "I had no idea that was still inside me! I am so greatful that it came out and I can be done with it. Thank you so much Shivas."

They held me and said, "We are so honored to be in this process with you. We love you so much. We want to give back. You are our teacher. You deserve love and deserve this healing."

Oh, I cried and let it all in and out.

Then we started our next round. We switched positions. Shiva O exchanged places with Shiva H. Shiva O stationed himself at my head while Shiva H went to my loins because I asked him to. He reached inside me and began to stroke and grope. All of a sudden he touched on a space that had me go wild. I screamed and cried and shifted energy from side to side until I caught his attention. I must have screamed into a pillow well beyond the normal yelling during orgasm. I really had to let go. I had an amazing series of orgasms and releases under his skilled fingers. I am only aware of screaming into a pillow so that the neighbors would not hear. I screamed my guts out beyond the beyond.

I went into class the next day and shared the intimate details. I am grateful. I really am. I moved beyond my limits and into a new space. I feel free expanded and open beyond anything I have ever known.

Thank you Shivas.
Thank you Charles & Leah.
Thank you teeni and Judy.
Thank you all for going there.

Love & Gratitude,
Laurie

Emotional Release with Shamanic Release & Latihan CD

2007-04-25T16:43:00.000-04:00

When I arrived in West Palm Beach, I was very pent up from a lot of pressure over the last four months and not knowing whether the books would arrive in time for the trade show. In addition, the DVD of the Bliss course I was planning to have in my hands had some technical difficulty in being re-produced. I've only been waiting for that for three years!

So, I walked into Randall's home and said, "I need to do emotional release right now. Care to join me?" He responded, "I know a great CD we can do it with." It did not dawn on me that he was going to put in my CD - Shamanic Release & Latihan by Laurie Handlers . Duh!

I laid down and the CD began. I figured, "I don't need this. I just put on any music lay down, hit the floor and clear in 20 minutes. Maybe he needs this direction." Ha ha on me.

But then I listened to the instructions and followed my voice to the letter. What an expereince! See I listened to the recording when I made it in the studio. And I often listen to it when I visit my MySpace profile. But the truth is that I had never done the process to it.

What was I thinking?

It's so great. I had the thought, "Damn this is good. And it's me! Wow!"

Anyway, it was an amazing experience for me to be facilitated by me. I don't know how to describe it, but it got the job done and then some. I had the release of the decade as far as I am concerned. I highly recommend it. Ha ha ha. You knew I would.

But if you are holding out on yourself about doing Emotional Release, why? What are you waiting for? If you cannot do it by yourself, then by all means get the CD. It will change the planet.

One of my students wrote and said this to me about my sharing of this experience: "This seems to me like a great example of making love to yourself. You let the creative powerful Get It Out There, Get It Up, Get It Now God in you make love to the Receptive, Open-hearted, Ever-Waiting Goddess. The Yin + the Yang of you = the release of the decade."

Yeah Baby, that's what I'm talking about!

Love & Gratitude,
L

When I arrived in WPB, I was very pent up from a lot of pressure over

My Book: Sex & Happiness: The Tantric Laws of Intimacy is out!

2007-04-25T16:32:00.000-04:00

I am in West Palm Beach - just did two trade shows over the last two weekends and I'm about to do a Bliss course here this Saturday (in case you know anyone who would like to do it). This past weekend my book finally arrived from my publishers in India. I got 50 advance copies and the others are on the way to New York. Should be arriving first week of May. Yee ha!!!

My point is that Sex & Happiness: The Tantric Laws of Intimacy is here in my hand! I am so happy about it I cannot tell you. My life long dream to write a book is fulfilled now as I write.

This weekend at the WPB Body, Mind, Spirit Expo I felt people looked at me differently when they saw the book and then they saw me. Someone told me this would happen, but I did not know how it would feel and it felt slightly different. Books make people instant experts. I could feel it. I am no longer simply a Tantra teacher. I am now an expert. It feels tangible. Of course Michele, my colleague, made it particularly clear to people who visited the booth that this
was THE book and then this was me standing right here where they could touch me - THE author.

I learned a lot in the process both about writing, about trusting, about working with others who say one thing and have a completely different understanding of what needs to be done and then keeping their word or not. In the end of each segment along the way, I had to let go, surrender totally.

I know what to do differently for the next printing and with the next book and I'm sure I'll still learn some things when all is said and done. And surrender is the main lesson.

Isn't that just the cosmic joke over and over again? Surrender is the main lesson. Breathe and squeeze. Oooo and Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

In the advance order I think I mentioned there were fifty books. They are gone now:-) I sold a lot of them at the show and the rest are in the mail going to those people who advance ordered the book over the last year. What a feeling of accomplishment.

FYI you can order the book online at my website www.butterflyworkshops.com. You have the choice of getting the actual book for $19.99 plus S & H or ordering it as an eBook for $14.99.
Hopefully the two versions will serve everyone's tastes. And I ask you to let others know that they can get a hold of it too.

I plan to have a third option which is a combination of the book and the Shamanic Release & Latihan CD as a package for $35 plus S & H as well. They go hand in hand. In the book I talk a lot about Emotional Release and the CD is the tool I created to help you do it.

I recently had the expereince of doing emotional release to my own CD and it was amazing so I will write about it in the next post.

All I can say is that I am thrilled beyond words and looking forward to your feedback about the book.

If you have leads for book signing places and independent bookstores please feel free to follow up with me about that now. I am ready to take this book to Oprah and to the world.

With so much love & gratitude,
L

So Tired

2007-04-19T00:49:00.000-04:00

Wow, I am really running full tilt boogie.

I am so tired and a bit frazzled, I'm finding it hard to remember things and I noticed yesterday and today I am losing my temper. Luckily tomorrow I will do an emotional release session and I'm sure I'll feel better.

I would really feel better too if people would get responsible for themselves. I notice I send out email after email about calls and events, etc. Yet people still call me for directions or phone numbers at the last minute. Or, even more annoying to me is when people don't even bother to call me back when I have called and left a message for them. How rude. You'd think I have nothing better to do than give directions hundreds of times over and over or call people again and again. I am in complete alignment with superior customer service, but this is beyond the call of duty.

If you are reading this, please grow up! Please be responsible for your own information, for where you have to be and when, and may I add - get there on time. Please have the courtesy to return calls when you get a message. What's up with all this?

Anyway, it is wearing me down. I notice I don't have the energy to do as much hand-holding anymore.

My book is due tomorrow! At last my book will be available! Sex & Happiness: The Tantric Laws of Intimacy will hit the streets! I hope it will cause a huge shift in the way I feel I must behave in the world. I hope people who don't want to return calls or get themselves to a course, but want everything over the phone will simply buy the book and get the best I can offer so I can get some rest. I feel like a new mother who took a long time to birth this thing and now I must rest.

Hopefully, after emotional release tomorrow this whole attitude will shift. I still think I'll need rest though.

Long Time No Blog

2007-04-11T12:05:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a ride! When I arrived back in New York, I hit the ground flying meaning I never hit the ground. I've been flying ever since India full speed ahead.

Be careful what you ask for because you just may get it all at once! All the dreams I had of a lifetime started to come into being at the same time. While this is the universe showing abundance to me, it all came in a way I wasn't expecting. All at once.

In the last three months, I have I managed the final edits of my first book Sex & Happiness: The Tanric Laws of Intimacy (soon to be in my hands and then your hands!), I started my radio show Tantra Cafe, I completed the edits on a film we shot almost three years ago of Bliss: Beginner's Tantra, I birthed a new updated website for www.ButterflyWorkshops.com, I managed the day-to-day aspects of life and running a business and I took four courses at Learning Annex in Manhattan about free publicity and voiceovers (another life long dream). I taught four or five Bliss courses, led a couple of Introductions to Tantra up and down the east coast, hosted a book launch and Valentine's Puja without even having the book and just completed delivering the finest Ecstasy course ever! Oh yeah and there's the It Takes 2 Goddesses to Do New York Series that started up again. That too!

Someone said to me, your life is like the life of a big corporation with many departments. I had to laugh. Yes, it is and for the most part there is only me:-) I have a personal assistant from time to time and I feel it is such a blessing to have someone to work with. And of course, at the courses, there are many who assist. But for the most part, I am on my own and the amount I accomplish amazes me. I feel like a whirling dervish.

Many of these projects are completing as I write. The book really should be in my hands by next week. The film will be in my hands then as well. Then starts the marketing and publicity aspects of these products. Yet I feel it will be easier than actually managing so much into manifestation at the same time. At least I'm hoping.

I will take some well earned rest. I've started that already. I slept for four days over this past weekend trying to make up for three months.

What I really want now is to create a wonderful lover (or lovers) somewhere - somebody to be physical with, have yummy sex and get lots of nurturance for my soul with a man who gets me yet doesn't try to have or keep me. I want freedom to play and bask in the sun of it without strings of any kind. Of course, I still want and need to stay on purpose so I'm creating a drama-free situation for myself. Feels yummy just thinking about it.

Hey, are you out there? Mr. McYummy? Let me know. I need a couple of weekends with you and that's all. You must be Tantric and in a wonderful space in your life. Having a temple space at minimum would be great, a place where we could do Puja!

I distract myself.

Well, I will be blogging again on a regular basis. you can count on it. Life is great!

Namaste.

Really Feels Good to Be Back At Last

2007-02-09T01:01:00.000-05:00

Last Friday night I went to a dance performance with Om, one of my students/friends. His girlfriend Jennifer, was away and he asked me if I could be her "stand in" for the evening. She was thrilled that I said I could.

Now going to this performance led me to feel that I am really back in New York where there is always something artsy happening. It was a fabulous show based on a real life relationship between the two dancers who actually grew up together. Loved it.

Then we went for Indian food in the neighborhood of the East Village and I felt I was combining two loves. I love New York and I love India. We topped it off with desert at a place that serves only chocolate. My third love!

Welcome Home to New York!

2007-02-09T00:37:00.000-05:00

About a week after I got back to New York, I went to move my car in the morning for alternate side of the street parking (and then hopefully go to the gym) when I noticed my car's window had been smashed.

I remembered that the only other time in my life my car was broken into was in New York City when I was something like 22 years old.

I calmly (Thank you Tantra) got into the car and drive over to the apartment building where I am subletting my apartment for 2 months and parked it with the blinkers flashing so I could go up, get some plastic and tape the window shut against the cold and snow that was threatened that day.

The security guard came to inquire what I was up to. I explained my situation and he stated that I could not leave the car where I parked it. I said I had to tape the window and then go back upstairs, pack and shower since I was leaving town that day. After a lot of coaxing and flirting, I convinced him to let me do it, leave the car where it was. He agreed, but said I had to be down in exactly one hour - my god!

Well, the race against the was on. I ran through the apartment looking for material to tape the window. Then I ran back up to the 10th floor to shower and pack. I was headed to Fire Island to see my father for one night and then off to West Palm Beach to teach a Tantra & Bliss course. I purposely arranged to fly out of MacArthur Islip Airport so I could check in with my father before departing. So, I made it down and back to the car with 5 mintues to spare. I was really proud of myself.

Only thing was that when I went to start the car, the battery was dead. Okay what to do? finally a limo driver gave me a jump. I called Triple A and asked them to find me a glass shop on the way to Bay Shore (where I catch the ferry to FI). Done, I was on my way!

Got the window replaced, got some errands done, made the boat and figured I was free sailing.

Packed some warm weather clothes that were on FI and got ready for my trip the next morning. I took the 7:30am ferry just so I wouldanple time to do a few more errands and get to the airport on time. Guess what? The car wouldn't start. Of course over that night the temperatures had fallen to 10 below with the wind chill factor. So there I was in the ferry parking lot unable to move. And no one around. Within a half hour, someone came to the ferry dock and I asked for a jump.

Then I drove to an automotive place and replaced the battery ASAP. All this and I still made it to the airport. But when I got to the ticket counter, the ground attendant informed me that my plane was running late and that I would never make my flight connection. I said, "Oh no, I must get there tonight in enough time to decorate for a class I'm teaching tomorrow morning." He looked at me and knew I was very serious (meantime I was so calm I hardly recognize myself). He said, "The only thing we can do now is send you to Laguardia to get a different flight with a different connection." I jumped at it yet explained that I could have flown from there in the first place. I picked coming out to Long Island because the airport is so easy to navigate and I could visit with my father. He said, "Lady, it's Laguardia or nothing!"

So, a taxi drove me to the airport closest to Manhattan and I just barely made the flight. What a crazy couple of days. Welcome home!

Introducing Tantra Cafe - A Program for Spiritual Enlightenment - Internet Radio Show

2007-01-23T01:53:00.001-05:00

Hello Everyone!

It is my pleasure to announce Tantra Café, my new internet radio show on www.tribecaradio.net to you. This is my dream come true. Really I have dreamed of this show for a long time. It's like wow!

Let me tell you a little about Tantra Café…of course I’ll be addressing the subject of Tantra that has been so hyped yet misunderstood. It’s a topic that is naturally “hot” because of its sensual nature and its relationship to sexual energy. On this show I will emphasize its potential to quickly transform lives. Plus I will emphasize the spiritual nature of Tantra not the rest of the hype.

Tantra Café, provides a safe haven for people who want to learn more about Tantra by listening. I guarantee people can learn how to enhance life through the practice of Tantra and on this show I will demonstrate how. I will also make the show juicy and relevant to long time students of Tantra. There will be something of interest for everyone.

Following the Café theme, each show will have an Appetizer where I distinguish what Tantra is and is not by discussing a little history and theory. The Daily Specials segment will feature amazing guests. There is also a Tantra Take Out segment where I give you something “to go” possibly a breathing exercise or a meditation. On every show I’ll play Tantra Mood music featuring artists like Deva Premal, Jim McGrath and Professor Trance, the tunes I use in the Butterfly Workshops Tantra courses.

From time to time Tantra Café will feature Tantric Dessert where women and men from around the world share their True Love Stories, their sex and romantic lives – true stories to help heal relationships. We’ll talk about why Tantra is better than chicken soup for ailing relationships! It really is!

Hopefully, I’m stimulating your appetite enough to tune in to Tantra Café – A Program for Spiritual Enlightenment.

The show is broadcast every Tuesday evening at 10pm EST and rebroadcast Sundays at 10am EST on www.tribecaradio.net. Then it will go to pod cast. So, if you should miss a show you can go to www.tribeca.net and download it. The station website even gives you directions on how to download it into a program like iTunes. Then you can listen on your iPod or other MP3 player!

My first show will be aired January 23 and features Alan Steinfeld producer of New Realities TV (www.newrealities.com). Alan is a long time Tantrika and the interview is simply superb.

My second show will be aired Tuesday, January 30 and features our own Butterfly - Pat Sawyer, life coach, healer, author, cancer survivor. The show theme is Tantra as it relates to healing. Her comments on Tantra really move me.

I’ll be sending you notifications from time to time letting you know what topics will be coming up. If you like the show, you can support it by forwarding this email to your email lists. Perhaps your friends and loved ones would feel more comfortable learning about Tantra by listening in if they are less inclined to come to a workshop or course.

Tne last thing is that I’d love to hear the topics you’d like for me to cover on the show. Please feel free to write and let me know your ideas for topics and guests. I already have an amazing line-up, and I am open to hear from you about what you want to hear.

I am so happy about this long term dream come true. I can’t wait to hear from you after you have listened in. And I might add that this all has to do with Tantra and manifestation. I dreamed this a million times and then set about intending for it to happen through my practices.

Please remember to tune in. That’s Tantra Café on www.tribecaradio.net on your computers Tuesdays 10pm EST and Sundays 10am EST beginning this coming Tuesday.

Namaste,

Laurie

Live from New York City!

2007-01-13T12:43:00.000-05:00

Hey gang!

I moved into Manhattan last night. What a trip! When trying to find
a parking space, I noticed I was not moving fast enough nor was I
familiar with the ways of parking regulations in NYC. I had to change
my "perfect" spot 3 times before I was able to actually relax that I
had found a space for my vehicle. I had to laugh because I realized
that I am in an Indian paradigm on Indian time. I can hardly keep up
in NYC and ya know, I prefer it that way:-)

So, it took a long time to even settle in on a parking space (not like
the old me I used to know who was right on top of the City game!) I
imagine it is going to be a wild ride for the next couple months while
I am staying here. I can only laugh and move at my own (Indian) pace
as I navigate my way in the unknown. Latihan is going to come in
handy, actually already has. I kept thinking about us all going down
to the Ghats in Varanasi for evening Puja following Latihan principles
to get there and stay together as we snaked our way through the masses.

I said to myself while looking for gas in Astoria and then finding my
way back to the Triborough Bridge (which I haven't driven over since
the '70's), "If you can do this in India, you certainly must be able
to do this in New York - no sweat!" And then I burst out laughing. I
am having a ball already.

Happy New Year from Heaven

2007-01-08T12:14:00.000-05:00

I am in Rishikesh at the banks of the Ganga and the foot of the Himilayas. This is Heaven!

I'm glad I chose this over Goa. For me it was a quiet alone celebration of lovely Indian food followed by a steaming hot bath with lavender oil and a mediocre bottle of red wine. India hasn't got much to choose from on that front as you probably know.

This morning I started the year with an Ayervedic massage and then I walked down to the Ganga and dipped my new rudrash mala into the water of the sacred River Goddess.

I depart for Delhi late afternoon and I'll be back in the States on the 5th of January.

I wish you all the love, peace, blessings, abundance your heart desires. I believe 2007 is already an awesome year. Our trip was certainly a huge celebratory transition from '06 to '07.

Looking forward to re-connecting with each of you very soon.

Namaste,
Laurie