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Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century [Paperback]

Barbara Carrellas , Annie Sprinkle
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)

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Book Description

April 1, 2007
If you think sexual and spiritual bliss can'­t be found in today'­s fast-paced world, you haven'­t experienced Urban Tantra. With a juicy mix of erotic how-to and pleasure-centered spiritual wisdom, acclaimed sex educator Barbara Carrellas radically updates the ancient practice of Tantra for modern sexual explorers desiring to push past their edge in search of the great cosmic orgasm.With more than one hundred easy-to-follow techniques for expanded orgasmic states and solo and partner play (as well as more adventurous practices), this in-depth guide reveals the delicious worlds of ecstasy available to all, including:The Erotic Awakening Massage • Breath and Energy Orgasms • Twenty-Minute Tantra Evolutionary Selfloving • Sex and Healing • Tantric BDSMNo matter what your gender, sexual preference, or erotic tastes, URBAN TANTRA will expand your notions about pleasure and open you up to new heights of intimacy and sexual fulfillment.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This handy how-to promises mind-blowing, toe-curling, highly spiritual sex for humble beginners, BDSM aficionados and everyone in between. Sex educator Carrellas is on a mission to bring Tantra-the ancient practice of sacred sex, in which interpersonal connection and transformative ecstasy are the norm-to the modern world, to reclaim sex from "messed-up, sexually-dysfunctional, judgmental, and ignorant culture," and to shift the urban sex paradigm from recreational activity to a sumptuous, impassioned way of life. Not that one necessarily needs that kind of ambition: Carrellas offers ways to enhance any old sexual encounter (with techniques like breathing, stroking, prodding and piercing), techniques for solo play and countless uses for a trunk full of toys. Same sex, transgender, and multi-partner play is encouraged (if not highly recommended), and the text is peppered with illuminating, try-this-at-home anecdotes. Pictures and diagrams are whimsical but instructive, making Carrellas's cheerful descriptions of unusual concepts-"gigglegasms," "rainbow rubs" and "the mushy puss" among them-easy to grasp. A final chapter, on "Sex Magic," examines the power of Tantra to achieve a number of effects, from backpain relief to a happier office to world peace; however far you'd like to take your sex life, this friendly guide will likely show the way.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"This is honestly the best book written on Tantra, period."-Playgirl"Few books on Tantra are truly brilliant. Barbara Carrellas has written of Urban Tantra in a way that warms my heart . . . honest, clear, human and insightful. I am laughing and loving Tantra all over again."-Caroline Muir, co-author, Tantra, The Art of Conscious Loving"Sex educator Carrellas takes tantra out of the exclusive domain of white New Age heterosexuals and makes a compelling-and hot, and damp-argument that tantra is for all of us. Her frank how-to offers suggestions for incorporating tantric principles into queer couplings, with a healthy respect for putting sex back at the center of our lives."-Out magazine"URBAN TANTRA gives me hope that the world will become a more sexually satisfied, ecstatic, enlightened, and inclusive place."-Annie Sprinkle, PhD, from the foreword"URBAN TANTRA is the most pleasurable, fun, meaningful, and liberating book on sex ever! Thank you, Barbara!"-Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Women'­s Bodies, Women'­s Wisdom "At last, a sex book with a sense of humor, and one that dispels the notion that sex is always, only and forever, between one man and one woman. I can'­t wait to see generations grow up with the study and use of URBAN TANTRA!"-Kate Bornstein, author of Gender Outlaw and Hello, Cruel World"Any book on Tantra that begins by describing a professional lap dance as a divine sexual experience is one I will definitely read. Written with wit and humor, Barbara's URBAN TANTRA keeps sex real, and, best of all, the rituals are fun."-Betty Dodson, PhD, author of Sex for One and Orgasms for Two"If you ever thought Tantra wasn'­t for you-too foreign or gimmicky or New Agey, or not edgy enough for your radical sex explorations-Barbara Carrellas will cure you of all misconceptions and bring you an Urban Tantra to unite your sex, your spirit, your erotic wanderlust, your edge."-Carol Queen, author of Real Live Nude Girl and director of the Center for Sex & Culture, San Francisco"URBAN TANTRA offers a daring, delicious, profound, courageous, and altogether magical celebration that will teach us all to dance to the rhythms of the universe. Barbara Carrellas has written the ultimate how-to book uniting sex with spirit, healing with philosophy, and the animating force of the cosmos with each and every one of us. So if you'd like to live your sex life on a galactic scale, you must read this book!"-Dossie Easton, coauthor of The Ethical Slut"Everyone needs to rejoice in their own sexuality, and Barbara shows us how in this very informative, easy-to-use book. It would be nice to practice Tantra in a lovely remote garden or high atop a mountain, but the reality is that in today'­s world many of us don'­t have that luxury. Barbara demonstrates that it doesn'­t matter where you practice, as long as you'Âre conscious when you do. Now, let go and enjoy Urban Tantra."-Louise Hay, author of You Can Heal Your Life and Empowering Women"URBAN TANTRA is a courageous book by Barbara Carrellas, one of the pioneers in contemporary American Tantra. This engaging and comprehensive guide includes numerous powerful exercises as well as moving personal anecdotes that reveal how the conscious exploration and embrace of sexuality can function as a tool for transformation."-Mark A. Michaels (Swami Umeshanand Saraswati) and Patricia Johnson (Devi Veenanand), authors of The Essence of Tantric Sexuality"Barbara Carrellas, whose Urban Tantric sex workshops combine Eastern sex techniques with the postmodern methods of SM practitioners, is a trailblazer."-Tristan Taormino, The Village Voice

Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Celestial Arts (April 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1587612909
  • ISBN-13: 978-1587612909
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.6 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Barbara Carrellas is an author, sex/life coach, sex educator, university lecturer, workshop facilitator, motivational speaker and theater artist. Her most recent books are "Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century" and "Luxurious Loving: Tantric Inspirations for Passion and Pleasure". Barbara's pioneering Urban Tantra® workshops were named best in New York City by TimeOut/New York magazine. She is also the co-founder of Erotic Awakening, a groundbreaking series of workshops which toured the United States and Australia.

Barbara currently offers inspiring and life-changing workshops, lectures, and keynotes on a variety of topics to individuals, schools, conferences, businesses, and the arts.

Barbara is also a Sex/Life coach, offering her clients sex information and education, intuitive readings, emotional and mental rebalancing, resources and referrals. The essence of her work is the inseparable connection between your sex life and the rest of your life, and the happy integration of body, mind, and spirit.

Barbara brings a holistic, metaphysical, practical, humorous, entertaining and gender-fluid approach to conscious sexuality and to all her work. She began her work in metaphysics and conscious sexuality during the AIDS crisis in the late 1980's--a time when the connections between sex, spirit and healing were at their most strained. Barbara has facilitated countless healing circles and support groups for women, men, transgender people, artists, people with life-threatening illnesses and people with HIV/AIDS. For four years she was a facilitator for and on the Board of Directors of the New York Healing Circle, which was founded in response to the AIDS crisis and incorporated the principles of Louise Hay's work. As her workshops grew in popularity and in attendance, her work expanded to include people from all walks of life and in all stages of sexual evolution.

The more Barbara explored sex and consciousness, the more she saw the possibilities for healing and expanded consciousness in all forms of "sacred" practices, including Tantra, Tao, Quodoushka, Reiki, breathwork, metaphysics, performance, ritual, herbal medicine, bodywork, erotic massage, commercial sex work and BDSM. Her books and her workshops are an eclectic mix of sexual and spiritual practices designed to encourage readers and participants of all sexual preferences and genders to expand their capacity for both pleasure and spiritual fulfillment.

Barbara has been featured in the videos Selfloving, The Sluts & Goddesses Video Workshop, Annie Sprinkle's Amazing World of Orgasm, Zen Pussy, in the film Sacred Sex, numerous episodes of the HBO television series Real Sex, Australian television's Sex/Life and on Britain's Sky Channel as part of the documentary, Sex in America. She collaborated with Annie Sprinkle to present a new/ancient vision of female sexuality in theatrical form in MetamorphoSex, a week-long workshop for women culminating in ritual-performances. She also directed the Australian premiere of Annie's renowned one-woman show, Post Porn Modernist. Barbara is proud to have enjoyed a lifelong theatrical career as a general manager, producer and theatre manager on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in alternative theatre in New York. She is still active as a performance artist.

Barbara has written numerous articles about sex, including a wildly popular series of feature articles for the sex magazine Over 40, highlighting the lives and wisdom of the stars of the "golden age" of porn. She has also written and produced The Pleasure Principle, an educational audio series.

Barbara has lectured at many educational institutions, including Harvard University, Brown University, Vassar College, Barnard College, Sara Lawrence College, Wesleyan University, the Chicago Art Institute and Yale University. She frequently collaborates with her partner, Kate Bornstein, with whom she performs and tours their sex positive, gender-bending lecture/performance piece There And Back Again: An Epic Tale of Sex, Death, and Gender.

Barbara is a certified sexologist (ASC, American College of Sexologists) and a member of AASECT (American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists).

Barbara is a proud graduate of the Coney Island Sideshow School with a double major in fire eating and snake handling.

Customer Reviews

I've greatly enjoyed reading this book and I'd like to share what I found very valuable. Serena Anderlini  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
It is fun to read and you will learn a lot from it. Patrick D. Goonan  |  5 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
170 of 175 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read... Humorous and Informative..... September 28, 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm a personal growth coach with a graduate education in integral psychology. I have had a lifelong interest in the wisdom traditions of the world and this was also part of my study. I also work with people having various kinds of sexual issues or seeking more fulfillment.

When I ordered this book, I had a mixed reaction to the reviews and I was honestly expecting not to like it. However, I found it to be quite refreshing, fun, extremely witty and also informative. It talks about real sex between real people and how sex can be used as a spiritual practice and tool for transformation.

Strickly speaking, tantra is path to spiritual transformation that uses the stuff of everyday life as a gateway to something more transcendant. There are many tantric practices and the sexual practices are only a small and rather minor subset of this overall topic. If you are looking for an a good introduction on this deeper tantra or for more context, see Introduction to Tantra : The Transformation of Desire. This is an excellent, concise and accessible introduction to traditonal tantra before it was imported to the West. Although it is written from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, the concepts apply well to any type of traditional tantra.

Back to this book.... once I got beyond my resistance to it given my knowledge and biases toward traditional tantra, I found it to be a practical tool for people looking to find deeper meaning in sex. Tantra is sort of a buzz word in the West and has a technical definition in the East. However, the authors define Tantra as... "living, authentically, consciously and sensuously.
... Read more ›
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226 of 250 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars I went to her URBAN TANTRA SACRED SEX CLASS August 2, 2010
By Lemure
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
And I have the book. This review is on Carrellas and her whole philosopy - the book and the class. As for the book - you can find anything in this book for free on the internet. It is nothing new at all. She spends some pages complaining about white-bread folks and making sure everyone knows she is a radical lesbian. Same old boring song and dance, "look at me, see how different I am!" She talks about learning advanced meditation techniques from masters. But if you have the smallest, most basic knowledge of Tibetan Buddhist tantra - when you read this book, or see her and hear her rant in person, it pretty obvious that it is all made up hogwash...

I love meditation and I have had a psychic opening from practicing it. I have bliss-ed out during meditation; so I do know what it feels like. I have read all Lama Yeshe's books and I love him dearly. But I do not want to join the Buddhist religion or philosophy, so I keep searching. When I first got into Meditation, I skipped by these sex tantra books believing it to be an abuse of spiritual practices. Ive read extensively how some while practicing meditation & tantra will develop psychic abilities and siddhis and get so caught up in that ... that they never progress down the path any further. At the very least, I saw this type of thing as an annoying distraction that could turn counter productive and destructive.

So I went to this class - Urban Tantra - to see if I could get some first hand instructions on breathing techniques. The classes are advertised that way... as "breath work", so I was very excited to think I would learn something better or new.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but maybe not for everyone March 3, 2009
Format:Paperback
I thought the book was good, but spent alot of the beginning alienating us boring white bread middle American straight people that may not work occasionally in the sex trade....I say this with a smile and a laugh.

If you are gay, into BDSM, etc. and want to expand on those alternatives with Tantra this book is awesome.....If you want pure Tantra, you can take what you need and leave the rest, or look elsewhere.

It's an easy, entertaining, quick read...and I never thought of myself as a prude, I love the energy information--although it's nothing I haven't learned elsewhere, I just felt a little side tracked at times....

For me personally, and again this is me, but I felt like BDSM worked better when I still clung to many of the issues I've worked through, and I see Tantra as a step beyond, so some of this book seemed like a step backwards.? I also look to Tantra to intesify a long term monogamous relationship, and this book often speaks otherwise. No judgement, just not where I am at this point in my life.
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36 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you have already read some of my reviews, you know my favorite books feel like best friends and "Urban Tantra" rates as an excellent "bf" and a must have for anyone, what ever your sexual orientation is! If you want to raise your sexual IQ and ecstasy, do empowering exercises -- one that uses rocking -- which is a favorite, than rock it and read it. Barbara is so open, honest and fun. I loved Annie Sprinkle's "Spectacular Sex" and Annie writes the forward to this book and the women and the books compliment each other well. This book is great for couples and for "singles" because you can do the "home work" alone too which is important and some topics may not be your "thing" but you will get some great breathing excercises, imagining and understanding out of this terrific read!
I recommend this book highly and also doing the exercises for better sexual health, pleasure and empowerment. Like Annie and Nina Hartley, Barbara recommends affirmations and I agree and need to do so much more affirming work. I am carrying this book around with me everywhere and I recommend you do too!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is absolutely awesome!
My partner and I are into dark Tantra and we got this book not so much as an introduction, but to learn more about how Tantra and S/M fit together. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Cavalry Scout
5.0 out of 5 stars In your face?
I like it a lot....the book is a rock solid hub for anyone who cherishes the free flow and exchange of archaic data in times when this kind of data means everything to lovers and... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Oliver
2.0 out of 5 stars language is distracting
This seemed like a good reference, but I couldn't get past the BDSM references in the front, and the language throughout. Read more
Published 1 month ago by slapsomeducttapeonit
5.0 out of 5 stars Added a zing in my sex life!
I find it difficult to talk about sex with my partner so I got this book to get the dialog going. It was the perfect thing. Great descriptions for him and her. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Happylovewoman24
1.0 out of 5 stars This has nothing to do with sacred sex...
I was hoping to read about sacred sexuality but instead I was offered mental images of porn and orgies... This book is not about sacred sex.. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Anu
4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh and Exciting look into modern Tantra
I really liked this book a lot. It is a fresh and exciting look into modern Tantra and the use of sexual pleasure to seek enlightenment.
Published 3 months ago by Robert D. Budlong
5.0 out of 5 stars great work!
Barbara has written a well-organized book. It is engaging and thoughtful and fun. I enjoyed it greatly and I picked up a lot of fun tips!
Published 4 months ago by Corey Alexander
5.0 out of 5 stars fun! l
Good read, lots to learn and apply! Teaches you techniques for partner or solo sex and is all about any human lovemaking wether it be male female, female female, male male. Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. Yap
5.0 out of 5 stars A diferent perspective
If you haven't read anything about Tantra before this book will change your perspective of sex and meditation. I will buy other books by the author.
Published 6 months ago by Rogelio
5.0 out of 5 stars Evolution Guaranteed
This book was my first approach to Modern Tantra, and it it is much much more. Interesting, erudite, entertaining and full of very useful information I cannot recommend it strongly... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Carte Coral Sarita Hutchings
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