{"id":102836,"date":"2016-08-02T13:55:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T21:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=102836"},"modified":"2016-08-02T13:55:55","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T21:55:55","slug":"marc-gafni-teaching-at-tantric-sex-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=102836","title":{"rendered":"Marc Gafni Teaching at Tantric Sex School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forward<\/a>: Applications are now being accepted for a year-long course on New Age tantric sex, which include instruction on \u201ctotal body orgasms,\u201d \u201cPrayer Sexing\u201d and \u201cPleasure Dharma.\u201d Classes begin in October and applicants who enroll before August 15 receive a generous discount.<\/p>\n

The instructor? Controversial one-time rabbi Marc Gafni.<\/p>\n

Gafni, a New Age guru and former rabbi accused of abuses of power through his career, including molestation of a teenage girl, has another venture \u2014 as \u201cwisdom teacher in residence\u201d at the Institute for Integral Evolutionary Tantra.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be willing to stand with each other in sexuality,\u201d Gafni wrote in an introductory message on the website of Integral Evolutionary Tantra. \u201cWe need to learn what that means with all of its complexity, with all of its shadows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sexual is the ultimate Spiritual Master,\u201d Gafni wrote.<\/p>\n

A one-year course at the school, starting this fall and held over six weekends in New York City, with 16 bi-weekly online workshops, costs $5,750. There are nine \u201ctotal body orgasm\u201d sessions and students are also allowed two \u201cinteractive online sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Applicants may chose to enroll in a \u201ctwo-year transformational program and a four-year practitioner program\u201d after which they will be a \u201cCertified Outrageous Eros Relationship & Sexuality Practitioner.\u201d Applicants must send in a completed application form, wth a letter of recommendation, and go through an interview process before being accepted into the program.<\/p>\n

The Institute for Integral Evolutionary Tantra is a partner organization of the Center for Integral Wisom, Gafni\u2019s think tank. The program incorporates \u201cIntegral and Evolutionary Theory,\u201d New Age concepts that Gafni has helped shape. The institute is led by Kristina Kincaid, a member of Center for Integral Wisdom. Gafni has been involved with the institute since at least 2013, when he co-taught a weekend workshop including guidance on \u201chow to move though the abuse of the sexual to sexual integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

…The spiritual side of sex and intimacy have long been central to Gafni\u2019s teaching. His books include titles like \u201cThe Erotic and the Holy,\u201d and \u201cMystery of Love\u201d and deal with topics like \u201cthe exile of the erotic into the sexual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gafni\u2019s defenders, who have stuck beside him despited the controversy, say that Gafni has what they call an overwhelmingly magnetic physical presence, which some call Eros.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarc himself is a powerful receiver [of Eros] and transmitter of it,\u201d Adam Bellow, who is advising the Center for Integral Wisdom, told Tablet Magazine last year. \u201cI also have no trouble believing that in his early life he had little understanding or control over this powerful gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinkaid, who helms the tantric institute, praised Gafni\u2019s teaching on Eros in a 2015 public letter. \u201cI had the profound honor and wild pleasure of \u2026 supporting Marc as the Living, Breathing, Alive, Aflame, Awakened, Dharma as he liberated Eros,\u201d Kinkaid wrote. \u201cDeepest Bow Ever to our Beloved Teacher for all he is, all he gives and all he lives! Amen!\u201d<\/p>\n

Gafni\u2019s latest title then, as a teacher-in-residence at a institute offering courses in \u201cMystic Sexing,\u201d fits well into this pattern.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was convinced from an early age that religion had lost what I believed must have been its original erotic vitality,\u201d Gafni reflected in one of his books. \u201cI knew that the sexual, if liberated and ethically expressed, must somehow hold the mystery of return to the much larger-than-sexual Eros.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forward: Applications are now being accepted for a year-long course on New Age tantric sex, which include instruction on \u201ctotal body orgasms,\u201d \u201cPrayer Sexing\u201d and \u201cPleasure Dharma.\u201d Classes begin in October and applicants who enroll before August 15 receive a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gafni"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102838,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102836\/revisions\/102838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}