sacred sexuality

If nature is sacred, which indeed I believe it is, then there is nothing more natural and more sacred than sex and sexuality. This inescapable quality of our human experience has been responsible for countless conflicts, love affairs, epic stories, and meaningful experiences throughout human history, and of course is responsible for creating every human who has ever lived. Yet we still struggle, especially in the West, with conflicting perspectives on sexuality. Something that should be celebrated, honored, and cherished is often convoluted with shame, judgement, and repression.

Prostitution (the “oldest profession”) and other forms of sex industry work such as erotic dancing all face the same kinds of stigmas and repressive laws that psychedelics and other drugs face. But things seem to be changing in recent times, as advocates in both realms bring forth movements to end stigmas around the natural facts of our being—be they for seeking sexual experiences, or for altering consciousness in other ways.

Lana Baumgartner is the co-founder of Psychedelic Times and author of the upcoming book Erotic Hustle: Redefining Sin Through Sacred Sexuality, where she recounts her work in the sex industry as an exotic dancer and webcam model. We discussed her journey into this field as a young woman, and the visions she has received through plant medicine work for how to bring sacredness and positivity back into this highly stigmatized realm.

I’m excited to talk to you today, Lana. Your forthcoming book sounds fascinating, and it covers some important but taboo subjects. To start out, can you share some of your background and how you got into exotic dancing?

From where I stand right now, it looks very different from where I was when I first started dancing. Back then, I just needed money and didn’t want a job with forced hours and a boss. Now, it’s more about doing something unconventional with a lot of freedom and a lot of room for creativity in it. Looking back, I think that was what initially drew me in.

Another aspect has to do with how I was raised. My mother and my grandmother owned their own businesses, and I never saw them hold traditional jobs. My grandfather started the American Cannabis Society and coined “Thank You For Pot Smoking.” Divergent thinking, being outside the box, and doing unconventional things were always more attractive to me than going to school to become an accountant. Not that there’s anything wrong with being an accountant—I am so grateful for mine!

Speaking of unconventional things, when were you first introduced to psychedelics? I know that your path with plant medicines has really informed this book and how you approach working in this industry.

I had my first introduction to plant medicines through cannabis. My grandfather lived with us and was on this freedom fighting mission to legalize cannabis. It was always in the house and I was always exposed to it. So the idea of mind-altering things or plant medicines was normalized from a very early age. Not only was it normalized, most of my family members were advocates of all plant medicines. Around 14 or 15 years old—my freshman year of high school—I started my own exploration with LSD, mushrooms, and MDMA, and in recent years have become more drawn specifically to entheogens.

When did your psychedelic use morph into a more serious spiritual practice instead of something just recreational?

Even when I was young, it was never just a frivolous activity. My friends and I would get together at someone’s house instead of just going to parties; I was never really into that. The most compelling was when we could get together with just a few people in a home, and we could converse about philosophical concepts, and explore that inner world of the psyche. That’s not to say it wasn’t for fun or a recreational activity, but there was a lot of intentionality there, even in the beginning. When I met Joe, at 22 years old, I’d have to say that this was the very first highly intentional experience with a mind-altering substance.

It was only after about seven hours of our initial meeting that Joe [Mattia, Lana’s husband and fellow co-founder of Psychedelic Times] and I took MDMA together in an Atlantic City skyscraper hotel, sat in a bathtub for over 5 hours, and dove in deep about saving the world, how we could elevate consciousness in our own lives, and how this would ripple out to everyone around us. In the years since, we’ve had many beautiful and very intentional experiences together, and have even learned to facilitate legal medicines such as kambo.

You’d mentioned to me recently that it was an ayahuasca experience that inspired the visions outlined in your book. Would you like to share that story?

The first time that Joe and I sat in ceremony with ayahuasca, it was before I had a relationship with this medicine, or understood how to navigate this space. It really just took a hold of me and it was like watching a film, as opposed to starring in it. I was lying down, and I remember all of my energy and focus coming into my womb space, that creative space, and all of my attention and focus moved to my yoni. The visions came—semi-precious stones and crystals, and all of these beautiful, spinning, sacred geometrical patterns inside my womb space. A message came in with this vision about sacred sexuality, with absolute clarity: how my physical body, my temple, is sacred, and that anyone I engage with intimately or energetically is privileged to enter that space (or anyone’s sacred space for that matter!) Lovemaking is a sacred act, and it’s an honor to share that energy, simply because we are all divine creations.

I also had a vision of myself at the club where I worked at the time, and this vision specifically highlighted the ways I had touched myself and interacted with my body, with my own hands, during a private show or VIP session. The message was to elevate my level of intentionality, and to show the viewer through my own interaction with myself the divine act of honoring the body, and to reveal the sacred nature of igniting that sexual energy.

Let’s dig more into this concept of sacred sexuality. In the U.S. in particular, we have this bipolar and neurotic relationship with sex. In one way, our culture celebrates this sort of fast food version of sexuality, and yet we tend to repress true sex positivity, and sex positive activities are driven underground. When it comes to linking the sacred with the sexual, it’s hard for many people to understand at first because of our cultural programming. Yet of course the concept of sacred sexuality has been around in many cultures for millenia. What does sacred sexuality mean to you?

I think really simply, it’s just honoring the body as a divine creation, and acknowledging the temple in which we all reside. It’s a respect for the magnificence of what we all are, individually and as a whole. Another message that came just recently when sitting in ceremony with ayahuasca is the importance of going slow. There is a certain kind of intentionality, presence and awareness in the moment. In a way, I see intimate interactions with oneself or someone else as a form of meditation, and presence is required for it to be honored and upheld in that way.

A vision that you propose in your book is that of a “conscious” strip club. That sounds like a non sequitur to a lot of people based on our neurotic relationship to sex. Plus, when one thinks of a strip club, it’s almost the epitome of non-sacredness in one sense. There’s this stereotype of men who are objectifying women, not seeing them as sacred but seeing them as objects, and the atmosphere and vibe can be really seedy, so I’m curious to hear you describe and explore this concept of a sacred strip club. How can this type of erotic performance be something that leads people to their higher selves rather than their lower natures?

You put it exactly right—leading people to their higher selves instead of their lower natures. That would be the underlying intention of this seemingly-oxymoronic concept of a conscious strip club.

This idea was birthed while working with our tantra teachers, the founders of TantraNova Institute. I was really open and vulnerable with them, sharing my profession as a dancer and a webcam model, and all the work I was doing in the sex industry. They are very open minded and creative with sharing their passion of conscious elevation, and were adamant about bringing tantric practices into the work I did within the sex industry. So when I was with clients, I started to apply what Joe and I had learned as their students. Instead of just going into a private session at the club, and doing the typical thing that we learn to do in the industry—encouraging the client to buy more drinks to become more intoxicated, in an effort to make as much money as I could—my intention was to see if I could not only make the experience memorable, but also contribute to their lives in a positive way, beyond the momentary experience. I was sharing and teaching tantric practices in the club, and being conscious and intentional with my energy and actions. It was fulfilling my desire to be in service, and also a means for me to feel that I was in integrity and being true to myself—because the manipulation that many dancers learn as a technique to earn more money just never felt good. My desire is to be remembered fondly, as opposed to being thought of as a manipulator.

Through doing this work, I began connecting with women who were doing the very same thing in the sex industry—practicing tantra, aware of this concept of sacred sexuality embodied in their feminine form, and fully embracing their feminine power. It was amazing how many incredible women came into the field. After years of people telling me that I needed to connect with one particular girl, who is now a dear friend, I finally did. She hosted a women’s full moon circle at another dancer’s home, with 8 or 9 women who all worked at the same club (Spearmint Rhino in Las Vegas). What I discovered that evening is that we each went into that club with the same intentions when we worked. If there were eight of us together in that house that night, I am imagining many, many more across the globe.

This concept of bringing more intentionality and consciousness into the club wasn’t a desire I kept to myself. By sharing, I was connected with more like-minded individuals. I discovered the Red Temple in the Bay Area, after a friend asked Joe and I to lead an experience at one of their early events. Their mission is also to birth this idea of the conscious strip club, and they have put on quite a few events now, some of which Joe and I have performed and participated in. They design sexy and inviting venues, and frame everything prior to the experience in a beautiful way. For example, they make it clear that the money offered to the performers is not power or ownership; it’s a form of devotion and offering of appreciation. Imagine if this were the vibe upon entering a Vegas strip club!

So overall, the idea of a conscious strip club is a place where people can come to be honored and respected. There’s a sense of empathy and compassion, and most importantly presence—that’s what I believe people are really looking for. And a connection. On the surface level, they think they want this momentary arousal, or something like a crotch sneeze [laughs]—this quick, meaningless orgasm. It has become clear that they are looking for something much deeper; they just don’t realize it until they actually get it. When they do, they are fulfilled in a way that a quick orgasm just wouldn’t do for them. It’s not just this temporary thing, it lasts—it’s expansive and elevating, and the orgasmic energy stays within instead of coming out and making a mess! [Laughs] With a client, I’m inviting in what I’ve learned from my beloved tantra teachers: sexual energy can fuel us, and we can create so much more than ejaculation.

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Can you share some specific traits that a venue like this would have—for instance, the music, the atmosphere, etc?

As we know from psychedelics, set and setting are key to framing any experience, so yes all of these factors play an important role. When you walk into a typical strip club, it’s this dark environment, it’s the underground, and this whole “fuck bitches, get money” vibe—we hear it in the rap lyrics. Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of this music, it’s just that certain lyrics are likely subconsciously programming us to disrespect one another. It’s a low vibration. A conscious strip club would be quite the opposite. The music would be uplifting, and honoring of all who enter. Happy, light colors and hues, natural fabrics, natural scents (no more Victoria’s Secret body spray!) Alcohol free, because this club is about expanding the mind as opposed to inducing a comatose state. A conscious strip club might have elixirs and cacao, and things stimulating to the senses which benefit health and rejuvenate the body. A lot of clubs serve food, and obviously that would be drastically different too—same idea, healthy and nourishing for the temple in which we reside. The aim is feeling better after leaving the club than before one entered!

I’ve done some digging around online and talking to people who have studied tantra, and these concepts are really ancient practices. Dakinis, temple prostitution, goddess temples… this is something that existed in ancient times, and these were aesthetically beautiful places where people would go to be healed and rejuvenated. In some ways this idea is modern, though really it is rediscovery of ancient practices.

That sounds pretty amazing. As I think about this concept, instead of a “crotch sneeze” the service people receive would be a kundalini activation. It would celebrate the divine feminine and the feminine form, and in a way celebrate the masculine form too, in dynamic relationship with the feminine. It could be this sacred performance that honors sexuality and grants a kundalini experience as well as an aesthetic experience. Does that all resonate?

Yeah, totally. When I detail in the book what a potential scenario would look like between someone entering the club and those who work there, it could unfold in a myriad of ways. One year at Burning Man, my dear friend Julia Grace brought Joe and I to this group of beautiful women who had us get into this bathtub in the middle of the playa, and lay in there with soft fluffy pillows, and they showered us with compliments and undivided attention. That’s one way this could work—someone being showered with this type of presence and admiration. That undivided attention is crucial, and very healing for most. And it has to be authentic—it’s not just an empty gesture. The givers are actually witnessing the divinity in this person and reflecting it back to them. This is just one example. The possibilities are endless, with the solid intention of being in complete loving service.

Which can be extremely healing, of course. I know for many men, just simply having their own sexuality acknowledged and embraced, and being accepted in their fullness including their sexuality can be a powerful healing experience. There’s this stereotype of the kinds of men who visit strip clubs: desperate guys, creepy guys, chauvinistic guys, misogynistic guys. You’ve worked in this industry for a while—who are these men visiting the clubs? Fundamentally, what is it they are doing and seeking, and how does it differ from the stereotype?

I love this question. Everyone who walks in the door is a beautiful soul. They might have a layer or shell on the outside where they have been conditioned by society or their past to be a certain way, or they may be acting unconsciously because they haven’t yet had that awakening to see that there is a different way of conducting themselves. Strip clubs exist in their current form because they are meeting people where they’re at. Through interacting with a woman (or man) who is conscious and intentional, they can learn in that instant how to shift. I believe that anyone is capable of this; there just needs to be a big enough “why.” As in, “Why would I want to change my behavior?”

Sure, some people can objectify women and have this low vibe energy, but I don’t believe that’s who any of these people are at the core. I’ve worked in so many clubs, and yeah, often the girls sitting in the back dressing room are not being kind to the men outside. But I had the privilege of finding this anomaly, a club in Silicon Valley where that wasn’t the case: Cheetah’s Gentleman’s Club in Sunnyvale. These are California girls who were more… well, “hippy,” to use an easily digestible phrase, but basically I didn’t see them putting everyone in a box. I believe a lot of the dynamic has to do with the way the dancers see the people walking in the door. Assuming the stereotype right off the bat, customers will act the way they are being treated. When they are given a chance to express themselves in a different way, it becomes possible for that dynamic to shift, so that they can reveal a more authentic version of themselves.

In a way, it’s really the culture, maybe more than the individuals, that dictates the vibe. If you want to celebrate sexuality and have an experience like this, the container our culture presents is this chauvinistic, seedy world, and so a lot of people just unconsciously follow suit. It would be interesting to see how things change when a different option is presented.

Exactly—and it’s perpetuated by the darkness, the music, and the fact that it happens at night—there’s this unspoken idea that you have to be drunk to loosen up, to express what you really want without embarrassment. There is a lot of unconsciousness around it. My intention in writing the book, besides it just being my own therapeutic process, is to bring this work and the industry more into the light, because it’s not going anywhere. Let’s just acknowledge it. Prostitution is the oldest profession. It doesn’t make any sense for this to be underground, and in the dark. This is actually a beautiful and natural thing, an innate human drive.

Absolutely, it would heal a lot of dysfunction in society.

Yes, it would. Sex workers have a lot of power, and they can make a big impact. Sex is a force that creates all of life!

You could say it is literally the most powerful force, because it actually creates people!

It creates universes, yes! That comes back to this whole concept of tantra and seeing sexual energy as sacred. If we can utilize this intentionality, this can be a powerful thing and evolve into something positive and beneficial for everyone, something elevating for humanity.

It makes me think of the incel movement, where there is this growing sector of males who feel like they can’t succeed when it comes to women and they just give up on their sexuality and turn really neurotic and sometimes even violent. I think if prostitution were legalized, for example, that it would heal a lot of dysfunction in society. Men who need a sexual experience would be able to get one and that would be okay.

I love this. I think it was my friend Naval who said, “If any man in the world was able to have sex with a beautiful woman whenever he wanted to, it would end war.” It really resonated. This incel group—bring them into the conscious strip club and let them experience presence, and compassion. There’s no need for that [incel] movement to grow—there are solutions, there are options, and there is an outlet.

To wrap things up, how would you describe what are you trying to accomplish with this book, and who do you hope will read it?

My intention is to attract and connect with people who share this vision of a conscious strip club. It’s actually mind boggling how many women I’ve met who say “I’ve always wanted to try stripping” or “I want to be an escort, or explore the sex industry,” but they want to do it in a conscious and intentional way. They see an outlet where they can offer their own presence. I want to inspire those women to come into the industry in a conscious way and be a part of the change. And for people who are already in the industry and feel like they’ve been burnt out, to maybe offer a perspective shift.

I’d also love to close with a story of an interaction I had, and how it’s tied to psychedelics and this work. I was working in Vegas about 6 years ago, and I’d often meet people who came into the club with a group of friends, or a bachelor party, all on MDMA. I would seek out those people because I love interacting with people in that space. I’ve been in that space many times myself, and of course the vibe is always good. I met a guy on MDMA at a club, and we went into a VIP room and spent hours together. My intention was to have him walk away feeling better than when he had walked in the club. The dynamic was really beautiful; I felt that I knew how to interact with him to elevate the experience. After it was over, we didn’t stay in touch, and didn’t exchange any information.

Many years later, I was working at Cheetah’s and he came in. I didn’t recognize him at first, as I’ve met hundreds and maybe thousands of people while working. We went into the VIP area and he started telling me “Yeah, I met this woman in Vegas 6 years ago, I was rolling and she told me all these things I’d never heard of, and said it could be really healing to go into the woods and eat mushrooms, and that it could really benefit me based on the stories that I’d told her.” It was pretty mind blowing, because he shared that our time together in Vegas had greatly shifted the course of his life—mainly because he had actually taken that journey with mushrooms in the woods, and also because I’d exposed him to a completely different way of life. He said that I came up in his journey as a kind of guide, and he could hear my words during this experience, and that is why he came and found me, because it had changed his life.

Wow, that’s an amazing story.

Yeah, I thought it was amazing too. I was like “Okay, I can quit dancing now!” [Laughs] And it’s really just a ‘microdose’ of what will happen when we collectively, consciously shift the sex industry.

We are very grateful to Lana for speaking with us about these fascinating subjects. You can support Lana and her book by pre-ordering Erotic Hustle: Redefining Sin Through Sacred Sexuality, here.

Featured photograph of Lana by Elise Gee

Pre-order Lana’s Book
Order by February 15 to help Lana get published!