About Us
The Erotic Revolution in London
tantrafestival is a not-for-profit organisation, whose sole purpose is to raise awareness of Tantra and to share the benefits of a wonderful way of living with as many people as possible. With many years of experience of the profound life-changing effects Tantra has had on our lives, we as organisers and speakers alike wish to share the wonderful benefits of Tantra with you.
We have been running Tantra festivals in London since 2014, and similar festivals have been organised by our sister organisations across Europe since 2011 – for example in Copenhagen, Prague, Budapest, Malmo, Helsinki, Lisbon and Cluj.
We believe that Tantra is a spiritual system that perfectly suits our times At its roots, Tantra shares the same fundamental principles of contemporary science, and, contrary to other spiritual systems, the results of the practice can be measured and validated by direct experience.
Tantra shows us how we can significantly touch our heart, providing effective ways to live an extraordinarily happy life without isolation but wise integration in the midst of the storm of life.
Throughout the ages, eroticism has been a subject of much taboo and mistaken as sex, and even today, in times of sexual freedom, little has changed and the lost treasure remains unknown.
The Erotic Revolution in London
Decades after the “sexual revolution”, relationships still suffer from lack of intimacy and true deep erotic fulfilment. Many people suffer from sexual frustration and a lack of true understanding about their profound erotic needs, and therefore indulge in superficial pleasures and even addictions, secretly longing for profound pleasure, love, and intimacy.
While most spiritual systems simply avoid or even reject sexuality, the Tantric system embraces all aspects of the human being and modern life including all aspects of intimacy, revealing the revolutionary difference between sex and Eros.
Pure Eros is the beginning of an authentic erotic revolution.
The purpose of this approach is wisely using its full potential for spiritual evolution. The Tantric offers a genuine erotic re-education in which we can experience directly the sacred dimension of erotic love (also called Eros), leading to true inner freedom and ecstatic happiness.
To experience the hidden and sacred dimension of pure Eros answers some of the biggest problems of the world today. When we bring love into eroticism it connects our hearts with real intimacy. Intimacy is often confused with sex, but people can have sex without being intimate. The biggest difference is the magic ingredient – Love. Intimacy is a state of togetherness that brings warmth, closeness or trust to the relationship between lovers.
True intimacy is an efficient way to transform as fears and limitations will come up when someone visits our deepest and most vulnerable place but the reward of letting someone inside our heart and to love in return is one of the greatest gifts we can live for. Delicious intimacy and heart connection is a deep need of our souls.
Intimacy is a real taboo in our society – it’s a thing we fear and feel uncomfortable with, because it’s about taking off the mask that so many of us hide behind. We create separation and protection walls when our hearts are not yet emotionally mature, but the truth is that our heart doesn’t need the protection, only our ego does.
At the centre of what we call emotional intelligence is LOVE. Love is found at the origin of the most amazing experiences of expansion of the consciousness towards limitlessness. If the feeling of separation is the source of all pain and suffering, a heart full of love is the source of freedom.
When we bring love into eroticism it connects our hearts with real intimacy, and we gain access to the secret language of intimacy that we use to communicate our deepest longings, profound states and to share our feelings. The most extraordinary and delicious intimacy is based amongst other things on using clear and powerful words that mirror the secret resonance of the heart and of the being.
At the centre of what we call emotional intelligence is LOVE.
Heartful communication and togetherness open up lovers to deeply know one another and it takes willingness, love, patience and much more. It is not something that can be developed over one night like fine wine takes time to deepen and mellow.
Emotional intimacy starts with a good awareness about our emotional world and developed capacity to control without suppression. Establishing an intimate relationship will be very easy for you if you will take the risk to spontaneously and honestly open your heart.
Moving from the separation of the mind to the honest and profound connection between hearts feels like the miracle of a fresh cool oasis in the middle of the scorching desert.
Words from the founder of the festivals in Europe - Advaitananda Stoian
Over the last years the Tantra wave has been booming around the globe, becoming more and more known throughout the world in forms that are less and less profound. The timing is not by chance but answers to an age-old prophecy stated in one of the legendary tantric scriptures – Mahanirvana Tantra, which stated millennia ago that Tantra will emerge in times of spiritual needs.
Looking at the world today we see different forms of crisis almost everywhere – war and destruction can be seen in the personal lives of many people as well as on a global scale. We have advanced in many directions such as in the fields of technology, science and medicine, but other areas of life clearly suffer, like relationships & intimacy, eroticism, physical, mental and emotional health, and spirituality in general, to name just a few…
The ancient esoteric science of Tantra offers surprisingly valid solutions which can solve the major problems of our present times – helping humanity to make the long-anticipated leap into a new Golden Era, leaving behind the dark times of confusion and spiritual blindness. It is in this context that Tantra Festival was meant from its inception as a doorway to the alternative ways we can develop ourselves towards higher levels of inner freedom and unconditional happiness.
As an answer to the increasingly stronger call for genuine spiritual knowledge and guidance towards development and growth, Tantra Festival came into existence in 2011. It was meant as a platform on which all genuine tantric teachings will find a way to be exposed to those who search for more in their life and being.
The first Tantra Festival took place in Copenhagen and every year it has expanded to include more and more locations, a growth dictated by an increasing need for alternative solutions. This Tantra Festival was meant as a natural extension of the Tantra Course that has become today the most comprehensive system to learn the esoteric science of Tantra in a theoretical and practical manner. In its generous and clear platform many spiritual seekers have found their position and inspiration.
I recently took part in Tantra Festival’s “Dive Deeper” edition in London, as well as in Copenhagen and the weekend, 1st – 2nd June, I attended the intense Kama Sutra Summer Festival in Malmø, Sweden. The topics covered a wide array of subjects, showcasing the various ways in which Tantra integrates as unitary the perspectives on eroticism, psychology and emotional balance, physiology and health, relationships, love and intimacy combined with practical experimentation and workshops.
The hot topic in both “Dive Deeper” festivals this year as well as in the Kama Sutra Festival in Malmö was the beginning of what can be rightfully named a new erotic revolution that allows everyone to truly enjoy the uplifting intimacy in their couple relationship.
Remember the longing that arose in you when you first fell in love, or first thought of some foreign place you desired to explore, or first took up some subject that excited you…
There was something you grasped at, in those first moments of longing, which seemed to eventually fade away, something no marriage, no travel, no learning, could ever really completely satisfy. What is it that we are yearning for that no earthly pleasure seems to satisfy? Is there a way to preserve and even amplify the flame of passion in time and make it your spiritual ally?
Questions like this and much more were approached in these wonderful festival days with lectures and workshops around the revolutionary concept of Erotic Love and, more importantly, the difference between what we usually and familiarly call and experience as Sex and sexual excitement and the mysterious and refined Eros that emerges only in some privileged moments in our life. Today’s wrong understanding that eroticism, sexuality, and pleasure that comes out of intimacy are one and the same couldn’t be further away from the truth. But the consequences of this serious mistake are everywhere in our life, even where we wouldn’t guess.
Roughly speaking, Sex is the result of the manifestation in our being of the inferior sexual energy and leads to instinctual behaviour that is subjected to the fixed outcome of procreation. Eros is the manifestation of the pure energy of EROS that represents the pure sacred aspiration for union and generous intimacy. We can use the comparison between sugar and honey: sexual desire is the toxic white sugar that makes you agitated, narrow-minded and compulsive to instinctual behaviour, while eros is the pure honey that nourishes you with intoxicating love and liberates you from any conditioning. One path takes you down and the other uplifts your spirit.
I hope that the initiatives of the festival will ripple through the generations to come, inspiring people to work for all-encompassing evolution.
It all begins with awareness, the key to transformation is to acknowledge the point from where we begin. Tantra encourages us to challenge everything equally with lucidity and experimentation and to take a leap of faith only towards a new paradigm. When we are lost in the labyrinth of the mind the heart is the exit to freedom, happiness, and lucidity – a reality which has been hidden from us, keeping us imprisoned in a mental cocoon of preconceived ideas and limited knowledge.
In the challenges we are facing at a global level we need to make a quantum leap to turn back the downwards-going spiral of human evolution and this begins with finding alternative ways to develop ourselves in order to be ready for such a jump. I am very grateful to the organizers of Tantra Festival for making such alternatives accessible and the tantric treasures available for all people.