‘Tantric Telly: how to heighten box set pleasure’
is the title of an article which appeared recently in the Evening Standard.
The word ‘tantric’ is being used in more and more peculiar ways.
I can sympathise with editors – there must be a lot of pressure to come up with new and original articles to fill their newspapers. Now they are resorting to using ‘tantric’ as a buzzword with an open-ended range of bizarre meanings.
The author’s contention is that by controlling oneself and not gorgeing on all the episodes of our favourite box sets in one go, we heighten the pleasure with delayed gratification.
In her words:
‘A few nights ago in a London flat, a twentysomething couple were getting pretty involved. But right as they verged on climax, one suggested lights out for bedtime — leaving things on a cliffhanger. The drama would begin again tomorrow evening, made all the sweeter by waiting.
This couple are not the young disciples of a certain Sting and Trudie — though their methods are tantric in approach. This is the practise of tantric boxset: killing the action just when things are about to explode. It’s edging — or “orgasm control” — applied to your watching habits. Frankly, it sounds like smug couples spend more time watching boxsets than having sex anyway — transposing the tantric into the television is one way to spice up a Tuesday night.’
Television companies use these types of techniques on purpose to retain viewers. They end a particular episode on a cliff hanger, so that viewers become hooked and are kept in a perpetual state of excitement until the following week.
However, tantra and tantric techniques for delaying orgasm do NOT have excitement as a goal. Quite the contrary. Excitement is a kind of addiction. It makes us crave more and more. Tantric techniques, on the other hand, encourage deeper pleasure, deeper relaxation and deeper and more lasting contentment and satisfaction.
By concentrating totally on the present moment, and not thinking of the past or the future, we can sink into a peacefulness which is far more totally satisfying. It is important to remember this in our daily lives, because our entire society is trying to keep us superficially excited – addicted to craving – buying more, doing more, and wanting more. That is how we are manipulated into spending more and more of our hard-earned cash. We are kept busy, but not satisfied.