11 juil. 2018

The role of oxytocin in tantric massages

The oxytocin is an hormone well known for its role during child birth by facilitating uterine contractions during the labor phase and milk production a bit later. It has also been discovered more recently that it has more general effects in social behaviors and mechanisms involved in the production of this hormone are now more familiar.
This article will show the numerous connections between tantric massages and oxytocin production.  


Disclaimer: this article is a translation of the following one in French. English is not my mother tongue, so you can refer to the French version in case of incorrect wordings. However comments that help me to correct mistakes are welcome.

The effects of the oxytocin

Beyond its well known role in child birth, oxytocin triggers important physiological, psychological and even sociological effects.
One of the most surprising action if that oxytocin is frequently seen as the monogamy hormone. Several studies on mammals have indeed established direct links between oxytocin receptors and monogamous  behaviors. Similar links have also been established for humans between oxytocin and couple stability or strength of a mariage.
The oxytocin is also involved in protective roles of a mother or her attachment to her children. With animals, it enhance behaviours such as building nests or grooming their offsprings.  It can also inhabit fear and stress and this explains why mothers sometimes act as lionesses for protecting their children.
The effect is more complex with men because it produce a wellness feeling for the ones close enough to their mothers but it can also create a feeling of insecurity if the relationship with the mother is weak.
Oxytocin has also an influence on social relationships by increasing empathy and reducing the stress coming from social interactions. It also helps to establish trust in the relationships.
Last, oxytocin plays also a role during orgasms by helping muscle contraction (for both man and woman).
Based on such a description, oxytocin might look as a miracle product. This is partially true and it is sometimes called "happiness hormone " but the way it acts is in fact a bit more complex. It acts indeed as an amplifier of those physiological or psychological behavior. Oxytocin alone is not going to create a feeling or a reaction but it will amplify it once one of these activities have started. This is a so called positive feedback.

How is the oxytocin produced

Oxytocin is produced by a small gland in the brain, the hypothalamus. As we have seen that oxytocin has a positive feedback behaviour, it means that what triggers oxytocin is what also is going to be amplified by oxytocin.
This is a list of potential source of oxytocin grouped by categories.
  • Positive relationship with loved ones: the feeling of being heard, understood ; receiving kind words ; having a pleasant discussion or simply kind gazes.
  • A pleasant environment: contact with warm water (every mother knows the happiness of a baby when he enters slowly in his bath) or a warm atmosphere.
  • Touching plays a key role with tender contacts, caresses or massages.
  • Finally, some actions more specific to couple life, such as kisses, orgasms, shared pleasure or harmonious relationship.

Role of tantric massages

Base on the following list, we understand easily why and how tantric massages trigger production of oxytocin.
  • Main factors are of course related to body contact. The most obvious one is of course the massage itself. Caresses and light touchings could also be added at some points. When a trust relationship is well established could  adopt the yab yum position (also known as tantric posture) which allows very intense contacts.
  • A masseur takes always care of the room with a specific eye on temperature, dimmed lights, relaxing music and sometimes some ambiant flavours.
  • Tantric massages are usually not done in a batch (even if a bath is offered before the massage). However, the warm oil used for the massage plays probably a role similar to a warm bath. Such a feeling is usually visible as soon as the first drops of warm oil run on the skin.
  • Most of the tantric massages start with time to listen to the person receiving the massage: does he or she has expectations, fears, desires ...? There are usually no discussion during the massage and this is why it is important that the receiver knows from the beginning that he is at the center of the attention and that he is listened.
  • Then, tantric massages might also include actions usually specific to couples. This is the case of orgasms that might appear in a tantric massage (without being a goal). Even if it is rarer, it can also include kisses, but only if there is a very high trust and if a kiss is a way to share a feeling and not a private relationship.

There is one case where the implications of some hormones is clear. When someone has received an excellent and intense tantric massage, he is getting a strong and deep feeling of wellness and happiness that can last several days, and after these days, he might a kind of emptiness feeling as if something is missing. This peak of happiness followed by a carving period is somehow similar to usage of drug but with a different scale of time and negative effects significantly lower, because it is not about an external injection of a chemical component but the natural production by the body of a natural product.

What conclusion can we draw?

In a way, the experienced masseurs could say that there is nothing new. They already know the effects of deep wellness brought by their massage. They are right because tantric massage are based on ancient empiric knowledge.
However, it seems important for me to connect this empiric knowledge with more recent medical understanding 
This understanding is also important for people receiving massages. They can understand that the benefits of tantric massages are not coming from phantasms or some hidden sexual desire but from real needs of the human body.
The role of oxytocin answers also a question frequently in the mind of people having a partner: are tantric massages a kind of extramarital action ? The answer is clearly no because oxytocin is going to enhance the bonding in the couple. This is also something well known by experienced masseurs.
Let’s finish with an open question: most of the literature on tantric massages speak about the Kundalini as an energy stored in the bottom of the back and spread in all the body during the massage. Could we link this Kundalini with production of oxytocin ?

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