SAN DIEGO (TNA) – What’s the difference between paying a crack whore for a handjob, and shelling out big bucks for a tantric sex teacher who’s got one hand on your groin and the other up your ass?

Not much, some may say – both are considered prostitution because you’re paying for a sexual favor. Others would disagree and say tantric sex is healing, not sex, and therefore not prostitution at all.

Tantra, according to “sexual healers” like Princeton, N.J.-based Pamela Jane, is a spiritual journey in which sex is treated as a sacrament and that the energy it generates can be used as a pathway toward enlightenment. That includes experiencing the bliss of an orgasm – even multiple orgasms – without ejaculating.

“Sexual healers” teach tantric sex in many different ways, often through one-on-one sessions in which clients – both individuals and couples – go to a practitioner’s “tantric den” and, through breathing and touching, learn how to enhance their sexual lives, whether it’s to re-ignite passion in the bedroom, control premature ejaculation or just learn to be multi-orgasmic.

For example, Springfield, Va.-based tantric sex teacher Jeremiah Lindsay says he performs breathing techniques with clients – most of whom are women – then massages them, which includes putting his fingers up their “yoni” (sanskrit for “pussy”) and anus, to help them “release trauma from the body” (any mental or emotional trauma), leading them on a “spiritual journey.”

”Trauma in the body tends to drop down right into the pelvis. We work on clearing so they can feel an energy connection between their heart and pelvis,” Lindsay says.

Barbara Carrellas, a New York-based sex educator, tantra practitioner and author of “Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the 21st Century” (Celestial Arts), says she doesn’t even have to be penetrated to be tantrically satisfied.

In fact, Carrellas claims she has had an orgasm by engaging in a “tantric flesh pull” with a female partner. It involved piercing two needles above their breasts, tying an elastic band to the needles, then rocking back and forth, pulling one another while gazing into each other’s eyes.

“We grew our metaphysical dicks and could feel each other inside,” she said.

But even when the penetration is real, it’s not just about having “really great sex,” according to Pamela Jane.

She says the “higher consciousness” she reaches when she and her partner practice tantra can sometimes lead to day-long vaginal contractions.

Sound like the kind of sex life you’ve always thirsted for? Then you may want to consider learning from a teacher.

Although “sexual healers” can charge money to touch a woman’s “yoni” and a man’s “lingam” (dick) in order to teach them how to orgasm without ejaculating – most of the time – they take a firm stance claiming that they’re not prostitutes out to deliver a “happy ending.”

“If you’re looking for a happy ending, you can get it for a hell of a lot cheaper than what I charge,” Jane said.

But some people have other views on the idea of tantra teachings.

One San Diego man who calls himself "John" says he paid $200 for a tantra session and got, basically, a “great handjob.”

The client, who chooses to remain anonymous, says he contacted a “sexual healer” on the tantra Web site www.goddesstemple.com and found a woman who could perform a 90-minute session in his area.

He claims he pursued a tantra experience because he was enthralled by the idea that a “goddess” could recognize the divine within everyone – especially him.

“This time I wanted to be the divine one,” he said, adding that his practitioner asked him to think of himself as a king who needed to be served.

And served he was. After a ceremonial bath, some breathing techniques and chanting, the client says his goddess had him squeeze his ass muscles for a while, and then asked him how he wanted his orgasm.

“She said, ‘I can show you how to hold this in, or I can give you the best ejaculation you’ve ever had.’ I decided I wanted to come all over my tummy.”

Even though tantra says one can experience orgasms without ejaculating, goddesstemple.com has an entire Web page that speaks about “cum worship.”

According to “Semen Worship Fluid Honoring,” a description of “cum worship” written by “Goddess Eve,” tantra says semen is “sacred and should be enjoyed and used to the fullest way possible.”

“The purpose of cum [sic] worship is to enjoy what comes out!” Eve writes. “Whether it be a little or a large load. If he comes one powerful explosion or several multiple ejaculations. It is all wonderful and should be celebrated.

“There is nothing more erotic than being enslaved to that cock and see how much cum [sic] you can get to come out!” she adds.

So, is bowing down to semen a true tantra experience or an advertisement for a little pay-for-play fucky-sucky?

Austino, a tantra teacher who works in Chicago and Palm Springs, Calif., says “cum worship” sounds sketchy, but that it also could be a tantra technique he’s never heard of.

“Most of us do not have the understanding to differentiate the different flavors of the erotic. Tantra is a gourmet flavor, for sure,” he said.

Bill Nelson, director of the Freedom and Justice Center for Prostitution Resources in Minneapolis, says the question of whether a “sexual healing” service is considered prostitution – a crime – depends on “your local sense of morality.”

“Are [tantric sex teachers] really giving up their soul, giving up their personhood, to perform this service?”

Nelson’s organization focuses on getting prostitutes off the streets and out of the business, and he says he has never investigated advertised sexual healers as prostitutes.

Austino speculates that there are phonies out there who do in fact use tantra as a front for whoring themselves out, especially since he has received numerous calls from would-be clients asking for nothing but sex.

On one night, when a man called and asked for a blowjob and anal sex, Austino pulled out a list of names and numbers for prostitutes, spa workers and escorts who would be able to help the caller find what he wanted.

“It’s not what I do,” Austino said. “It’s like they’re calling the doctor and they need a dentist.”

Jwala, a Bay Area “tantra priestess,” once received a call from a doctor asking her to lock him in a chastity belt, hold all his paychecks and make him beg for his money – basically turn him into her slave.

“He wanted me to keep the key so he couldn’t masturbate when I was away. And he didn’t even know me,” she said. “He wanted to be totally dominated, and I said, ‘This isn’t what tantra is about.’”

Jwala says since she posted an advertisement on goddesstemple.com, she has received several calls from people who are looking for some kind of quickie rather than learning the art of tantra.

“Something must be up,” she said. “Eighteen of 20 people calling want some weird fetish thing.”

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