These are the recordings for a 6-part course presented by the cultural anthropologist & explorer, Dr Ian Baker, which took place live over 2023.

Each Module is a stand-alone seminar though the sequence of 6 seminars is constructed by Dr Baker as an integrated one-year’s course.

This course presents contemporary perspectives on esoteric Buddhist practices that developed at the crossroads of multiple religious and yogic traditions.

Using the template of ‘Six Yogas in Nine Months,’ we will unpack the history and evolution of the so-called tantric ‘completion stage’ (nispannakrama), in the context of a tradition arguably in radical transformation.

After examining the roots of Vajrayāna Buddhism, we will explore alternative perspectives on human embodiment and their expression within yogic practices of ‘ascetic heat’ (Wtapas) and somatic incandescence (tummo).

How are these qualities cultivated and what are the results? What light can contemporary science shed on historical conceptions of the ‘vajra body’ as a locus of transformative experience?

From Noetic Fire, the course will progress through additional tantric completion stage yogas – nonlocal embodiment (Illusory Body), partnered union (Karmamudrā), clear light, dreamwork, and lucid death (Powa and Bardo Yoga) – drawing on contemporary developments in quantum science, aesthetic theory, and related disciplines, towards a renewed understanding of one of the most comprehensive systems of human transformation.

Each module of this one-year course consists of 90-minute presentations followed by 60 minutes of interactive discussion.

To access the course it must be done each module individually by using the ‘Watch Recording’ buttons below.