Observations placeholder
Left hand and Right hand Tantrism
Identifier
024333
Type of Spiritual Experience
None
Background
Dr William Sargant was born in Highgate, London, in 1907 and educated at Leys School and St John's College, Cambridge. Up to 1972 he was Physician in Charge of the Department of Psychological Medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, London. He was Associate Secretary of the World Psychiatric Association and on the staff of the Maudsley Hospital, London for many years, He was also Registrar of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association, Rockefeller Fellow at Harvard University and Visiting Professor at Duke University. He was also the author of Battle for the Mind, and The Unquiet Mind.
A description of the experience
The Mind Possessed - Dr William Sargant
If actual sexual intercourse is employed in the ceremony, it is in the 'left-hand tradition'; while the 'right-hand tradition' substitutes symbols for actual sex practices. Left-hand tantrism involves actual sexual intercourse with a woman, and it is accepted that the tantric's wife and any other woman, from any caste, are equally eligible.