In quiet rooms filled with candlelight, movement and presence, a revolution is taking place. Women are turning inward…toward their own bodies, their breath and each other – to rediscover something sacred. In the dissertation “Touch in Contemporary Tantra: Transgression, Healing and Ecstasy”, this deeply personal transformative journey is explored through the voices of reputable Tantra teachers and practitioners across Great Britain. What emerges is a powerful story of how conscious touch can help women reconnect with themselves, heal old wounds, and step fully into their power.
Transgression as a Path to Freedom
At its core, this work reveals that touch in Tantra is not merely sensual or erotic…it is radical. In a world where women’s bodies are too often sites of control, judgment or silence, choosing to engage in sacred touch becomes an act of defiance. It’s a way of saying my body is mine.
This sentiment echoes the words of Pamela Anderson. She once explained that her decision to accept to pose nude wasn’t driven by insecurity, a desire for attention, or submission to the expectations of those behind the camera. It was a reclamation. A protest. A powerful NO to a world that had tried to shame her for what had been done to her in her youth.
For her, nudity wasn’t vulnerability, nor was it a cheap bid for attention – it was sovereignty. A concept rarely understood by those too disconnected or fragmented, where the mind, soul, and body exist in discord: speaking one thing, desiring another, and acting in contradiction to their own preachings.
I, can certainly relate deeply to Pamela’s feelings. When I’ve posed for artistic nudes – it was never to provoke, to seek validation, or because I lacked the courage to say no…it was something much deeper than any of that. It was my quiet rebellion. A wordless declaration in the face of a certain type of woman – the type of women who confuse being “good” with performing a script, playing at superficial modesty while quietly wrestling with their own unexpressed desires.
These women often meet me with disapproval…not because they know who I am, but because I refuse to conceal myself. Because I exist without apology. Because I own the fact that I am also a woman who thinks and feels deeply. They assume, they judge – often without curiosity, care or knowledge of what it took to learn to own my life. To them, my visibility is a threat… and so the unspoken pact of women supporting women is revoked. In its place, the old, familiar rivalry re-emerges – I believe most of the time is not out of malice, but out of unresolved tension within themselves. Their reaction reveals more about their own inner conflict than it does about me.
My choosing to pose for artistic nudes, was also my sacred defiance and ultimate “Fuck You” to the so-called “men” who violated not just my body but my soul – those mentally inmature monsters in human guise – who never learned to tell the difference between a girl and a woman, leaving behind scars shaped by their ignorance and cruelty.
Standing before the lens feels healing…because its a beautiful combination of defiance, art and soul. During those times, often these thoughts replay like a declaration of my spirit: You don’t get to shame me. You don’t get to make me hide, as though I were the one at fault for what happened. My body is beautiful – it is not the culprit of someone else’s sickness. I know who I am, what I stand for, what I do, and what I don’t. I am both free-spirited and sacred; as such, I don’t need to be draped from head to toe to prove my worth. Nor do I need to perform rebellion through promiscuity. I am not confined to the binaries of ignorance – I am simply and powerfully myself. If you don’t know me, perhaps keep your judgments to yourself…but I know you won’t. Your wounds are still bleeding despite your hiding them… ignorance still loud – that’s your burden to carry. Judge then, judge if you feel you must – stay lost in your illusions. I’ll be here doing what I’ve always done…rising!
There are those still entangled in their pain, trying to avoid looking in to find why their bitter projections. There are those – well meaning – who mistake supression with healing. There are those trying to make sense of their wounds. The all have something in common…they are all hurt, just like the rest of us – sadly they believe that by projecting, concealing what hurts, or silencing what stirs them or sparks joy, they have transcended. But healing is not found in avoidance or suppression….it is found in the beautiful uncovering of each layer that makes up the person behind the mask.
And then… there is another kind that has risen through all generations. Women who have walked through fire and emerged wiser. Their strength is not rooted in appearances, borrowed philosophies or dogmatic thinking – their strength is firmly built on the solid foundation of soul and substance. They do not seek acceptance based on acts, for life is not a circus. They know their worth, they are their own compass – they don’t act…they are. They don’t follow…they create. These are the women who take time to see you, to get to know you. The world has tried to break them and failed, for they are storms in human form – fierce, grounded and unshakable in their conviction to live life. They recognize the power of grounded rebellion…the kind rooted in authenticity.
These women – whose years have accumulated so much wisdom- have been my greatest teachers. Through their love, support and guidance, I’ve learned the value of living in balance. Thry have taught me the sad truth of dying inside in order to be normal, and the beauty of embracing one’s inner fire over the lies of dogmatic conventionality. These women taught me that there is a price to pay to be normal; there is even a higher price to pay for the right to be yourself. I best honor them by honoring the voice within me…following the quiet pull of spirit over the noise of indoctrination or the temptation of superficial rebellion. It is not an easy path…it asks for emotional depth, strength, mental maturity and radical vulnerability.
Through it all, it helps to remind myself of all the women, past and present, who have felt like I do…it helps to remind me that I am not alone. Women like Monica Bellucci, who have also stood proudly in their skin, posing nude in sensual but artful ways. She, who refused to bow her head, who said that beauty is only a problem to those who have only that to offer, or to those who are incapable of recognizing their own beauty.
This reclamation to the world exists even in words. Anaïs Nin, Delmira Augustini, Maya Angelou (to name but a few), with their intimate, erotic yet exquisitely poetic writings, challenged a world too dissonant to recognize its own hypocrisy. They wrote with fearless sensuality, baring their inner landscapes in ways that defied shame and invited deeper truths.
These are not just stories of rebellion. They are stories of healing, wholeness, and women refusing to be confined by the projections of others. Choosing to touch, feel, and be seen becomes not a submission to the gaze but a reclaiming of it – a declaration that we are not here to be owned, judged or silenced…we are here to be!
The Healing Power of Touch
Many women arrive in Tantra carrying stories of trauma, numbness, or disconnection…stories that live not just in memory but in muscle, skin and breath. Through gentle, intentional touch, something begins to shift. In the safe and sacred space of Tantra, touch becomes language – a way to listen, to feel, to heal. The dissertation shows how, over time, this touch restores not only sensation but a deeper sense of trust in the body and in life itself. Healing happens not through fixing, but through witnessing…with compassion, tenderness and presence.
Ecstasy as a Sacred Remembering
In these spaces of embodied connection, women are rediscovering ecstasy – not as fleeting pleasure, but as deep presence and inner expansion. Tantra invites them to experience their bodies not as objects to be judged, but as vessels of wisdom, joy and sacred energy. Ecstasy becomes a state of remembering…of who they are beneath the conditioning, the roles, the expectations. It is a return to the sacredness of being alive, fully and unapologetically.
A Feminine Reawakening
This dissertation doesn’t just explore a practice – it illuminates a quiet cultural shift. Contemporary Tantra, as lived and shaped by women, is weaving a new narrative of the feminine: powerful, embodied, sensual, wise. These women are not only healing themselves; they are reimagining what it means to be whole. They are claiming space, voice and freedom through the soft strength of touch.
Touch in Contemporary Tantra: Transgression, Healing, and Ecstasy is more than academic insight – it is a mirror held up to a profound human yearning. It shows us how touch, when honored and intentional, can become a sacred rite of passage….a way home to ourselves. In these practices, women are not only finding healing; they are rediscovering their light.
Eiros 