"McTantra" soothes the savage beast. In the world according to Clint Arthur, a self-styled maharishi of the tantric arts, all things are possible. Were it not for the intervention of a friendly techie mensch, Arthur says he would've been an indentured servant to the trial and error process that newbie Webmasters inevitably endure.
But first, a disclaimer: Arthur's responsible for coining the term "McTantra" to describe "the fast food American method of maximizing sensual aspirations for men and women - without the repetitive chants and soulful eye-gazing."
The background stories behind his flagship sites NewSex.org and NewSensualPower.com mirror each other. "I learned how to achieve levels of sexual ecstasy far beyond what most normal people ever experience. I know that most people are blown away when they experience this transcendent experience. It changes their lives, increases their experience of intimacy and connection with their lover, and gives them incredibly enhanced personal power. My personal and professional goal is to spread this information throughout the whole world," Arthur says.
"I used to be a slave to my Webmaster, but then the infinitely awesome Dr. Corynna Clarke of GoddessTemple.com taught me how to update Web pages, emancipating me from that most despicable form of addiction/slavery. I had to give her about three hours of carnal compensation as payment - but hey, it was worth it," Arthur says.
In the mid-90's, the New York native paid a teenager $600 for what amounted to a day of Dreamweaver programming boot camp. "I sat right over his shoulder watching every move he made. Then, when I was on my own, making only the rare 'help-me,-I'm-in-dire-technological-distress' calls at 7:30 a.m. to the kid," he says.
At the Wharton School of Business, Arthur majored in Entrepreneurial Management. (He concedes that he dual-minored in comely French femmes and an obscure area of study loosely referred to as "experimental squirtology.")
Lest you think Arthur some sort of merry prankster, know that Arthur takes his business seriously. He claims less than a dozen chargebacks since starting his adult Internet business in 1999. He attributes this lofty customer satisfaction rate to the overall content of the books, videos, DVDs, and audio programs offered on NewSensualPower.com, saying "They really do advance people's sexuality by quantum leaps, so we get very few returns."
When Arthur's company logged in a bogus order for hundreds of goddess worship videos from Romania a year ago, only vigilant attention to invoice minutiae salvaged what could have devolved into a financial debacle. Before the cunnilingus tutorial videos had shipped, the chicanery was discovered so the cost was only emotional. "When I got that call from the loss prevention department, I was bummed," he says.
Arthur has even made some of the product he sells. In 2002, he created the video Art�'s Gay Tantra Sex Voyeur Experience, and opened a corresponding Web portal, NewGaySex.com, to mine the lucrative revenue stream of the gay men's market. But production of Art�'s proved to be as satisfying for Arthur as hemorrhoid removal. "When I produced and directed Art�'s Gay Tantra Sex Voyeur Experience, it was one of the most trying experiences of my life," Arthur says. "You wouldn't think it would be so hard to pay a couple of gay guys to suck each other's dicks," he quips.
But the outcome, Arthur says, was a pleasant one. "I was very detached emotionally from the show, and the result, I'm told, is one of my most erotic and sensual films ever, including a 2003 GayVN nomination in the Best Alternative Release category.
"Now, looking back I realized that people love the video. A flood of positive feedback from the gay male market has tended to echo that it's one of the very best and most sensual gay films they've ever seen," he says.
The technical nuts and bolts that frame NewSensualPower.com are an Apple iMac DV Special Edition desktop with two Maxtor 80-gigabyte FireWire drives, and a Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 6110 printer, scanner, fax, and copier unit. Of the 6110 multi-tasker, Arthur says it's "one of the most truly awesome machines I've ever owned."
Often overlooked, but nonetheless essential, is another tool in this erstwhile entrepreneur's office arsenal: a Motorola V60c cellular phone. It lets him operate without the shackles of the traditional desktop and take his livelihood everywhere he goes. "I also shoot video content with either a Sony TRV900 or Cannon XL1, depending on the situation," Arthur says.
Inspirational wisdom can spring from the most obscure places. A wistful re-write of an old cartoon jingle goes: "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go..." Arthur already knows the words and his tranquil mindset allows him to whistle while he works and deftly minimize stressors in his life. This liberates him to study, refine, and share his strategies on maximizing the role that pleasure should play in our everyday lifestyles.
"My work is truly a labor of love, so I'm constantly motivated to do whatever I've got to do. I believe in my life's mission to help adults achieve more intimacy and love in their lives, and my near-religious zeal gets me out of bed every morning and keeps me going into the wee hours.
"If there's a lot of drudgery-type work to do when I'm editing a video or updating Web pages, I occasionally seek out herbal remedies to spark new creative ideas and take the edge off," he says.
Arthur says that processing sincerely passionate experiences is one thing, but enlisting the faculty to communicate those life lessons to a needy consumer base is crucial to the concept of lifestyle marketing. "If you're just in it for the money, and if there's not a special driving force that's drawn you to the work, you won't have the perseverance you'll need to get the job done over a long haul. And it'll probably require a long stretch of time invested before you'll see any return, so this is key.
"So pick a topic for your Website that you really, really, passionately care about. Or, at the very least, pick a genre that fucking turns you on."
And since one of the biggest pulpits from which to expouse your gospel is the presidency of the United States (or to host a reality TV show), Arthur's campaign for the Oval Office is, in fact, well underway. He declared his candidacy at the January 2002 Internext trade show at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.
Arthur's not just paying lip service to the dream of higher office; in 2002, Congressman Tom DeLay nominated him for the National Republican Congressional Committee's Businessman of the Year Award. The citation salutes those who "champion the free enterprise system and political involvement."
Why would any self-respecting modern-day Renaissance man want to enlist in the Capitol Hill claptrap brigade? Arthur's quick to tell you that he doesn't have much of a realistic chance of winning. He just wants to get more recognition of the adult industry's concerns in the mainstream media. Trumpeting the campaign slogan: "Dare to be Aware!" the ambitious entrepreneur's key talking points consist of ensuring the right for consenting adults to consume legally accurate information on safe and sane sex practices; the establishment of a progressive adult industry sales tax; and, of course, championing the most robust expression of sexual power humanly possible for you and your paramour. A sound political platform indeed.
To make your 2004 votes count, pay a visit to www.votelove.com and plug into an all-inclusive sexual democracy. You'll be glad you did.
