Michael Kumpmann explores how Tantra, from Shaktism to Wilhelm Reich and even Donald Trump, reveals a Left-Hand Path philosophy where energy, instinct, and unarmored openness transform both the self and the world.
Tantra as an Example of a Left-Hand Path Philosophy
Beyond all this, there lies a deeper aspect.
To understand this deeper aspect, it helps to look at Tantrism.1 What most people associate with it is Shaktism: the view of the soul of the man and the soul of the woman as two separated halves of an originally whole being, which reunite through love and sex in order to heal the “break” — as in Plato’s myth of the androgynous sphere-man, or more simply in the German expression of the wife as the husband’s “better half.” The woman is seen as the incarnation of (life-)energy and as an incarnation of the Great Goddess, whom one venerates both spiritually and physically through love.
In addition, there is another component, decisive here: most “masculine” religious worldviews focus on the “realm of ideas,” or “Atziluth” in the Kabbalah. They teach that there exists a higher world of ideas, where perfect forms dwell. The material world is a distorted, corrupted copy of this world of ideas, shaped by the Demiurge or the Devil, and our task is to free ourselves from this corrupted copy and return to the divine original.
Tantra refers to a different level. It concerns itself with energies and the free flow of energies and forces, which create the present condition and present form of the world. The concrete form is less important. Energies can partially tear down the existing shape of the world at any time and bring forth new things. Everything flows; nothing remains stable. The unhindered flow of forces is good and liberating, while attempts to block them lead to suffering.2
This has parallels to Taoism and also to the work of Wilhelm Reich. Reich’s concept of character armor3 and its dissolution reflect this idea. Reich, in fact, used methods very similar to those of Tantra. In Western mysticism, this corresponds above all to the levels of Beriah and Yetzirah in the Kabbalah. These literally mean Creation and Formation, and they are associated with the virtues of Understanding, Beauty, Balance/Harmony, and Mercy. The connections to “sacred love” in Tantra are clear.
In part, this also parallels the philosophy of kung fu. In kung fu, one learns that fear of the opponent’s energies and forces—and the attempt to block them, since they could cause harm—leads only to greater injury. Instead, one must learn to “play” with these forces and redirect them. This leads, for example, to the opponent who intends to strike ending up stumbling, with his own force turning against him.
In Tantra itself, male roles such as the knight are often interpreted within this “framework.” The sword is symbolically regarded as the knight’s bride and energy. Here the element of theoretical and practical intelligence comes into play. This also applies to the idea of Shakti as “intelligence of action”: the sword is the warrior’s bride because it enables him to act. Very often, the Tantric warrior ideal is embodied by the warrior who instinctively knows what to do, without prolonged reflection. He can rely on his own energies in the form of instincts, reflexes, and drives. Some modern artists — Frank Frazetta with Conan the Barbarian and John Carter of Mars, or Satoshi Urushihara with Legend of Lemnear —highlight this aspect of traditional warriorhood in their fantasy art, where warriors are typically surrounded by exotic landscapes and wild beasts. Their armor and clothing function more as ornament than protection, since the warrior requires no elaborate armor, but instead allows his forces to flow freely. Here we glimpse combat as an immediate “being-in-the-world,” which requires neither (character-)armor nor separation from the environment.
Also interesting with regard to Tantra and Wilhelm Reich is the ending of the series Gunbuster. Inspired by Starship Troopers, the series depicts the heroine Noriko saving humanity in the finale by tearing apart both her robot’s armor and her own clothing, pulling out the “reactor” (symbolically her heart) from her chest and raising it high to present it to the world. Only in this way can she release the “energy” humanity needs for victory. The link to Tantra and to Wilhelm Reich is striking.
To return to reality: what I notice in Donald Trump is his radical honesty, his unrestrained character, and his readiness to break conventions whenever he believes it serves the good. This also fits into these reflections: Trump likely possesses little “character armor.” He literally gave America a boost of “energy,” while the EU withers in rigid armor. The EU clings to rigid rules and therefore lacks sovereignty, while Trump breaks the rules and thus literally masters the “state of exception.”
Now let us move away from love and sex to kung fu: here the world is understood as the product of a flow of forces, constantly reshaping the world, tearing down structures, and building them anew —forces that should be allowed to “flow.” Does this not strongly resemble the idea of the free market? I think it does.
If one pushes the ideas of Taoism, Tantra, etc. on one side, and the free market on the other, to their conclusions, then the ego with its “mental poisons” —greed, hatred, and delusion — would also correspond to what libertarians mean by statism/socialism: the force that seeks to suppress the free play of forces, and ultimately leads to suffering. However, with reference to Reich it must also be said that the concept of the individual as the subject of the First Political Theory likely corresponds to character armor and can likewise be seen as neurotic. In a certain sense, the liberal state, which seeks to guarantee the freedom and independence of the individual from his fellow men, is actually a political form of neurotic character armor.4
(Translated from the German)
One of the best-known contemporary adherents of Tantra is Javier Milei. But Evola and Miguel Serrano also preached these ideas. Dugin himself listed Tantrism in the bibliography of his Arktogea Manifesto as one of the foundations of his Fourth Political Theory. The Japanese sect leader Shoko Asahara and Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg likewise used Tantric concepts such as phowa.
The problem with “blocking” does not mean that one cannot control one’s energies. For example, Tibetan Tantra includes the practice of tummo, which allows one to control blood circulation so that blood flows faster and thus raises body temperature. This method is known from monks meditating naked in Himalayan snow or under waterfalls. (Tummo shows that Tantra is not passive endurance of forces, mindless indulgence of impulses, or pure chaos, but rather conscious regulation of inner impulses.) In this Tantric yoga method, the practitioner imagines igniting a great flame through his energy. In the popular video game series Street Fighter, the yogi Dhalsim has the secret technique “Yoga Flame.” This is probably an allusion to tummo.
“Character armor” is a form of self-defense against the world and others, which leads to shutting out feelings. An example is a prostitute who during sex can “switch off” her feelings and feel nothing; in extreme cases, character armor can cause cramps, pain, and other symptoms. So-called psychosomatic pains, in which psychological suffering manifests as physical pain, are seen by Reich as consequences of character armor.
The basis of character armor is exaggerated feeling: “The world is dangerous; I must protect myself from others and my environment so as not to be hurt; I must also avoid expanding too far into the world.” The YouTuber Meme Analysis explained this using the Virgin vs. Chad meme. The Virgin is the armored man, who wants to remain invisible and unnoticed, while the free, non-neurotic Chad approaches with the attitude “Hello world, here I am.” He is open to the environment and to encounters. Character armor also includes the suppression of one’s own desires and feelings in order to avoid risks linked to contact with the external world.
Reich sought to dissolve character armor through psychotherapy as well as massage. This parallels Tantra, where similar methods are used to allow energy to flow more freely.
Many practices of the Left-Hand Path also aim at creating a will to fusion. Sexual magic is one example. An extreme case is the practice of Shoko Asahara, founder of Aum Shinrikyo, who induced members of his sect to share blood with him through technical means (so that his blood was transfused into others and vice versa).
Also relevant is this video, where Shoko Asahara performs a so-called shaktipat (note the name) on a woman, which leads to an extreme physical loss of control, though she experiences it as highly pleasurable:
This shows exactly how this practice connects with the idea of character armor. Interestingly, Asahara notes that the master in such a ritual must himself possess inner maturity, so as not to transmit “bad impulses.” This again connects to the idea of character armor as a protective mechanism.
In some cases of Western sexual magic — such as Jack Parsons’ “Babalon Working,” or conspiracy theories like the Montauk Project — there are repeated references to the opening of a “spiritual gate” (through highly questionable methods), which can be interpreted as a metaphor for dissolving character armor.
Neurological research on monks during meditation, which aimed to reduce the ego, found that such meditation lowers activity in the parietal lobe.
The parietal lobe is responsible, among other things, for the perception of pain and for the boundaries of one’s own person. Entheogenic substances such as mushrooms also weaken parietal lobe activity.
This raises interesting questions about the connection between character armor and the individual/ego, and whether the ego in fact represents the memory of our traumas, wounds, and disappointments.
There is also a highly relevant quote from Nietzsche:
“All instincts that do not discharge themselves outward turn inward — this is what I call the internalization of man: thus it first grows in him what later will be called his ‘soul.’”
 |
|
Humm. I think Life and the Solution to all our problems is much simpler than we make it out to be. I suspect that part of the problem is that we have NEVER had a Christian culture anywhere. It has always been "The Bible +"something else". Even my beloved C.S. Lewis thought in terms of "The Bible + Plato".