Some days ago I received an email and it gave me Déjà vu. This story started back in 2022. I had been told that I should explore Tantra on many occasions over the years. Tantra? Should I explore sexuality with random partners and call it spiritual sex? No, thank you, that is not for me, I thought. Maybe it triggered my ultra-Iranian origins ; who knows? However, in the spring of 2022, I took a brave step and threw myself into a tantra massage course. It turned out to be utterly different from wild sex with different men! And of course, I had to interview Shalini Lind, the tantra teacher. Shortly afterwards, YouTube removed the video from my WordPress. I contacted them to ask why the video had been removed; and this was their answer:
“We reviewed your content carefully, and have confirmed that it violates our sex and nudity policy. We know this is probably disappointing news, but it’s our job to make sure that YouTube is a safe place for all.”
I could not disagree with them more, but did not feel like wasting energy on arguing with them. Until I received an email.
Dej́a vu
Reading the email was like having Déjà vu. It was from the Innerlife Center where I had attended the tantra massage course. Reading their email made me wonder how crazy our world is. We see violence everywhere but raising consciousness through our sexual energy is regarded as sex and nudity in a negative way. For anyone who may be curious, here is the email that Innerlife center circulated:
“InnerLife is undoubtedly in an industry that engages in human trafficking; yes, is it slavery and sexual exploitation that we engage in?
That’s the reasoning we got when Facebook shut down Shalini’s account entirely, and it was shut down not just once but twice in two days. By then, we had weeded out every single word that could resemble sexual or erotic in our ad. But the algorithms of Meta want to avoid dealing with the word Tantra, too. The account is up and running again now. We sent a beautiful photo of Shalini, which they requested, and luckily, a human behind the algorithms believed in our innocence. But it is scary to feel how social media controls us. Should we leave it to Facebook to have the defining power over the concept of Tantra? And let it be associated with prostitution, porn and sexual exploitation when it is the complete opposite? Our appeal to you is: Talk about Tantra! Talk about what it means to you! Tell us about the beauty of Tantra and what it does to your self-image, your relationships and, not least, how it contributes to a more loving world. FB rejection.”
I invite you to follow their appeal, and watch my video on YouTube. The video has English subtitles. Decide for yourself if it has anything to do with sex or nudity?
I hope you enjoy the conversation with Shalini Lind as much as I did.
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Yes Parisa we are controlled in many ways, not only by social media. Do you know that some words cannot be searched on Google? Well, actually you can search for them by you won’t find any results. If I find the list again I’ll post it here. I tried myself and it was shocking. But would you delete all your accounts? This would be the only solution I guess. Speaking of Tantra, it’s unbelievable that such an ancient yogic philosophy is considered to be censored.
Oh for sure we are so controlled in so many ways! I am trying to not give that thought too much space because it just makes me feel hopeless. Like the question you asked, are you going to delete all your accounts? So that is the price I & we pay. And yes please share the link If you find the list again. I did not know that and I would very much like to see what is unsearchable.
And when it comes to Tantra, yes it is crazy, but I guess it is because many in Western Tantra communities just relate to it as sexual interaction and not as a life philosophy, so there are many strange directions within those approaches if you see what I mean? But that they stop Shalini and her talks and teachings and the interview with her is crazy.
Oh yes, I think you are right, most of Western people don’t think about the philosophy behind and in the best case scenario they take it as something exotic!
I really enjoyed that interview! I have heard of tantra a lot, but didn’t really know anything about it so that was a good introduction for me. 😎🙏
I am happy you enjoyed it. It is very much about how we can approach life ( our energy, sexuality, emotions and thoughts) in a totally different way than how we have been taught as humans.
I’d like to investigate more😎