In quiet rooms filled with candlelight, movement and presence, a revolution is taking place. Women are turning inward…toward their own bodies, their breath and each other – to rediscover something sacred.

In the dissertation “Touch in Contemporary Tantra: Transgression, Healing and Ecstasy”, this deeply personal transformative journey is explored through the voices of reputable Tantra teachers and practitioners across Great Britain. What emerges is a powerful story of how conscious touch can help women reconnect with themselves, heal old wounds, and step fully into their power.

Transgression as a Path to Freedom

At its core, this work reveals that touch in Tantra is not merely sensual or erotic…it is radical. In a world where women’s bodies are too often sites of control, judgment or silence, choosing to engage in sacred touch becomes an act of defiance. It’s a way of saying my body is mine.

This sentiment echoes the words of Pamela Anderson, who once explained that her decision to pose nude wasn’t born from insecurity, desire for attention or submission to the expectations placed on her by those in charge of the photographic project – it was a reclaiming. A protest. A powerful NO to a world that tried to shame her for what had been done to her in her youth. For her, nudity wasn’t vulnerability or a cheap attention trick…for her, it was sovereignty – a concept not often understood by those who are too disconnected and incongruent – where their mind, soul and body, all live as separate entities…saying one thing, desiring another, behaving in contradiction to their preachings.

I, too, relate deeply to this. When I have posed for artistic nudes commissioned by galleries – echoing the grace and composition of Renaissance paintings – I did so not to provoke, not to seek approval, and certainly not because I lacked the courage to say no. I did it as my ultimate act of defiance. A silent scream in the face of those women who confuse being good with playing silly charades, hoping to be labeled as virtuous while secretly dying to embrace their own sensuality.  Women who want to shame me for not hiding, for daring to exist unapologetically. For how I look, think, feel—always assuming, always judging, without ever truly knowing – hoping this person to be only as shallow as the surface, and because that is not the case, the code of women cheering women is automatically discarded. In its place, the old rule of dog-eat-dog rises in their soul…revealing more about themselves than those they label libertine. It was my sacred “fuck you” to the so called “men” – monsters dressed in human skin – who could not, or would not, differentiate a girl from a woman, leaving behind the scars of their ignorance and cruelty.

Standing before the lens reminded me of the following…“You don’t get to shame me. You don’t get to make me hide as if I were the one who did something wrong. My body is beautiful. It is not to blame for the sickness of others. I know who I am, what I do, and what I don’t. I am free-spirited, yet sacred. I don’t need to cover myself from head to toe to be a good person. I don’t need to sleep around or create distasteful content to be a rebel, in war with all males – yet letting them do as they please…piling up on the already unhealed wounds.  I am neither this nor that, I am me.  And if you don’t know me, save your opinions. But I know you won’t… sadly your ignorance is too great and your wound still bleed…That’s okay then, Keep judging. Keep drowning in your delusions. I will do what I do best… rise!”

The second group of people still wrestle with their pain, while the first calls healing the delusion that by hiding what hurts, by suppressing what triggers them or what excites them…they are evolved. And then, there is a third group, those women who have walked through the fire, whose years have passed not without their wisdom growing, those whose strength is based on soul and essence, and need no external creed to determine their worth or value – those are the women, who take the time to get to know you.  Those are the type of women the world tried to break and couldn’t – because they are tornadoes made flesh, and they see the importance of grounded rebels.  Those women are the ones who taught me the most. Because of their support, love and guidance, I do my best to live in balance…remembering that the best way to honor all they have taught and given is by honoring and following the call of my spirit. This path requires emotional depth, strength, maturity and vulnerability…it is not an easy path. I didn’t choose to take the easy way out, and I hope always to have the strength to keep picking the voice of my inner spirit over the voice of indoctrination or false rebellion.

It helps to remind myself of all the women, past and present, who have felt like I do…it helps to remind me that I am not alone. Women like Monica Bellucci have also stood proudly in their skin, posing nude in sensual but artful ways. She has spoken openly about never needing to apologize for her body, form or power. Her work was tasteful, intentional. The body is beautiful, she said – and beauty only threatens those who have nothing else to offer, or those who can’t see their own. To arrive at such a place of mental maturity, of authentic congruency – where mind, body and soul unite- she walked through fire and came out free.

This reclamation exists even in words. Anaïs Nin, Delmira Augustini, Maya Angelou (to name but a few), with their intimate, erotic yet exquisitely poetic writings, challenged a world too dissonant to recognize its own hypocrisy.  They wrote with fearless sensuality, baring their inner landscapes in ways that defied shame and invited deeper truths.

These are not just stories of rebellion. They are stories of healing, wholeness, and women refusing to be confined by the projections of others. Choosing to touch, feel, and be seen becomes not a submission to the gaze but a reclaiming of it – a declaration that we are not here to be owned, judged or silenced…we are here to be!

The Healing Power of Touch

Many women arrive in Tantra carrying stories of trauma, numbness, or disconnection…stories that live not just in memory but in muscle, skin and breath. Through gentle, intentional touch, something begins to shift. In the safe and sacred space of Tantra, touch becomes language – a way to listen, to feel, to heal. The dissertation shows how, over time, this touch restores not only sensation but a deeper sense of trust in the body and in life itself. Healing happens not through fixing, but through witnessing…with compassion, tenderness and presence.

Ecstasy as a Sacred Remembering

In these spaces of embodied connection, women are rediscovering ecstasy – not as fleeting pleasure, but as deep presence and inner expansion. Tantra invites them to experience their bodies not as objects to be judged, but as vessels of wisdom, joy and sacred energy. Ecstasy becomes a state of remembering…of who they are beneath the conditioning, the roles, the expectations. It is a return to the sacredness of being alive, fully and unapologetically.

A Feminine Reawakening

This dissertation doesn’t just explore a practice – it illuminates a quiet cultural shift. Contemporary Tantra, as lived and shaped by women, is weaving a new narrative of the feminine: powerful, embodied, sensual, wise. These women are not only healing themselves; they are reimagining what it means to be whole. They are claiming space, voice and freedom through the soft strength of touch.

Touch in Contemporary Tantra: Transgression, Healing, and Ecstasy is more than academic insight – it is a mirror held up to a profound human yearning. It shows us how touch, when honored and intentional, can become a sacred rite of passage….a way home to ourselves. In these practices, women are not only finding healing; they are rediscovering their light.

Sofia Falcone
I passionately believe one person can make a difference. I write from my own experiences and interests. It is my greatest hope that by writing about my own challenges and hopes, others may feel inspired to believe more in their inner power and to fully embrace themselves.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Sofia Falcone.

Source here