LOCAL spiritual training institutions have denied providing wife-swapping or group sex services after Tuesday’s raid by police in neighboring Huizhou City of a training school that reportedly brainwashed its students and coaxed them into promiscuous sex to relieve stress.

    The Huizhou training school, named Khaos, was suspected of teaching tantra, a doctrine of enlightenment in ancient India. Tantric teachings combine magical and mystical elements of Hinduism and paganism and can include erotic rites. Investigations into possible criminal activity at Khaos are under way.

    Local institutions quickly sought to differentiate themselves from Khaos after the raid.

    A training school at Diwang Mansion in Luohu District, for example, is the Shenzhen branch of Hangzhou Dynamic Meditation Education Training Co. The school charges 4,800 yuan (US$762) for a three-day spiritual training course at a hotel in Xiaomeisha, Yantian District, which is set to start Friday. Foreign mentors will guide students toward inner peace through practices such as ancient Indian yoga.

    A man in charge of the school, identified only as An, said his school’s courses have nothing to do with tantra and have no affiliation with Khaos.

    The Web site for An’s school includes a picture of male and female students forming a circle by lying on each other.

    “This training is aimed at fostering closeness among family members and having participants feel the intimacy and dependence of the family relationship,” An said. “The training is scientific and legal, with no religious aspect.”

    A lawyer with Guangdong Shengdian Law Firm, Lai Canhui, said as long as there’s no sex involved, it’s hard for police to investigate such schools.

    Shenzhen police said they have not received any reports of illegal tantra training.

    A health training school near Zhongshan Park in Nanshan District, which used to provide yoga training, is offering a Taoist health training course it claims can cure diseases and make people younger. Each class costs 5,000 yuan per person.

    Group sex is against the law in China. In 2010, 19 people received prison terms of two to three years for engaging in group sex in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.(Martin Li)

    Police raid Huizhou sex camp

    POLICE raided a house on remote Luofu Mountain in Huizhou City on Tuesday, where a man held camps said to help people achieve spiritual growth through sexual encounters.

    Qin Mingyuan used the farmhouse to offer expensive spiritual training courses suspected to involve activities such as wife-swapping and group sex, the Yangcheng Evening News reported.

    Qin remains at large but a female assistant was detained. Police found a list of followers on the woman’s computer that indicated hundreds of people from across the country had joined Qin’s camp, named Khaos.

    Seized documents showed the camp was designed for people in unhappy marriages, especially women, to help them achieve sexual and spiritual liberation.

    The report said 17 people had paid 100,000 yuan each for a 21-day course in August at the farmhouse, which has only five bedrooms.

    Qin claimed to have inherited his teachings from Osho, an Indian guru who advocated an open attitude toward sexuality. Qin began offering classes in China in 2004.

    The report said followers would be asked to touch each other during the course. It also said Qin told followers that sex would be a component of advanced courses.

    (SD-Agencies)