Kashmir Massage or Yoga of Touch
The tantric massage that was born in India
Yoga of Touch , also known as Kashmiri Massage, is a wonderful way of touching the body that comes from the north of India, from the ancient tradition of Tantric Shivaism of Kashmir. More than 5,000 years ago, in the Indus Valley, the Siddhas (wise men) began to refine Shantala, the popular massage that mothers still give to their children. This form of massage reaches the West through Daniel Odier (Source: Surya Baudet).
One of the deepest sensations transmitted by touch in this type of massage is maternal affection. The term maternal here designates any contact that can have this quality of selfless love. There are few occasions in adult life when we receive a caress or a touch, without it being in exchange for something, with only a loving presence free of psychological manipulation. Feeling this is what the body likes most and needs most. The facilitator of touch yoga is like an archetypal mother giving a massage to an archetypal child.
Throughout the massage, the facilitator is meditating through touch and has an attitude of veneration towards the recipient of the massage. Metaphorically, the recipient’s body becomes a sacred temple to which we offer worship, respect and gratitude for granting us permission to pray in it. The prayer takes the form of a meditative dance called Tandava. Tandava has its mystical origin in the dance between Shiva-Shakti, and is a meditation that lets the body move according to its own intelligence. The massage is this same dance with the body of the other.
Intentions
Typically, people who undergo this massage arrive feeling intensely a duality between mind and body, blocked access to pleasure, the tribulations that each gender brings with it in today’s society (the different burdens that upbringing and society attribute to the roles of women and men), excessive need for control and the weight of anxiety on their nervous system. In the words of Daniel Odier, the massage tends to introduce a subtle body awareness and a vibration, Spanda, similar to that of a string instrument. Spanda helps to dissolve the perception of the mind-body duality, to perceive ourselves as a whole, to be able to live more rooted in the present and leads to a lighter and more ecstatic experience of the world.
Kashmir massage allows old patterns memorized in the body in the form of tension and rigidity to reach consciousness and begin their journey towards resolution. The slow dance of the masseur, made of fluid movements, accompanies and dynamizes the circulation of emotions. Little by little the mind calms down, the recipient’s system relaxes with natural and deep breathing. When the body surrenders, the Being begins to stop being a slave to its patterns. In this more open space, new ways of functioning are revealed, spontaneous, in total adaptation to the present reality. It is the beginning of a process of transformation of our daily functioning, which little by little becomes less mechanical, more conscious and free.
It also works on the emotional armor lodged in the muscles and viscera in unconscious forms, which predispose us to physical pain and chronic illnesses. These are armors that arose from traumatic events that could not find their resolution in the body; or reactions to situations that caused fear in the past, which are no longer valid in the present, but which we still hold in the form of tension. The palm of the masseuse’s hand moving freely over the entire body with the precise amount of oil gives the body the opportunity to begin to soften its armor and find a physical resolution to the conflict that gave rise to them. Many times the beginning of these resolutions brings with it crying, trembling, or laughter deeply forgotten in the system. In this type of massage we welcome any type of expression from your body, being a safe and judgment-free space for the spontaneous expressions of your being to be released.
Technique
This is a floor massage provided on a futon and has two distinctive technical characteristics.
The touch
The first is in relation to the touch. The whole palm of the hand is used to move slowly, lightly and steadily over the entire surface of the body. The whole body is covered without hierarchies, without specific time blocks dedicated to a single part and without taking the hands off at any time. In this way, a sensation of completeness and continuity is given to the skin of the receiver that helps to integrate the body image as unique, not fragmented.
The inserts
The second characteristic is that inserts are applied. Inserts are ways of joining the body of the masseuse and the receiver through complementary postures. The receiver of the massage will often have parts of his body detached from the futon and supported on the body of the masseuse. This allows the masseuse to use his entire body to reach all the points of the receiver with contiguity, to hold him in hugs, to lift him up and to move him without the receiver having to make any effort and to be involved only with himself.
During the massage, the person flows between different positions, such as lying face up, face down, on their side, or sitting. The positions are combined with dynamics of stretching, bending, or full body extensions.
Because of these characteristics, if the massage is provided with the skill and mastery required, the recipient can enter a state that many associate with an imperturbable, intrauterine experience. Everything feels comfortable, warm, the desire for contact is satisfied, and it is like floating without the need to support one’s own weight. For many, the massage becomes a cozy place without worries.
Session progression
This type of massage is interchangeably called Yoga of Touch (or Tact) or Kashmir Tantric Massage (or Cashmere). In Argentina we adopt the convention of using each name for a different development of the same massage: Yoga of Touch for an advanced sequence and Kashmir Massage for a more simplified one.
This separation responds to how this massage technique is taught in the Tantric School (formerly Massages for the Soul). The student gradually gains access to more complex forms in each module. For this school, the same logic is repeated in front of the client in the progression of sessions (some never receive the complete sequence if the masseuse so deems it).
Kashmir Massage
According to this convention, we call Kashmir Massage a more simplified version, where only three or four positions are adopted directly in contact with the futon (face up, face down, and one or two on the side) and a single face-down position. The genital touch sequence may not be present or may only occur at the end of the session face up. Sessions in this modality are usually 1:00 without genital approach and 1:30 with genital approach.
Yoga of Touch
Yoga of Touch (or touch) is usually the name adopted by the longest and most advanced sequence and responds to the description made above with all the insertions and many more positions. Genital touch may not be present in this sequence, but if it is, it is distributed throughout the entire session (not just at the end) in order to be able to go in an increasing way and benefit from the functional advantages that approaches in different positions give. These sessions usually last up to two and a half hours.
I have received this form of massage from Maximiliano García (Tantric School, formerly Massages for the Soul – Argentina) in training seminars, updates and supervisions from his teaching team.
References: Surya Baudet. Masaje Tántrico de Cachemira: el yoga del tacto. El Blog Alternativo
Sensitive Massage
Regulation of the ANS, yawning, metabolic ion balance calms down because the touch is predictable.
The slow and gentle movement of the hand over the body becomes predictable for the autonomic nervous system, therefore it becomes safe. This allows it to access a regulation towards tranquility, sometimes so deep that for many it is completely unknown.
Is tantric massage sexual?
Classical Tantra
To begin with, it is good to remember that Tantra is, in its origin, a mystical path. Kashmiri Tantric Shivaism is one of its branches. The Sanskrit root “tan” means totality, continuity and suggests the weave like that of a fabric, for example. Totality includes everything and this path is called Tantra because it excludes nothing, so it is the only mystical path that includes sexuality and all forms of enjoyment as part of the path. Then, in the one hundred and sixty sutras of the Vijñana Bahirava Tantra, the founding text of this mystical path, only two sutras are dedicated to sexuality. In the Kashmiri language, from which this type of massage comes, there is only one word to mean both sexual union and contact with the world through the five senses. That is to say, the notion of sexuality is much more global and broad than what we know. (Source: Surya Baudet)
Therefore, in its remote origins, Tantra is a mystical path that does not exclude sexuality, but where sexuality is not at the center of the practices it proposes, in fact, it is far from it.
From this vision, Tantric Massage includes the genitals only as another part of the body, and sliding over them with the palms of the hands with the same care and attention as it does in general over the entire body. In addition, it usually includes openings and closings that consist of lightly placing the hands on the root chakra (on the genitals) and on the heart chakra to unite through sensation these two vital centers of the body. In both cases, what is produced are tender and loving touches. It does not lead to sustained stimulation that causes excitement. On the contrary, it brings a feeling of relaxation and surrender. The specific tantrism of Kashmir is based on the opening of the heart.
Neo-tantra
In the schools developed in the West that are grouped under the notion of neo-tantra, greater importance is given to sexuality in general and therefore also to the genitals in massages. Many of these schools adopt the sequences that Joseph Kramer developed for the Body Electric School (which would later become the formation of Sexological Bodywork). Thus, the sequences for vulva-vagina, penis-scrotum and anus were further explored, producing new possibilities for bodily and emotional openings. In these sequences, moments of excitement and placidity (a feeling of global contentment that occurs after excitement when direct stimulation of the genitals stops) are interspersed in waves and free of purposes such as orgasm or ejaculation.
What about tantric massage with a happy ending?
The term tantric massage is often used, as well as many others as euphemisms for erotic massage for men that ends in ejaculation. This responds to the moral censorship that is imposed on sex workers to advertise their services (as another form of discrimination and marginalization).
This is not the sense in which we name tantric massage in this space. Ejaculations often occur during massages and are welcomed, but this is not the purpose. The happiness that comes from tantric massage in this space responds more to a union of mind-heart-spirit than to the existence or not of orgasm.