|
DivinePleasure.com
6/16/00
I visited the headquarters for DivinePleasure.com Friday afternoon 6/16/00. It was only 100 yards away from the home I celebrated Shabbat in Friday night with 40 members of my Temple's Young Adults group. I finally meet Goddess, the frequent LF.com contributor. I first talk to Raja, a teacher of Tantric sex who oversees the authenticity of Divinepleasure.com. Raja: "There's a blend here of a beautiful kind of tradition. An actual lifestyle that is not prevalent on the planet anymore but it did exist. With people living with a lot of art and beauty around them, and a lot of love and massage and dance and creativity... It's a blend of that tradition with some fantasy. We're playful. We realize that one half of this is true for us. We really love this. And there's a bit of tongue in cheek. It's one step over a movie set. It's a caricature. "I write a lot of the stuff for the website and shoot some of the videos. I just taught a topless yoga class. "The website has been fully online for 3 days." Divinepleasure.com is a partnership between Toshi Gold's Astral Ocean and Blue Star, a mainstream TV producer who's worked extensively with Tantra and other themes of sacred pleasure. For three years he's been married to Divinity, who chose the house's decorations. She acts as the 'house mother.' Raja: "It was her vision to create this. She has a wonderful imagination. She can see the bigger picture of how this can serve many people. "One of the great beauties of Tantra is that it allows people to express intimacy without intercourse. So people don't have to polarize. You can have a monogamous lifestyle within Kamasutra or Tantra, and yet be sensually connected to your friends. You can have real clear boundaries, like no deep kissing and no genital touching. But we can lay naked together or breath together or dance together. And feel at ease with our bodies connecting with each other. But still hold those boundaries. "And if somebody gets turned on, you just circulate that energy. So instead of acting it out, and passing over the boundaries and maybe manipulating somebody, instead we move that energy and still stay connected. So it is not so genital." Luke: "Does this work in real life?" Raja: "Absolutely. It does take training, discipline and intention. And integrity. I know many people living this way and there are looseknit communities developing. You can just drop in to a community like that and there's a lot of love, touch and presence. People are relaxed because they know that this person is not going to try to f--- me. Or, I don't have to do something sexually that I don't want to do. "The idea of divine pleasure is the link between what is pleasurable and what is sacred. Pleasure with respect, honor and caring." I meet Blue Star, the owner. BS: "Toshi and his wife came here and had a session from Divinity about six months ago. She worked with them as a couple, helping them spice up their marriage and have better contact. And he looked around and said, 'Have you ever thought of going online with this?' So we started talking and formed a partnership. So Astral Ocean has put in the equipment and the marketing to the adult side of things. And we market to the consciousness, Tantra and New Age side. "We want this to be an alternative to adult sites. Still sensual but more appropriate to couples." Raja: "We think there are a lot of men out there who are looking at porn because they're lonely. Maybe they don't know how to get a date. Maybe they are so busy with their workaholic life, that is all that is available to them on a quick basis. Maybe a percentage of them would like to look at something less raw and more beautiful and more respectful and elegant with different values." Blue Star: "We teach male multiple orgasm. In Tantra, it is easy to learn how to hold the ejaculation and to breathe the energy up, which makes for a more satisfying experience. By pulling it up, you can make love for hours. A man can be more like a woman in that he can have multiple orgasms." I'm escorted into the living room, which has been dubbed "the loving room." Blue Star: "I've been doing television production for 20 years. Divinity's background is in the healing arts. Robert's background is as a teacher and instructor. And truthfully, DivinePleasure.com is now taking up 98% of all of our efforts. And between the three of us, you're looking at over 100 years of experience. "But Divinity and I have a TV production company and we're going into production on a couple of new shows in the fall." Raja: "I've taught hundreds of workshops [on the Kama Sutra and Tantric techniques]. Anything from an evening to a day to weekend workshops. And a lot of week long retreats. Teaching multiple male orgasm, teaching women to be multiply orgasmic, teaching communication and how to come from their heart instead of just their ego or genitals. And saved lots of relationships." BS: "For our site, we've brought in friends of ours who are legitimate tantric teachers and healers as well as dancers and models who have that performing thing. It's a fun combination of people." Raja: "We try not to hire women who don't know much about this work; we've only picked people who are interested in learning consciousness. If we interview somebody and they say, oh, that's bulls---. We go, OK, nevermind." BS: "Most of the people who come here from the adult industry are ecstatic. You mean I don't have to f--- or suck or have some guy say, shove it in harder! Divinity and I were on the Playboy show Nightcalls. "And off camera, the two girls are bright smart women, but off camera they play the role of bimbo. And I was talking about the differences... There's just as much passion and love, but the difference is all about honoring. Even though we've been together as lovers for four years, whenever we make love, which is usually at least once a day, I still always ask, 'May I enter your temple?' I don't just shove it in. And it helps me remember how blessed I am to have such a beautiful woman receive me as a lover. And it helps her remember that I do honor her. That tiny thing makes a difference. "When I mentioned this on Nightcalls, one of the girls (the redhead, not Juli Ashton) said: 'You hear that you guys? Do you hear that, you pigs? I am a goddess. You've got to honor.' And the whole rest of the show she said, 'I am a goddess. You have to honor me. You have to ask me before you come into my temple.' And she really got it." Raja: "That technique of asking before entering is typical of the ancient Kama Sutra teachings." BS: "Most people would agree that there's nothing we enjoy more than food and sex and there's nothing we're more f---ed up about than food and sex. There's a lot of shame in this culture about sex and our bodies... No woman always thinks she looks beautiful enough. Women who work here and are gorgeous all think, at one time or another, that there boobs aren't large enough or their hips are too much, because of this weird cultural stigma. "Most adult stuff is degrading. The men are portrayed as horny animals who'll do anything... And often women are portrayed as bimbos or sex objects. And nobody feels good about that. And we all want to have sexual experiences... It's just about reframing it so we're all enjoying ourselves. "One of our goddesses is an environmental activist who led a humanitarian mission to Burma and put her life at risk. We helped raise money for that. Another woman is an animal rights activist. If people want to get to know our goddesses, they can go deeper and learn about the situation in Burma or in Tibet, which is Divinity's cause. "We were in at World Modeling and Jasmine came in. And she wasn't sure if she wanted to do the World Modeling thing. Then when she saw what we were offering, she said, that's what I want. Because she's young and pure and innocent yet wanting to explore her sexuality." Blue Star has two cats - Rumio and Maui. "We all live in service to these two cats," says Blue Star. "I watched them be born ten years again." BS: "The most famous celebrity who promotes Tantra is Sting. And he recently had a great line: 'I'm trying to teach my wife Tantric shopping. That's where she goes to a shopping mall for five hours and she doesn't buy anything.'"
|