Abraham Maslow, the founder of humanistic psychology, was the first psychologist to examine well people, rather than sick people.

By studying the best examples that the human species had produced to date, he created his theory of self-actualisation: an individual's potential to achieve the highest state of being.

One of the interesting by-products of this research was the discovery that the more self-actualised a person became, the better orgasms they had.

In his ground-breaking book, The Function of the Orgasm, published in the 1940's, Wilhelm Reich espoused the view that a person's emotional health was related to his or her capacity to experience complete, whole-body orgasmic release in the sexual act.

He felt that a full-on orgasm was one of the most healing experiences, both physically and emotionally, that a person could have. The healthy person, according to Reich, is one who regularly engages in lovingly uninhibited sexual exchange leading to a thoroughly satisfying orgasm.

He was also the first Western sexologist to consider that healthy sexual functioning is connected with an ability to experience higher states of consciousness.

In the East, the connection between health, sexuality and higher consciousness has a long history. Tantra has always existed, for as long as humans have wondered about the mystery of existence, and stood in awe of the primordial power of their sexual nature.

The capacity for two individuals to mate and create another life form is the original nuclear fusion. Tantra yoga is the sexual path, a vast and ancient system of rituals and practical techniques which use the most powerful creative energy in our body/mind system, that of sexual passion, to propel one into higher consciousness.

Tantra has a known history going back at least 7000 years, far longer than any of the religious/spiritual practices popular in the world today.