4 Freedoms Presents...
Al & Pala, Sexual Marathon Runners
This article appeared on the Discovery Channel's Sex Files website as an accompaniment to the Sex Files Better Sex Episode which featured Tantra Sex Teachers Pala Copeland and Al Link. It was shown on February 12 and 16, 2003 and will be rebroadcast on Wednesday, April 30, 12:30 am ET. Watch a video clip from the show.
As I walk up onto the porch of Al & Pala's home - where these grandparents teach tantric sex to eager couples - I can't decide whether it is odd or appropriate that the song wafting from the kitchen radio is Barry White's "I Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Baby".
While the song may be made-to-order for the occasion, the locale is not. This is no eastern temple. Nor is it a swinging, beaded, urban loft. I am standing on the deck of a house that feels more like a cottage. It's just off a dirt road in Quebec on the shores of the Ottawa River. The setting is more suited to reading a book or playing board games with friends than learning how to have six-hour sexual marathons.
Al Link and Pala Copeland come out to say hello. They are not what you might expect either. Pala is a very youthful grandmother, probably somewhere in her 50's (I didn't ask) with raven hair, and an upbeat, open personality. She reminds me of a happy bird. Al is slightly built, with a receding hairline. He's also much more laid back, but just as welcoming. Both are friendly and put me immediately at ease. If someone came looking for an oddity, for sex fiends, they would leave disappointed. It feels as though my cameraman, Mark, and I might as well be here for a barbecue.
Instead, we are here to interview them about their tantric sex weekend retreats for couples, and the first order of business is to find a good place for a demonstration. Fortunately, October provides a hot, sunny Indian summer setting on the beach off the porch. We had agreed beforehand that Al & Pala would not be nude for any of the shoot, so they dress in comfortable clothing. Al in baggy M.C. Hammer pants and a black t-shirt and Pala in a flowing skirt and a low cut black shirt, laced up in the middle; sexy and tasteful on both counts.
We start a fire, they throw down their blanket, and then they do their thing. The couple demonstrates three positions with impressive vigor, moaning and waving and channeling their sexual energy for our camera. They keep going even after Pala is stung by a bee. After a brief lunch we sit down to discuss their unique calling.
"Well, we had kind of a mystical experience," Pala begins, explaining that their introduction to the tantric experience began in the early days of their relationship, about 15 years ago, as they lay together in a post-coital glow. "We were just kind of spread out and I reached my foot over and I touched Al with my foot. And where I touched him, this blast, this wave of passionate orgasm Based on some past research, Al suspected they had a tantric experience, so the next day they raced to the bookstore, looking for confirmation. They found it. In fact, they found that people had been doing this for thousands of years. More importantly, it was something they could learn.
It wasn't all smooth sailing. Like any activity that involves training the body, there were a few setbacks. "I got frustrated enough that I quit several times just thinking, this must work for everybody but me," Al laments. "Just feeling like, I don't know if I'll ever get this."
Of course there's a lot more to it than that. So much so that Al and Pala have been able to leave their old jobs behind and make a living teaching tantra. No more producing traveling art exhibits or teaching business skills for Pala. Goodbye to that professor of economics post for Al. It's all sex all the time now.
At a weekend workshop, couples check in on Friday and can count on some improvement by Sunday. For anyone a little modest, there's no need to worry. "There's no explicit sexuality or nudity in the group sessions," Al says reassuringly. "We've left that out and I think that's probably why people come from all over the world to visit us on weekends."
For the record, their children (from previous marriages) and grandchildren (at least the ones old enough to understand) are fully supportive. Pala's mother has even put their brochures all over Toronto.
As for the couple themselves, they say tantric sex has profoundly changed their lives for the better. "[It] keeps us really healthy because you've got all that pleasure, that sexual ecstasy, that sexual energy to work with," Pala says.
"It's been a spiritual quickening, you know, and continues on after 15 years or whatever it's been," Al adds.
From the smiles on both their faces there is no reason not to believe them. So Mark and I take a few more shots of the happy couple wandering through their beautiful wooded property, then pack up the van to leave.
Both Al and Pala warmly invited us to come back for a weekend session, with our wives of course. We say it sounds like a good idea and why not. The only six-hour session we have to look forward to now is the drive back to Toronto.
For the next ten years their tantric education was based mostly on book learning, although they did seek some personal guidance. "We also did... several two week sessions with a man by the name of Paul Welch," Al says. "He had spent about 17 years with Osho, [one of] the great gurus of this century, from India who is now deceased. And we learned from him a lot of energy kind of techniques and information. And that was a critical part of our tantra practice."
Gradually Al and Pala learned to breathe properly. This helped them regulate their pace and energy level. They also strengthened and honed the muscles in their pelvises. (known as Kegel exercises, see The Big Squeeze