Human sexuality is a problematic thing. It gets us into trouble, breaks our hearts, involves us in painful compulsive relationships, even transmits deadly diseases. It would surely scare us off, if it were not for its siren call to higher forms of union and moments of bodily bliss. When examined more closely, however, and especially when we turn our gaze inward to see what sexual arousal is doing to our consciousness, we find we are in an altered state-a form of "erotic trance" that reveals dimensions of ourselves, our partner, and possibilities for human life that otherwise would not have...

In the first volume of Tantra and Erotic Trance we learned to overcome the ejaculatory reflex and go "beyond orgasm," and in turn were introduced to aspects of our awareness that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. Holding ourselves in a state of longing where nothing needs be done, we learn the transpersonal potential of "erotic trance," inhabiting the body and mind of our partner as well as our own. We become acquainted with an inner force that has a will of its own, the serpent of light that India calls "kundalini." By now, every step we have taken has separated us from the cultural...