Extracts from

The New Celibacy:

A Journey to Love, Intimacy, and Good Health in a New Age
Gabrielle Brown
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989 (1st ed. 1980)

Contents

Preface Celibacy Goes Mainstream The Old Celibacy Celibacy and Love: Does abstinence make the heart grow fonder? The Celibate Man The Celibate Woman Celibacy in Marriage: Chastity begins at home Celibacy and the Growth of Consciousness Attitudes for Celibacy: Letting go of sex

Celibacy Goes Mainstream

Celibacy originally meant the state of not being married. But those were the days when being single and not having sex were generally synonymous. I use the term the new celibacy in a broader sense, to define a psychophysical state, without reference to marital status or any other sociological factors. . . . So what is this psychophysical state? First of all, it is a sexual state. While it's true that it is experienced as not having sex, celibacy is not 'asexuality.' It does not mean not having sexual feelings, although the patterns of sexual response may change profoundly. In this way, perhaps we can best think about celibacy as the rest state of sexuality, where the sexual response becomes more diffuse, expanding in many directions beyond a simple genital response. . . . [U]nder some circumstances, celibacy can be a repression of sexuality, leading to a diminished response to life and personal growth. But generally, if it is chosen for positive reasons, it can have quite the opposite effect, whether such effects are social or spiritual or health-related. . . . According to a 1988 annual 'sex survey,' reported in Canada's Maclean's Magazine, between 1987 and 1988 there was a 20 percent decrease in the 'somewhat active' category, a 50 percent increase in those having less frequent sex, and a 25 percent increase in those giving up sex entirely. And although fear of AIDS increased behavioral changes in sex for 40 percent of the respondents, it still did not account for all changes in all categories. . . .

According to a longitudinal study on sexual attitudes conducted by research psychologist Srully Blotnick:

The number of women opting for celibacy has quadrupled in the past ten years, up from 2 to 3 percent to a current figure of about 10 percent. Far fewer women would opt to have casual sex (sex with someone they don't love) in the mid-1980s (28 percent) than would have had casual sex in the 1960s (43 percent) or the 1970s (37 percent). In 1980, it was estimated that less than one half of 1 percent of men were celibate. By 1986, that number increased eight-fold to 4 percent. Today it may be as high as 8 percent among heterosexual men and around 10 percent among homosexual men. Interest in casual sex among all males similarly decreased by one-third in a decade, from 74 percent in the 1970s to 48 percent in the mid-1980s. . . .

Even among monogamous married couples who need not be fearful of disease, there is a significant decrease in sexual activity. Accoording to a recent Redbook survey, over 40 percent of married women have sex once a week or less compared with a similar survey taken in 1974 when the figure was 28 percent. . . . In a demographically weighted study of 1550 respondents, the D'Arcy, Masius, Benton, and Bowles ad agency found that when the respondents were asked what gives them a 'great deal of pleasure and satisfaction,' 68 percent choose TV, 61 percent friends, 59 percent helping others, 58 percent vacations, 56 percent hobbies, 55 percent reading. Sex came in at 42 percent, nearly tied with food at 41 percent. The study concluded that today, more people find more pleasure in watching TV, helping others, reading, and in pursuing their various hobbies than in having sex. . . . In 1987, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that some 12 million people each year are infected with STDs, up 33 percent or four million since 1980. In addition, some 20 million individuals are said to be infected with genital herpes, and an estimated six million with chlamydia, an infectious, debilitating yeast condition. But among the many identifiable sexually transmitted diseases, none is more frightening or more devastating than AIDS. As of early 1988, according to the CDC, there were over 50,000 adults diagnosed with AIDS in the United States. Another 1.5 million Americans may have the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV), which could eventually manifest as AIDS. . . . In a 'Celibacy Study' conducted by none other than Penthouse magazine, it was concluded that celibacy is 'taking on a new respectability': Less than half the men and fewer than 40 percent of the women said they were celibate because of fear of disease. And they found benefits in being celibate, particularly emotional and spiritual ones. Seventy-four percent of the women and 68 percent of the men felt that their views of the opposite sex were broadened by the experience. And more than half concluded that being celibate was a healthy thing to do. . . . As celibacy makes inroads into our social lives, it is also becoming part of our psychological makeup. In 1980, we identified a trend toward less sex as 'lack of interest.' Called 'inhibited sexual desire,' this was considered the number-one patient complaint in the mental health field. In one study of married couples reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, one-third of the couples said they had sex two or three times a month or less; in another study, reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry, one-third of the married men and women were sexually abstinent on the

average for two months at a time and many for three months and longer. Noting a growing national trend among both single and married people toward less sex, members of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists reported that as many as half their patients considered the lack of sexual desire their primary reason for seeking counseling. . . . [Some] sex therapists tend to view this reduced sex interest as pathological. . . . [Other professionals noted] that neither men nor women either needed or wanted sex all that much. Under the social pressure to be more sexual, many had denied their real desires to move toward less sexual activity, but they regarded their emerging celibate status in a very positive way. . . . The focus on sex means that we are continuously bombarded with all kinds of mirages of fulfillment. This leads to what sex researchers John Gagnon and William Simon call in their book Sexual Conduct, 'an over-enriched conception of sexual behavior.' People end up thinking they are more sexual than they really are. And they feel they should live up to a false picture of sexuality that has been created as a standard. The role of sex has also become further distorted by its overemphasis in the field of psychotherapy. A large number of therapists tend to encourage patients to dwell on sex at the expense of other, perhaps more pressing, problems. . . . One result of this narrowing vision is that the majority of people seeking professional help may conclude that their current state of unhappiness is caused by one sexual hang-up or another. Since sex is often used to relieve frustration that has occurred in another domain, it is not surprising that many men and women come to view all kinds of frustration as sexual. . . . Besides its mental health value, we are also led to believe that sex is 'good' for us in the same way that healthy foods, exercise, meditation, and other things have been found to raise the quality and longevity of life. . . . [T]he deceptive impression has been created that one must be sexually active to remain healthy. The 'use-it-or-lose-it' school of sexologists exploits fears of growing old to the fullest by making it seem as if sexual performance were the true test of youth and aliveness. (Actually, many cultures, particularly Eastern cultures . . . believe that sex can have a weakening effect on the physical and mental abilities of people of all ages.) . . . It has been found that people don't need or even want sex as much as they think they do. According to the research findings of Gagnon and Simon, 'It is demonstrable that sexual activity is in fact not a very powerful drive and the word "drive" itself may be a misnomer.' . . . They maintain that sexuality is actually that particular aspect of human development where the triumph of the 'sociocultural over the biological level is most complete.' . . . [A]s our ideas and attitudes toward sex evolve, so do our physiological responses. . . . [S]ex has been demonstrated to be less interesting to people who are more fully developed in all other areas. . . . Dr. Abraham Maslow found that sex was not a preoccupation within the self-actualized groups . . . [He] reported that a self-actualizing person could be sexually abstinent with no harmful effects because he or she would be comfortable with the experience and not feel it as a deprivation. . . . All sexual activity follows a mental score, a fantasy of Events to Take Place. And for an event to be sexual, human beings require far more than the physical acts. (Just ask anyone who has ever been raped.) It is the mental appreciation and its emotional orchestration that makes an event sexual. Breast and genital examinations and mouthto-mouth resuscitation generally take place without sexual arousal, but in the right frame of mind, these acts become highly sexual. The mind makes a continuum, a 'story,' out of a succession of physical moments. . . . The fact that sex is predominantly a mental experience through which the body is manipulated means that it is pointless to argue that, as a sexual being, one is at the

mercy of one's physiological responses entirely. 'The urge to merge' sexually is a thought before it is an action. So in general people decide when it is appropriate to be sexual. In this regard, sex is not only a mental activity, it is also a voluntary activity. . . . Sometimes we forget that being sexual is a choice. If we are feeling sexy, we may think we have to 'do something' about it; otherwise, we'll be repressing an uncontrollable physical urge that will lead to frustration and anxiety. Actually, there is no real need to be sexual so far as human physiology is concerned. If one is, fine; if one is not, fine. The desire will most likely subside. Unlike hunger, thirst, and the craving for intimacy -- which are the real needs -- physical sexual gratification is far less necessary than imagined. . . . [T]he reason most of us decide in favor of being sexual as much as possible is because we've been taught that sex is the road to personal fulfillment. This is one of the most destructive myths about sex -- that there is such a thing as permanent fulfillment on the sexual level. No matter how great an orgasm one has or how great an orgasm one's partner has, sex does not bring fulfillment. And if something more deep and permanent is desired in the expression of love and one does not even experience it, one may feel unfulfilled, even saddened by the sexual act. There is a clear psychological description of this feeling called 'postcoital tristesse' or 'sadness after sex.' . . . Many people, believing that sex is the only way to become fulfilled, spend years searching for lasting happiness in sexual encounters. Such is the loneliness of the sexual seeker who continues to search for personal liberation in a series of static encounters. In this fixed pattern of behavior, there is always a feeling of futility, of going nowhere. . . . [S]ooner or later, no matter how much you love your partner, you are going to get bored once you run out of ways to progress in sexual expression. This may not happen in a week of lovemaking, but it can easily occur after five or ten years of marriage. At that point, a couple may start to question the validity of their relationship -- and whether they are really in love. This is an all-too-common occurrence in marriage. And of course a great and tragic misunderstanding. For if the partners see sexual activity as the key to the entire relationship or even as a reflection of the quality of the relationship, they may convince themselves that the relationship is over, done for. In fact, they may have grown beyond the need for sex and the sexual level of relating for a time and it may indicate . . . the right moment to start to experience each other on an entirely new plane of union . . . Artists, business people, scientists, writers -- anybody who creates, people who meditate, religious people, young children, and many others have all reported experiences of transcending that often take place in very ordinary circumstances. . . . These moments of transcendence may indeed occur during sex or they may not. But we do ourselves and our lovers a great disservice if we continue to seek the spiritual experience of unboundedness only in the sexual realm. Because we've been taught to look for the earth to move during sex, we might blindly focus all our spiritual hopes on this one limited channel of experience. And in so doing we eliminate more fruitful paths to obtaining the fulfillment we desire. But once we become aware that what we are seeking through sex is something other than sex, we may decide to take attention off sex entirely, in order to explore whatever else is available. This shift in attention occurs naturally as one gains increased satisfaction in other experiences -- in the ability to love, in the development of creative expression, in the achievement of success in any activity. As one grows, one inevitably wants to experience the kind of profundity of expression enjoyed in all other parts of life. If the quality of sex doesn't measure up, sex begins to move out of the limelight. This is a primary reason why people entertain celibacy as a possibility at some time in their lives -- because they want to experience and express something closer and more

representative of their own nature than even sex. It can be thought of as the desire for something more eternal, more permanent. And when individuals start to desire this fuller kind of self-expression, everything they do has to be re-evaluated in light of these new desires. Celibacy is a state of life known only to humans. The fact that one can be celibate if one so chooses is an indication of the growth of freedom. Natural life has evolved from the state of determined sexuality experienced by the lower animals to a state of potential sexuality wherein human beings are free to choose to be sexual or not. This book is principally addressed to those for whom celibacy may be chosen as a positive life experience, although not necessarily for a lifetime. . . . [T]wo main categories of celibacy can and ought to be distinguished. One is celibacy freely chosen and the other is celibacy based on repression and fear of sex, what can be called 'celibacy by default.' . . . [M]ost of our traditional knowledge about celibacy comes from that group of spiritual men and women who have made a total commitment to a celibate life for the sake of a higher goal, often religious in nature. In certain religions and on some spiritual paths, a person may choose to be celibate for life in order to keep his or her attention on the most elevated levels of knowledge and experience in devotion to God. The purity and dignity of such a deep personal commitment to God found in the various traditions of religious celibacy often serve to inspire the society. . . . Even Freud, who could never seem to leave a sexually repressed rock unturned, admitted that many life celibates may have grown beyond ordinary sexual needs and desires. He wrote: 'What they bring about in themselves in this way is a state of evenly suspended, steadfast, affectionate feeling, which has little external resemblance any more to the stormy agitations of genital love.' However, . . . not all celibacy in the name of religion produces such spiritually beneficial results. . . . Life celibates are usually individuals who are physically, mentally, and socially selfsufficient and who have no real need of other people in order to be happy, even though they may be devoted to helping others. But there is another dimension of celibate living -- what could be called perhaps 'secular celibacy' -- that includes some aspects of religious celibate life and some aspects of everyday social life. . . . The most important reason for becoming celibate by choice is that we recognize that we want to be. Just as one can decide to be sexual, one can decide to be celibate -- for a week or two, for a month, for a year, even for many years. And how do you know if it might be a good time for you to try a little celibacy? Well, one way to know is when the desire for sex diminishes. If your attention is not on sex, it's easy to be celibate. If, on the other hand, you are always thinking about sex and full of sexual fantasies, it might not be the right time to be celibate. . . . If it is more comfortable not to be sexual than to be sexual, then it is a natural kind of celibacy. On the mental level, if one's attention is not on sex, that too is indicative of a natural time of celibacy. Sexual fantasies tend to drop off as one becomes more celibate, as one's attention moves to other sources of enjoyment in life. If, however, one is physically celibate yet always thinking about sex and full of sexual fantasies, celibacy may not feel natural. . . . [C]elibate people . . . report that it becomes increasingly easier to be celibate the longer one remains celibate. On the other hand, there is no evidence to suggest that the ability to have sex is ever lost through celibacy. (In fact, short periods of celibacy may be the best cure for sexual problems such as impotence.) What may be lost is the desire for sex. As one becomes celibate, one may first lose not one's sexual desires but the desire for sexual desire. In this culture, the possibility of losing the desire to have sex may be thought of as akin to quiet death. But nature is much better-natured than that; if

the desire to have sex goes, celibate people say, it is because the desire for other, even more important experiences has replaced it. For some people, becoming celibate means being in control of their lives. A realization may have come that sex is not as enjoyable as they would like, yet they drifted along in sexual activity anyway. . . . If sex has become unfulfilling but one continues to participate, it takes on a character of unnaturalness. That means that sex has become an inappropriate means of expression of the personality at that time. If people are expressing something other than what they are or less than what they are at any given moment, they will feel frustrated, less open, less full, diminished, cut off from their feelings. The fuller levels of feeling, the deep levels of tenderness and intimacy, can easily be lost in sex because sexual activity is so dominating and tends to hold the focus of attention when people are making love. You may yearn to express these deeper parts to your lover but may end up expressing only the sexual. It is then that an individual or a couple may decide in favor of celibacy. It may not be a long period of celibacy -perhaps only a week or two -- but it can be just what is needed at the time. . . . Celibacy is a way of breaking boundaries, old patterns of behavior that exist between the mind and body, between the self and others. It enables one to be free of sexuality in order to evaluate and experience joys of life without sex. . . .

The Old Celibacy

In the life of the religious, celibacy has long been a spiritual discipline, an exercise for the devotee to advance in spiritual growth. It has been suggested that celibacy offers a way for the religious individual to have his or her attention most purely absorbed in the commitment to seeking and experiencing God. . . . Of all the world religions past and present, celibacy is most widely practiced in the Eastern religions, particularly in Hinduism. Just as one does not have to be a priest to lead a religious life within Hinduism, one does not have to be a priest to be celibate. The male and female celibate devotees, whether priests or not, are the sadhus -- the 'holy ones.' In the 5000-year-old Hindu tradition, the ideal spiritual life consists of four stages, representing four developmental behavioral stages of ideal human growth. One begins with the brahmacharya (celibate) life of the young student. Around age ten, the brahmacharin embarks upon a rigorous training in knowledge in which his celibate status serves as the basis for growing consciousness. He studies, usually with a master, while maintaining celibacy for the next twelve years. This training is followed by a second stage, garhasthya -- the active daily life of marriage and family. Not all marry at this time; some continue as monks and remain celibate for their entire lives, but most marry and raise families. Both paths -- that of the celibate and of the householder -- are equally respected in Hinduism. Of those who have married, some will continue to uphold the spiritual commitment to ideal life and choose to leave active life to become religious recluses during the third stage, vanaprastha. Some married couples go together to the forest or mountains, but as celibates, for this third stage is a return to celibate life. It is a time to be free of worldly possessions and family duties and continues into the last stage, sanyasa, which requires a life completely alone, the renunciation of all family and friends as well as all material things. The sanyasin enjoys silence through meditation and is committed to radiating the purity of his or her highly developed consciousness throughout the universe. . . . In the Eastern traditions, celibacy represents a discipline to gain enlightenment, whereby all the physical, mental, and emotional energy of the body, mind, and senses is directed toward progressively higher levels of evolution. . . .

In general, sex in the East represents the spending of energy, and celibacy its conservation. Excessive sexual interest is not considered a sin but rather a weakness, an unnecessary waste of mental and physical energy, whereas celibacy represents mental and physical strength through the conserving of energy. . . . But one has to be sexually ready to be celibate. . . .

Celibacy and the Growth of Consciousness

. . . Becoming celibate seems to occur spontaneously, like other natural events -- in keeping with particular social, emotional, and spiritual needs and desires and with a corresponding minimizing of sexual urgency. This description of the celibate experience is at the heart of almost every discussion one has with people practicing celibacy. If the possibility of celibacy is natural for some people at certain times, then there must be some aspect of human development which can enable this experience to come about naturally. Celibacy outside religious life is very new to our society. Yet it seems to be emerging now, in an age of increasing emphasis on self-development, expansion of inner boundaries, wholeness of life, strengthening the society from within. The focus is more and more on new ways of relating to each other, new modes of interpersonal expression that take people beyond the ordinary experiences of daily routine. As personal goals change in line with the evolution of inner lives, sexuality is changing as well. Dr. June Singer has written: 'Evolutionary consciousness heralds the new age. . . . We are aware of how much we can control our sexuality and of the ramifications of all the ways in which we do control it.' And, she continues: 'The new era we are entering will require a shift from the exclusively personal viewpoint to one that includes the transpersonal, a shift from an egocentric position toward a universal orientation. . . .' . . . There is no doubt that such a shift is in keeping with the growth of consciousness. As Herbert Richardson has proposed, 'Even to imagine the possibility that sexual desire can be renounced involves the presence of a new kind of consciousness.' In light of this new awareness, it is only natural that all aspects of sexuality be evaluated -- not just how you are having sex or with whom but whether you really want to or not, whether having sex is in keeping at any given time with all other developments going on in your life. There are those who believe that having sex is opposed to the growth of consciousness, at least sex with orgasm. Because when you have an orgasm, you actually lose consciousness for a moment. The other times loss of consciousness occurs are during sleep, during illness (i.e., when you faint or are in a coma), or when you are overly intoxicated from some drug such as alcohol. Now, it is true that loss of consciousness during sex usually occurs for only seconds at most. But according to neurologist Richard Mayeux, reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine, it has been found that some people 'experience a profound amnesia and disorientation for several hours after having sexual intercourse.' In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, notes Richardson, sex was considered sinful for just this reason: 'Because it involved the temporary suspension of man's reason and voluntary freedom . . . at least in the moment of orgasm.' Sex therapists today often advise their clients to allow themselves to lose consciousness during sex in order to have a 'full' experience of it, in order to get them to stop thinking and analyzing during sex. As William Masters writes, 'To a degree your own pleasure is dulled because you are not lost in the experience -- you're observing. . . .' So losing consciousness during lovemaking or being 'lost' in the experience is said to be beneficially pleasurable for some people. But for those who are fully 'there,' who can

maintain full alertness, observing is a very natural part of all experience -- not something to avoid but something that increases enjoyment. And actually, one is really only fully appreciative of something if one is not lost in it. By remaining within oneself, centered, aware, not overwhelmed by the experience, the chances are that the experience will be much more full, more clearly perceived, felt, understood, and enjoyed. This happens because as humans we have the unique capability of experiencing something and simultaneously being aware that we are experiencing it. So when we're having a good time, we know we're having a good time. But if we are doing something that ought to be pleasurable (from past experience) and isn't, we're aware that we're not having a god time. And indeed such a situation occurs when there has been a change in consciousness and explains why desires, including sexual ones, change throughout one's life. . . . As sensory pleasure becomes more refined, higher states of consciousness are experienced. So as higher human pleasures come to replace lower ones, intellectual and emotional functions may minimize or inhibit sexual response. Remembering that as one develops, sex becomes more complex and more mental, it is not surprising that this growth of consciousness could lead to another option -- one of no sex, or celibacy -- if sex is replaced by other mental, emotional, or spiritual pleasures. Although in Western culture it is much less clear how celibacy fits into and advances psychosexual growth than in the East, this idea is nonetheless found in many of the developmental theories of Western psychology -- where sexuality is understood as 'one step along the way to developing the capacity to love.' The eminent philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin describes the growth of human life as a series of steps in which a person integrates his self-love, his social life, and his orientation to God or spiritual life. Teilhard labels these steps of growth: affectionization, sensitization, and universalization. . . . According to Maslow's research, the highest human need is 'self-actualization' or the need to fulfill one's human potential. The higher needs are the more integrated, the more human responses which incorporate more of a person's capacities. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, self-actualization comes after physiological and safety needs and after the needs for affection, achievement, and esteem. When we choose, Maslow says, we choose the higher need over the lower one, if we've been experiencing both. In this 'needs' progression, Maslow found that genital abstinence or celibacy is not in any way psychologically harmful in the most integrated, most self-actualized people functioning at the highest levels of human expression. What he found was that one's intellectual and emotional understanding and attitude toward celibacy is what makes it healthy or not. . . . Throughout history, a universal idea has prevailed that sexual energy for nonprocreative purposes can either be 'used up' in sexual activity or 'contained' for upholding the development of the body and the mind. This sex energy was seen as the fuel for opening these channels of experience, not only in the East but in the alchemy of the Europeans during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. . . . Even today there are people everywhere who maintain that physical orgasm has a draining effect on both mind and body that results in an overall energy loss in the system. To prevent this loss, many athletes, actors, musicians, and other performers forego sex before the game, the show, the concert. . . . In the East, the expansion of consciousness and the transformation of sexual energy have been generally observed to be highly correlated events. . . . In this view, sexual energy has two purposes: one is procreation and the other is its usefulness in the transformation of consciousness -- from a near-animal state to a universal consciousness of God; from 'unconscious' to 'all-conscious.' . . . [I]f one doesn't discharge sexual energy in orgasm, it becomes converted into other

levels of energy. The idea is that the cells are revitalized by a high frequency of energy generated throughout the body, keeping one vibrant by maintaining a vitality of body and mind. As a form of self-actualization of the body that is integrated with mental powers, whether achieved with the help of celibacy or not, this higher integration of mind-body functioning enables one to establish spirituality as a physical reality. The 'magic' powers attained by various people throughout history were also said to be related to the physical manifestation of this high psychic energy. . . . For a long time, Freud's theory identifying creativity as sublimated sexuality made creativity seem like a kind of second-class sexuality -- valid, but not The Real Thing. But with the broader picture coming from Eastern sources as well as Jung, Maslow, and others, it is clear that the transformation of sexual energy into creative experience is a spontaneous consequence of human evolution and the development of consciousness and not a negative repression of an equally natural function -- sex. Neither creativity nor sexuality is more 'real' -- both represent human nature at different levels of consciousness. And these aspects of development can only be meaningfully experienced if they occur naturally. . . . [T]here are some individuals for whom sex holds no fascination, presumably because they are experiencing levels of pleasure higher than the sexual. This comes about because apparently, as consciousness rises, one doesn't miss sex. There is a calmness, a clarity of understanding, certainly not an hysterical rejection. And as consciousness develops, giving up sexual activity is easy because other experiences are providing more enjoyment than sex. . . [I]t is at these higher levels of consciousness that the desire for sexual activity is said to 'fall away like ripe fruit from a tree.' . . . And the conserved sexual energy is put to work in other ways, contributing, it is thought, to a strong and vital physiology that supports and maintains the permanent experience of higher levels of consciousness. Consequently, those who have achieved a permanent state of pleasure or fulfillment are said to radiate a kind of energy of love which is constant, unbounded, brilliant, and truly universal. . . .

Attitudes for Celibacy: Letting go of sex

. . . There are really no instructions necessary for becoming celibate, [for] celibacy is primarily a mental response. We can choose to be celibate, as we can choose to be sexual -- if we are consciously able to choose at all. To be celibate as opposed to frustrated or martyred, one must make a conscious choice for a good reason -- on behalf of one's own personal growth. And once we have chosen to be celibate for a time, the same principle applies to remaining celibate. . . . Thus celibacy is not to be thought of as mere abstinence from sex, for that is what we all do most of the time anyway (at least most of us do). But it is more accurately understood as a conscious choice made on behalf of one's greater personal gain. . . . What we think determines what we do -- what we have thought determines what we have done. So if you are going to be celibate, you have to instruct the mind to take a mental attitude of celibacy. And, in so doing, you would want to avoid the distraction of sexualized thought. . . . [Y]ou can be affectionate and loving even when celibate, as long as you don't encourage sexual desire. The key factor for a comfortable mental outlook on celibacy seems to be to keep it simple -- and not to try and complicate the issue with behavioral analysis and rules. Celibacy is actually a lot less complicated than sexual activity -- it involves doing nothing. So the best mental approach may be not to try at all -- not to try to be sexual or try to be celibate. Just see what happens, keeping in mind what you want

for yourself. . . . [C]elibacy is, of course, much easier to maintain when the senses are not bombarded by stimulants. Says Haich: '[There are] those people who do not leave their glands in peace, but rouse them with highly spiced food, stimulant drinks, erotic reading matter, films, and other such excitants. This only overtaxes the glands and weakens them prematurely.' In the East, advocates of celibacy have long recommended the avoidance of spicy foods such a garlic, onions, peppers, paprika, and the like. And, according to the Kama Sutra, eating alkaline foods will render continence easier. In the West, Dr. William A. Alcott, a noted champion of healthy living in the early nineteenth century, observed that sexual desire could be substantially decreased by the elimination of liquor, smoking, coffee, tea, condiments, sugar, lard, and spicy foods. . . . Similarly, other sexual energy 'savers' have outlined programs for celibate living that included going without tobacco and meat. Foods generally regarded as aphrodisiacs would, of course, be avoided. Seafood has been most highly praised along these lines and would, therefore, be eaten with due respect. Snails are said to contain a sugar found in male seminal fluid and are thus thought to be highly 'sexy.' Besides watching what one eats, advocates of celibacy have also advised increased participation in active sports, physical work, and specific exercises used to direct excess energy and the flow of blood into all parts of the body. . . . A surprisingly large number of people wonder if masturbation is 'permitted' if one is celibate. Since being celibate (whether for a day, a week, a year, or a lifetime) means refraining from sexual activity and since many books on sex have given masturbation the blue ribbon for most terrific orgasms, it is clear that if you want to indulge in celibacy, you don't masturbate. . . . It is . . . useful to remind oneself that being celibate is an alternate way to love, even to make love. One can learn to touch nonpossessively, without a future goal -- and to make love nonsexually, unmotivated by the need for sexual gratification. Being aware of one's sexuality and thinking about it as a passive state rather than an active one helps place the emphasis on a generalized feeling of love and well-being rather than on a localized response. . . . The best study to date to test the value of celibacy for promoting good health was an analysis of the mortality rates and causes of death among Catholic priests between 1965 and 1977. Oddly enough, the study was looking for a possible link between celibacy and prostate cancer. However, to their surprise, the researchers found a 30 percent lower mortality rate from prostate and all forms of cancer among the clerics than among the general population and a 15 percent lower death rate in general. . . . However it is incurred, physical and emotional stress reduces the ability of the immune system to maintain balance and thereby fight off disease. Conservation of energy is based on the principle of homeostasis -- the law of balance -- which operates throughout nature in such a way that whatever enemy comes along can be dealt with most efficiently. From this angle, it is best to have an immune system which conserves energy and which maintains itself in its least active state while no emergency is present. . . . In most cases, celibacy represents an inward turning of one's attention away from a need to be fulfilled outside oneself. In this sense, it is rarely experienced as a single mode of behavior; it generally goes along with other inner-directed behavior. . . . Whether celibacy is practiced under the guidance of a particular spiritual community or in the bedroom of a married couple, it is beginning to emerge in our society as a useful and positive vehicle to further personal growth for a number of people today. . . .

Sex and sexuality Homepage

Extracts from

Warning: Sex May Be Hazardous to Your Health

by Dr Edwin Flatto
New York: Arco, 2nd ed., 1977

Contents
Preface 1. Warning: sex may be hazardous to your health 2. Sexual gluttony 3. The prostate 4. Preventing and correcting constipation and prostate disorders 5. Impotency 6. Quality vs. quantity or improving the sexual efficiency of women 7. The value of seminal conservation 8. Venereal disease 9. The Pill, IUDs, and King Henry VIII 10. Abortion 11. Women, too! 12. Love vs. sex 13. Sex and your heart 14. Quote/close quote 15. In conclusion

Warning: sex may be hazardous to your health!

. . . 'If sex is hazardous to my health, I don't want to know about it!' is the reaction some people will have to this book. I am firmly dedicated to the proposition that information has never hurt anyone. When a person is armed with the facts, it enables him to make intelligent decisions. . . . Let us start with the premise that sex is a necessary function. Is this a true statement? Physiologically, the sex act is not in the same category as other natural, normal, bodily functions such as eating, breathing, sleeping, defecating, or urinating. Of course we cannot live without any of these bodily functions being constantly and regularly performed. But millions of healthy individuals have demonstrated that a person can live

a long and healthy life without ever using the sexual function. The idea of necessity prevails because it fits in with inclination. In fact, there is no known disease attributable to abstinence, but there are many diseases attributable to the opposite condition of doing it too much. This book is by no means advocating complete abstinence or celibacy as a way of life. I am merely pointing out at the beginning that there is no harm in remaining continent. Sex is not a necessary function which must be performed regularly. The organs and glands which control reproduction are not like our muscles which must be exercised regularly in order to function properly. Indeed, the opposite is true: the reproductive glands are more efficient and potent when given a period of rest. . . . The premise that sex is natural must also be rejected. It depends on how it is used. Nature obviously designed the sexual apparatus to be used for procreation, not recreation. If recreation or pleasure per se were what our Creator had in mind when He designed our reproductive organs, there would be no need for all the attention, time, and tremendous sums of money spent in searching for a reliable contraceptive without harmful or undesirable side effects. . . . Man is the only animal that nature allows, in his natural environment, to perform the sex act whenever he chooses to do so. All the other animals have definite mating periods when the female will accept the male organ. These are the short periods when the female is fertile, or in 'rut' or 'heat.' The female dog will not permit a male dog to enter her sexually unless she is in 'heat' which usually occurs about once every six months. The same pattern is followed throughout the animal kingdom. Birds generally mate about once a year or during the Spring. Sheep and goats mate once or twice a year during their mating seasons. Wild pigs mate once a year, and the elephant, in its wild state, mates only about once every two years. Reproduction is essentially catabolic throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms. That is, it is a movement towards death. The Pacific salmon, trout, shad, and several other varieties of anadromous fish die soon after spawning. The male drone bee dies almost immediately after copulation. Even more vivid is the sex life of the praying mantis. In his book, Love and Will, Rollo May states: 'The female devours the head of the male as he copulates, and his death throes unite with his copulatory spasms to make the thrusts stronger. Inseminated, the female proceeds to eat him to store up food for the new offspring.' The black widow spider does essentially the same thing and has earned its name from this action. In the plant kingdom, after a plant bears fruit it weakens and often dies. Farmers often make it a practice to prevent a plant or tree from 'going to seed' in order to strengthen it. Most fruit-bearing trees do not produce fruit until they are five to ten years old. This allows their biological force to be transformed into growth and strength rather than reproduction. In athletics, most coaches and trainers forbid sexual relations before a contest. Prize fighters observe strict sexual abstinence during training and before a bout. . . . The human seed, of course, contains all the essential elements necessary to create another human being when it is united with the ovum. It contains forces capable of creating life. Doesn't common sense decree that such a vital fluid be carefully conserved rather than thoughtlessly squandered? . . . Diet unquestionably affects sexual desire and ability. Meat, alcohol, tobacco, salt, spices, and all animal products such as milk and eggs, increase sexual desire. For example, most meat eaters who become vegetarians will, within a few weeks notice a decrease in sex desire. . . . Animal products, especially meat, contain uric acid which irritates the joints and glands. Thus, the prostate gland, irritated by uric acid, sends a false spark to the mental processes which stimulates an erotic response. Hence, many men find themselves sexually aroused even when there is no female within miles. While flesh foods, condiments, and liquor may stimulate sexual feelings in the mind, the

performance of the body is in no way improved. An example of this is demonstrated in the tiny Asian country of Hunza, where the people are predominantly vegetarian and are still virile long past the century mark. The most virile animals are all vegetarians. Take the stallion. He can service a dozen mares. The bull's sexual prowess is legendary. . . . [T]he rabbit, whose reproductive powers are axiomatic, is a 100 percent vegetarian. . . . Still the myth persists that oysters, steak, liquor, etc., increase sexual ability. As I mentioned previously, stimulants increase the desire but decrease the ability. I am sure you will agree it is far better to have the desire decreased and the ability intensified! . . . Many men, even after having been convinced of the harm they are doing to themselves by over-indulging in sex, still persist in their old habits. They use the excuse that for them, self-discipline in sex would be impossible. That it is difficult, I agree. But impossible -- no! It is good for you to do things that are difficult. Self-discipline is a quality that becomes stronger with use. It is a mental muscle. . . . I only advocate temperance. Licentiousness debases a man's higher nature. To assert that mankind is incapable of practicing that which requires self-restraint is to renounce man's higher, though perhaps latent, nature. Sensual men, seeking to gratify every appetite, will only receive from nature their just reward: painful sickness and premature death.

Sexual gluttony
. . . 'Priests' Disease' is . . . a layman's term and is a misnomer. It is based on the false assumption that continence or insufficient sexual intercourse must lead to congestive prostatitis. . . . [S]tatistically [priests] suffer significantly less from it than the general population. However, the point is if a man allows his mind to dwell on sex fifteen minutes out of every hour or more, or if he has not learned how to discipline his mind and is constantly keeping his genital organ in a state of excitement, that man is not being continent. When a man becomes sexually excited, either by thinking about sex or physical contact, the brain sends a signal to the nervous system and the entire pelvic area becomes congested with blood. Blood flows into the spongy compartments of the corpora cavernosa of the male genital, expanding the tubular rods, making them rigid, while the outlet valves close so that the blood remains imprisoned, causing the penis to become swollen and stiff. Hormones are released into the bloodstream stimulating the adrenal glands. The metabolic rate is speeded up; sperm production increases. The prostate becomes engorged with prostatic fluid. All of the above, of course, is the mind preparing the body for the supreme act of reproduction as nature intended it. But foolish man has other ideas. Recreation, not procreation is his objective. A single episode will do no harm, but imagine if this erotic stimulation of the body occurs every hour of every day! It is like turning in a false fire alarm fifteen times a day. How long can a body stand this abuse without rebelling? How can a man like this learn to discipline his thoughts? First, unnatural stimulation of the desire must be lessened. There is a commercial interest in promoting selfindulgence and over-indulgence. Sexual gluttony is glorified rather than viewed with repugnance. He must learn to recognize this and fight the inclination. He must learn to steer away from erotic movies, literature, and all the other stimuli that are unnaturally causing his mind to dwell on sex.

As has been demonstrated, caged animals indulge in sexual intercourse and masturbate much more frequently than animals in their natural habitat. The human animal acts similarly. Physical and mental inertia or inactivity must be avoided. So, the second rule is to keep the mind and body constructively occupied. Most zoos do not feed their animal population naturally. For example, at the Central Park Zoo in New York City I witnessed gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and monkeys being fed loaves of white bread for half of their diet. Now it is obvious that no ape or monkey in their natural environment eats a loaf of bread for his dinner. His constitution was designed to live on uncooked fruits like berries and bananas, vegetables, herbs, raw nuts, and seeds. As a result of this unnatural diet, these apes and monkeys grow fat, become lazy, and either masturbate or indulge in sexual intercourse to the limit of their ability and whenever the opportunity presents itself. So, the third rule is to eat a natural diet and don't overeat. There are some men who try to prolong sexual intercourse by using various creams which serve to numb the penis. Others have trained themselves to hold back their climax. Sexual excitement involves not only the penis filling with blood, but all of the pelvic organs including the prostate. When the prostate is continually subjected to this engorgement, it leads to prostatitis. After class, one of my students, a 24-year-old lad, confessed to me that he had had sex from one to three times a day for the past eight years. He never had any trouble before but now he had a urethral discharge and pain on urinating. He was medically examined and no gonorrhea bacilli were found. This man had developed an irritated prostate by over-straining himself in the sex department. The cure for this condition is simply the opposite of the cause. In this case the cause was overactivity of the sexual glands and the cure was to give them a rest by practicing abstention for a while. Remember, the organs of generation are essentially glands, and glands, unlike the muscles, do not require exercise to maintain their function. So, the fourth rule is: Don't be a sexual glutton. Some people's entire lives are ones of self-indulgence. They claim that self-discipline is impossible for them. The secret of acquiring self-discipline is to practice it! It is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it becomes. Willpower is a force we are constantly testing. In our everyday existence we are either helping build this trait or participating in its destruction. The glutton weakens the power each time he overeats; the alcoholic whenever he succumbs to 'another drink'; the smoker every time he 'lights up.' Each time we give in to a bad habit, we help to strengthen it. Therefore, the fifth rule is: Practice self-restraint deliberately. Concentrate on the necessity, reasons, and benefits of self-control. . . .

The prostate
. . . The gland most adversely affected by sexual excess is the prostate. Practically all of the functional disturbances of the prostate gland result from its relationship to sexual activity. Many people believe that prostate disorders affect only older men, but plenty of men in their twenties, thirties, and forties have prostate disorders. Even teenagers have prostate problems. More men suffer from prostate disorders than from heart disease and cancer combined. And more than 70 percent of all males over 50 have already experienced some trouble with their prostate gland. At age 60, the incidence of prostate troubles in males rises to 80 percent. . . . Prostatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in men over 55. Only cancer of the lung and the lower intestine kill more men. I believe there is a cause and

effect relationship between sexual abuse, prostate disorders, and the fact that women outlive men. The symptoms which accompany prostate enlargement and congestion are widespread and varied. So, often the underlying prostatic condition is overlooked and may be more common than is generally realized. . . . John H. Tilden, M.D., . . . wrote: 'Among my patients I discovered I had quite a number of enlarged prostates at 35 to 40 years of age and very little enlargement in men of 70 years. The prostate, being continually engorged or congested (by sexual excitement) takes on a gradual enlargement of a fibrous nature. By the time middle life is attained, the gland has become a fibrous tumor. After 40 years, those who are not dead from some so-called disease brought on by such enervation, and the contingent infections that are secondary, are still slaves to the two grand dominating functions of the body that reign over it until they are forced to abdicate to reason: namely; nutrition and reproduction. When unrestrained, these functions degenerate into gluttony and sexual debauchery. Because of this reign of sensualism, the life of a man is cut down to two-thirds of what it should be . . . ' As I mentioned at the beginning, the main cause of prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate) is sex abuse. Excessive masturbation, excessive intercourse, prolongation of sexual excitement, or excessive prolongation of coitus, can all cause a full-blown case of prostatitis. Although an occasional indulgence may not do discernible harm, repeated habitually, the injury to the sex organs must manifest itself. Some of my patients who were young men at the time, believing that they were immune to the harmful effects of their actions, performed the sex act for hours before ejaculating. They failed to understand the physiological fact that all this sexual excitation causes the blood to fill not only the penis, but all the pelvic reproductive organs, including the prostate. When the prostate is continually engorged and subjected to this sort of abuse, is it any surprise that it gives trouble? Then there was the 65-year-old man, a successful business man in good health for his age, who after his wife died took as his mistress a woman in her late twenties. He had sex almost daily, and sometimes twice a day, and in less than six months had severe symptoms of prostatitis which was followed shortly by a heart attack from which he failed to recover. He paid a high price for being a 'swinger.' . . .

Preventing and correcting constipation and prostate disorders

. . . [A]t least 75 percent of all civilized men past the age of 50 can expect to experience at least some degree of prostate trouble. Sexual abuse is undoubtedly one of the main causes of prostatic congestion and enlargement. However, there are other contributory causes of prostate disorders. The principal ones, in my opinion, are lack of proper exercise and constipation. Conversely, proper exercise and correcting poor elimination can also be a large part of the solution. . . . The normal prostate is approximately the size of a walnut and encompasses the neck of the bladder. When it swells it cuts off the tube leading from the bladder and impedes the free flow of urine. When the prostate becomes a problem, too often the only solution offered is 'cut it out!' . . . [The author then describes various exercises designed to cure prostate problems.]

The value of seminal conservation

'The scientists of old have put great value upon the vital fluid and they have insisted upon its strong transmutation into the highest form of energy for the benefit of society.' Mahatma Gandhi, 1959 Since the beginning of recorded history, sex and reproduction have been uppermost in man's thoughts. Ever since primitive man realized that there was a cause and effect relationship between sex and reproduction, he has ascribed a sacredness to the organs of generation. . . . Primitive tribes and savages also had very strict taboos on sexual intercourse and certain sex practices. The general principle which such taboos express is that sex is a sacred force and is incompatible with certain conditions of the body as well as certain occupations and must not be allowed to interfere with them. . . . In a study made during the Robert Mond Expedition to New Guinea (1914 to 1918), Dr. Bronislaw Malinowski, in his book, The Sexual Life of Savages in Northwestern Melanesia, describes some of the social customs: 'Sexual excess, sexual greed, or forwardness is regarded as bad and despicable in either men or women, but more especially in women. . . . There are a number of pursuits which, while in progress, entail abstinence from sexual intercourse and even all contact with women; such as, for example: war, overseas sailing expeditions, gardening, and certain magical rites.' There are also a number of conditions under which coitus is forbidden. It is 'suspended during menstruation,' and forbidden during pregnancy, until after weaning. . . . An average ejaculation is about 2 to 5 cubic centimeters of semen and contains from 200,000,000 to 500,000,000 sperm. Each one of these millions of sperm carry 23 chromosomes, split chromosomes, prostaglandins, genes, electricity, and all the vitamins, enzymes, and minerals necessary for the creation of another human being. In other words, it contains the life force. These sperm are produced in the testicles. Now in many species of animals and birds the testicles do not produce sperm cells during most of the year, since nature wants to conserve this vital substance. Usually only during the autumn breeding season does nature permit them to burst into activity so that conception will take place in the Spring, the most favorable time for growth and development of the new entity. But in man, the testicles are capable of producing sperm continually, year round, if called upon to do so. It is a self-regulating mechanism. During sexual excitement much larger amounts are produced. Some men allow themselves to continually be in a state of sexual excitation and are continually manufacturing large quantities of sperm and prostatic fluid. It is as though they were driving their car at 100 miles an hour all of the time. This, of course, is unnatural and will eventually result in physical and mental bankruptcy. . . . Besides being a factory for the manufacturing of sperm, [the testicles] produce male hormones, or androgens, such as testosterone. . . . [I]f not ejaculated, [they] go directly into the blood stream and are carried to every part of the body. They stimulate the pituitary gland and creative centers of the brain. . . . [Semen] is not a substance to be wasted lightly. . . . [T]he faster you use it, the more the body is forced to produce. . . . Your blood stream [takes] the raw materials from every part of your body, including your brain, and transport[s] them to the gonads to be used to replace expended resources. . . .

Venereal disease
'My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease; and there is no soundness in my flesh.' King David, Thirty-Eighth Psalm . . . Venereal diseases are as old as history. . . . No nationality has escaped this abominable scourge of humanity. Syphilis was often more responsible than military action for the outcome of wars as it swept through Europe in the 1500s, disabling entire armies. The French called it the Italian Disease; the Italians, Germans, and British called it the French Disease; the Japanese called it the Castilian Disease. It was called the Disease of the Portuguese by the Persians; the Disease of the Germans by the Polish; and lastly, the Disease of the Polanders by the Russians. John Fernelius (1497-1558) is usually given credit for coining the term 'venereal disease' and adopted it to 'prevent national hatreds increasing from such foolish reflections.' . . . [T]he most insidious consequence of all [the] methods of artificial birth control is that they establish habits of self-indulgence rather than self-discipline, and physically deplete the vital resources in the man and enervate the entire nervous system in the woman. Clearly, the safest, surest, and cheapest method of preventing venereal disease as well as conserving the vital resources of the body is to avoid promiscuity and illicit sex relations. . . . Can any reasonable person consider . . . sex gluttony anything but abnormal and unnatural? Is not nature, in her sometimes unfathomable wisdom, trying to tell us something? I firmly believe that all disease is a result of violating the laws of nature. . . . How can a few fleeting moments of sensual gratification possibly be worth the risk of ruining health and future happiness? . . .

The Pill, IUDs, and King Henry VIII

. . . Most of us have heard of the ancient Romans' and King Henry VIII's banquets, during which they gluttonously ate all that their stomachs could hold, and then promptly induced vomiting so as to empty their stomachs for further gorging. Their gluttony was not for the natural purpose of nourishing their bodies but was merely to derive sensual pleasure from the eating. . . . [A] reasonable corollary can be drawn between this ancient custom of sense gratification in eating, which is today so repulsive to all of us, and the modern contraceptive devices which attempt to accomplish the same sense gratification in the area of sex. These devices are, of course, designed to circumvent the natural consequences of a natural act. They attempt to pervert the obvious intention of nature by using sex as an instrument solely for recreation rather than procreation. . . . [A]ll unnatural methods have either health or aesthetic reasons against them. They also teach people that they can use a 'trick' or 'device' to avoid the consequences of their actions. That these devices don't always work is attested to by the high number of abortions that are performed each year. While the pleasure of sex for its own sake may be momentary, the unhappy consequences linger on. The birth control pill has led to much overindulgence in sex, but has not produced more satisfying relationships. The quantity of sex has increased but the evidence indicates that the quality of love and unselfish enjoyment has decreased. . . .

Advertising, cosmetics, clothes, movies, books, television, newspapers, magazines, theater, night clubs, and bars are all designed to stimulate and increase the sex desire. Even what we eat and drink stimulates it. . . . In man, like the other animals, inactivity and over-eating increase sexual desire and increased sexual activity increases the desire for food. It is a vicious circle. . . . For millions of years man has existed on this planet. Until relatively recent times, no thought had been given to artificial methods of birth control as a means of stopping man's overpopulating the earth. Suddenly we are informed that man is no longer capable of exercising self-restraint in the area of sex. That only mass acceptance of birth control drugs, contraceptive devices, abortions, and emasculating surgery can save the world from famine, pestilence, and a disastrous world war. Most people will agree that overpopulation needs to be controlled. But again, the law of cause and effect is being overlooked. Every one of us was born endowed by our Creator with all of the attributes necessary to exercise self-control over our passions. But we have been carefully taught, mostly by example, that self-discipline is not possible. Self-discipline is a quality that must be developed through practice until it becomes second nature or automatic. It is mental muscle, and like any other muscle, it becomes stronger through use. Experience and history have amply demonstrated that selfindulgence as a way of life downgrades the culture, weakens the character, and reverses the upward evolutionary development of people. . . . Sex has become an exploited debauch instead of a God-given biological force. Nature binds health, wisdom, happiness, and virtue together by an indissoluble chain. The common hope of all mankind is that a more self-disciplined and more enlightened humanity may soon emerge. . . .

Abortion
. . . There is little doubt that there has existed and still exists a double standard of sex ethics. Men have always had a very low standard, or no standard, of sex ethics to live by, while women have had a high standard to which they were expected to conform. Low-cost and easily obtained abortions, birth control drugs, IUDs, and other contraceptives have largely overcome women's biological restraints by allowing them to indulge in sexual relations limitlessly without the natural consequences of pregnancy and childbirth. Women may now indulge in sex, not for the natural purpose of creating another human life, but for the sole purpose of pleasure. Instead of insisting that man rise to her higher standards, woman has lowered her standards to equal his and considers this 'liberation.' While men physically excel women in strength, there is overwhelming evidence that women exceed men morally. Women have been treated as chattels and sexual conveniences by men. Indeed, throughout a great part of the world, they are still so treated. Men in the western cultures are possessed by sex. They seem to be in a chronic state of sex irritation and are ready to indulge in sexual intercourse with any female at almost any time. This is not the case with the female who has to be psychologically prepared before she is willing to accept the advances of the male. The violence and crime that has now become so commonplace, by and large, was brought about by men, not women. Our prisons are not filled and overflowing with women, but with men. Wars are started and fought not by women, but by men. Pornographic books, magazines, and X-rated movies have been supported by a predominately male clientele; not a female one. The sensuous man is only too happy that women have sunk to his level and given

in to his lusts. Abortions, birth control pills, and all the rest of these devices permit him to use her body for his lusts and the foolish women who have not yet learned how to say 'no' think they are being 'liberated' by all this! . . . Even under the best medical conditions legal abortions sometimes result in uncontrollable hemorrhaging, blood clots in the lung, anesthetic deaths, septic infections, perforation of the uterus, hepatitis, and sterility. . . After a woman gives birth to two children, 'there is a steady rise in the infant mortality rate,' and each succeeding offspring is slightly weaker, assuming everything else remains equal. An abortion can be as physically draining on a woman as if she actually gave birth. Some women even use abortions as their only means of birth control and have several abortions before finally giving birth. Those children, born after the abortion will be genetically handicapped and less likely to survive compared to their brothers and sisters born before the abortion(s). Therefore, an abortion may even penalize a woman's future children. Another latent effect is that the scarring from an abortion induces early labor and miscarriage in later pregnancies. Is that fair to future children? And what will it do to the moral and spiritual evolvement? Abortion thwarts the ends of nature. It degrades the individual as well as the entire human community of which they are members. Self-indulgence rather than self-discipline must become a way of life under such circumstances. How can people learn respect for the sacredness of life? Because a baby in its mother's body cannot communicate with us does not mean that he or she does not have the right to live. Human life is sacred. Man's upward spiritual evolvement depends upon his recognizing and practicing this universal principle.

Women, too!
. . . A woman's sex life is reflected in her personality and demeanor even more than a man's. Promiscuity hardens a woman and it is often mirrored in her facial expressions and conversation. It detracts from her natural softness and sensitive nature, making her callous and hard. While overindulgence in sex bankrupts a man's vital physical resources, in women it enervates the nervous system and causes nerve depletion or neurasthenia. Too much sex, probably more than any other factor, ages a woman, in some cases, even more than it does a man. It is common knowledge that prostitutes, who work at it intensely, age quickly. Too much sex and different partners stretch a woman's vaginal and perineal muscles, leaving them flaccid, inefficient, and desensitized. . . . Women, of course, have to face the biological consequences of sexual intercourse, namely pregnancy. Abstention is the best method of contraception. It is 100 percent safe and is 100 percent certain to prevent pregnancy. In addition, it is natural, has no side effects, and is available free of charge, without a prescription to everyone. . . . There is no artificial method of contraception that can do all this. The most efficient artificial methods of contraception also have the most serious, harmful side effects for the woman. . . . [A]ccording to a two-page advertisement in a leading medical journal read mainly by doctors, a popular birth control pill takes an entire page to list all of the Warnings, Contraindications, Precautions, Adverse Reactions, etc., such as: Thrombophlebitis, thromboembolic disorders, cerebral apoplexy, impaired liver function, thrombotic disorders, cerebrovascular disorders, pulmonary embolism, neuroocular lesions, retinal thrombosis, optic neuritis, gastro-intestinal symptoms, breakthrough bleeding, spotting, change in menstrual flow, amenorrhea, edema, chloasma, melasma, breast changes, weight gain, cervical erosion, suppression of

lactation, cholestatic jaundice, migraine, rash (allergic), rise in blood pressure, mental depression. The following adverse reactions have been reported: Pre-menstrual-like syndrome, loss of sex desire, headache, nervousness, dizziness, fatigue, backache, hirsutism, loss of scalp hair, erythema multiforme, erythema nodosum, hemorrhagic eruption, and itching. And there is, of course, one other adverse reaction that is not listed -- DEATH. Too frequent sexual intercourse increases a woman's chances of getting cancer of the cervix. Women starting sexual relations at too early an age also increase their chances of getting cervical cancer. . . .

Love vs. sex

'Love and lust are as far asunder as a flower garden is from a brothel.' Henry David Thoreau Love and sex are antagonistic to each other. They are different in origin and nature and are based on opposing principles. Sex can be casual about its object; love cannot. Love is always a personal relationship; this is not necessarily so with sex. Love by itself is elevating; sex by itself is denigrating. Pure love is ennobling; pure sex is demoralizing. Love is invigorating; sex is enervating. Love is unselfish; sex is self-seeking. Love is spiritual; sex is only physical. The trouble is we tend to confuse love and sex in a state of intense infatuation. . . . Nature has provided that the reproductive seed of all life forms contains the vital forces and most valuable material to best propagate its species. To squander this vital substance as a form of amusement or to satisfy one's carnal urge is to dissipate one's health and strength. In all forms of life, the sexual act is essentially catabolic, or a destructive utilization of energy, in the male. Important body cells are sacrificed in order to provide for reproduction. Nature, of course, deems the continuation of the species worth the sacrifice. When the reproductive cells, or semen, in the male are not used, they are returned to the bloodstream to be utilized by the body for other purposes essential to the highest welfare of the individual organism. This is the physiological basis upon which sexual discipline is predicated. In our present-day society, however, the sex urge is generally pandered to and exploited. When a man overeats and as a consequence suffers gas pains and indigestion, the 'cure' lies in the removal of the cause. Obviously he should stop eating for awhile and allow nature a chance to normalize the condition. Instead, human frailty is encouraged by cures in the form of nostrums and palliatives. Likewise, if people continually overuse their genitals for self-indulgence and eventually reap the consequences of their actions, the cure lies in their becoming aware of the havoc they are doing to their bodies and learning the benefits of self-discipline. In the present era, birth control pills have also become indicative of a way of life. No honest concern of the consequences is generally given unselfish consideration. The effects of birth control drugs may well prove disastrous not only to present but to future generations as well. However, even if there were no danger in the pills per se, they are still pernicious. It is the same school of thought that prescribes drugs as a remedy for overeating. Man must learn that nature intended food to satisfy hunger, not as a form of amusement. Likewise, nature planned sex for procreation. The laws of our creation cannot be violated with impunity. Overindulgence in sex leads to complete mental and physical

bankruptcy. As I have said, what is on trial here is not birth control pills per se, but a perverted attitude towards life which necessitates such measures. Self-indulgence rather than self-restraint is the dominant aspect of our society. Rather than practice control and self-discipline, we prefer to search for new nostrums so we can delude ourselves that our God-given biological force of procreation can be corrupted into lustful pleasureseeking without penalty. . . .

Sex and your heart

. . . There is no simple answer as to how much sex is damaging to the heart. . . . [Various] studies agreed on several points: 1. The heartbeat of the men generally ran faster than that of the women. 2. The heart rate accelerated greatly during intercourse, as much as 100 beats in a sixty-second period. 3. Close to orgasm and during its height a large number of abnormal and skipped heartbeats showed up. These did not appear on the ECG later on when the volunteers engaged in nonsexual exercise. 4. Beginning with foreplay, the heart rate speeds up in uneven spurts, the blood pressure rises an average of 40 to 80 mm systolic and 20 to 50 mm diastolic, the respiratory rate increases sharply (in some instances both husband and wife had close to seventy breaths per minute at orgasm). Physiologically, sex and exercise are opposite to each other in their effect on the body. The sex act is essentially catabolic (destructive metabolic action). Sexual stimulation causes the blood to become congested in the pelvic and reproductive organs of the body. Sexual intercourse entails the loss of vital fluids containing the most essential elements and hormones. Sex weakens the individual and places a strain on the heart. Exercise is anabolic (constructive metabolic action). It entails bodily action which develops and maintains physical fitness. It is essential movement for keeping the muscles strong and healthy. Proper exercise benefits and strengthens all the vital organs, improves the blood circulation, and strengthens the heart muscles. . . .

In conclusion
. . . The world is now influenced by materialistic tendencies which make a sensate life the end or object of living. Science is being used to seek out new techniques for mechanical, chemical, and surgical means of thwarting nature's purpose. There are those who seek to completely separate and unlink the sex act from its supreme purpose and consequence of reproduction of the species. They are announcing to the world that humanity is no longer capable of exercising voluntary control over copulation, which is the necessary act leading to the creation of another human being. It is true that the sex act can, in fact has, become addictive, like alcohol and cigarettes; but by the same reasoning, it is also true that it can be curbed and brought under voluntary control. Man is capable of understanding that he is responsible for his actions; that the sex act is not always the most desirable and socially acceptable means

he has at his disposal to express empathy and love for another human being; that it is not always necessary to resort to carnal sensuality. Self-discipline is an inherent quality all of us possess and it is entirely within our power to use it for self-realization. Humanity must learn that the sex act is a serious matter with profound implications which do not affect just the two persons involved, but also affect the future of the human race. We must learn that copulation is not a toy to be used for entertainment or for lack of something better to do, but that it is a profound and meaningful act. . . . I see the barbaric and cruel practice of raising animals for slaughter, birth control pills, abortion on demand, murder, war, gas chambers, and atomic annihilation as part of a sequence of events resulting from a denial of the universal principle that life is sacred. I only advocate temperance. All sex involves a sacrifice to the body. There is a price tag attached. Whether or not it is worth the price is up to you!

Sex and sexuality Homepage

Extracts from

Science Discovers the Physiological Value of Continence

Dr Raymond W. Bernard
Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, 1957

(Complete text here)

The physiological value of continence

An opinion has gained ground in modern times, not only among the general public, but also among physicians, that the belief in the physiological value of continence belongs to the dark ages of religious superstitions and scientific ignorance, and is incompatible with physiological knowledge. Certain pseudosexologists have exploited this idea to their commercial advantage and have created in the public mind a phobia in regard to continence, which is regarded as a cause of nervous and mental diseases and a positive health danger. On the basis of this belief, physicians and psychoanalysts have looked in continence for the cause of the nervous ailments of youth and have advised young men to visit prostitutes and risk venereal infection as a lesser evil than the assumed hazards of abstinence. A careful reading should, however, convince any open-minded reader that the above view is false, and that continence per se can never do harm, but is always beneficial; and that when trouble occurs in an individual not practicing normal sex relations, the fault is not continence but some vicarious means of sex expression, excessive nocturnal

emissions, etc. In view of the richness of the semen in lecithin, cholesterol, phosphorus and other constituents of nervous and brain tissue it is clear that it is incontinence, or loss of these valuable nerve-nourishing substances which, by promoting undernutrition, is responsible for disturbed functioning of the nervous system and brain, and never true continence . . . The semen is a viscid albuminous fluid, alkaline in reaction, which is very rich in calcium and phosphorus, also in lecithin, cholesterol, albumen, nucleoproteins, iron, vitamin E, etc. In the ejaculation of the normal man, about 226 million spermatozoa are given off; these are rich in phosphorized fats (lecithin), cholesterol (the parent-source of sex hormones), nucleoproteins and iron. An ounce of semen is considered to be equal in value to sixty ounces of blood, of which it constitutes an extract of some of its most valuable constituents, as far as its vitalizing power is concerned. Dr. Frederick McCann remarks on this point, 'From what has been stated it must be admitted that the spermatic fluid does possess potentialities justifying the belief of ancient writers concerning its vital properties.' . . . The following are among the many physiological evidences which demonstrate the value of continence: 1. There is a remarkable similarity of chemical composition between the semen and the central nervous system, both being especially rich in lecithin, cholesterin and phosphorus compounds, which would indicate that seminal emissions withdraw from the body substances necessary for the nutrition of nervous tissues. 2. Excessive voluntary seminal losses (through masturbation, coitus, coitus interruptus, and contraceptive practices) are debilitating and harmful to the body and brain. 3. Excessive involuntary seminal losses (through nocturnal emissions, diurnal emissions, spermatorrhea, etc.) are debilitating to the nervous system and may cause neurasthenia. 4. Observations of the immediate effects of the sexual orgasm indicate that it temporarily exhausts the nervous system, and when repeated too frequently leads to chronic nerve-weakness (sexual neurasthenia). 5. Continence is beneficial to the brain (for conserved lecithin from retained semen is a true brain food). Hence some of the greatest intellectual geniuses in ancient and modern times led continent lives. These include Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Spinoza, Newton, Kant, Beethoven, Herbert Spencer, etc. . . . Convincing evidence of the benefits of continence and that the assumed 'sexual necessity' is an illusion is afforded by the study of the debilitating effects of sexual orgasm, which are immediate and striking. Though these have been attributed to purely nervous origin, there can be no doubt that they are chiefly due to the harmful effects of the seminal discharge, which involves a sudden withdrawal from the body of calcium, lecithin and other substances necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. Havelock Ellis, in his 'Studies in the Psychology of Sex', quotes the observations of Dr. F.B. Robinson on this subject . . . He notes that when a stallion cohabits with a mare for the first time, after a short, vigorous coition, he is apt to fall down in a dead faint, which Robinson traces to brain anemia thus produced. He mentions one case of a mare falling dead immediately after coition. Young bulls frequently faint away after the first connection with a cow, and it is very common to observe a young bull so exhausted that he sneaks off to a quiet corner and lies down for a couple of hours. . . . In the case of the boar, the orgasm rises to such a pitch that the animal seems on the verge of pain, and is usually exhausted for several hours. Havelock Ellis writes: 'When we have realized how profound is the organic convulsion involved

in process of detumescence, and how great the motor excitement involved, we can understand how it is that very serious effects may follow coitus. Even in animals this is sometimes the case. Young bulls and stallions have fallen into a faint after first congress; boars may be seriously affected in a similar way; mares have been known even to fall dead. In the human species, and especially men, probably, as Bryan Robinson remarks, because women are protected by the greater slowness with which detumescence occurs in them -- not only death itself, but innumerable disorders and accidents have been known to follow immediately after coitus, these results being mainly due to the vascular and muscular excitement involved in the process of detumescence. Fainting, vomiting, urination, defecation have been noted as occurring in young men after the first coitus. Epilepsy has been not infrequently recorded. Lesions of various organs, even rupture of the spleen, have sometimes taken place. In men of mature age, the arteries have at times been unable to resist the high blood-pressure and cerebral hemorrhage with paralysis has occurred. In elderly men the excitement of intercourse with strange women has sometimes caused death, and various cases are known of eminent persons who have thus died in the arms of young wives or prostitutes.' The celebrated Russian general Skobeloff, died while cohabiting with a girl of illfame. Robinson refers to the case of a judge who died shortly after connection with a girl in a brothel, and to the case of a man of seventy who died after intercourse with a prostitute. He also mentions the case of a man of 48 years of age who was found dying in a Chicago hotel after cohabiting with an accommodating widow. Also the case of a young man who fainted away at the first coitus, and that of a man of sixty years old who had connection with a strange woman and fell dead as he walked to the door immediately after the act. Such deaths usually occur in elderly men, and usually as the result of intercourse with strange women, which is more violent and intensive than with their wives. Atilla, king of the Huns, died while cohabiting with his young wife. Acton, the great medical authority, points out that in some persons the termination of the orgasm is accompanied by an epileptiform convulsion of more or less severity. This is succeeded by a great amount of prostration. This is seen in a very exaggerated form in the buck rabbit, which, after each copulation, may be noticed to fall on his side in a sort of epileptic fit, the whites of the eyes being turned up. The animal then gives several spasmodic twitches with its hind legs, and lies panting for several moments until the nervous system recovers itself. Acton mentions cases of deaths occurring in houses of prostitution as well as in the marriage bed as arising from the adverse influence of the sexual orgasm on the nervous system and on the body as a whole, especially in susceptible individuals. Entomological works abound with cases in which death follows copulation. Geddes and Thomson, in their book, 'The Evolution of Sex', refer to the fact that some spiders normally die after fertilizing the female, and such sacrifice of the male occurs also in other species. The association of reproduction and death is well known in the case of flying insects, as the common mayflies. Emergence into winged liberty, the love-dance and the process of fertilization, the deposition of eggs and the death of the parents, are often the crowded events of a few hours. 'In higher animals,' say these authors, 'the fatality of the reproductive sacrifice has been greatly lessened, yet death may tragically persist, even in human life, as the direct nemesis of love. . . . The temporarily exhausting effect of even moderate sexual indulgence is well known, as well as the increased liability to all forms of disease while the individual energies are thus lowered. . . . Reproduction is the beginning of death.' . . . The resemblance of the sexual orgasm to the epileptic attack has been noted by many

authors. The sudden withdrawal of calcium produced by the seminal discharge biochemically produces the tetany-like symptoms of the orgasm, which are so similar to those of the epileptic attack . . . According to Acton, the sexual orgasm resembles the epileptic attack both in its phenomena and its effects. The mental hebetude and physical prostration following the discharge of nerve force characteristic of an epileptic attack also follow the sexual orgasm. The latter profoundly affects the whole nervous system with such intensity that Acton says that 'it is only mature individuals who can bear even infrequent acts of copulation without more or less injury. In young persons all the vital powers should be conserved for growth and development.' Dr. Deslandes observed that epileptic attacks often follow coitus, as was the case with Napoleon. He says: 'There are some individuals who are so susceptible to epilepsy that they have a regular attack of it whenever they indulge in sexual intercourse . . . It is related of the first Napoleon -- who, as is well known, was subject to epilepsy -- that he experienced a paroxysm every time he attempted copulation.' Menard had a watch-dog which was affected with epilepsy every time he copulated. These attacks were characterized by convulsions and by loss of consciousness. 'Coition,' said Democritus, 'is a kind of epilepsy.' 'It is,' said Haller, 'an action very similar to a convulsion, and which of itself astonishingly weakens and affects the whole nervous system.' Tissot reports cases in which emissions of semen were accompanied by 'a convulsion, a species of epilepsy; and the same observation furnishes evident proof of the influence which these violent actions have on the health of the unfortunate individual in whom they occur. The promptitude with which the weakness follows the act (of coitus) . . . and the debility of all those affected with convulsive diseases prove that the weakness is produced by the orgasm.' Tissot illustrates this point by referring to an Amman of a Swiss village, mentioned by Platerus, who, being remarried when old, and anxious to consummate his nuptials, was affected with a suffocation so violent, that he was obligated to desist. The same thing recurred every time he repeated the act. He consulted a number of quacks; one assured him that after he procured and took several medicines he was no more in danger. He hazarded a new attempt on this advice; and full of confidence, he persevered, only to die in the act in the arms of his wife. Says Tissot: 'The violent palpitations which sometimes accompany coition are also a convulsive symptom.' Hippocrates speaks of a young man in whom excesses in wine and sexual commerce produced, among other symptoms, constant palpitations; and Daleaus saw one seized in the act with a palpitation so violent that he would have suffocated if he persisted. Havelock Ellis remarks that the symptoms of coitus bear a strong resemblance to those of epilepsy, and refers to the statement of this effect by the sophist of Abdera, who said that coitus is a slight fit of epilepsy, 'judging it to be an incurable disease.' Caelius Aurelianus, one of the leading physicians of antiquity, said that 'coitus is a brief epilepsy.' . . . Fere has recorded a case of a youth in whom the adoption of the practice of masturbation, several times a day, was followed by epileptic attacks, which ceased when masturbation was discontinued. West describes masturbation in an infant by thighrubbing which produced a convulsion that was mistaken by relatives for an epileptic fit. Tissot writes: 'We know that paroxysms of epilepsy, when accompanied by an emission of seminal fluid, leave the patient more exhausted, and more confused, than in ordinary cases. . . .' . . . Mercier, an English psychiatrist, in his 'Sanity and Insanity,' writes that after the act of coitus, the resulting languor and lassitude indicate that a great strain has been placed on the store of energy available to the organism, whose seat is the nervous system, the highest regions of which -- the brain -- are most powerfully affected, and this tends to produce disorder of this organ. But while, with a normally constituted organism, the stress of the sexual orgasm is not sufficient to produce brain disorder,

unless it is repeated with undue frequency, in one whose energies are naturally defective and which is constitutionally below the normal level of stability, the effect of the act will be to produce disturbed cerebral functioning. This is especially true when such indulgence is begun at too early an age. . . . According to this eminent English psychiatrist, the sexual orgasm has by its very nature a disintegrative, deteriorating influence on the organism; and the loss of energy it entails, especially when frequently repeated, results in apathy, lethargy and dementia. . . . Besides those cases in which the dementia produced by sexual excess is sufficiently pronounced to incapacitate the wretched individual for the duties of life, and to render it necessary to commit him to asylum care, Mercier mentions that there are an enormous number of individuals, forming a considerable part of the total population, in which premature decadence of mental powers, premature exhaustion of energy and premature senility result from excess sexual indulgence in early life. . . . Rouband describes as follows the immediate effects of the sexual orgasm of coitus, which he compares to an epileptic attack: 'The circulation quickens, the arteries beat strongly, the venous blood, arrested by muscular contraction, increases the general heat, and this stagnation, more pronounced in the brain by the contraction of the muscles of the neck and the throwing of the head backward, causes a momentary cerebral congestion, during which intelligence is lost and the faculties abolished. The eyes, violently injected, become haggard, and the look uncertain. Or in the majority of cases the eyes are closed spasmodically to avoid the contact of the light. The respiration is hurried, sometimes interrupted, and may be suspended by the spasmodic contraction of the larynx, and the air, for a time compressed, is at last emitted in broken and meaningless words. The congested nervous centers only communicate confused sensations and volitions; mobility and sensation show extreme disorder; the limbs are seized by convulsions and sometimes by cramps, or are thrown wildly about or become stiff like iron bars. The jaws, tightly pressed, grind the teeth, and in some persons the delirium is carried so far that they bite to bleeding the shoulders their companions have imprudently abandoned to them. This frantic state of epilepsy lasts but a short time, but it suffices to exhaust the forces of the organism, especially in man. It is, I believe, Galen who said, "Omne animal post coitum triste." (All animals are sad after coitus.)' Deslandes . . . writes: 'During this tumult and after the crisis, the general state of the patient conforms in every manner to that of the genital system. Thus the face reddens, the neck swells, the veins become filled, the skin now burning and now moistened with sweat, the heart beats with rapidity. In fact, there is a state of fever which almost justifies us in placing the act of venery among diseases. At the same time the nervous centers, the cerebrum, the cerebellum and the spinal cord experience a very powerful impression. As the state progresses, consciousness is lost, and the subject is, as it were, in a state of delirium. The will is suspended, and the muscles are not controlled by it, but by the nerve centers which are so much irritated. The trunk and limbs are agitated by involuntary motions and chills. The disturbance increases until the crisis arrives, when the convulsions affect the genital system; a fit of epilepsy as it were ensues; the sight becomes dim; the trunk stiffens and the

neck is thrown back; and finally this state might be regarded as a violent access of disease if the beginning and end of it were not known. 'The genital apparatus, lately so full of life, now becomes flaccid; the scrotum becomes loose and pendulent, and a sensation of torpor, of fatigue, of chill follows. The convulsive motions are succeeded by a kind of paralysis, and all attempts at new excitement are in vain . . . Now, however, the individual is changed; his face has lost its color, his limbs are stiff, and without motion as if paralyzed; the head is painful, the mind is slow and limbs are incapable of the least effort. The hearing is dull; the sight is deranged, and the external senses import to the brain only imperfect impressions. The pulsations of the heart are feeble, the pulse is small, the veins are collapsed and the eyelids are livid. The soul is left in a state of languor and sadness and becomes as it were melancholy.' During the sexual orgasm of coitus symptoms occur which border on psychopathology; and there can be little doubt that excessive frequency of such symptoms may indelibly impress themselves on the brain and nervous system. . . . According to Prof. Lydston, the results of sexual excess are similar to those of masturbation, and both result from the disturbance of blood chemistry and general metabolism caused by the withdrawal from the body of the substances of which the semen is composed: calcium, phosphorus, lecithin, cholesterol, albumen, iron, etc. . . . 'Moderation in sexual intercourse is not only conducive to prolonged virility, but to longevity. . . .' . . . Professor von Gruber, while doubting the allegation that sexual abstinence may prove harmful to the nervous system, is convinced that sexual excess certainly is. He believes that frequent discharges of semen lead to a 'reduction of the peculiar internal secretion of the testes', which is otherwise resorbed into the blood-stream. The immediate effects of sexual excess, he states, are depression, fatigue and exhaustion. As further symptoms there is pressure in the lumbar region, nervous irritability, a feeling of pressure in the head, stupidity, insomnia, ringing in the ears, spots before the eyes, shunning of light, a feeble trembling and actual shaking, pounding of the heart, tendency to sweating and muscular weakness. There is also weakness of memory, neurasthenia, melancholic depression and disinclination to physical or mental effort. The digestive activity becomes less efficient and food is less well utilized. There is a deficiency in blood and a lowered resistance to infectious bacteria, the tubercle bacillus in particular, for which reason sexual excess is known to predispose to consumption aside from its tendency to drain the body of calcium. There is irritable weakness of the genitals, premature ejaculation, frequent nocturnal emissions, and increasing impotence. The more frequent nocturnal emissions that result increase the nervous irritability and exhaustion (i.e., neurasthenia). All these effects are more marked in the young and the aged; in the former, sexual excess, by its detrimental influence on metabolism and the process of growth, stunts physical and mental development, while in the aged it hastens death, often by causing heart failure. By producing enervation and by exciting the nervous system, Dr. Shelton claims that sexual excess can further the development of any disease to which the individual is subject. For this reason a person predisposed to epilepsy is almost certain to have an attack after each sexual act. Some cases of epilepsy do not develop until after marriage for this reason. Asthmatic attacks and St. Vitus's dance are often brought on and perpetuated by sexual excess. Spinal and heart disorders are apt to occur. There is an increase of blood-pressure, which predisposes to apoplexy. Dr. Shelton writes: 'No function is so exhausting to the whole system as this. If excessively

indulged in, no practice can possibly be so enervating. J. Bradford Sax probably overestimates the amount of energy consumed in coition when he says, "Probably more of the nervous fluid or influence is expended in a single sexual crisis than would suffice to carry on all the vital operations, perhaps for a day." At any rate the energy expended is very considerable and if the act is indulged in daily, or even weekly, the indulgent individual need not hope for health and strength. 'What constitutes excess? The reply has been given: Anything is excess when procreation is not the end. Man is sexually perverted. He is the only animal that has his "social problem," the only animal that supports prostitution, the only animal that practices self-abuse, the only animal that is demoralized by all forms of sexual perversions, the only animal whose male will attack the females, the only animal where the desire of the female is not the law, the only one that does not exercise his sexual powers in harmony with their primitive constitution.' . . . Of all members of the mammalian family, civilized man alone is a victim of an exaggerated and morbid sexual urge, a condition which he has inflicted, to a certain extent, on the animals which he has domesticated and which have adopted his diet, especially the dog. Wild animals in a state of nature practice copulation only at certain mating seasons for the purpose of reproduction. Civilized man practices this act at all times, and in most cases without intention to conceive. On the other hand, so-called savages and primitive races leading more natural lives and who follow their natural instincts to a greater extent are far chaster in their sexual behavior, as noted by Havelock Ellis. Such considerations must lead one to the conclusion that the sex life of civilized men is unnatural and that the excessive manifestation of the sex urge among them is due to certain aphrodisiacal stimuli rather than to natural instinct; among such stimuli are a high-protein meat diet (accompanied by physical inactivity), the use of tobacco, alcohol and coffee, sexually stimulating literature, dramas, motion pictures, conversation, etc. For these reasons civilized man has departed from the natural law, obeyed by animals and primitive races, which requires the separation of the sexes during pregnancy and lactation, for the benefit of both mother and child. Violation of this law may account for the large number of physically and mentally defective offspring produced by civilized races as compared with animals and primitive peoples. . . . Animals, like men, become perverted sexually and victims of an exaggerated sexual urge when they are subjected to artificial feeding and confinement. Thus apes, when confined to a cage and fed on meat and other sexually stimulating food, while previously gentle and tame on a fruit diet, become extremely licentious and vicious. Then they masturbate excessively and have intercourse daily, while the female consequently menstruates as freely as a woman. (Other female mammals leading more natural lives do not menstruate, though under domestication and excessive feeding, cows and other species do.) . . .

A biochemical theory of the neuroses and psychoses

. . . The eminent physiologist, Prof. Eugen Steinach has performed experiments which definitely showed that the internal secretions of the sex glands, after being resorbed into the circulation, pass principally to the brain and spinal cord, wherein they are stored. . . . [I]t is interesting to note that in contrast with the lasciviousness of idiots and the

insane, which, according to Dr. Spitzka, is largely responsible for their arrested brain nutrition and development, most of the greatest mental geniuses in history led strictly continent lives (which should result in superior brain nutrition from the conservation of lecithin and other brain-nourishing seminal constituents). Thus among philosophers we have Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Porphyry, Proclus, Leibniz, Berkeley, Locke, Spinoza, Kant and Spencer; among artists, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Raphael and Fra Angelico; among composers, Handel and Beethoven; and among scientists Newton. . . . The fluids elaborated by the testes, the prostate gland and the accessory sex glands are very rich in phosphorus, as are the spermatozoa themselves. The loss of semen must therefore lower the phosphorus content of the blood, for it is from here that these glands derive the phosphorus for the manufacture of their secretions. This must deprive the nervous system of an element so necessary for its nutrition and normal well-being. This explains the neurasthenic effects of masturbation and sexual excess, which are due to loss of phosphorus through seminal emissions. The same occurs in prostatitis, where considerable phosphorus is lost through the expelled prostatic fluid. Lorand points out the beneficial influence of phosphorus when administered in many brain disorders, which are accompanied by a diminution of the phosphorus content of the brain, as Marie found in idiocy and dementia praecox. In the brain phosphorus is present chiefly in the form of lecithin, a phosphorized fat. . . . Evans states that during thinking and mental exertion phosphates are increased in the excreta; and he therefore concludes that thinking involves an oxidation of phosphorus compounds in the brain (under the catalytic influence of the iodine of the thyroid hormone). . . . It is thus clear that phosphorus, oxygen and sufficient thyroid hormone (iodine) are all necessary for the normal generation of brain electricity, and that in the absence of either of these three elements, there will be deficient brain action. For it is well known that the brain is richer in phosphorus than any other part of the body, and also uses up oxygen three times as rapidly as other tissues; also without the catalytic influence of the thyroid hormone, it cannot function normally -- or without iodine on which element the thyroid depends for the manufacture of its secretion. According to this point of view, neurasthenia may be considered as representing a condition of phosphorus deficiency, or rather lecithin deficiency -- for lecithin is the form in which phosphorus is present in the myelin sheaths of the nerves, the nerve-oil whose burning keeps the fires of nerve vitality burning. Since lecithin is a prominent constituent of the semen, we can understand why excessive loss of semen can cause nerve starvation and all the symptoms of neurasthenia. When the lack of lecithin and organic phosphorus is more serious, the brain itself suffers lecithin deficiency and becomes disturbed in its functioning, just as any other starved organ is when deprived of the elements it requires for its normal nutrition and functioning. In this way, psychoses commence to manifest. . . . The action of alcohol, like that of anesthetics, is dependent on its ability to dissolve and remove lecithin from the brain; and when the concentration of brain lecithin is sufficiently lowered, insanity is the result. Sexual excess produces a similar effect; and, together with alcohol, constitutes a principal cause of neuropsychopathic conditions. The modern view is that the origin of nervous and mental disorders is to be looked for in the endocrine glands. Now it is interesting to note that organic phosphorus, in the form of lecithin, is not only a prominent constituent of nerve and brain tissue but also of the endocrine glands, and is as necessary to the nutrition of the latter as it is of the former. . . . In view of these observations, we can understand the reason why Dr. Brinkley places the sex glands in the position of master glands in the endocrine chain, for they alone, through their external secretion, are able to withdraw considerable amounts of lecithin and phosphatides from the circulation, and thus directly affect the functioning of the

other glands, which are so dependent on phosphatides for their normal functioning. . . . But while the immediate effect of such phosphatide withdrawal is overactivity of the other endocrines, . . . the final effect is to produce underactivity and atrophy of the endocrines, due to chronic phosphatide deficiency, and this is why sexual excess leads to an earlier appearance of senility, a condition resulting from endocrine hypofunction and degeneration. Thus the basic cause of endocrine dysfunctions -- hypoactivity or hyperactivity -- is to be found in the sex glands and their ability to alter the lecithin or phosphatide content of the blood, which is the primary raw material from which the endocrines manufacture their hormones. There is no time in life when the endocrine glands of the individual may be more powerfully affected by a deficiency of phosphatides than during the months of embryonic development, when these glands are most sensitive to their chemical environment, the maternal blood-stream. Deficiency of phosphatides in the mother's blood at this time, due to ovarian overactivity (as the result of sexual intercourse) may affect the development of the thyroid and other endocrine glands of the embryo, as well as of its central nervous system. . . . Dr. Schlapp believes that glandular depletion of the mother during gestation is the basic cause of the production of cretins and idiots, when there is no direct hereditary causation. . . . The phosphatide withdrawal caused by activity of the sex glands and seminal emission excercises a most powerful effect upon the thymus glands, which are most dependent on adequate phosphorus supply for their normal well-being and activity. Now it is interesting to note that coincident with the increased activity of the sex glands at puberty and the subsequent withdrawal by them of phosphatides, the thymus gland degenerates. Such degeneration may be viewed as a product of lecithin deficiency, similar to the endocrine degeneration which McCarrison notes to result from vitamin B deficiency. . . . That the internal secretion of the sex glands may have a nutritive function in relation to nervous tissue and brain cells, and that mental diseases may result from its absence, is indicated by the observation of McCarrison, who found that atrophy of the testicles is frequently found in cerebral and spinal diseases. . . . These facts indicate an intimate relation between spermatozoa and the cells of the cerebral cortex, absence of the formation of the former leading to decline of the latter. There is evidence that spermatozoa, when not discharged, are resorbed into the bloodstream and carried to the brain. Both in their chemical composition and their elongated form, they have a remarkable similarity to brain-cells, which, like them, lack the capacity of reproduction, in contrast to most other cells of the body . . . Could spermatozoa, passing to the brain and spinal marrow, have a relation to the mobile neuroglia, which likewise move about by flagellated motions of their tail, and which are potential cells of the central nervous system? This is an interesting speculation. Norret must have had some such thought in mind when he remarked, 'The resorption of what Dr. Le Camus called a mass of microscopic brains is a source of vigor and longevity.' That the semen contains substances of great physiological value, especially in relation to the nutrition of the nervous system, is clear from its chemical analysis, which shows that it is extremely rich in lecithin, cholesterin and phosphorus, the chief constituents of nerve and brain tissue. It therefore follows that the withdrawal of these substances from the circulation by seminal discharges (voluntarily or involuntarily) must have an adverse effect on the nutrition of nerve and brain tissue and result in disturbed functioning. Such biochemical considerations support the view that loss of seminal fluid involves lowered nutrition of nerve and brain tissue, and, when excessive, leads to nervous and mental disorders. . . . Both the semen and the brain are composed largely of phosphorized fats, or phospholipins, to which class lecithin belongs. Lecithin is a substance of great

importance for the nervous tissue. It is claimed by some that the nerve fatigue experienced at the end of the day's activities is due to an exhaustion of the daily supply of lecithin in the myelin sheaths of the nerves, and that the invigorating effect of sleep is due to this lecithin being replenished during the night. The chronic fatigue of old age is considered to be due to a lecithin deficiency of the endocrine glands and the body as a whole. Lecithin is essential to the life of the nervous system, the brain and the endocrine glands. . . . Now since both the brain and the semen depend for their supply of lecithin on what exists in the blood, it is clear that excessive withdrawal of lecithin by the sex glands would mean that a smaller amount would be available for the nutrition of nerve and brain tissue. May not neuroses and psychoses be due to such diminished nutrition of nerve and brain cells due to excessive withdrawal of lecithin and cholesterol from the blood to replace expended seminal secretions? The tonic effect of lecithin preparations upon the nervous system would indicate that the conservation of the body's own lecithin should constitute a therapeutic measure of primary importance in the treatment of neurasthenia and mental disorders. . . . The only other part of the body that can compare with brain, nerve and endocrine tissue in high content of lecithin is the semen and spermatozoa, for like the brain, the semen is a fatty substance rich in phosphorized fats, the phosphatides or phospholipins. That considerable lecithin is required for the formation of spermatozoa is indicated by Miescher's observation that the amount of lecithin in the blood is increased during the period of formation of the reproductive cells. . . . That insanity might be due to a deficiency of lecithin in the brain, resulting from a deficiency in the blood, is indicated by the observations of Lassaigne, who found a decreased quantity of lecithin in the white brain matter of the insane. Commenting on this subject, Fischer, a French biochemist states: 'The content of the brain in combined lipoids seems, then, to have some relation to intellectual power and to its modifications as well.' Similarly, insanity due to alcohol has been shown to be due to the same cause, since alcohol is a lipoid solvent. It has been shown by experiment that in the series of agents which act as narcotics, the anesthetic power increases in proportion to the quantity of lipoids that the liquids employed are capable of dissolving from the brain. Chloroform and ether both possess the property of dissolving lipoids . . . It has also been shown that after anesthesia, ether and chloroform accumulate in the nervous tissues. . . . May not the deep unconsciousness that follows sexual activity be due to the withdrawal of lipoids from the brain by the sexual orgasm, producing results similar to those that follow the administration of an anesthetic, which likewise withdraws lipoids from this organ? Since both the brain and the sex organs extract identical substances from the blood (lecithin, cholesterol, etc.), this would mean that there exists a chemical antagonism between them, since increased activity of the latter means decreased nutrition of the former. The more lipoids that the sex glands withdraw from the blood, the less is available to the brain. . . . [A]ll loss of seminal lipoids, whether through coitus, masturbation or nocturnal emissions, are at the expense of the brain: and this effect is most detrimental during childhood and before maturity, when the brain is in the process of growth. . . . Continence results in a greater supply of lecithin, cholesterol and phosphates in the blood, and consequently in the brain. Brown-Sequard has shown that testicular secretions increase nerve and brain vitality. Chakraberty remarks that the eating of desiccated testicles has a stimulating effect on the central nervous system 'due to the nucleo-albumins, lecithin and phosphorus in which they are so rich, and which are also prominent constituents of nervous tissues.' (However, there is no need to eat desiccated testicles when each individual can conserve and resorb the valuable secretions of his

own.) According to Fischer, the sex glands may be considered as reservoirs of lipoids, which they release into the blood to energize the brain. And conversely, through external emission, they can withdraw lipoids from the blood, and thus indirectly from the brain. No adequate comprehension of the sexual question can be had without understanding the chemical composition of the semen and spermatozoa. When it is realized that they contain in high concentration phospholipins essential to the nutrition and normal functioning of the central nervous system, it will be realized that withdrawal of these substances from the body by seminal emissions must have an adverse effect on the nutrition of the brain and nerves, predisposing to neurasthenia and other nervous and mental affections. . . . The excessive withdrawal of lipoids from the blood by the sex glands is at the expense of the adrenal cortex, just as the withdrawal of protein observed by Miescher is at the expense of the muscles. Excessive gonadal activity, by depriving the adrenal cortex of lipoids, leads to its atrophy. Thus, in cases of dementia praecox, many of whom were habitual masturbators, there was noted by Mott atrophy of the adrenal cortex together with progressive atrophy of the testicles. It has also been noted that excessive withdrawal of nucleoproteins and other substances from the blood to form spermatozoa may cause diminution in the size of the thymus gland and its atrophy, which probably is the reason why this occurs after puberty. (Could the atrophy of the pineal gland, accompanying that of the thymus, not be due to a similar cause, in view of the richness of the pineal in lecithin?) . . . [T]he thymus increases in weight from birth to puberty, but as soon as the first seminal emissions occur, with the onset of puberty, it commences to retrogress and lose weight. These facts indicate that the sexual changes of puberty, instead of being the effect of thymus atrophy at this time, are the cause. . . . The proteins of the brain cell and those of the head of the spermatozoon are very similar. Both contain abundant amounts of nucleic acid, and the head of the spermatozoa, like the Nissl substance of the brain cell, is very rich in nucleoproteins. Both the spermatozoon and the cortical brain cell are remarkably similar in their general formation. It is significant that the spermatozoon contains more phosphorus that any other cell of the body except the brain cells; and since with each ejaculation 226 million spermatozoa are given off, it is clear that in this way a considerable amount of phosphorus is lost, in addition to the phosphatic constituents of the semen. . . . It is interesting to note that the cerebro-spinal fluid, like the semen, is rich in calcium, phosphorus, sodium, magnesium and chlorine, and has an alkaline reaction. The ancients noted a relation between the semen and the spinal cord, and Hippocrates believed that involuntary seminal losses can cause tabes dorsalis. That they cause spinal weakness is well known. That the sex glands and the brain have an intimate physiological connection with each other, which is antagonistic in the sense that greater activity of one leads to decreased activity of other, has been stated by Havelock Ellis in the following words: 'The brain and the sexual organs are the great rivals in using up bodily energy, and there is an antagonism between extreme brain vigor and extreme sexual vigor, even though they may sometimes appear at different periods in the same individual. In this sense, there is no paradox in the saying of Roman Correa that potency is impotency and impotency potency, for a high degree of energy, whether in athletics or in intellect, is unfavorable to the display of energy in other directions. . . . The masters of all the more intensely emotional arts have frequently cultivated a high degree of chastity. This is notably the case as regards music. One thinks of Mozart, of

Beethoven, of Schubert. . . .' Dr. Ryan expressed a similar thought when he wrote: 'Bacon observed that no one of great genius in antiquity had been addicted to women; and he stated that among the moderns the illustrious Newton had never enjoyed sexual intercourse. This fact confirms the remark made by Aretaeus, and since verified by physiologists, that continence, or the reabsorption of the semen into the bodily economy, impresses the whole organism with an extreme tension and vigor, exciting the brain and exalting the faculty of thought.' . . . Prof. F.G. Lydston presents evidence to prove that neurasthenia has its roots in prostatic dysfunction caused by sexual indulgence, which results in depletion and derangement of the prostatic hormone. . . . Dr. Allen . . . considers masturbation and sexual excess as the causes of impotence, producing as they do inflammation and congestion of the prostatic urethra, a condition predisposing to nocturnal emissions and spermatorrhea, which precipitate loss of functional activity of the testicles . . . It appears that the internal secretion of the prostate gland accelerates growth and metamorphosis by its stimulating influence on the thyroid and pituitary gland . . . Clear evidence of the importance of the prostate secretion to the body is afforded by the study of its loss as occurs in cases of spermatorrhea, a disease characterized by the involuntary emission of prostatic and other seminal secretions unaccompanied by any erotic sensation -- a condition closely allied to prostatitis. The loss of lecithin, cholesterin, phosphates, etc. thus occasioned exercises its most immediate and profound effect on the spinal cord and entire central nervous system. Spermatorrhea (literally 'a flow of semen') was known to Hippocrates, who called the disease tabes dorsalis. . . . For the cure of this condition, Hippocrates advised sex abstinence and avoidance of alcohol. Celsus advised in addition a special raw vegetable diet. Aretaeus advised continence and cold baths. Languius advises intestinal purification through proper diet as the basic factor in the cure of this condition. . . . Our modern knowledge of spermatorrhea dates back to Lallemand, who made the most careful study of this disease. He traces it to an inflammation, congestion and hypersecretion of the mucous membranes of the urethra, primarily initiated by frequent sexual orgasm and intensified by the irritation of toxic blood resulting from wrong diet and autointoxication. Alcohol, coffee, tea and spices, by irritating the genital mucous membranes, he believes to contribute to this condition. The chief causes, he says, are 'sexual excess and masturbation, which act principally by provoking inflammation or irritation of the ducts, and prolonged erections excited by erotic ideas or lascivious publications.' Professor Bartholow of the Medical College of Ohio, in his book on spermatorrhea, considers masturbation and sexual excess as the chief causes. He then goes on to show that the frequently repeated sexual orgasm causes a condition of inflammation of the urethra, manifesting first as nocturnal emissions, and when more serious merging imperceptibly into true spermatorrhea, in which the act of emission occurs without erection, pleasure or particular sensation, the semen gradually losing its color, odor and spermatozoa gradually coming to resemble mucous or prostatic secretion, often being lost with the urine. Professor Bartholow believes that spermatorrhea may cause degeneration of the cells of the gray matter of the spinal cord, which indicates a relationship to tabes dorsalis or locomotor ataxia, which has been repeatedly observed by physicians in both ancient and modern times. This is understandable in view of the close similarity in chemical composition between the semen and the spinal cord, for

which reason excessive losses of semen can deprive the myelin of spinal tissue of lecithin, which is so necessary for the nutrition of nerve cells. . . . Formerly spermatorrhea and gonorrhea were identified as the same disease, and also gonorrhea and syphilis. Spermatorrhea appears to represent a catarrhal inflammation of the genital mucous membranes, accomplished by a mucous discharge. Ordinary nocturnal emissions constitute a primary manifestation of such a catarrhal inflammation, while true spermatorrhea represents a more advanced form, being the male homologue of leucorrhea in the female. When the inflammation of the genital mucosa advances from a catarrhal to a purulent stage, the discharge assumes a purulent character; and in place of whitish or colorless mucus, there occurs the characteristic yellowish purulent discharges of gonorrhea accompanied by the gonococcus. . . . It is clear that the neurological symptoms of gonorrhea, like those of spermatorrhea, are produced, if not exaggerated, to a great extent by the loss of lecithin, through the seminal discharges which invariably precede this disease. As the inflammation of the genital mucosa advances from a purulent (gonorrheal) state of inflammation to a fibroid and atrophic one, we have the characteristic fibroid growths and cancers of the uterus in the female, while in the male, the cancer-like growths on the sexual organs characteristic of the beginnings of syphilis appear. That the demineralization and dealkalization of the blood through previous seminal discharges prepare the soil for such cancerous developments, there can be no doubt, while a resulting condition of acid intoxication can prepare the biochemical conditions of the organism for the skin pathologies of secondary syphilis, which bear a resemblance to those that accompany the seminal discharges resulting from the masturbation and involuntary emissions of puberty. . . . From the foregoing, it is clear that there is an important internal physiological relation between the secretions of the sex glands and the central nervous system, that the loss of these secretions, voluntarily or involuntarily, exercises a detrimental effect on the nutrition and vitality of the nerves and brain, while, on the other hand, the conservation of these secretions has a vitalizing effect on the nervous system, a regenerating effect on the endocrine glands and a rejuvenating effect on the organism as a whole. ___________ Other books by Raymond Bernard, published by Health Research:

Nutritional Sex Control & Rejuvenation The Secret of Rejuvenation or Professor Brown Sequard's Great Discovery of the Fountain of Youth The Physiological Enigma of Woman: The mystery of menstruation Mysteries of Human Reproduction

Sex and sexuality Homepage

Extracts from

Nutritional Sex Control & Rejuvenation

Dr Raymond W. Bernard
Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, n.d.

. . . Since time immemorial, religious devotees abstained from meat or fasted for the purpose of controlling sexual impulses, and this explains the customs of abstention from meat and fasting during certain religious holidays. The ancient Orphics, Pythagoreans, Essenes, Gnostics, neo-Platonists, and Manichaeans all practiced vegetarianism in order to succeed in the practice of continence, which they regarded as essential for achieving the highest degree of physical and spiritual regeneration. Pythagoras, who was born a physiologist and a moral reformer, was the first to claim that protein foods augment sexual inclinations and that a low-protein, strictly vegetarian diet was essential for all who wish to live in continence and experience the beneficial effects of this practice in leading to better brain nutrition and in heightening intellectual and spiritual powers. Pythagoras taught that there was a direct connection between the semen and the brain and that loss of semen weakens the brain, while its conservation improves the brain's nutrition, since the substances thus conserved act as brain nutrients. We now know that this is a physiological fact which the intuition of Pythagoras foresaw centuries ago since lecithin, an organic phosphorized fat which is a chief constituent of brain and nerve tissue, is an essential component of the semen and is lost with it. This means that the greater the seminal excretion, the more lecithin is lost from the blood and consequently from the brain; whereas conservation of semen through continence leads to better lecithin (organic phosphorus) brain nutrition and increased intellectual energy. Since a low-protein diet diminishes the tendency of seminal excretion, it helps conserve lecithin for brain nutrition. Since it is reasonable to identify spirituality with the regeneration of higher brain centers -- the pituitary and pineal glands, the latter organ being richer in lecithin than any other part of the body -- we can understand the reason why religious orders have always insisted on continence as a prime requisite for those who wish to live a spiritual life. Among the Pythagoreans, who included some of the greatest mathematicians, astronomers, philosophers, and physicians of antiquity, not only meat but all foods rich in protein, including concentrated vegetable proteins, were prohibited as inimical to reaching the desired state of continence. . . . While Pythagoreans married and bore children, they practiced continence as a physiological discipline of value to body and brain. . . . St. Jerome wrote: 'The forge of Vulcan and the volcanoes of Vesuvius and Mt. Olympus do not burn more than those young men who live on succulent meats and indulge in wine.' . . . 'Wine and meat blunt the soul,' wrote Plutarch in defense of Pythagorean vegetarianism. . . . Gandhi, like Tolstoy, offers a modern example of a philosopher who practiced the dual Pythagorean doctrines of vegetarianism and continence and made the latter dependent on the former. In a debate with Margaret Sanger on the subject of contraception, which practice he denounced because it led to excessive sexual indulgence, Gandhi wrote: 'The horror with which ancient literature regarded the fruitless loss of the vital fluid was not a superstition born of ignorance. . . Surely it is

criminal for a man to allow his most precious possession to run to waste.' . . . Havelock Ellis notes the mild sexual feeling among the Irish who live chiefly on potatoes and buttermilk, as against the extreme sexuality of the French who live on a highly stimulating diet of meat, sea foods, and wine. In view of Tissot's and Deslandes' observations on the effects of an alkaline diet in reducing mucous membrane irritation in the prostatic urethra, which is the seat of sexual feeling, it is interesting to refer to Dr. Hindhede's observations which have shown that a potato diet has a marked alkalizing effect on the blood and helps it to counteract and neutralize uric acid. In view of . . . the action of uric acid as an aphrodisiac, we can understand the reasons for the diminished sexuality of the potato-eating Irish as compared with the meat-and-wine-using French. . . . Speaking of the type of diet best suited to reduce sexual irritability, Dr. Napheys writes: 'From ancient times, it has been well known that a wholly or chiefly vegetable diet favors the subjugation of the passions and hence was recommended to persons of violent desires and enjoined on celibate orders of priesthood. Particularly those vegetables which contain a large percentage of vegetable fiber and water, as cabbage, turnips, beets, melons, and carrots, and those which contain acids and some soporific principle as sorrel, sour fruits, lettuce chicory, endive, and other salads are reported to have especial virtues in this direction.' There is a definite relation between constipation, with its associated autointoxication, and sexual craving. This results from two causes: direct physical pressure of the overdistended colon on the one side and the full bladder on the other side on the seminal vesicles (or uterus in the female) which lies sandwiched in between, and the irritating action of the intestinal toxins formed through the decay of protein remnants, which act as stimulants to the sexual centers, in addition to uric acid and other foods formed through their metabolism. Since the diet recommended by Dr. Napheys will help overcome constipation and autointoxication, by introducing plenty of vegetable cellulose into the intestinal tract, it is clear that it will, for this reason, aid to counteract sexual tendencies. Intestinal cleanliness and freedom from autointoxication through protein putrefaction is the first step in sexual control. On this subject, the following quotation by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, who for over sixty years was a strong advocate of a low protein diet and also a believer in the physiological value of continence, writes: 'Flesh, condiments, eggs, tea, coffee, chocolate, and all other stimulants have a powerful influence directly upon the blood; and through nervous sympathy with the brain, the passions are aroused. Poor blood, filled with crude, poorly digested food, is irritating to the nervous system and especially to those extremely delicate nerves which govern the reproductive function. Irritation provokes congestion; congestion excites sexual desires; excited passions increase the local disturbances; and thus each reacts upon the other, ever increasing the injury and liability of future damage. 'While children are raised upon such articles, or upon food with which they are thoroughly mingled, what wonder that they occasionally turn out bad. How many mothers, while teaching their children the principles of virtue in the nursery, unwittingly stimulate passions at the dinner table until vice becomes almost a physical necessity? Thus these exciting causes continue their insidious work through youth and more mature years. Right under the eyes of fathers and mothers they work the ruin of children, exciting such storms of passion as may become uncontrollable. Nothing tends so powerfully to keep the passions in abeyance as a simple diet, free from condiments, especially when coupled with a generous amount of exercise.' (Kellogg, H.J.; 'Plain Facts.') Writing on the influence of diet on the development of sexual precocity and the habit

of masturbation in the young, Dr. Miller, in his Treatise on the Cause of Exhausted Vitality, writes: 'Feeding children upon pork, gravies, eggs, and pastry made of lard, salt, meat, with mustard and pepper, rich pies and cake and sweetmeats, vinegar, pickles, tea and coffee, and everything of this description, tends to fire the blood, derange the nerves, and bring on a precocious development of the sexual passion.' . . . Havelock Ellis considers fish, oysters, shellfish, and beefsteak as strong aphrodisiacs. He writes: 'Food and drink are powerful sexual stimulants. This is true even of the simplest and most wholesome nourishment and is more especially true of flesh meat and above all alcohol. Fish, shellfish (especially oysters) and eggs have a popular reputation as aphrodisiacs. The same applies to caviar (fish eggs). Islanders and seacoast tribes, subsisting on sea foods, are noted to be extremely lascivious. Whiteween, while working at an educational institution for abandoned young people in Eeremeloo, observed the effect of fish and cod liver oil in increasing sexual desire. Crabs and lobsters, like oysters and other shellfish, are noted for their aphrodisiacal properties, which are related to their high content of uric acid. Certain sea foods contain even more uric acid than meat, and this accounts for their being even stronger sexual stimulants. . . . '. . . With some persons, excessive sexual desire is directly dependent upon high living. Gouty conditions of the blood incidental to the latter are especially likely to be associated with irritation of the genito-urinary tract and particularly of the nerves of sexual sensibility. If one would remain continent, he must not only abjure all mental sources of sexual excitement, but he must abstain from stimulants, tobacco, highly seasoned foods -- in short, from all articles of diet that tend to induce nervous irritability. It is probable that a strictly vegetarian diet is the best one that can be advised for an individual who desires to remain continent in mind and body. . . .' (Lydston, F.G.: 'Impotence and Sterility'). On the same subject, Newton, in his book, The Better Way, . . . writes: 'They who have ever carefully noted the effects on themselves of most kinds of alcoholic stimulants, of coffee, oysters, eggs, spices, and an excess of animal food of almost any kind -- and especially those who prefer these things because of their stimulating effects in this direction -- as well as they who find pleasure in filthy conversation and practices referred to, cannot surely with justice charge upon "nature" the exuberance of their amatory desires. In so far, then, as this appetite is excessive in us beyond the requirements of nature and enlightened reason, it is unnatural and diseased. . . . A careful abstinence from exciting foods, drinks, acts, and thoughts, and the use of appropriate means to allay excitement -- these, persisted in, will bring victory in due time.' . . . Coffee, tea, and cocoa, as well as chocolate, contain uric acid, caffeine and other toxic alkaloids, which are sexually stimulating. Dr. McDougall of London says that several of his patients afflicted with spermatorrhea and generative debility discovered that tea and coffee always proved harmful to them by provoking such discharges. The caffeine they contain increases the heart beat, raises the blood pressure and so exerts an aphrodisiacal effect, while their uric acid irritates and causes inflammation of the genital mucous membrane, which is the seat of sexual sensibility. Lellamand mentions the case of a man who suffered from frequent nocturnal emissions which proved quite debilitating, as a result of excessive coffee drinking; but when the coffee was discontinued, the emissions stopped, and the patient was restored to health. Cocoa, which contains the alkaloid theobromine, has long been regarded as an aphrodisiac. . . . Among irritants of the genital mucous membranes, Dr. Tissot lists pork, game, spices, alcohol, fish, eggs, pepper, and coffee as being most potent, and all are strong sexual stimulants. On this point, Dr. Elliot, in his 'Aetiology,' writes:

'The abnormal intensity of the sexual impulse is largely due to improper and too stimulating food, to liquors of all kinds, spiced meats, etc. -- because such improper diet causes irritation in the mucous membrane lining the digestive tract; and as this is similar to that lining the genital organs, they also become irritated and congested. To control and subdue the sexual impulse it is necessary to avoid eating or drinking anything that may tend to increase it -- as, for instance, spices, condiments, rich and highly seasoned foods, eggs and meat, tea, alcoholic liquors or tobacco, or any irritating or stimulating food or drink.' Just as a uric-acid forming diet, by its irritating influence on the genital mucous membranes, promotes sexual desires, so an alkaline-forming diet, which counteracts the formation of uric aid, consisting of vegetables, potatoes, and fruits -- has the opposite effect and tends to reduce sexual inclinations. Such a diet will be of value in the prevention and overcoming of masturbation in children, in cases of sexual perversion and excess, and in various female maladies which result from inflammation of the genital mucosa, as in the catarrhal discharges of leucorrhea, in gonorrhea, etc. Salt, pepper, mustard, and strong spices, all of which are irritants to the mucous membranes in general and the genital mucosa in particular, are aphrodisiacs and promote seminal emissions. . . . [O]nions were regarded as aphrodisiacs by the Greeks as they still are among the yogis of India, as they also regard garlic. . . . In some countries, celery is regarded as an aphrodisiac. Among the Chinese, ginseng is the most widely used sexual invigorator due to the well-known effect of this herb to vitalize the sex glands . . . [Experiments show] that sex in its ordinary manifestations among civilized human beings is not the product of natural instinct that is generally supposed to be but is a chemotropism evoked or conditioned reflex (in Pavlov's sense) evoked in response to aphrodisiacal stimulation by foods and beverages, especially animal proteins, alcohol, coffee, and also tobacco. This tropistic reaction, in both its physical and psychical aspects, is subject to voluntary control through diet, an alkaline-forming, low-protein vegetable diet reducing it, while an acid-forming high-protein meat diet increases it. The above evidence indicates that nocturnal emissions, in spite of their universality among the male sex, and contrary to popular and medical beliefs, are not natural physiological phenomena normal after puberty, nor do they provide a necessary release of semen when not discharged through voluntary sexual acts. For we shall see later that a definite physiological mechanism exists for the lymphatic resorption of semen from the seminal vesicles where it is stored . . . We may therefore conclude that nocturnal emissions, like other sexual orgasms, are to be regarded as a vicarious elimination of the end-products of protein metabolism and indicate that the protein intake is excessive and that the kidneys are overworked. When protein intake is reduced to bodily requirements, there will be no need for the gonads to come to the aid of the kidneys and eliminate surplus nitrogenous matter in this way. As a result, nocturnal emissions disappear, as well as the tendency to erections and sexual orgasms in general. . . . [S]peaking of nocturnal emissions, Dr. Mowry writes: 'I am a dyed-in-the-wool believer that these are unnatural and when frequent are pathological, doing damage to the economy and causing a sensation of weakness and lassitude that is not imaginary. . . . The main cause is a congestive condition of the deep urethra. . . . It has been suggested that these hyperemias may be caused by some irritant in the urine due to faulty metabolism. . . A well defined diet must be ordered and a light supper must be eaten leisurely. The bowels must be regular. Prevent distension of the bladder. These emissions occur practically always in the early morning and are due to the distended bladder pressing the already irritated deep urethra, causing an explosion.'

The irritant in the urine to which Dr. Mowry refers is uric acid and other acid endproducts of protein metabolism, which are produced in greatest quantity by animal proteins (i.e., meats of all kinds, fish, eggs, etc.). Coffee and tea also introduce uric acid into the system and irritate the deep urethra where lies the seat of sexual sensibility. The secret of sexual control is to maintain the blood and urine in as alkaline a state as possible, so as not to irritate the sexual centers in the mucous lining of the prostatic urethra. This is best achieved by a low-protein fruit and vegetable diet. A high-protein meat diet, on the other hand, tends to produce sexual desire and nocturnal emissions by forming uric acid, which irritates the mucous lining of the prostatic urethra and also by producing intestinal putrefaction, generating poisons in the intestines which paralyze their peristaltic movements and cause constipation. Since the seminal vesicles, like the uterus, lie sandwiched in between the colon and bladder, constipation, involving a distended colon filled with hardened fecal matter, causes pressure on this organ and predisposes to emissions, just as it predisposes to uterine discharges and painful and excessive menstruation. Therefore the first step in the elimination of these conditions is to suppress intestinal putrefaction and overcome constipation and autointoxication through a low-protein vegetarian diet. . . . Dr. Arnold Ehret observed that on a low-protein fruit and vegetable diet, using no meat, eggs, or dairy products, there is a complete disappearance of nocturnal emissions in males and leucorrhea (genital mucous discharge) in women, who also experience a progressive decrease of the menstrual flow, which occurs at increasingly longer periods until it completely disappears, coincident with heightened vitality and better health due to the resulting conservation of vital fluids. . . . The chief acid-forming foods are meat, fowl, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, animal fats, butter, wheat, and oats. The chief alkaline-forming foods are vegetables, fruits, and potatoes. The former foods increase the inflammation of the prostatic urethra which is the physiological cause of nocturnal emission, most sex desire and excessive and pathological sexual manifestations and diseases. In the female, an acid-forming diet causes inflammation of the uterine mucous membrane and tends to cause the occurrence of leucorrhea and menstruation. By reducing such inflammation through an alkaline diet, Dr. Shroyer, a New England gynecologist, caused such female conditions to disappear and also caused uterine tumors to reduce and vanish, since these represent only a more advanced stage of the process of mucous membrane inflammation. Fasting, which has been practiced since time immemorial by religious ascetics to overcome sexual inclinations, is a dependable method of sex control and sexual therapy because it helps free the blood of uric acid. But for the average high-protein feeder who suffers from chronic constipation and autointoxication (even if he has a daily bowel movement), it is best to first regenerate intestinal functioning by means of a low-protein strictly vegetarian diet composed chiefly of rice, potatoes, vegetables, and fruits. . . . Freudianism is in a large sense a rationalization of modern sexual behavior, which seeks to provide scientific justification for sexual actions that are really unnatural and are products of aphrodisiacal food stimulation. Chief among the errors of this new pseudo-scientific phallic cult is the superstition that Freud picked up from the gutter and dressed in scientific garb that sexual abstinence is harmful and a cause of nervous and mental disorders as the result of 'sexual repression' that it involves and that sexual intercourse is a normal expression of the libido which is necessary for health, which belief has led many misinformed physicians to advise young men to visit prostitutes and risk venereal disease as a lesser evil than the assumed evil effects of sexual continence. [T]his belief is without scientific foundation . . . Freud makes this myth, in the form of his doctrine of repression, the cornerstone of his pseudo-scientific edifice. He himself

was a sick, neurasthenic man. His picture shows him smoking a cigar, a powerful aphrodisiac. His entire philosophy of sex, to a large extent, has been colored by the chemotropistic influence of his tobacco addiction, without him being aware of it, plus his diet, which failed to keep him in health. As a matter of fact, the present post-Freudian neurotic age suffers not from sexual abstinence and repression but from the reverse, from sexual overexpression and overindulgence. Nowhere in Freud's works do we find a warning against sexual excess as a cause of nervous diseases and insanity, which it is admitted to be by eminent authorities. Instead of attributing neurasthenia to its true cause, i.e., lecithin deficiency and resulting nerve cell undernutrition, resulting from loss of lecithin through the semen, Freud wrongly traces it to sexual repression or underindulgence in sexual activity and his cure is uninhibited sexual intercourse. In forwarding this view and popularizing it, Freud has elevated the most groundless of popular superstitions and unscientific misconceptions into a scientific theory which, in the light of modern knowledge of sexual biochemistry and endocrinology, must be thrown onto the scrap heap of discarded pseudo-scientific theories and regarded as a rationalization to appease the conscience of modern neurotic sexual overindulgers and to create a large financial income by sale of his books which appealed greatly to public demand. . . . The idea that the sex glands, in addition to their external secretion, produce an internal secretion which is absorbed into the bloodstream and has an important physiological function to perform, is no new idea, since it has been suspected by physiologists, physicians, and philosophers since ancient times. The Greek philosophers of antiquity, back to Pythagoras, who originated this idea, which he acquired during his studies under Egyptian initiate-priests, speculated much concerning a possible internal physiological function of the semen when retained in the body. Pythagoras was convinced of such a function and of the vital value of seminal conservation, or continence, which became a part of the hygienic and ethical discipline of his school at Crotona and of the Pythagorean Order he founded, basing this practice on a strictly vegetarian diet low in protein. Pythagoras advocated continence as a practice of utmost physiological value both to body and brain, for he considered the semen as 'the flower of the purest blood,' which it was important to carefully preserve. For this reason, the followers of Pythagoras, as well as of the Greek philosophers who were later influenced by his teachings, as Plato and Aristotle, lived strictly continent lives. Alemeon, a Pythagorean physician, on the basis of Pythagoras's physiological doctrines, claimed that the semen, when conserved, is transformed into brain nourishment and represents potential brain matter, an intuition which is now confirmed by modern biochemistry, which finds that the semen and the brain are remarkably similar in chemical composition, both being very rich in lecithin (a phosphoric brain fat), more so than most other parts of the body. . . . Concerning the fact that the ancients anticipated by thousands of years some of our most recent discoveries in endocrinology concerning the important physiological role of the internal secretions of the sex glands, the eminent endocrinologist, Dr. Arnold Lorand, writes: 'The ancient Hindus recommended to men sexual abstinence of long duration, thinking that by this means the internal secretion of the sexual glands would be absorbed into the system and that they would thereby reap all the benefits inherent in such a secretion. By this it seems that thousands of years before Claude Bernard and Brown-Sequard, the Hindus already appreciated the great importance of the internal secretions. . . .' Preparing an extract made from a dog's testicle, [Brown-Sequard] injected this into his leg. Within 24 hours after the injection, a marked change took place, due to what he

called the 'dynamogenic' or energizing effect of the testicular extract. Body and brain became charged with new power . . . Concerning the latter experiment, Dr. K.S. Guthrie, in his work 'Regeneration,' remarked: 'But if the human sperma is as good, if not better, why should not each man preserve his own, instead of wasting this and then procuring other by repulsive and brutal means? . . . Should man inject into himself the testicular secretions of animals when he could preserve his own and keep his body continually at the highest point of vitality? In view of this it would not be too much to say that if a man were absolutely continent, he would be free from all disease and more or less so in proportion as he was not quite continent.' This statement by Dr. Guthrie is interesting, since it is supported by the experiments of Goizet in curing a hundred different diseases by testicular extracts. Since . . . the semen is very rich in lecithin, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and is reported to contain vitamin E, sex hormones, and other substances of physiological value, it is clear that a withdrawal of these vital essentials from the blood by seminal emissions could bring on weakness and disease resulting from chronic cellular malnutrition so produced. Since the sex glands are the master glands of the endocrine chain, we can understand why such long-continued withdrawals of lecithin and other hormone-building ingredients could cause the endocrines to degenerate and bring on premature senility as a result. It is known that endocrine degeneration is the physiological cause of old age. While Sokoloff claims this is caused by autointoxication, it may also be caused by lecithin deficiency resulting from seminal excretion. Dr. Arnold Lorand repeated Brown-Sequard's experiment and noted a decided increase in muscular and mental powers after injection into himself of testicular extract from a pig. Subsequent studies along this line, however, showed that the effects of the 'Brown-Sequard Elixir,' as his testicular extract (made from the semen and other parts of the testicles) was called, were only temporary and disappeared as soon as the injected substances were utilized by the body, their effects being mainly nutritional. Loisel has moreover shown that such extracts are liable to have toxic effects and may even cause death, due to decomposition of their albumen, which causes poisoning as do other foreign proteins when injected into the blood. The use of testicular extracts has therefore been abandoned as a scientific method of rejuvenation. In his two reports on the results of his experiment, which he delivered to the Society of Biology in Paris, Brown-Sequard dared not express the revolutionary idea, which he did in later writings, and which was an inescapable conclusion from the results of his experiment, namely, that if enrichment of the individual's blood with foreign testicular secretions and substances is beneficial and rejuvenating, so should be the conservation of the person's own. Also, indulgence, masturbation, nocturnal emissions, etc., should be harmful to health and vitality. An identical conclusion was later reached by Professor Sajous, dean of American endocrinologists and Professor Lydston of the University of Illinois in his work 'Impotency and Sterility.' Unfortunately, the human intellect is not sufficiently free from domination of emotions and passions to be willing to accept the doctrine that continence is beneficial to health, which works against the pleasure-pain principle that seems to dominate human thought and behavior. Brown-Sequard knew that if the scientists assembled at the Society of Biology before whom he read the report of his experiment ridiculed and rejected it, certainly they would do so to an even greater extent if he presented such a conclusion based on the experiment, namely that it is beneficial to conserve one's own testicular secretions and harmful to waste them and that such conservation constitutes a natural method of sexual regeneration and rejuvenation. . . . Since the internal secretion of the testis has been shown to be formed by the same

tissues which elaborate the external secretion, i.e., the seminiferous tubules, the question arises as to the nature of the physiological mechanism by which the semen is resorbed into the circulation when it is not expended. Steinach's experiments have shown that such a resorption occurs through the walls of the vas deferens, epididymis, etc., which are lined by absorptive lymphatics, which take up the blocked up testicular secretions and their contained sex hormones produced by the seminiferous tubules and which carry them into the bloodstream . . . There is also evidence that a similar absorption of seminal secretions and hormones can take place through the walls of the seminal vesicles which are richly lined by absorptive lymphatics; and this explains how testicular secretions and other secretions of the male genital tract, when stored in the seminal vesicles and not externally discharged, either through voluntary or involuntary emissions, are disposed of. The existence of such resorption through the absorptive lymphatics which thickly surround the seminal vesicles is undisputed, just as it is known that semen can be resorbed through the mucous lining of the female tract. . . . 'It (the semen) is secreted by the testicles, thence passing through a rather long canal (the epididymis and vas deferens which connects with it) into the seminal vesicles and is constantly taken up again by absorbent vessels and returned into the mass of circulating fluid. . . . In a healthy man, the semen is constantly secreted in the testicles; it proceeds from them into the receptacles which are very limited and which cannot contain what is secreted in one day. There are however some very continent men who have no emission of semen for whole years. What then becomes of it if it be not returned to the circulation? 'It is probable that this absorption does not take place solely in the seminal vesicles, but also in the testicles, the epididymis, which is a kind of first receptacle adhering to them and in the vas deferens, through which the semen passes from these organs to the seminal vesicles. . . . The semen is retained in the seminal vesicles until it is used, or expelled, by nocturnal emissions. During this time, the greater part is reabsorbed by the blood, and produces in entering it remarkable changes.' (Tissot: Treatise on the Diseases Produced by Onanism). . . . 'Those persons who are seeking the highest state of vitality possible to them, and who realize that all losses whatever, through whatever causes, must be avoided, there is for them a possibility of an ever-increasing vitality. . . . They will insist on preserving every drop of their precious semen, permitting it naturally to be resorbed, assuring them first of all of a perfect body, next of increased mental faculties, and finally, if they progress, and the higher nervous centers be nourished and developed, of the fullest spiritual development.' (Guthrie, K.S.: Regeneration). . . . Steinach has shown that the resorbed internal secretions of the sex glands, after passing into the general bloodstream, accumulate chiefly in the tissues of the central nervous system, which seems to have a selective affinity for them which can be explained on the basis of their similarity in chemical composition, both being especially rich in lecithin and phosphates. Indeed no two different constituents of the human body are so remarkably similar in composition than the semen and the brain or the spermatozoa and cortical cells of the cerebrum, both having a central head and an elongated body -- the tail in the case of the spermatozoa and the dendrites of the brain cells. They are also extremely rich in lecithin, cholesterol, and nucleoproteins. ___________ Other books by Raymond Bernard, published by Health Research:

Science Discovers the Physiological Value of Continence

The Secret of Rejuvenation or Professor Brown Sequard's Great Discovery of the Fountain of Youth The Physiological Enigma of Woman: The mystery of menstruation Mysteries of Human Reproduction

Sex and sexuality Homepage

Extracts from

The Other Guy's Sperm: The Cause of Cancers and Other Diseases
Donald E. Tyler, M.D.
Ontario, OR: Discovery Books, 1994

(Buy it here)

Book description (from amazon.com)

Paperback, 134 pages with bibliography The theory of sperm causing diseases presented in this book takes on momentum with cannibalism and organ transplants found as causing diseases. Sperm ingested orally or injected into a rectum is cannibalism; and their invasions of membranes and tissues of genitalia and urethras are equivalent to transplants. The essence is the entrance into one's body of cells of another individual. Sperm invade the delicate linings of the internal and external genitalia of both men and women, enter blood streams, and go to all parts of their bodies. Kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and Gertsmann-Stussler-Scheinker syndrome in humans, scrapie in sheep and goats, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cows are diseases with some clinical aspects in common including neurodegeneration. Anthropologist Robert Glasse connected kuru to gastronomic cannibalism by women and children [in New Guinea], avoided by adult males due to the belief that cannibalism 'robbed a man of his vitality.' Incubation periods are notably long, with 30 years common in kuru and CJD. In this book sperm of the other guy are postulated as the cause of many diseases all over the body including cancers. Experimental, clinical, and epidemiological evidence in support is presented. Precursors of sperm have a tremendous stimulus to divide producing 100,000,000 to 300,000,000 sperm per ejaculate. The union of a sperm with an ovum produces rapidly dividing cells that can result in a 6 to 10 pound baby in 9 months. The unidentified

factor that causes cells to divide decreases in amount or activity in each division of offspring cells until there is no weight gain at maturity when cells die at the same rate they divide. Sperm invading cells other than ova accounts for rapid uncontrolled dividing of cancer cells. DNA of sperm is undifferentiated, capable of producing any type of cell. Sperm, invading cells other than ova accounts for all characteristics of malignant cells including their uncontrolled dividing, invading, having abnormal numbers of chromosomes, and being undifferentiated. Reaction of a host body to invading sperm can be similar to its reaction to bacteria and viruses. In most instances there is no disease at the site of sperm entry. Entry-site diseases include mucoid and purulent discharges diagnosed as gonorrhea and nonspecific urethritis and sores diagnosed as herpes, chancroid, or syphilis. Sperm and their parts invading a body are the equivalent of transplants of any and all cells or organs. Antibodies attacking the genes of the sperm, probably at times attack corresponding cells and organs of the host. That is a probable cause of 'autoimmune' diseases including most arthritis, diabetes, thryroiditis, and lupus erythematosus. Roles of sperm in AIDS, urinary infections, congenital and inherited defects, atherosclerosis, and bestiality are presented.

Contents
Introduction; I. Cancers (A. Inheritance, B. Environmental chemicals, C. Viruses, D. Sperm as the cause, E. Other epidemiology, F. Sperm studies); II. AIDS; III. Urethral discharge; IV. Catheters and instruments (A. Trauma, B. Bacteria introduction, C. Indwelling catheters, D. No resulting discharge); V. Experimental inoculations; VI. No predictability; VII. Not a honeymoon disease; VIII. Organism entry; IX. One's own sperm; X. Foreign sperm as the cause; XI. Cystourethritis in women; XII. Urinary infections in girls; XIII. Sperm and herpes; XIV. Syphilis and sperm; XV. Bestiality; XVI. Congenital and inherited defects; XVII. Autoimmune diseases; XVIII. Atherosclerosis; XIX. Nervous system diseases (A. UDS connection, B. Brain disease, C. Multiple sclerosis); XX. Upper respiratory disease; XXI. Research opportunities; XXII. Conclusion; Bibliography

Introduction
... The heart of the theory is that foreign sperm, any sperm into a woman, and another male's sperm into a man, cause diseases. Sperm of the other guy, pooled in a woman's vagina, move into the opening in the penis of a subsequent sex partner. Sperm invade the lining or surface membranes of the internal and external genitalia and enter blood vessels. In the blood stream they go anywhere in the body. Foreign sperm are the missing link in causes of diseases. They probably are the major cause of cancers and many other devastating diseases. ... [I]nvestigations of bacteria, viruses, and other parasites with host responses to them have failed to explain the causes of most fundamental human diseases. As a few examples of many possible, the causes have not been proved and really are unknown for the common cold, rheumatic fever, serious inflammatory diseases of the eyes including most uveitis, ulcerative diseases of the stomach and intestines, glomerulonephritis, interstitial cystitis, cystitis cystica, endometriosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus

erythematosis, dermatomyositis, psoriasis, brain diseases including psychoses and senile dementia, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, diabetes, atherosclerosis, most congenital defects, and benign and malignant tumors. Even as to inherited diseases, causes of initial alterations of genes are unknown. ... Sperm invade the delicate linings of the internal and external genitalia of men and women. In most cases, there is no primary sore or apparent disease at the site of entry. When present, most 'primary' diseases at the site of sperm entry in the male are manifest as pus and mucous discharges from the urethra and are diagnosed as gonorrhea or nonspecific urethritis. Sperm also probably cause primary ulcers or sores on the genitalia that look like the 'cankers' that occur commonly in the mouth. Those primary ulcers are usually diagnosed as herpes, chanchroid, or syphilis. After invading the inner or outer surface of the genitalia, sperm enter the blood stream. Resulting lesions all over the body by sperm or their parts explain the basic cause of most cancers and diseases of adults. ... The essential scientific facts are established. Sperm move aggressively and invade tissues and cells. They carry DNA and RNA that are the same basic nature as the DNA and RNA that are the vital substances of bacteria and viruses that cause diseases. It is known that they are highly antigenic to which the body responds by making antibodies. Those antigens can be expected to cause other body reaction including inflammation. Sperm have all the factors necessary to cause inflammation, and it is known that they do in fact cause inflammation. Such inflammation is observed when a vasectomy results in leakage of sperm into the tissues. ... Once foreign sperm enter tissues or cells, instead of living as intact sperm, they probably disperse their parts much like they do when they enter ova. Those parts can live, replicate, and also act much like they do after fertilization. When a sperm enters a cell the result can be like a pregnancy, there can be a growth of new types of cells including cancers. Sperm can cause inflammatory reactions to reject, kill, or neutralize them. Transfers of DNA, or its parts including genes, have been accomplished in laboratories and in clinical trials of treatment. Evidence points to common transfer of DNA or its parts by foreign sperm. Resulting diseases are sometimes associated with abnormal chromosomes, genes, and DNA. [W]hen sperm or their parts invade the substance of a person's body, they are like one type of cell transplant; and cells resulting from fusions of sperm or their parts with host cells are another type of cell transplant. The recipient body may act to reject either or both of those types of transplants within a few days, or the rejection reaction can be delayed or not clinically observed. Manifestations of disease may not be observed, they may be subtle, or they may be devastating. ... Differences in diseases could be due to differences in sperm and victim in tissue type, ABO blood type, race, and even species. ... Observations to be presented indicate that the time lapse from intercourse to manifestation of disease caused by sperm varies from a few days to more than 40 years.

Conclusion
In this new theory, foreign sperm ... are major causes of cancers and other serious diseases. ... Sperm and ova can produce all types of cells in the body; they are totipotential. In embryonic development, subsequent generations of cells become more specialized until end-type cells upon dividing can produce only that same type of cell. That is the process of 'differentiation,' sperm being undifferentiated and end-type cells that comprise the

body being differentiated. ... The sperm has the potent stimulus to divide that is expressed with the rapid dividing of the zygote and cells of the embryo. The stimulus in the end-type cell to divide has been diluted so that dividing is much slower and is limited to a few subsequent generations. The sperm has the ability to invade, the end cell cannot. The sperm has 23 chromosomes while the specialized cell has 46. The result of the union can be cells that divide rapidly without control, are undifferentiated in appearance, invade, have abnormal numbers of chromosomes, and can divide an unlimited number of times in cultures. Those are the characteristics of malignant cells. ... The epidemiology of cancers is consistent with sperm causation and inconsistent with usual theories and old ideas. Foreign sperm are probably the essential major cause of cancers in most parts of the body. ... Sperm enter the body through the genitalia. In most instances, they pass through the linings of the genitalia without causing inflammation or sores there. When they cause inflammation in the male it is usually diagnosed as gonorrhea or nonspecific urethritis. When the sores are on the external genitalia, they are commonly diagnosed as herpes, chancroid, or syphilis. In women, sperm are the essential cause of 'honeymoon cystitis' and recurrent cystitis and/or urethritis. ... Sperm of another individual probably are important, paramount causes of most diseases that predominantly and typically have their onsets in adolescence and adulthood. They probably cause diseases of any of the organs that can be affected by syphilis. That includes diseases of the eyes, joints, skin, arteries, genitourinary system, brain, and spinal cord. They probably cause 'autoimmune' diseases and illnesses that are similar to those observed with organ transplants. Sperm probably are paramount causes of congenital and hereditary defects and diseases. ... Bacteria, viruses, protozoans, worms, pollens, chemicals, and other pathogens or agents with host responses to them have failed to provide the causes of most fundamental diseases of humans. Foreign sperm are presented as the major missing group of pathogens and the cause of many diseases including cancers.

Sex and sexuality Homepage

Sex and Sexuality

David Pratt
April 2002 , March 2004

Part 1 of 3

Contents
(Part 1) 1. Reproductive diversity 2. Human evolution 3. Death and rebirth (Part 2) 4. Virginal reproduction 5. Hermaphrodites (Part 3) 6. Pleasure at a price (01/08) 7. Leaving sex behind 8. Chastity links

1. Reproductive diversity
All living organisms have the capacity to produce new organisms similar to themselves. The methods and complexity of the reproductive process vary tremendously, but there are two fundamental types: asexual reproduction, in which a single organism separates into two or more equal or unequal parts; and sexual reproduction, in which a pair of specialized sex cells fuse [1]. Asexual reproduction is found in the majority of living organisms, including most plants, protists (e.g. bacteria, protozoans, and unicellular algae and fungi), and many lower invertebrates. In unicellular organisms it usually takes the form of fission (or mitosis), in which the parent organism splits into two or more identical 'daughter' organisms. In some cases, the cells thus formed may remain clustered together to form filaments or colonies. Protozoans and many lower plants (e.g. ferns) propagate by shedding spores -- reproductive cells that produce new organisms without fertilization. In some lower animals (e.g. hydra) and in yeasts, a common form of reproduction is budding: a small protuberance or bud forms on the surface of the parent's body, increases in size, and finally separates and develops into a new individual identical with the parent. Sponges produce internal buds known as gemmules. Regeneration is a specialized form of asexual reproduction. Some organisms (e.g. starfish, polyps, zebrafish, flatworms, newts, and salamanders) can regenerate new heads, limbs, internal organs, or other body parts if the originals are lost or injured. Many plants are capable of total regeneration, i.e. the formation of a whole individual from a single fragment such as a stem, root, leaf, or even a small slip from such an organ (as in grafting). Among animals, the lower the form, the more capable it is of total regeneration; no vertebrates have this power, though clones of mammals have been produced in the laboratory from single somatic cells (the first clone -- Dolly the sheep -was produced in 1997). Regeneration is closely allied to vegetative reproduction, the formation of a new individual by various parts of the organism not specialized for reproduction. The highest animals that exhibit vegetative reproduction are the colonial tunicates (e.g. sea squirts), which, much like plants, send out runners in the form of stolons, small parts of which form buds that develop into new individuals. Sexual reproduction occurs in many unicellular organisms and in all multicellular plants and animals. In higher invertebrates and in all vertebrates it is the exclusive form of reproduction, except in the few cases in which parthenogenesis (virginal reproduction) is also possible. A number of unicellular organisms multiply by a primitive form of sexual reproduction known as conjugation: two similar organisms fuse, exchange nuclear materials, and then break apart; each organism then reproduces by fission. Most multicellular animals and plants undergo a more complex form of sexual reproduction in which distinct male and female reproductive cells (gametes) unite to form a single cell, known as a zygote, which then undergoes successive divisions to form a new organism. In this type of sexual reproduction, half the genes in the zygote come from one parent and half from the other. Whereas asexual reproduction allows beneficial combinations of characteristics to continue unchanged, offspring produced by sexual reproduction inherit endlessly varied combinations of characteristics. In the case of plants, wind and insects carry the sperm to the stationary egg, or, in a liquid medium, the sperm swims to the egg. In lower animals, sperm and eggs are often

deposited in water, but this method is haphazard as only a few of the many sperm discharged reach the eggs. In higher animals, the spermatozoa, contained in the seminal fluid, are deposited in the lower segment of the female reproductive tract. All mammals, reptiles, and birds as well as some invertebrates, including snails, worms, and insects, use internal fertilization. In many lower multicellular organisms and all higher plants, a sexually produced generation alternates with an asexually produced generation. After fertilization of the egg, the resulting zygote undergoes cell division and differentiation to form the embryo. In most higher plants, the embryo is enclosed in a layer of nutritive material surrounded by a hard outer covering, forming the seed. In most lower animals, the embryo, surrounded by the nutritive material of the former ovum, is enveloped by a leathery or calcareous shell and is extruded from the body of the female. Oviparous animals, such as birds, lay their eggs before the young are completely developed. Ovoviviparous animals produce eggs in shells that hatch within the mother's body. Placental mammals are viviparous, i.e. they give birth to live young without forming shelled eggs; the embryo is implanted in the uterus and nourished by the mother until almost completely developed. Parthenogenesis involves the development of an ovum without fertilization. It is common among lower plants and invertebrate animals, especially rotifers, aphids (plant lice), ants, wasps, and bees. In the aphids there is an alternation of generations: parthenogenetic development of eggs (while in the oviduct) takes place in summer when conditions are favourable, while with the coming of autumn, with lack of sunshine and less abundant food, males appear together with sexual reproduction. The same sex cells sometimes produce different kinds of individuals according to whether or not they are fertilized. For instance, among our common honey bees, a male individual (a drone) arises out of the eggs of the queen if the egg has not been fertilized, and a female (a queen or working bee) if it has. A few kinds of amphibians, reptiles, and birds can reproduce parthenogenetically. Hermaphroditism refers to the presence of organs producing sperm and ova in the same individual. It occurs in the great majority of flowering plants. Most hermaphroditic plants produce male and female elements at different times to ensure cross-pollination, but a few, such as the violet and the evening primrose, are selfpollinated. Hermaphroditism habitually occurs in many invertebrate animals, in the hagfish and tunicate, and a genus of sea bass. It occurs occasionally in other fishes, and in frogs, toads, and certain newts among the amphibians. Hermaphrodite animals are rarely self-fertilizing; in most cases the spermatozoa and ova mature at different times, or the male and female external organs are located so that self-fertilization is impossible. Among the invertebrates, sponges, coelenterates, some mollusks, and earthworms are regularly hermaphroditic. Flatworms have a complete set of male and female gonads in each segment and regularly fertilize themselves. True functional hermaphroditism is rare or absent in higher animals. Animals intermediate in form between males and females occasionally appear, but they are usually sterile, and, when fertile, do not produce both fertile eggs and fertile sperm. Such individuals are often called intersexes. Intersex humans also appear; this category includes all people born with sex chromosomes, external genitalia, or internal reproductive systems that are not considered standard for male or female. Although scientists can now describe the physical processes involved in reproduction in great detail, fertilization remains one of the least understood of all fundamental

biological processes. The mechanisms involved in parthenogenesis are not understood either. And the seemingly miraculous process whereby a fertilized egg develops into a full-grown organism raises even more questions. Genes do not explain this complex process, as they carry instructions for making proteins, but not for their arrangement into tissues, organs, etc. Something else appears to guide and coordinate embryological development. According to occult science, physical processes are organized and guided from subtler, nonphysical levels of an organism's constitution, visible only to those who have developed higher clairvoyance [2]. Explaining how and why sex emerged in the first place poses insuperable problems for orthodox evolutionary theory. The idea that all the intricate components of the male and female reproductive systems could emerge more or less simultaneously, in perfect working order, through purely random genetic mutations, is utterly absurd. Moreover, in the darwinian struggle to pass on more of one's genes to future generations, asexuality is twice as efficient as sexuality. This is because an asexual parent transmits all its genes to each progeny, whereas when a sexual organism forms sperm or egg cells, half the genes are removed. As Richard Dawkins puts it: 'Sexual reproduction is analogous to a roulette game in which the player throws away half his chips at each spin. ... [T]he existence of sexual reproduction really is a huge paradox.' Another darwinist says that sex 'does not merely reduce fitness, but halves it', and should therefore be 'powerfully selected against and rapidly eliminated wherever it appears' [3]. Sexual organisms face various problems that are avoided in asexual organisms. In addition to the cost of evolving and maintaining the sex organs, there is the possibility of blood Rh factor incompatibilities and tissue rejection between mother and child. Because sperm and eggs are like foreign tissue due to their different genetic makeup, special mechanisms are required to keep the body's immune defences from destroying its own gametes. Finding a mate, courting, and copulating involve risks that place sexual organisms at a further disadvantage compared with asexual organisms. Scientists therefore admit that 'there is no convincing Darwinian history for the emergence of sexual reproduction'. In the case of asexual organisms, all offspring are essentially clones of the single parent, and differ from it only by new mutations. Sex, on the other hand, creates diversity. Sex shreds every genome in every generation, with the result that all offspring are genetically different (except in rare cases such as identical twins). Scientists acknowledge that it is difficult to identify any short-term individual benefit in diversity. They also believe that sex would tend to slow the evolution of a species rather than accelerate it, because it breaks up gene combinations with no regard for their adaptive value. Another hypothesis is that the benefit of sex lies not in accelerating the spread of beneficial mutations but in more rapidly eliminating harmful mutations. Asexual lineages can acquire more harmful mutations but never less, whereas in a sexual population it is possible for offspring to have fewer harmful mutations than either parent. The problem with this argument is that darwinism assumes that evolution cannot look ahead to the future; it can only select traits based on their immediate short-term benefits for the individual. If sex primarily helps to maintain the long-term genetic wellbeing of species, it cannot have evolved by purely darwinian mechanisms.

References
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 2000; Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000, http://encarta.msn.com; Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia 2000, http://www.encyclopedia.com. 2. H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press (TUP), 1977 (1888), 1:219, 223-4; G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism, TUP, 1974, pp. 400-2. 3. Walter J. ReMine, The Biotic Message: Evolution versus message theory, Saint Paul, MN: St. Paul Science, 1993, pp. 196-206.

2. Human evolution
Occult teachings on the evolution of humanity differ radically from the current theories of materialistic science. Far from having descended from ape-like ancestors through random genetic mutations, the present human form is said to have slowly condensed out of a more ethereal or astral state of matter in the course of many millions of years, just as the earth itself gradually condensed out of the primordial, ethereal nebula. And as the outer human body, especially the brain and nervous system, developed, more and more of the faculties of the indwelling soul were able to find expression through the physical form. According to theosophy, our earliest protohuman ancestors in the present (fourth) round of the earth's evolution began to develop about 150 million years ago in the midPalaeozoic. They were huge ethereal beings, with ovoid bodies, which very slowly declined in size and solidified, and increasingly took on a recognizably human form. The first race was sexless and propagated by fission: a large portion of the body separated and grew into a duplicate of its parent. The second race was asexual and reproduced by gemmation or budding: a swelling or bud appeared on the body of one of these entities, and eventually separated and grew into another individual similar to its parent. At about the midpoint of the second race, these buds increased in number, and became what might be called 'spores' or 'seeds'. The third root-race was initially androgyne. In the earliest stages, reproduction took place by budding, which developed into egg-laying: vital cells were exuded from the outer parts of the body, and collected together to form huge ovoid aggregates or eggs. To start with, the drops of vital fluid were exuded from nearly all parts of the body. Later a single large cell was exuded from a functional part of the organism, which was the root of the later reproductive organs. Hermaphroditism died out in the middle period of the third root-race, some 18 million years ago, by which time the human body was becoming distinctly physical. Individuals began to be born with the predominant characteristics of one or the other sex, until finally only unisexual individuals were produced. While the separation of the sexes was taking place, the awakening of selfconsciousness in nascent (and hitherto 'mindless') humanity was beginning to accelerate [1]. Evidence that humanity was originally hermaphrodite is supplied by embryology and physiology. Sexual glands and ducts appear in the embryo in the second month of its development, but they are neither male nor female. Sexual differentiation proceeds as

follows: The reproductive organs first develop in the same form for both males and females: internally there are two undifferentiated gonads and two pairs of parallel ducts (Wolffian and Mllerian ducts); externally there is a genital protrusion with a groove (urethral groove) below it, the groove being flanked by two folds (urethral folds). On either side of the genital protrusion and groove are two ridgelike swellings (labioscrotal swellings). . . . If testes develop, the hormone they secrete causes the Mllerian duct to degenerate and almost vanish and causes the Wolffian duct to elaborate into the spermcarrying tubes and related organs (the vas deferens, epididymis, and seminal vesicles, for example). If ovaries develop, the Wolffian duct deteriorates, and the Mllerian duct elaborates to form the fallopian tubes, uterus, and part of the vagina. The external genitalia simultaneously change. The genital protrusion becomes either a penis or clitoris. In the female the groove below the clitoris stays open to form the vulva, and the folds on either side of the groove become the inner lips of the vulva (the labia minora). In the male these folds grow together, converting the groove into the urethral tube of the penis. The ridgelike swellings on either side remain apart in the female and constitute the large labia (labia majora), but in the male they grow together to form the scrotal sac into which the testes subsequently descend. [2]

Male and female reproductive organs. [3]

The development of the embryo and fetus in the womb recapitulates the past development of mankind,* with the first four months corresponding in several respects to the first four root-races preceding our present (fifth) root-race. External genitalia appear in the seventh or eighth week but in a primitive, sexless condition; they become recognizably male or female only in the second half of the third month [4], corresponding to the later third root-race.
*Haeckel's theory that the development of an embryo (ontogeny) is a condensed repetition of the adult stages of its evolutionary ancestors (phylogeny) went out of scientific fashion long ago. However, S.J. Gould states that 'no discarded theme more clearly merits the old metaphor about throwing the baby out with the bath water'; it is undeniable, he says, that 'phyletic information resides in ontogeny' [5].

That the awakening of selfconsciousness also took place at this time is likewise corroborated by embryonic development. In the eighth week the brain begins to undergo explosive growth, increasing in size by millions of cells every day, until by the end of the third month it has grown to something like the 10,000 million cells it will eventually contain. For the rest of pregnancy and on into the first five years of independent life, each brain cell reaches out with networks of fibres and forges links with thousands, and in some cases a quarter of a million, of its neighbours [6].

The formation of bones is likewise said to have taken place in the third root-race, as the human body became increasingly material. In the fetus, ossification (bone-forming) centres appear in most of the future bones during the third (lunar) month, once they are well formed in cartilage; ossification then continues for the rest of pregnancy [7]. Sexual differentiation in the fetus does not lead to the complete disappearance of the reproductive organs of the other sex; rudimentary organs of the opposite sex remain [8]. For instance, males have undeveloped, nonfunctional mammary glands, and also an undeveloped uterus and vagina, known as the prostatic utricle or uterus masculinus. The clitoris is a small, nonfunctional equivalent of the penis, and the ovaries correspond to the testes. The testes develop in the abdominal cavity but descend into the scrotum before birth, while the ovaries remain in the abdominal cavity. The testes and ovaries mainly secrete the male and female sex hormones respectively, but they also secrete small amounts of the opposite sex hormones. Charles Darwin wrote: It has long been known that in the vertebrate kingdom one sex bears rudiments of various accessory parts appertaining to the reproductive system, which properly belong to the opposite sex; and it has now been ascertained that at a very early embryonic period both sexes possessed true male and female glands. Hence some remote progenitor of the whole vertebrate kingdom appears to have been hermaphrodite or androgynous. [9] Modern scientists believe that during the early stages of evolution every animal was probably hermaphroditic. Theosophy denies that human bodies gradually evolved from animal bodies, and states that the earliest human stocks, like the earliest animal stocks, were androgynous. Many myths and legends refer to the androgynous ancestors of present humanity, to the separation of the sexes, and to the first gods being double-sexed [10]. Plato in his Banquet (190) states that an early race of humans were globular in shape and bisexually formed. They were strong and mighty, but ambitious and wicked, so that Zeus cut them in two in order to curb their evildoing and diminish their strength. Since then all mankind has consisted of males and females. An Orphic hymn chanted in the Mysteries asserts: 'Zeus is a male, Zeus is an immortal maiden.' Pallas-Athene emerges from Jupiter's head, and the younger Bacchus is enclosed in his thigh prior to birth. Some statues of Jupiter have female breasts, and representations of Venus-Aphrodite give her a beard to signify the same bisexual nature. According to the Hindu Puranas, 'The mighty power became half male, half female'. In one allegory, Brahma separates into two and recreates himself as Viraj in one of his halves (the female Vach). Many Hindu images are half male and half female, and have four arms. The ancient Persians taught that humans were the product of the tree of life, growing in androgynous pairs, till they were separated during a subsequent modification of the human form. The Egyptian supreme god Ra is represented as a perfect bisexual being, from which are derived the other gods (Osiris, Horus, Ptah, Ammon, etc.), representing Ra's various attributes, or the powers of nature. Each of these lesser gods had a female counterpart representing the same individuality in its female state. Similar ideas can be found among the Chaldeans and the Assyrians. In the Hermetic books intelligence is said to be 'God possessing the double fecundity of the two sexes'.

In the Hebrew book of Genesis, the elohim -- usually translated as 'God', but actually a plural word signifying the creative powers of nature -- first create Adam (early humanity) 'male and female', i.e. androgynous (Genesis 1:26-28, 5:1-2). Eve is later made from Adam's 'rib' (the Hebrew word also means 'side' or 'part'). Adam and Eve then eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (representing the awakening of selfconsciousness), and are cast out of Eden (the original, blissful state of unselfconsciousness), and take on 'coats of skin' (a reference to the fact that human bodies were then becoming physical rather than astral). Interestingly, the Hebrew word for 'knowledge' (daath) also means 'sexual union': 'Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain' (Genesis 4:1, also 4:17, 25). Theosophy asserts that the sexual method of reproduction was adopted first in the animal kingdom and nature then introduced it in the human kingdom but 'under protest' [11]. This appears to be confirmed by several phenomena. H.P. Blavatsky contrasts the comparative painlessness of procreation among the animals with the suffering and danger it often entails for women [12]. Women are the only mammalian females whose vagina is closed with a tough membrane, the hymen. Its forcible rupture means that the first attempt at intercourse is a bloody and painful experience.

Furthermore the mouth of the uterus is normally covered by a mucus plug which hinders the passage of sperm from the vagina to the uterus. When discharged, it interferes with the inward passage of the sperm, which are poisoned by the acid vaginal secretions, with many being rendered immobile. Subsequent entrance of sperm into the uterus is hindered by its quick retraction and closure. Dr Raymond Bernard comments: How different this is from the direct passage of spermatozoa from the penis to the uterus, which occurs in animals, where the elongated uterus reaches forward until it grasps the penis and aspirates a few drops of seminal fluid. [13] Once in the uterus, the movement of the sperm towards the ovaries is impeded by the downward ciliary current of the minute hairs inside the fallopian tube and the sticky mucus that covers its interior wall. About 100 million spermatozoa are deposited in the vagina, but only a million enter the uterus, and perhaps only 100 reach the ovum [14]. According to theosophy, the existence of two sexes in the human kingdom is not the endpoint of our sexual evolution. In the next root-race, which will flourish in a few million years, humanity will again become hermaphrodite or double-sexed, and in the final root-race during the present round we shall become completely androgynous. Children will be produced by kriyashakti, i.e. by will and creative imagination -passively in the sixth race, and consciously and actively in the seventh [15]. The reason the separation of humans into distinct sexes followed the awakening of selfconsciousness is because of the dual nature or bipolarity of mind. As the human race evolves and rises out of the lower mind into the higher, sex will therefore disappear [16].

These developments will of course be accompanied by inner and outer changes to our bodies. The sixth and seventh root-races will not have sex organs such as we now have. There will also be changes to our spinal cord. At present, there are two chains of ganglia, or sympathetic cords, on either side of the spinal column. Each is connected with a channel (or nadi) of psychovital force: the sushumna runs through the spinal column, while the ida and pingala are associated with the sympathetic cords. In the next root-race the ida and pingala will develop into two spinal columns connected by the sushumna. In the seventh root-race these two backbones will fuse into one, as our male and female aspects will be fully integrated [17]. This will foreshadow the even higher evolutionary state to be reached in the seventh round, when we shall regain our original, divine state of sexless purity, but enriched with the wisdom gained through our selfconscious evolution in the realms of matter. The church father St. Clement said that Jesus was once asked when his 'kingdom' would come, and replied: 'It will come when two and two make one; when the outside is like the inside; and when there is neither male nor female'. G. de Purucker gives the following interpretation [18]. 'When two and two make one' refers to a time when our psychological nature has become so refined that it coalesces with our spiritual nature. In terms of the sevenfold human constitution, the spiritual nature is the uppermost duad (atman + buddhi, or inner divinity + spiritual intelligence), while the psychological nature is the intermediate duad (manas + kama, or mind + desire). 'When the outside is like the inside' means that the dense, physical body will become more sensitive and refined, and therefore better able to express the spiritual faculties of the inner god. The phrase 'when there is neither male nor female' speaks for itself: sex is merely a transitory evolutionary stage and is destined to pass away.

References
1. G. de Purucker, The Esoteric Tradition, Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press (TUP), 2nd ed., 1973, pp. 304-39; G. de Purucker, Man in Evolution, TUP, 2nd ed., 1977, pp. 231-46. See 'Evolution in the fourth round', http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/evo.htm. 2. 'Sexual behaviour, human', Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 2000; Embryo Images Online, http://www.med.unc.edu/embryo_images. 3. http://www.bcbsfl.com/ocyh_bodyatlas/body_sections.cfm. 4. 'Human embryology', Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 2000; 'Embryology', Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000, http://encarta.msn.com. 5. Stephen Jay Gould, Ontogeny and Phylogeny, Cambridge, MA: Belknap, Harvard University Press, 1977, pp. 2, 70. 6. Lyall Watson, Supernature II: A new natural history of the supernatural, London: Sceptre, 1987, p. 298. 7. 'Human embryology', Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 2000; David Le Vay, Human Anatomy and Physiology, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 3rd ed., 1988, pp. 37-8. 8. F.H. Buzzacott and M.I. Wymore, Bi-sexual Man or Evolution of the Sexes, Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, 1966 (1912), pp. 23-6; Hilton Hotema, Secret of Regeneration, Health Research, 1963, ch. 146; Gray's Anatomy, http://www.bartleby.com/107. 9. Descent of Man, quoted in Man in Evolution, p. 238fn; H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, TUP, 1977 (1888), 2:118-9.

10.The Secret Doctrine, 1:89; 2:130, 133-5; Alexander Wilder, 'The primeval race double-sexed', The Theosophist, Feb. 1883, pp. 112-4; Bi-sexual Man or Evolution of the Sexes, pp. 75-83. 11.G. de Purucker, Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, TUP, 2nd ed., 1979, pp. 394-5. 12.The Secret Doctrine, 2:262. 13.Raymond Bernard, The Mysteries of Human Reproduction, Health Research, n.d., p. 74. 14.Human Anatomy and Physiology, pp. 355-6. 15.Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, pp. 398-9, 409-10. See 'Sex: theosophical quotations', http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/sexquo.htm. 16.G. de Purucker, Studies in Occult Philosophy, TUP, 1973, p. 676. 17.H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1950-91, 12:700-2; G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism, TUP, 1974, pp. 461-2; Dialogues of G. de Purucker, TUP, 1948, 1:361-3. 18.The Esoteric Tradition, pp. 64-6.

3. Death and rebirth

Materialistic science claims that we are no more than complex, genetically-programmed machines. It provides no real insight into the causes of birth, growth, and death, or the origin of our selfconscious minds. It cannot even explain the essential difference between a living human being and a corpse -- both consist of the same chemical elements! Occult science, by contrast, recognizes that the physical body is ensouled by subtler 'bodies'. The physical body dies when the connecting link with our higher centres of consciousness is broken. The physical body proceeds to decay on the physical plane while the astral model-body that holds it together during life, along with the higher astral form in which the lower mind is seated, decompose in different regions of the astral realms surrounding and interpenetrating our physical globe. The speed at which this happens depends on the quality of thoughts and desires in the life just ended. At the 'second death' the higher mind or reincarnating soul separates from everything below it and, enclosed within the aura of the spiritual-divine self, enters a blissful, dreamlike state (known as the devachan), in which all the unrealized spiritual hopes and aspirations of the last incarnation are fulfilled, and the noblest experiences of the last life are assimilated and woven into the fabric of our inner nature. When the spiritual energies generated during the previous incarnation are exhausted, the devachanic dreaming draws to a close, and the attraction to earth life begins to reassert itself. The thirst for material life, the longing to return to familiar scenes and be reunited with past companions, causes us to incarnate on earth again and again. As the reincarnating soul redescends towards its native sphere, its former life-atoms in the astral realms reawaken and start to build up a new astral form. The soul's ethereal energies arouse aggregates of astral and physical substance into forming reproductive cells in the bodies of potential parents, these being people with whom it was closely related in past lives, and who can provide it with a physical body and family environment suited to its karmic needs. Reincarnating souls may 'precipitate' reproductive cells in up to several dozen potential parents, and several different souls

may be drawn to the same man or woman [1]. If conception takes place, the egg is fertilized by whichever of the male sex cells has the greatest affinity with it at the time. The human egos awaiting incarnation are exceedingly numerous, so that there may be scores of entities which could become children of any one couple, yet there is always one whose attraction is strongest to the motherto-be at any specific physiological moment, and it is this astral form which becomes the child. [2] Assuming that the egg available for fertilization is connected with one specific reincarnating soul, a sperm connected with the same soul will normally be the one that fuses with the egg. If fertilization does not take place, or if it does but pregnancy is later interrupted by abortion, miscarriage, or some other accident, the incarnating entity may be psychomagnetically attracted to other suitable parents. A significant difference between the male and female reproductive systems is that whereas each ejaculation contains some 100 to 500 million sperm, only one egg at a time is released. And whereas sperm are produced continuously, ova are not. When females are born, 150,000 to 500,000 hollow balls of cells -- follicles -- containing immature egg cells are present in the ovaries; by the time the female reaches adolescence and young adulthood, the number has fallen to about 34,000. During active child-bearing years (13-50) only 300-400 of the follicles undergo maturation and, if not fertilized, pass out of the body during menstruation. According to theosophy, reproductive cells in both males and females may be active or dormant, and a dormant sex cell is vitalized and activated when a reincarnating entity links itself with it [3].

Whereas fraternal twins develop from two separate eggs that have been fertilized by two separate sperm, identical twins develop from a single fertilized egg (zygote). In the latter case, at a relatively early stage in its growth, the zygote splits into two separate cell masses which go on to become embryos; these embryos are genetically identical to each other and are always of the same sex. A zygote's incomplete or late division into

two cell masses results in Siamese twins. Triplets may be derived from a single zygote; from two zygotes, one of which divides; or from three separate zygotes. Similarly, quadruplets may originate from one up to four zygotes, and so on. The phenomenon of multiple births suggests that, in some cases, either more than one reincarnating soul can be associated with a particular egg or sperm, or a sperm and egg that fuse are connected with different reincarnating souls, or that one or more additional reincarnating souls may attach themselves to an egg after it has been fertilized. In humans and other mammals, females have two X chromosomes while males have an X and a Y chromosome.* The sex of an offspring therefore depends on whether the sperm that fertilizes the egg is X-bearing or Y-bearing. But contrary to what official biology claims, this is not a matter of chance. The sex of the offspring is determined by the lower emotional and mental tendencies and karmic needs which the reincarnating soul embodying in the growing embryo has brought with it from past lives. As a rule, several lives are spent in a body of one sex before changing to a body of the other sex, which happens mainly as a result of the strong attraction to the opposite sex during the last few lives [4]. One can readily imagine that this changeover may sometimes be a time of some psychological confusion as regards gender.
*Although most males have XY chromosomes and most females are XX, there are exceptions. About one in a thousand men have XXY chromosomes, while a smaller proportion of women have only a single X chromosome. It is widely believed that the Y chromosome carries a single dominant male-determining gene. Yet roughly one male in 20,000 has two X chromosomes and no Y at all. Although about two thirds of these XX males do carry on their X chromosomes some DNA sequences normally found on the Y chromosomes, the other one third do not. The origin of these XX males remains enigmatic. Although X and Y chromosomes are usually termed 'sex chromosomes', genes located on chromosomes besides the X and Y chromosomes contribute to sexual development, and genes related to nonsexual traits are located on X chromosomes [5].

The human embryo begins as a single cell. Nine months later it has grown to over a trillion cells. A question often asked, especially in connection with abortion, is: When does the embryo becomes a living being? That is: When does it become animated by a human soul? Viewed theosophically, at no stage can the embryo or fetus be considered to be anything but alive; it is only the degree of manifest life (and consciousness) that changes. The connection between the reincarnating soul and the body-to-be is established in several stages. Even before conception takes place, a ray of energy from the incarnating soul activates the sex cells in potential parents. The union of sperm and egg marks the next stage, and the embryo then begins to grow, guided initially by the vegetative, vital-astral part of the reincarnating soul. The physical form is built around the astral form, and both attract atoms belonging to the soul in former lives.

Around the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy, the fetus moves for the first time, and this marks the first real entrance into it of the higher attributes of the reincarnating soul [6]. By the end of the seventh month, the lower mind is said to be firmly 'wedged' in the brain and senses of the fetus [7]. After birth, the brain cells do not increase in number but an intricate network of connections forms between them, enabling more and more of

the latent mental powers of the human soul to be expressed -- a process that can continue for most of a person's life. Mind scarcely begins to function until the seventh year, but is not in full action until the person concerned is of mature age [8]. [B]efore, and indeed for a number of years after, birth, the child is only overshadowed by the higher principles of its constitution, the lower principles being the most active in function and expression during the earlier years of life. Yet at about fourteen or fifteen years of age, more or less, the case varying according to the individual, there occurs the first real entrance of the higher part of the child's inner constitution into conscious functioning on our physical plane; and from this wonderful hour the enveloping of the growing child and youth with the spiritual-vital aura of the Reincarnating Ego proceeds progressively and steadily through life into adulthood, and slackens only a short time before natural death -- or should do so, and would do so in virtually all cases were it not for the fact that so many human beings live unnatural emotionally and passionally tempestuous lives which weaken the organs of the body and their full and complete functioning. [9]

References
1. G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism, Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press (TUP), pp. 621-6; G. de Purucker, The Esoteric Tradition, TUP, 2nd ed., 1973, pp. 879-910. See 'Sex: theosophical quotations', http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/sexquo.htm. 2. Fountain-Source of Occultism, p. 625. 3. The Esoteric Tradition, pp. 904-5. 4. Ibid., p. 666. 5. William R. Corliss (comp.), Biological Anomalies: Humans I, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 1992, pp. 40-2; Alice D. Dreger, Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000, p. 4. 6. The Esoteric Tradition, p. 906. 7. H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1950-91, 12:623-4. 8. Dialogues of G. de Purucker, TUP, 1948, 3:230, 337-8. 9. The Esoteric Tradition, p. 893.

Sex and Sexuality: Part 2 Sex and Sexuality: Contents

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