In 1990 some friends in New Mexico passed on to me the book and videotapes of Jewel In The Lotus, one of the first books on Tantric techniques available in the western world. I read the book and, having been a student of world religion for many years, was immediately captivated by the concepts and possibilities of Tantra. I had never heard of the idea that men and women could combine their sexual and loving energy as a means to pursue spiritual growth and awareness. Immediately, it made sense to me, and sounded like a worthwhile and fun idea to pursue. After that, I looked for any book on Tantra I could find, there weren’t many available in those days, and I practiced Tantra solo for a year and a half before I was fortunate enough to meet Oceana.

Oceana and I met while trekking in Nepal in 1991. On our second day together, we enjoyed some Hatha Yoga together. On the third day after we met I shared with her that I was interested in exploring Tantra with a partner, and explained the concepts. She said that Tantra sounded very interesting. While appearing calm on the outside, I think I nearly fell off my chair with excitement. Maybe I had found my Tantric partner that I was longing for.

In 1993, Oceana accompanied me for the first time to visit the USA. When we arrived in Los Angeles, I called my business manager to tell her I would be back in New Mexico the following Monday. She informed me that she had made an appointment with some potential clients to interview for an architectural design project. The clients turned out to be the couple that had originally passed the book on to me. Their project was for me to design and supervise the construction of a solar heated Temple to hold a 21-day International Tantra retreat being taught by Bodhi Avinasha, the author of the book. I immediately arranged to trade some of my professional fees for our attendance at the workshop.

Within a month, Bodhi arrived in New Mexico and taught a weekend introductory Tantra course, which we attended. One of the greatest Tantra teachers in the world had fallen right into our lap! The first day I thought the workshop was a fair amount of aerie-faerie hype. Nevertheless, we went home that night to explore the homework assignment we had been given. That night we had the most amazing lovemaking I had ever experienced in my 48 years. The next day we arrived an hour late for the workshop due to our extended lovemaking session, but we sat in the front row so we didn’t miss a word!

That afternoon we discovered there was another couple in the class who were Tantra teachers. At that moment the light bulb first went off in my head, which said, “Oceana and I have been blessed with a gift of such exquisite and precious Tantric experiences, maybe we could be successful Tantra teachers as well!” I thought we could be better Tantra teachers than this other couple were!

I designed and supervised construction of the Temple, and we attended the 21-day intensive workshop with Bodhi. The experiences we were having with Tantra were unbelievable. At the end of the three weeks we left to return to Australia. Bodhi asked us if we would be interested in sponsoring a tour of Australia and New Zealand with her. We said, “Yes.”

I arrived in Australia three weeks after Oceana. When she met me at Tullamarine Airport I told her we were going to teach workshops all across Australia. This time Oceana nearly fell off her perch. She thought I was completely out of my mind.

In 1994 we toured 10 cities in Australia and New Zealand with Bodhi, assisting and co-facilitating. We started Oz Tantra with $300 seed money I had, which primarily went to purchase posters and pay for telephone calls from a phone box. We didn’t even have a telephone – we were living on a shoestring. I arranged from a phone box for Bodhi to have a TV interview with Bert Newton on Good Morning Australia.

During the tour, Oceana and I had our Tantric wedding, assisted by Bodhi. At the end of the tour, Bodhi called us into her room. She told us, to our amazement, that we had taken the Tantric practices in her book further than anyone she knew, including herself. She asked us if we wanted to be inducted into the lineage of teaching the Cosmic Cobra Breath. Again, we said, “Yes”.

At that time in my life, I figured that there were six critical global issues facing planet earth: nuclear disarmament, war, food distribution, disease, ecological survival, and the rift between men and women. I didn’t figure I could have much of an effect on the first five. But the last one we both had a desire to address, and reckoned we could make a contribution, since we both came from 20-year marriages that had failed. We decided to. I wanted to quit the practice of architecture, of which I was burnt out, and become a Light Worker - to do something that would be of service to humankind, and hopefully contribute some healing to this planet.

The rest, as they say, is history………..