Cultivating Self-Mastery
for Male Vitality & Longevity
An Interview with Mantak Chia
by Rob Sidon
originally published in Common Ground magazine, 2002
Introduction: Mantak Chia is credited for having disseminated much of Taoist philosophy and practices in the
West. He has authored 22 books, including the best-sellers The Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual
Energy, The Multi-Orgasmic Male and The Multi-Orgasmic Couple..
Although of Chinese descent, Mantak Chia was bom in Bangkok,Thai/and, in 1944. His grandmother had opened
the first Southern Baptist Church in Thailand, and he was raised Christian. But as a young man, he met a Taoist
Master named One Cloud Hermit, who demonstrated extraordinary powers and fully initiated Mantak into the
ancient and — for centuries — secretly guarded practices.
Years later, married to his wife Maneewan, he studied Western anatomy and medical science in Germany while
managing an offset printing business and becoming a father. In 1979 he opened the Universal Tao Center in New
York, which has taught tens of thousands of students (including over 1,500 certified instructors) throughout the
world; and in 2000 he opened the Universal Tao Garden near Chiang Hai, Thailand, which now serves as his
principal training center and publishing headquarters.
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CG: We are delighted to speak with you. You are quoted as saying, "You can either pray 100,000
hours or you can consciously guide the sexual energy up the spine." That seems like an interesting
platform from which to begin a dialogue. Many of our readers, myself included, have a very limited
background in Taoism. Is Taoism a philosophy? A religion?
MC: It's both of them. In the beginning, according to Taoist history that goes back to the time
when everybody was living in nature and in caves, they discovered the Universal Force, or what we
call the Wu Chi, the Nothingness, the Original Force. So in those times, the ChineseTaoists started
connecting with nature and feeling the forces of nature. The religion was only set up when there
were many people gathering together, and they wanted something to share and practice together.
Eventually, the religious leaders wanted to control the people's minds, and that religion became a
religious ritual. So in Taoism there are ten different branches of religious practice.
But there is also another kind we call the non-religious, just-practice Taoists. Most of them do not
belong to any group. Most of them are in the mountains, do their practice, and come down to teach
and help people. They do not have any religious contact. Usually these people learn from many
systems — even systems such as Hinduism, Buddhism, everything. They combine all the things that
are effective, and go to the mountains and practice them. They take out what is not necessary,
including all the indications of religious contact. I come from this tradition because my master —
after practicing for thirty years in the temples as well as in many other systems — finally decided to
go to the mountain and practice things in this way. He was practicing and searching for all the
masters in the mountains. Finally, he met my grand master, and he learned the whole system that
he passed on to me.
In theTaoism of my tradition, the origin goes back to the Wu Chi, the Supreme Natural Power in
the universe. It means "nothingness."
Now, in the religious Tao, they use LaoTzu — the one who wrote the Tao Te Ching and is
considered the leader. And, for some of the religious Taoists, they regard the Three Pure Ones —
actually, three big stars in the universe — as the religious leaders; but there are many, many gods
in the universe, all of whom are named after stars and constellations.
CG: You are apparently revered by many throughout the world for being the one to declassify the
secrets of the Tao, which had for millennia been guarded by the emperors of China. How did this
fate befall you? Has there been any backlash as a result of your opening up this information?
MC: Yes, I have had some of that. Some people come from a background of what they call their
Tao lineage. They have come out from China and started teaching in the West, and they attacked
me by saying that I have no lineage and no religion from a Tao Master — or any of the things they
do to any person. I answered them that I don't care.! just do whatever I can; I just teach people. If
the people like it, they come to me — if the people don't like me, they go. So I said, "I don't care
about whether you have a big hat and a big robe on you or a scepter in your hand — or if you
come from however many generations of the lineage of theTao master. I just told them that I am not
a Master: I just say what ever I have to people. If it is useful to people and if people like me, they
support me.That's all. It's just like anything — a baker, or a person from a very poor family can be a
president of America. Like President Clinton — he had no father to bring him up. He just made
himself, and he became the President. What's wrong with that?
CG: In many religious and mystical traditions, observances of celibacy are considered a byway
towards the attainment of God, or God-Realization. What would you say to sincere spiritual seekers
who might argue that putting so much emphasis on sexual energy is a detour, a "trap" of sorts?
MC: This is a very good question. Celibacy — no sex — and theTao sexual practices: are they
the same or not? In theTao practice we conserve energy and transform it up to a higher level by
not losing the sexual energy. Now, celibacy— or pray and no sex —- is the same practice as what
we've been doing. But we Taoists discovered it's not just celibacy. If you want to have sex, you can;
if you want to have children, you can; if you want to have celibacy, you can. Whatever you do, learn
how to transform your energy.
So, the Tao sexual practice is that if you want to have sex, or make love, then learn to control,
conserve and transform your sexual love-energy, because love-energy is the best energy. Love
and sex-energy is the most important energy in our cells. Without these two energies, the cells will
not split and divide properly. Every day we need love, and every day we need sex.
But when sex and love come together, a very special condition arises. Scientists have discovered
that when people are feeling love, the frequency in the cells is about 8 Hz (Hertz) — and when you
feel orgasm, it's also 8 Hz. This frequency is the frequency that will make the cells start to divide
and split properly to form new cells. When the cells divide to form the next cell (two cells become
three cells), we call this the original split. We are born from sex, and the first sex cells, male and
female, receive the love and orgasm energy into the cells. Then when they split, they split the same
energy out. That's why love and sex are so important. Without learning how to conserve and
multiply the sexual energy, we have no way to do the higher level of practice. That's why the
celibacy-with-no-sex practices and the sexual practice in the Tao are really the same.
CG: Your recent book titles, The Multi-Orgasmic Man and The Multi-Orgasmic Couple, are rather
appetizing in their promise. Can you describe the premise of the Multi-Orgasm, particularly for a
man? Is this really in the grasp of, well ... a basic guy, someone like me for example?
MC: The whole thing is this: the orgasmic feeling, and bliss or ecstasy —-they are the same. Only
the names are different. When people are religious,they have no sex, they pray to God. And if they
successfully pray to God and are channeling the sexual energy up, they feel the blissfulness, or
what we call the orgasm. Some people say that it is different when we have sex and we have the
orgasmic feeling of bliss. But in theTaoist practice, when you boil it down, it is the same thing. When
both people are making love, you feel love and orgasm come together, and you channel this
orgasm upward, rather than letting the orgasm go down, or outward. It's better not to let the love
and orgasm energy go down and out of the body. Then we lose that orgasm, we lose that
blissfulness.
Now,orgasm and ejaculation are two different things. If you learn how to control and learn how to
make love longer, you feel the orgasm. You learn how to contract the perineum/anus and draw this
orgasmic energy upward into the brain. Then you start to have cell orgasm, brain orgasm and
organs orgasm. This orgasmic energy is the most important energy in our cells and organs
because it rebuilds them. It creates new cells and heals them. That's why the orgasm is important.
If you ejaculate very quickly, there is nothing to multiply — the orgasm doesn't exist, and the
loving energy doesn't multiply at all. So that's why the whole purpose is to teach people how to
prolong sexual love longer and learn how to draw the orgasm energy upward. Then you feel the
orgasm longer, and you feel the orgasm many times together.
CG: But it seems that the forces of biology are ferociously stacked against us. As you know, the
male ejaculation has approximately 200 million frenzied sperm cells programmed to explode
outwards, in the direction of the ovum, and if you add emotion or passion to the equation, well ...
MC: You know, there is always the traditional way of thinking that you have to do that. You have
"quickie" sex and the Western way of doing that, and the Western doctors say that you must have
ejaculation. Otherwise, they say, it's not healthy for the prostate gland, and you'll get trouble — this
and that. But this whole thing is the wrong perspective and the wrong practice.
First you have to learn how to contract the perineum and contract the prostate gland, practicing
what we call the "power lock" [or mulabhanda in yoga] and the orgasmic upward draw. So, you learn
how to contract your love muscle. You can learn how to control the prostate gland, control
ejaculation, feel more alive, and live with more love.
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Mantak Chia's website: /www.universal-tao.com
