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FAQ

Why did you call the "Skeptical Tantra" or "Tantra between Skeptics" like that? Wouldn't it be better to remove the word "Tantra" from the name?​

  1. The approach behind the Skeptical Tantra is similar to those of ZETETIC GAMERS, Zet && TIC or even Zet hammers, i.e. Skeptics/Zeteticians who gather around a theme. In our case, it is the experimentation around the touch, while being inspired by practices coming from the Neo-Tantra, while excluding any form of spirituality or New Age explanation like the chakras.
  2. The majority of Tantra practices among Skeptics come from Neo-Tantra. We do not deny this inspiration.
  3. The word Tantra is already known to the general public, especially through the women's press, of which here is a sample:
    1. (FR) Psychologies: I tried Tantrism
    2. (FR) Santé Magazine: Tantric sex: what exactly is it?
    3. (FR) ELLE Magazine: Tantric sex: 3 inspiring exercises to try to rediscover your sexual pleasure
    4. (FR) Marie Claire: From Tantrism to Tantric Orgasm
    5. (FR) Gael: Tantrism for beginners
    6. (FR) Féminin bio: s'ouvrir à son féminin pour booster son énergie sexuelle en 5 livres
  4. To allow some believers in the New Age to eventually become interested in skepticism.
  5. To allow beginners in Tantra to hear another side of the explanation, which is not one that comes from New Age beliefs
  6. Spiritual Tantra is becoming more and more popular, especially with women. For example, the Tantra Joy festival sold out all the women's tickets in a few dozen minutes. You can also see for yourself the growing success of Tantra events. We feel it is important to explain to the general public what Spiritual Tantra really is, especially its New Age roots, before these practices become mainstream.
  7. To motivate the Skeptic community to review our contents and to take an interest in our initiative: Without the word "Skeptic" in our initiative, we do not think that so many skeptics would have helped and guided us in our approach.
  8. Last but not least, some of the skeptical community is very quick to judge a practice by its name alone, and this is not really a recommended attitude in the practice of skepticism. It is a good practical exercise for the Skeptical community to dig before judging.

I found an extremely violent and/or unfair criticism about Tantra among Sceptics, I will defend you​

Yes, indeed, as with any initiative, there are critics on the Internet, and we would not have put the word skeptic if we had a problem with receiving criticism, on the contrary: We put the word skeptic in order to draw the attention of the Skeptic community to our contents.

On the other hand, some critics are violent to read, and we understand that the wording of these criticisms can shock our supporters, nevertheless, we invite you all to avoid reacting, and in particular to answer this violence with violence, in order to avoid escalation, notably because over time, some may change their opinion.

Furthermore, especially if you are not actively contributing to this initiative, please avoid blindly defending us without knowing us: we do our best to be careful and respect our own code of conduct, nevertheless, there have been a lot of initiatives in the past that started with good intentions and ended badly, so, in the spirit of the skepticism we claim, please remain critical, especially if you appreciate our initiative.

So, we invite you to either comment in a respectful & caring way by sharing our FAQ which points to the question(s) that correspond to the criticism, or, if the criticism is not addressed in our FAQ, to contribute to the project by sending it to us via the Facebook Messenger on our Facebook page.

Furthermore, if the comment is offensive or rude, we invite you to avoid any reaction: let's collectively stop certain behaviors that social networks try to force us to do.

On the other hand, the Skeptical Tantra initiative supports all of our volunteers, especially women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, who already experience enough violence in their daily lives.

Your initiative has nothing to do with skepticism​

Beyond the answers you'll find in the question Why did you call the "Tantra among Skeptics" that?, we find, on the contrary, that our approach is in line with skepticism, because, in the first place, as in any community on the Internet, it is quite possible that a sub-community emerges around a common theme or hobby: To our knowledge, no one is shocked that an initiative like ZETETIC GAMERS exists.

Moreover, if we take the Wikipedia definition of Zetetics:

Zetetics is thus presented as "the rational study of phenomena presented as paranormal, pseudosciences and strange therapies" or as "the art of distinguishing between what is science and what is belief"

It seems to us, from our point of view, that on the contrary, we are in the middle of the theme of Zetetics & Skepticism, i.e. the rational study of pseudosciences that is the Neo-Tantra, and to identify what could be recoverable.

You are making cultural appropriation by using the term "Tantra"​

Very good point, and indeed, even though cultural appropriation was initiated primarily by people in New Age spirituality, the point is valid.

As the majority of Tantra practices among Skeptics are inspired by Neo-Tantra, it seemed logical to us to have the word Tantra in the name of the collective.

You are surfing on the popularity of the term "Tantra" to promote your initiative​

Yes, indeed, and we don't hide our intentions, it's made very clear in the answer to the question Why did you call the "Tantra among Skeptics" that way? above: We want to do Skeptical entryism in the New Age Tantra milieu.

In fact, you organise orgies / prostitution / a harem​

No, we don't organise orgies / prostitution / harem / ..., this is clearly not our goal, especially since there are specialised places for this kind of practices, like swingers clubs.

The main purpose of this initiative is to maintain this website and to think collectively about new frameworks of respectful experimentation around touch.

Yes, a number of our members who are part of the Facebook group "Skeptical Tantra - Main Group" practice Skeptical Tantra among themselves in accordance with our code of conduct, we do not intend to organise open workshops for the general public.

Furthermore, we only practice what is written on our website, and from our point of view, to the best of our knowledge, this does not seem to fit into the term "orgy", for example the module Mutual Consent and Limits.

However, you are free to consider that what we do is partying. We do not force anyone to practice our proposals.

Skeptical Tantra is run by one person, which increases the risk of drifting​

We invite you to read our page Management of the project "Skeptical Tantra".

Your initiative will be taken up and misused to inflict sexual & gender-based violence​

Unfortunately, sexual predators are already committing sexual & gender-based violence in the name of Tantra, and it is they who we must collectively prevent from doing harm. We strongly condemn sexual and gender-based violence.

Furthermore, it seems to us that, on the contrary, our initiative to document tantric practices and to have defined a code of conduct allows the general public to identify sexual predators who will not abide by the code of conduct, in particular, as far as we know, the sexual predator is forcing his victim into believing that with his knowledge of tantra he will heal her, and in particular forcing her consent.

Moreover, it is unfortunately possible that tantra between sceptics is hijacked by anonymous readers: as with any unprotected name on the Internet, anyone could claim to be a tantrika sceptic and commit criminally reprehensible acts: we do our utmost to avoid this, but we cannot control the behavior of anonymous readers.

You must stop your initiative​

To the best of our knowledge, our initiative respects the laws of the various countries where tantrikas are present. We are all volunteers, it is our common decision whether or not to invest time in this initiative.

What are the profiles of the people against the Skeptic Tantra initiative?​

  1. People who have experienced sexual & gender-based violence, especially in the Neo-Tantra milieu, and who have many legitimate fears that this initiative will be the scene of new abuses within Scepticism. We understand their fears, and we are doing our utmost to avoid such abuses with the implementation of our code of conduct as well as with the review of the various external contributors working on the project, some of whom are in our acknowledgements. From our point of view, it is by documenting and informing the general public about what tantric practices really are in understandable terms, that it will be possible for the general public to realize what Neo-Tantra really is.
  2. People in New Age spirituality who consider it impossible to do secular Tantra.

I have met someone who claims to organise "Tantra between Sceptics" type workshops or someone who offers to train me, how can I trust them?​

At the moment, the Skeptical Tantrikas behind this initiative are planning to do test workshops within the framework of another association specialized in the management of experiments around touch in order to have people external to Skeptical Tantra & experienced in the management of experiments who can give their opinion and criticize our initiative. This website will be updated as this issue develops.

After reading this website, I would like to organise "Tantra between Sceptics" workshops, how can I be recognised?​

Same answer as the previous question.

How do I contact the people behind this initiative?​

The easiest way is via the chat on our Facebook page or to come to our private Facebook group The Curious About Skeptical Tantra.

Please note that we are volunteers and it takes us a while to respond.