TO ALL WHO WISH TO HELP IN THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN RACE
“Sense-appetite....like a slimy serpent twines itself about the being”
- Lake Harris, Apocalypse, I.ii, 301 [Page 7]
“The Serpent....will be conquered”
- Papini, Life of Christ, 212
Replete with stories about slayers of dragons or of gigantic serpents is the legendary literature of many nations. All such tall tales tell allegorically about an experience through which, on the road to perfection, each human soul must pass.
In the universal language of symbolism a serpent or dragon represents the human lower nature — and particularly, often exclusively, the sexual tendencies.
The legend's triumphant hero is the human being who accomplishes the
CONQUEST OF THE SERPENT
and thereby gains access to golden treasure, or to a magic spring, or to a royal princess — all of which, as symbols in mystic lore, stand for the most valuable possession which a person can acquire: the spiritual consciousness of one's higher nature [Page 8]
Thus do the legends symbolically express the eternal truth: that only those who overcome their lower nature, and free themselves from the drives of sex, can reach the matchless felicity of conscious at-one-ment with their higher Self.
The lower nature of a human being consists of a number of qualities that are inconsistent with the advanced evolutionary stage which the better part of humanity is supposed to — and should — have reached.
Many of the unbecoming characteristics of the lower nature — such as cruelty, greed, anger, hatred, pride, dishonesty, deceit, crude selfishness, and a host of others — are almost generally conceded to be shortcomings; and at least to some extent most of these are being subdued.
But sensuality — the strongest, most widespread and most reprehensible of all — is nearly everywhere apathetically sanctioned instead of being counteracted, and stimulated instead of subjugated.
It is the most deceptive, so that its injuriousness is usually belittled instead of fully realized. It is the most malignant, because it blocks the performance of the delicate organs in the head, [Page 9] without which human evolution cannot proceed.
While all propensities of the lower nature form more or less difficult-to-surmount obstructions to progress — the Serpent Sex, slithering in every direction over the road of evolution, constitutes the most perilous, hardest-to-overcome obstacle.
Once that Serpent has been routed, all barriers can more easily be removed.
In the world today there are not many who are aware of the perniciously impeditive power of the Serpent: and fewer still are anxious to break its domination.
To explain the danger of the uncontested sway of the sex symbolizing monster — and to offer a few hints for the use of anyone who is ready and willing to grapple with the insatiable creature — that is the main purpose of this intentionally single minded treatise [Page 10]
NOTE: For those who wish to make a deeper study of the value of continence, there has appeared a more elaborate volume: The Coiled Serpent, by the same author. Its philosophy of conservation of reproductive energy is substantiated with quotations from hundreds of authentic sources.
“There is a power lying hid in us, with which to overrule the Serpent and.....to shake off all concupiscence.”
- WEIGELIUS, Astrology Theologized, vi, 89 [Page 11]
“Put this teaching into practice.... The results will not be slow in appearing.”
- Armitage, Sex Force, III, vii, 110
CONTENTS
Page 7 -Foreword
PART ONE - WHY
Chapter 1 - Page 17 - Why Subjugate Sex?
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19 - Necessity?
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21 - Love?
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23 - Divine Creative Power?
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25 - Normalcy?
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26 - Moderation?
Chapter 2 - Page 27 - Reasons Galore
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28 - Glandular Secretions
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31 - Diseases
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33 - Marriage
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34 - Propagation
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36 - When Sanctionable?
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39 - Youth [Page 12]
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40 - Maturity
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43 - Character
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44 - Ethics
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45 - Religion
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47 - Philosophy
Chapter 3 - Page 49 - Deep Reasons
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50 - Evaluation of Sex
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52 - Evolution
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53 - Retarded Evolution
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54 - Consciousness
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56 - Spirituality
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57 - Regeneration
Chapter 4 - Page 59 - Occult Reasons
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60 - The Unseen
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61 - After Death
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63 - Many Lives?
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64 - A Mysterious Power
Chapter 5 - Page 67 - The Ideal
PART TWO - WHETHER.....
Chapter 6 - Page 73 - Individual Standpoint
Chapter 7 - Page 75 - Attitude [Page 13]
PART THREE - HOW
Chapter 8 - Page 81 - Suggestions Only
Chapter 9 - Page 83 - Purification
Chapter 10 - Page 85 - Pure Thoughts
Chapter 11 - Page 87 - Pure Acts
Chapter 12 - Page 89 - Pure Pastimes
Chapter 13 - Page 91 - Pure Habits
Chapter 14 - Page 95 - Pure Foods
Chapter 15 - Page 99 - Pure Drinks
Chapter 16 - Page 103 - Pure Sights
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104 - Nudism
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105 - Stage and Screen
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105 - Reading Matter
Chapter 17 - Page 107 - Pure Sounds
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108 - Music
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108 - Speech
Chapter 18 - Page 109 - Pure Emotions
Chapter 19 - Page 111 - Pure Emanations
Chapter 20 - Page 113 - The One Way: Will
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114 - Will versus Desire
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116 - Free Will
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117 - Training the Will [Page 14]
PART FOUR - RELATED TOPICS
Chapter 21 - Page 121 - Education
Chapter 22 - Page 123 - Step by Step
Chapter 23 - Page 125 - Constant Effort
Chapter 24 - Page 127 - Solving Problems
Chapter 25 - Page 129 - Progressing
Chapter 26 - Page 131 - Temptations
Chapter 27 - Page 133 - Repression?
Chapter 28 - Page 135 - Renunciation
Chapter 29 - Page 137 - Meditation
Chapter 30 - Page 139 - Transmutation
Chapter 31 - Page 143 - Sublimation
PART FIVE - RESULTS
Chapter 32 - Page 149 - Principal Benefits
Page 150 -- Health
Page 151 -- Longevity
Page 151 -- Efficiency
Page 151 -- Upliftment, - etc
Chapter 33 - Page 155- Onward, Civilization! [Page
15]
“We can acquire a state incomparably greater than the satisfaction
of desire.”
- RADHAKRISHNAN, Indian Philosophy, I, viii, 486 [Page 16]
“The wise ones learn to renounce their senses, knowing that those are the enemies of their immortal soul.”
- HERMES, Divine Pymander, II, 54 [Page 17]
WHY SUBJUGATE SEX?
“This is the only way to bring the soul to those joys .... that have no dependence on carnal things. ”
-Henry More, Enchiridion Ethicum, III, iii, 200
Stimulation of sexual impulses has become an ingrained part of humanity's customary way of living.
The cumulative influence of eroticism arousing factors has led to habitual waste of sex force, in and out of marriage; to seduction, kidnappings and rape; to increasing juvenile delinquency; to unnatural sexual deviations and abuses; to sex mania; to sex murders, and to to her sex crimes.
The ever intensified stimulation is the underlying cause of discord in married life; of sickly and defective offspring; of venereal diseases, and the derivative invalidations that become manifest in later life; of dull minds and profligacy; of overcrowded reformatories, prisons and asylums; and most detrimental of all: it has created an almost insurmountable barrier against the [Page 18] evolutionary progress of the human race.
All these disastrous effects of over stimulated sexuality can be ameliorated in but one way: by subjugation, by individual control and restraint of the sexual urge. Definite improvement can be effected only when the necessity of individual effort is understood and fulfilled.
Where so many inharmonious conditions and tragic events have their origin in sexual passion,the problem of subjugation of that passion certainly calls for more than cursory consideration. The value of continence as a cure for social ills demands to be studied, first of all, by every intelligent, unprejudiced person.
The trouble is that most people — be they intelligent or not — are prejudiced. The majority of mankind glorifies and idolizes sex. Obviously, little interest in the breaking of its spell can be expected from those whose ideas on the subjects are biased by bondage to lascivious habits.
Such sex addicts make up the mass of scoffers who, at the slightest suggestion of the desirability of abstinence, spontaneously start to mutter and to sputter, and — in defence of carnal customs — accentuate [Page 19] such hyperbolic terms as NECESSITY, LOVE, and DIVINE CREATIVE POWER.
But what bearing to these have on the subject of sex subjugation?
NECESSITY? Oftenest — and most parrot-like —repeated is the claim about a suppositional biologic necessity for every human being to follow the promptings of an unduly magnified libido.
Tthat hollow claim subsists, because it provides an excuse for the claimant's personal inclinations. But — biologically or otherwise there is as little need for anyone to yield to a sexual impulse as there is for committing a murder in a moment of impulsive anger. Both kinds of impulses are the deplorable result of mainly mind fed and by emotion impassioned excitement. In a civilized world such impulses must be controlled, and gradually eliminated.
Another pretence of necessity of an active sexual life is based on a fancied analogy between sex and nutrition. But in reality these two are more contrarious than similar to each other.
Nutrition sustains the life force in the individual, while sexual acts consume [Page 20] that force. As a natural fiat, the frequent intake of food is inevitable for personal self-preservation; whereas the utilization of the generative faculty is requisite only if and when a person wishes to ensure the continuance of the race. This naturally brings so-called necessity down to a very limited infrequency — and it does not apply to every human individual; for the care of racial preservation is far from being incumbent on every one of us.
Any sexual congress without intended propagation — whether by the wedded, the unwed or the widowed — is, no less than any perverse act, mere sense gratification and a misuses of the reproductive faculty.
Heard also all too often is the presumption that a physically active self life is essential for proper health and vigour.
This blatant pretext is conclusively disapproved by the evident vigorous health of numerous celibates, and innumerable others who live the longest part of life without indulging in sex in any form.
A very popular, and sometimes semi-professional custom is to ascribe any symptoms of sickliness, thinness, neurosis or other trouble in from sex abstaining persons to [Page 21] their abstemiousness. But quite as many other causes exist for such conditions as for similar symptoms in countless people who are far from continent.
The sham misstatement about necessity for the sake of health is disproved, too, by the rule for athletes in training for contests. Just for the sake of guarding health and saving strength, that rule prescribes abstinence from sexual excitement. Where abstinence is so salutary and serviceable in competitive sport event, it must also be conducive to health and success in un-eventful every day existence.
Indeed, not only is sexual expression definitely unnecessary for one's health — — but strict continence is far more apt to promote an exuberance of physical soundness and vigour., and to bring in addition an increase of intellectual efficiency and a clearer spiritual insight.
Love? One of the most pernicious subterfuges of the libidinous group is to cover the ugly features of sexual passion with a deceptive, beauteous mask of love — — thus inducing the gullible masses to believe that sex is something sublime, and that sex attraction is identical with love. [Page 22]
Mystified and misled by the tempting disguise, unwary individuals are duped; and by the time the mask comes off, it is usually too late to withstand the coercive power of the lecherous mischief-maker, sex, then no longer masquerading as love.
With a little discrimination one cannot become so deluded and confused. For then one sees that sex and love are incongruous opposites. Love is the devotion of soul to soul, sex the mere craving of body for body. Love unselfishly wants to bring happiness to others, sex selfishly seeks to gratify its own desires. Love ennobles the character, sex coarsens it. Love lifts the consciousness to the spiritual, sex lowers it to the animalistic level. Love is the greatest factor to sustain evolutionary progress; sex, on the contrary, is the main cause of detaining evolution — — it even constitutes (by being wrongly used) th original causation of devolution, of incrustation in materiality. In short: love is the highest principle in the universe, sex one of the lowest.
All of which implies that to mistake sex for love is just about the most fatal error into which a human being
can fall. [Page 23]
DIVINE CREATIVE POWER? These impressive words become sacrilegious when glibly used in an
attempt to sanction sensuality.
It is especially the male of the human species who prides himself to possess what he likes to call: “creative power”. He readily seems to think that by his maleness he, and he alone, is favoured with a semblance of equality with the Creator.
Hiss puffed-up boast might suffer from deflation, when he is reminded that every male pig and mouse, and every male lizard and louse is endowed with what he has spuriously misnamed: 'divine creative power'.
Sex is never in the slightest sense truly creative.
Self-evidently, there can be no question of creation in the overwhelming profusion of intentionally unprocreative acts, to which humanity has become habituated.
But even on those very rare occasions when man uses his generative faculty for procreation, he does not manifest truly creative power. Without an inkling of either the knowledge or the ability to create a single living cell, man — like the male of any animal species — can only sow the seed for a new body. More accurately stated: he [Page 24] does not even do that; he merely fecundates the seed which is already present in the matrix — — — and there are artificial means of impregnation, which can make his active cooperation entirely superfluous.
Where, then, is there a sign of the vaunted 'creative power' of the human male?
The possibility for expression of such power lies not in sex, but— for man and woman alike — it is
vested in the mind. Even there, the incipient power is still incipient. Many of the human mind's creations — especially
as displayed in much that passes as modern art — are far from divine. And so they must remain, until a high
degree of spirituality has been developed — an attainment for which complete subdual of the sex force is
a prerequisite.
OTHER OBJECTIONS to the tenet of continence are made by the many who find it easiest to follow conventional customs and to agree with prevailing beliefs.
Since abstemiousness is out of place in the established usages and ideas of the day, such middle of the roaders — without giving much thought to the merits of sexual abstinence — are insouciantly against it. [Page 25]
At any hint of criticism in regard to matters concerning sex, the hosts of average people mumble that everything is all right as long as it conforms with so-called NORMALCY and MODERATION — — whatever meaning they may attach to these well-sounding, yet rather unsound catch words.
NORMALCY? The qualification of being normal depends on a vague and variable concept, which fluctuate with time, locality and vogue. Whatever is customary is usually condoned, and heedlessly called normal.
Normalcy is only a measure of mediality, in which ethical, moral and spiritual values are not taken into consideration.
In some aboriginal tribes it was once looked upon as being normal to put to death — and to serve as delicacies at a cannibal banquet — one's agent parents.
In one great country it is now quite normal that about a hundred people are being killed each day — with double that rate on holi- and holy days — in traffic.
In our sexually super stimulated humanity excessive sex expression is deemed to be the norm — — the reason for its acceptance being that it supplies a smooth excuse for uninhibited concupiscence. [Page 26]
But the most worldwide approval of that controvertible norm proves nothing in its favour. Il should be disapproved, because it blocks human progress. Progress is made by those who rise above a by vox populi adopted norm.
MODERATION? This conveniently undefinable concept is so elastic in meaning, that it can snugly fit — and serve to support — anybody's mal proportioned mould of noxious habits. It leaves everybody free to consider one's own pattern of sexual indulgence as being well within the stretchable bounds of moderation. It does not provide a definitive standard — — only a fraudulent vindication of personal weaknesses.
Gratification of passion, now so widely adhibited under the palliative label of moderation, had better be known for what it really is: a poison. Beware: even a minute dose can stunt soul-growth; it destroys the possibility of the unfoldment of a human being's higher potentialities.
The impellent power of the sex force must be overcome, before the superb characteristics and faculties,which are latent in everyone, can become manifest. [Page 27]
REASONS GALORE
“Moral purity is judged to have intrinsic value”.
- WESTERMARCK, Ethical Relativity - VII, 193
Dwellers is squalid slums, when told of ways and means by which they can exchange their insalubrious surroundings for new and wholesome ones, are apt to be suspicious — loath to give up the sluttish things to which they are accustomed and to which, after all, they are attached. Their spontaneous objections must be rebutted, before sound reasons for a change can have a chance to make any impression upon them.
So, in regard to people who are attached to dingy sexual standards, the confused and beguiling untruisms of their remonstrances had to be confuted in the preceding chapter, before trying to submit cogent reasons for the desirability of discarding popular, but polluted ideas about sex.
Efforts to show such reasons have frequently been made — but almost without [Page 28] exception in long-winded, stereotyped, preachy, poorly presented articles or tracts, without eye or mind-appeal.
Now for an attempt to offer a condensed, clear-cut survey of rational motives for the advisability of remodelling the structure of human sexual life.
GLANDULAR SECRETIONS. In both, male and female bodies the gonads — that is: the sex glands — can be looked upon as central power stations which provide the individual with essential, gonadic force.
The current can be switched on for a variety of usages. But the productive capacity of the central stations is not unlimited; any amount of power used up in one way, leaves less — perchance too little — available for other purposes.
To get a maximum of benefit from the power at one's disposal, every bit of it must be utilized to best advantage — — without ever letting any of it go to waste.
This is a basic principle; it should be kept in mind, unfailingly, always.
By natural fiat, two inherently competitive purposes are served by the gonads in any living creature: these glands produce [Page 29] external secretions for reproduction of the species — and internal secretions for individual self-maintenance, self-development, self-regeneration.
Only mankind has arbitrarily added a third purpose. In order to satisfy its uncontrolled sensual desires, it has stimulated the glands into yielding an inordinate quantum of external, generative fluids for non-generative, non regenerative, in every degenerative practices.
The wasteful, man-incited overproduction of external, can take place only at the cost of a reduction in the supply of internal secretions — — thereby unfavourably, and even dangerously affecting the latter's immeasurably important tasks.
The human interference with the gonads' natural activities has still other, as a rule overlooked, devastating effects.
For the manufacture of their products these glands draw some of the most precious elements out of the blood stream. If no more is extracted than what is needed for natural requirements, the blood will have enough of such elements to supply also other stations in the body's complicated biological system. But when forced by sexual [Page 30] stimulation into unnatural overproduction, the gonads have to draw more than their natural share of elements from the blood — thereby not leaving enough in it for an adequate supply for other organs.
As a result, the whole system suffers.
Out of the raw materials extracted from the blood, the gonads manufacture the secretions and force-currents for body-building and maintenance; for disease resistance; for brain formation and intellectual clarity; for spiritual development; and — but almost only as a side-line, when specially called upon — for reproduction.
Left undisturbed by human sense-gratifying interference, the glands will manufacture reproductive fluids only at the few times when nature's plan for the continuation of the race is to be followed, when parenthood is intended.
At all other times it is as unnatural for the sex glands to secrete reproductive fluids, as it would be for lactic glands to form milk when motherhood is not involved.
Often debated by physiologists has been the question as to whether the reproductive fluids, if not expelled, can be reabsorbed [Page 31] by the body. But this controvertible point is of little practical importance.
The real problem is the non-formation of those fluids, by avoiding excitement. The entire capacity of the glands can then be utilized for uninterrupted production of the internal, regenerative secretion, for the full benefit of body, mind, and character and spirit.
DISEASES. Anyone's first thought, when linking disease with sex, is apt to be about venereal diseases. These used to be used as a threat in cautions against sexual transgressions. But all the moralistic warnings, with all the symptomatic descriptions, and all the horrible illustrations of bodies, affected by venereal infection, have never been very effective in keeping young or old from risking exposure to such infection. Much less so now, when final scruples are set aside by the tempting suggestion that a package of prophylactics can prevent infection — — and when, moreover, the medics are presumed to be able to cure venereal diseases almost instantly.
However, the fact remains that in most cases the supposed cure is only a suppression of outward symptoms — — and that [Page 32] in later years, from dormant remnants of the lightly considered infection, a variety of seemingly unrelated infirmities and ailments are likely to arise.
Abstemiousness still is the best safeguard against both, venereal infection and eventually later ensuing ills.
It would not be quite correct to ascribe all illnesses directly and exclusively to mis-use of the generative function; but the statement would not be very far from being to a large extent justifiable.
Since every sexual act, every sexual excitement bestirs the sex glands into producing external secretions, the needed supply of inner secretions for body-maintenance is thereby considerably reduced. As a result, the body's disease-resisting power is weakened, and the person becomes vulnerable to any form of disease.
In that way, it certainly is true that the customary misuse of sex is, at the very least, not to be overlooked as a contributing cause of all kinds of illness — — not only in the squanderers of sex force themselves, but, as an aftermath, also in their offspring, from earliest infancy on. [Page 33]
MARRIAGE. One of humanity's oldest institutions needs a drastic overhauling.
Through outwardly still fairly adequate, it is internally shabby — worm-eaten as it is by the venomous
worm (or serpent) Sex.
Fundamentally, matrimony is excellent — not only for the raising of a new generation, but also as an
evolutionary training school for individual development of responsibility, cooperation, tender and true affection,
unselfishness, and other spiritualising qualities.
But in age of coarse materialism and sensuality, the connubial state is often chosen almost exclusively for sexual convenience — for the maximum of stimulation, combined with the maximum of opportunity which it offers for indulging in cohabitation. A marriage licence seem to be looked upon as a brevet for legalized licentiousness. Body-attraction, and (preferably pre-tested) sexual compatibility, are sottishly sought, and are thought to form a primary requirement for successful matrimonial companionship.
If in reality these merely physical aspects of sex constituted a satisfactory basis for lasting happiness — — they would not so prevailingly be followed by such [Page 34] grievous consequences as: physical and mental weariness; marital miserableness; dissension, disputes and disgust; a rush to lawyers, to obtain divorce; endless calls on doctors for treatment of neuroses and of troubles in the body's lower regions; and the coming into the world of afflicted children, already weakened in the womb.
All this misery can be prevented by a purer concept of a wedded state — by a drastic subjugation of sex.
PROPAGATION. In the raising of first-rate cattle, horses, hogs or dogs, breeders who are interested in the production of the best possible specimens see to it that the animals are in proper physical condition for successful mating. After fructification, animals know instinctively that no mating may take place during the embryonic development.
By the breeder's thoughtful supervision, combined with nature's wise control through instinct, the quality of special species is meticulously maintained and improved.
In contrast with the care given to the breeding of superior animals, human propagation is most carelessly undertaken. Any [Page 35] thought about the well-being of eventual progeny is usually overruled by the desire to satisfy sensual passion. Conception is more often an unwanted accident than a planned incident; and it is allowed to take place when either or both of the partakers are sexually exhausted, psychically excited, perchance alcoholically befuddled.
And — bereft of instinctive wisdom, misled by sense-suggested fallacies of the racially still immature mind — humanity does not consider continence during pregnancy to be requisite.
Human breeding, unlike that of animals, is nearly always ......... beastly. (But no beast is ever beastly in the vilifying sense which this misconstrued word implies).
Generation after human generation is lust conceived and prenatally lust impregnated. Thus does the human race largely consist of voluptuousness ridden descendants from wilfully sex abusing progenitors.
But this pitiful condition need not, and must not be allowed to endure. Prospective parents have it in their power to attract to themselves children free from sensual susceptibility — — by purifying their own sexual life, by seeing to it that their [Page 36] offspring is conceived and gestated in purity. On parents-to-be rests to a great extent the responsibility for the quality of their children — and therewith, in a wider sense, for improvement of the race.
Sexual congress for the purpose of propagation is the only occasion when a call on the gonads for production of external secretions is in harmony with nature's laws.
Then it constitutes intrinsically a sacrificial act. For then the prospective parents willingly divert the production of their gonads from for-themselves beneficial internal secretions to that of the external for the sake of progeny. They actually sacrifice a part of themselves — of the forces that might otherwise have helped their own further inner development.
The extent of the sacrifice is rarely realized, rarely even thought of as such. It is there, just the same. It should be there consciously.
WHEN SANCTIONABLE? Encrusted on the human mind is the untenable concept that in married life frequent cohabitation is natural and wholesome. Few want to know that it is neither the one nor the other. [Page 37]
In the natural, not by man denatured state, mammalians are directed by instinct — which is nature's own all wise intelligence — to limit sexual activity to propagation only. And never does instinct permit such activity during the periods of pregnancy and lactation.
Humanity — overbearing in its possession of half baked intellect — may imagine that it is clever to contravene nature in this matter. But to do so is not natural — — it is a breaking of one of nature's laws. And it is not salubrious — not for the foetus, and not for the mother to be.
The prevalent ideas about the place of sex in connubial life are a mass of specious misconceptions, based not on logic, not ethical ideals, not on spiritual wisdom — — but only on an utterly unjustifiable, selfish, although usually unselfconscious self deceit, in an attempted vindication of uninhibited sensualism.
In many cases there might be a less slavish yielding to degrading demands of the senses, if ignorance were not an additional cause of unwise behaviour. But there is no reason why such ignorance should last; for everyone, who will take the trouble to [Page 38] look for it, can find clear and pertinent information about this vital subject.
Even a superficial understanding of the variegated important tasks of the gonads should suffice to see that the human constitution is being seriously injured — physically, mentally, and and spiritually — when the glands are forced to overproduce reproductive secretions, at the cost of other and more essential activities.
A marriage license does not alter immutable physiological facts. Non-generative sexual act are as objectionable after, as they are before the formalities by which marriage is inaugurated.
All this ads up to the conclusion that use of the sexual function is sanctionable only when fructification is intended.
And since reproduction of the human species — together with, and largely for the sake of the extended parental care of the slow-maturing young — belongs naturally as well as legitimately within the bonds of marriage — there can be no question of sanctionability of sexual expression outside of responsibility incurring marriage. [Page 39]
YOUTH. Born already tainted with a tendency to precocious sexuality, constantly exposed to sex stirring incentives, untaught about the intrinsic value of continence — youth cannot be completely blamed, when erroneous notions lead to discreditable, odious acts.
A flood of muddy, muddled, misconstrued ideas about sex always threatens to sweep youngsters into the miasmal swamps of polluting immorality.
If they find no solid ground of well-founded principles to stand on — and if in the example of their elders they can find no support to keep them from tumbling — then even the best of them are in danger of being carried away by the bewildering whirling stream of pernicious coaxing and persuasion all around them.
A pre-conceptional self-training in restraint by prospective parents — and a giving to youth the kind of information such as this manual contains — can ensure protection against blinding stimulation and temptation, and forestall dissolute deeds.
A thorough understanding, by adults as well as by youth, of the far-reaching [Page 40] importance of the inner secretions of the gonads should have a wholesome effect on the sexual behaviour of all concerned.
That subject has already been — and still will be — repeatedly touched upon in various sections of this volume.
Youth — and not youth alone — must see that there is more, much more, and of more lasting value, to be gained by abstinence than by a yielding to momentarily enticing sensuous cravings.
MATURITY. In an eroticized racial mind maturity is frequently synonymized with puberty — — as thought a sexual awakening were a mark of completeness.
This may in a general sense be true in the animal world, where the building of a physical body that can propagate the species is about all that nature seems to want.
But for mankind there is a higher destiny, above the animal level.
A discriminative receptivity to impressions from the outside, a fair degree of intellectuality, and at least
an inkling of spiritual idealism must have been developed before a human being can be considered to be approaching
a relatively fair semblance of maturity. [Page 41]
Maturation along these different lines depends markedly upon the right functioning of the gonads, Any interference
with their production of internal secretions impedes maturation in every direction.
That is why sex abuse in any form inevitably hampers the attainment of a well-balanced, physically healthy, mentally bright, and spiritually noble maturity.
In regard to childhood, up to puberty, it is generally conceded that what is rightly called self-abuse is injurious to the body's development — — that it materially regards and impairs the natural process of orderly physical maturation.
It is not so generally recognized that any kind of sexual activity during adolescence is still inherently unnatural and detrimental. It may have changed from solitary self-abuse into stimulation of the sexual tendencies by the mind, and into sexual intercourse with others — which amounts to mutual abuse. Whatever form it takes, sexual activity of youth is a violation of the natural purpose of the gonads, of which the full strength during this period should be concentrated on the individual's sound development of body, mind and soul. [Page 42]
Sexual acts of any kind during adolescence are the cause of arrested development; more than anything else they prevent the completion of mental maturation.
Beyond the adolescent stage hardly any mode of sexual behaviour seems nowadays to be looked upon as a unnatural abuse. Yet, fundamentally, any sexual act that does not have propagation for its purpose, is an abuse of the sexual faculty, and of the functioning of the gonads, For the grown-ups all such abuse more particularly interferes with, and warps the attainment of spiritual maturity, which is the true mark of perfected humanization.
Seeing what the sexual life of humanity actually is — — can one wonder about the immaturity of the racial mind, and the almost total lack of spirituality?
There, of course, also other causes for the failure to reach all-around perfection. But the prominent part that sex is allowed to play at all ages and stages constitutes by far the strongest obstruction against successful attainment of unimpaired physical, mental and spiritual maturity. [Page 43]
CHARACTER. Some elements for the formation of character are brought along when a child comes into the world.
But upon youth in the adolescent period depends the selection of additional materials, and the laying of foundations for their character building. If they glean wisely, the foundation will be solid, the superstructure sturdy an of lasting high quality. If they choose cheap, low-grade ingredients, there will soon be cracks and flaws, and irreparable disfiguration of the entire character structure.
So very much depends on whether young people allow themselves to be swayed by the awakening sexual proclivities into degrading ways of thinking and of acting.
Every time they yield to sex, they spoliate their character, take away from it something that never can be replaced — while adding inferior components which imperial the substantiality of the character, and permanently defile it.
A budding idealism is the first thing that is being crushed by sexual indulgence; then the finer feelings are vulgarized; the sense of ethical valuation is lost; a general coarsening sets in; warnings about [Page 44] the likelihood of baneful consequences are disdainfully discarded; thoughts of future responsibilities are obliterated; nobility, and gradually all the worth while qualities of character are sacrificed to sex.
Sexual indulgence steals from — whereas strict continence steels the character.
ETHICS. The noblest motive for sexual restraint is founded on ethics — — for ethics implies essentially an unselfish consideration of the interests and well-being of others. It is the direct opposites of the gross selfishness which now is usually the main, if not the only primum mobile for sexual — as for other — behaviour.
The ethical viewpoint is contrary to the general misconception that a person's sexual life is exclusively one's own affair. In reality it affects many others — — not only those directly concerned, but also eventual offspring, probably down through several generations to come; and, in a wider sense, it affects the entire race — because damage done to one part of a composite body weakens the whole.
A truly ethical person will overcome never be overcome by a sexual impulse. [Page 45]
RELIGION. The basic purpose of religion is to lift the human soul out of the hankering and groping after ephemeral objectives, and to lead to a realization of abiding essentials — — to spirituality.
In pursuance of this fundamental aim, every form of true religion tries to arouse its votaries to free themselves from a purblind attachment to material, sensuous and sensual attractions.
The sacred books of several religions contain clear and strong exhortations to “preserve ..... chastity”, to “overcome .... the lusts of the flesh”, to escape from “the senses, crammed full of loathsome lust”, to “cut down the whole forest of lust”. Thus, they agree in insisting on “purification from fleshly appetites”.
Notwithstanding all the scriptural admonitions and persuasions, not one religion has been conspicuously successful in attenuating human enslavement to sex.
Never more than a negligibly minute fractional percentage of devotees have been induced by religious motives to choose freely, and to adhere undeviatingly to a life of sexual abstinence. And among those few there have been far too many cases of [Page 46] inept and eccentric behaviour, so repugnant to the sensibilities of the general public, that continence has become the butt for ridicule, disapprobation and contempt.
It is to be regretted that the opinion has become widespread, that only fanatical ascetics, un-esthetical fakirs, and unctuous fakers have found in their religion reasons for abstemiousness from sex.
Yet, not to be overlooked is the fact that countless devoted mystics of divers faiths, with a deep understanding of the eternal verities which underly religious teachings, have always worthily exemplified the real merits of mastery over sex.
Its importance for the laity as well as for mystics has now been clarified and emphasized by the knowledge; that spirituality cannot be realized so long as the immensely precious gonadic forces in the human body are abased and abuse in unseemly, senseless, sensual wastefulness.
To make religion a more effective spiritualising force in the world, it might be well for its preceptors to lay more stress on, and to exemplify the importance of scriptural texts concerning continence. [Page 47]
PHILOSOPHY. The greatest independent thinkers have always deprecated sexual indulgence, and unequivocally avowed the meritoriousness of continence.
It is indeed a revelation to discover that most of the clearest philosophical minds, along various lines of thought, have come to conclusions which entirely agree with those of religion and of physiology.
Proof of this — by quotations from their works — would require more space than can be given to it in this little book. Many of their explicit statements can be found in the author's larger volume, The Coiled Serpent. There, a series of chapters deals with what philosophers of different schools — in ancient and in modern times, in Orient and Occident — have stated about the subject under consideration.
The opinion of even the wisest sages need not be unthinkingly accepted as infallible averments of truth. But the cumulative evidence of unanimity of their maxims in favour of subjugation of sex can hardly fail to impress doubters — — while fortifying the conviction of adherents of the ideal of purification of the sexual life. [Page 48]
SO FAR, some of the most generally understandable reasons for the advisability of sexual abstinence have been presented.
Purposely slighted or omitted were a a number of considerations which — although simple, well-founded and weighty — have been used and stressed and repeated so often by other writers as to become almost platitudinous and puerile.
Such are, for instance, the essentially sound but worn warnings about the derogatory effects of self-abuse, of contraceptions, of abortions, of adultery, of promiscuity, of prostitution, and of all sexual eccentricities and perversions.
Within the confines of this manual, it is not feasible to take up all those indelicate matters, which in a world of unmitigated immorality are by so many either actually practised, or almost without exception indifferently condoned.
The text had to be limited to just a few selected topics — to some brief, eclectic remarks concerning the long-neglected need of sexual purification.
A few additional data — less familiar, perhaps, but strictly a propos — are dealt with in the next couple of chapters. [Page 49]
“ For every form of abstinence.... deep reasons can be found. ”
-LEVI, History of Magic. II, vi
Having been procured by exploration of fields of thought where few minds travel, the subject taken up in the present — and still more so in the next following chapter — may be of interest only to those who are familiar and in accord with topics of a 'deep' and 'occult' nature.
For such readers these two chapters contain some special reasons for the subjugation of sex, in line with the way of thinking with which they are conversant.
Others may well skip both chapters.
In any case where the mind is blinded by the body's passions, it will prove to be not only difficult, but quite impossible for it to go very far afield.
The farther the field of research is extended, ad the deeper one digs in search of [Page 50] evidence to support the intrinsic value of continence, the more nuggets of high-test proof can be unearthed.
It may seem questionable whether it is worth the effort to bring them to the surface. For, just as most little children rather play with mud than to have to clean their hands for a handling of precious stones — — so most grow-ups rather hold on to games of sex than to have to clear their brain for an understanding of precious information which might interfere with their reprehensible games.
However — an attempt will be made to polish, and to submit for scrutiny some samples of thought which came to light in an exhaustive search for substantiations of the ideal of continence.
EVALUATION OF SEX. Whatever importance humanity may attach to sex — — it is essentially no more than a differentiation of physical bodies, instituted by nature as a means of reproduction of physical bodies for succeeding generations.
Whatever disturbing psychological influence sex may have been allowed, encouraged and incited to have on emotions and on mind — — the natural place and function [Page 51] of its male and female aspect is biological, and belongs to the physical body only.
That body is for a human being no more than an instrument in which to express itself for a short span of time in the physical world. The human being is the entity, the soul, that inhabits and uses the body.
In a sex-minded, sex-blinded world the relative importance of whether a body be male or female has, unfortunately, been grossly overestimated. Of much more integral import than sex are soul qualities, character, intellect, spirituality; in all of these sex is of no account.
There is no sex in soul, no sex in mind, no sex in spirit. If ancient records are reliable, there must have been a time when human bodies had no sex — — and time will come when they will again be sexless.
But even without metaphysical and occult considerations, there are plenty of reasons for breaking down the insidious fancy of an unwarrantably exaggerated importance of sex — for putting it back into the subordinate place where it belongs —and for stopping its interference with the evolutionary progress of mankind. [Page 52]
EVOLUTION. For an equitable evaluation of sex it will be expedient to glance in quick review over successive evolutionary stages of life-in-forms.
The simplest once-celled protozoa consist entirely of germ-plasm. All of the life energy is monopolized for reproduction; millions of specimens can descend from a single one in a few hours.
In slightly complex multicellular creatures a portion of the life force is draw away from reproduction, and used for the formation of rudimental protruding limbs and of beginnings, under the skin, of organs of perception. The number of offspring is considerably reduced.
The more complex the bodies become, the more of the life force is taken away from the reproductive faculty, and applied to the development of a nerve system, of a brain, of finer responsiveness to impressions from the outside. Only where, in already relatively higherly organized forms, dangerous conditions of existence cause an exorbitant rate of deaths, fast multiplication is necessarily maintained.
Gradually so little life force remains reserved and intended by nature for reproduction — that is: for justifiable sexual [Page 53] activity — that in some of the higher animal species in their natural state such activity is limited by instinct to a single act in the season of rut.
The line of progress clearly shows that the energy for each new evolutionary acquisition can be obtained only by a reduction of sexual activity.
This indicates what nature expects of mankind, if latent human faculties are to become manifest; namely: still less sexual expression than in the highest animals — — so that practically all of the power, which the central station in the gonads is capacitated to supply, can be utilized for a steady increase of self-conscious mental and spiritual development.
RETARDED EVOLUTION. A difference between the animal kingdom and humanity is, that the animal can be considered to be Mother Nature's little child which she holds by the hand, guiding it with her own intelligence, which is known as the animal's instinct; whereas, metaphorically, humanity would be Nature's older child not any more led by the hand or guided by instinct. The older child is expected to use [Page 54] and expand its new faculty of intellect, and to become an understanding, efficient co-worker of its parent, Mother Nature.
But what has mankind done?
Instead of following the evolutionary line of progress, it has wilfully counter-acted nature's intention; it has concentrated on a search for sense-gratifications; it has drafted the mind into servility to the senses, in order to increase its physical pleasures — — thereby retarding its advance along the path of evolution.
Humanity has put sex upon a gaudy throne, given it dictatorial power, slavishly obeyed its demands, and sacrificed spirit and substance to the lustful whims of the wily, insatiable demi-god.
Since it was mankind that gave sex tyrannical power, only mankind can strip the tyrant of that power. In order to make possible its own further evolutionary progress, humanity will have to stop deifying, will have to start defying sex.
CONSCIOUSNESS. One aspect of the modus operandi of evolution is the unfoldment of consciousness, of awareness, in ever more complex physical bodies which are, through [Page 55] the aeons, better and better equipped to respond to impressions from without, and to manifest powers from within.
In minerals hardly any sign of consciousness can be observed. Plants show some sentient consciousness. Animals demonstrate, in motion and emotion, an instinctive consciousness. Humanity is endowed with self-consciousness, combined with mind and a first trace of free will.
On the exercise of that incipient free will — on that tentative freedom to choose its destiny either in harmony with or against nature's design — depends the future evolution of humanity.
The present stage of development of average humanity is similar to that of a student who enters a university, where one's day-by-day studies are not so compulsory as they were in the intermediate school. The university leaves one free to apply oneself, and succeed — — or to loaf, may be become a wastrel, and a total failure.
Further unfoldment of consciousness can take place only with freely-willed human cooperation and whole-hearted application. But far too many individuals choose to use their little bit of unaccustomed freedom to [Page 56] discard nature's wisely planned curriculum; instead of following that, they listen to misleading promptings of seductive passions, and indulge in self-gratification on unbefitting levels of awareness.
No honourable graduation from the university of life can ever be theirs.
Only if the human faculties of intellect and free will are used in conformity with nature's evolutionary plan, can consciousness be expanded into the higher awareness of spiritual consciousness; and after that into what occasionally has been touched by very few — — into cosmic consciousness, which brings a lofty realization of the oneness of all life.
SPIRITUALITY. Through different receptive organs a human being can respond to a variety of fields of vibration. Seeing is a response to one of those fields through the eye; hearing is a response to another field of vibrations through the delicate mechanism within the ear.
A simple, yet essentially correct understanding of spirituality can be had by thinking of it as a response to still another field, of extremely high vibratory rates, [Page 57] for the reception of which a little organ exists inside the human skull.
Because humanity prefers to give its whole attention to the relatively lower — and very often to spend its energies of thought and action on the very lowest fields, the organ for reception of the high spiritual vibrations has been left under-developed — — not to say: undeveloped, and practically atrophied.
The highest and the lowest in any sphere of manifestation cannot go harmoniously together. As long as life is used up in acts, emotions and thoughts on the field of sex, there is no chance for a response to the supernal beauty of the higher vibrations of the field of spirituality.
Only one who is free from passions can apprehend essentially spiritual truths.
REGENERATION. In palpable similitude, the process of human regeneration can be likened to the metamorphosis of a clumsy caterpillar when it changes — when, driven by instinct, it regenerates itself — into a graceful, airborne butterfly.
In either case — whether insectile or human — the change is brought about [Page 58] primarily by a refinement of the body-substance. But human regeneration entails a change of one's whole nature, of mind and character as well as of the body; out of a creature engrossed in material concerns, regeneration produces a new and nobler being with lofty aspirations.
On the human level, where instinct has yielded its compelling force to the power of free choice, regeneration is a matter of individual decision, based on one's strength of mind and will. It must be self-chosen, self-willed, and self-achieved.
The process of regeneration is exactly the same for a woman as it is for a man; it must be accomplished by each one separately, entirely from within.
When complete regeneration has definitely become one's aim, the output of the gonads must be withdraw from every kind of sex activity, even from propagation; the sexual tendencies must then be totally overcome; the whole capacity of the gonadic power station must henceforth be reserved for the building of body and mind and spiritual faculties to the highest degree of perfection which lies within human reach. [Page 59]
OCCULT REASONS
“The passions ..... are not to be indulged in by
one who seeks to KNOW”
— Mahatma Letters to A.P.Sinnett, Page 274
Neglected, covered with thick growth of charlatanry and superstition lie the inherently rich fields of hidden knowledge.
Its territories are not found along customary excursion routes. Few travelers are sufficiently venturesome to deviate from ready-made routine trips, and to investigate out-of-the-way locations.
Of the mental prospectors, who go and take a look, some are discouraged by the effort that it takes to scrape the surface soil, which anyone is free to sample.
A few make plans for exploration — — but turn away when they find out the cost of registering a claim. The right of mining and refining the valuable occult ore is granted only for a fee which few are willing to pay — to wit: complete renunciation of sensuality in acts and thoughts. [Page 60]
Deep delving in occult lore is dangerous — except for one who, by a process of purification, has risen above passion.
That is why practical occultism for almost everyone has always been, and is, and will remain ..... occult, i.e. concealed.
THE UNSEEN. Even a superficial perusal of books on superphysical phenomena will familiarize the mind with concepts about a usually unseen, tenuous world full of intangible being existing all around us.
Unseen by most of us those beings — some of sub-, others of superhuman order — are described as seeing us, as seeing more of us than we see of each other — — as observing not only what we outwardly appear to be an what we openly do, but also what we really are, and what we do in imagined secrecy, and even our slightest sensations and most furtive thoughts.
No attempt is here intended to make disbelievers and doubters change their opinions about the factuality of what they cannot see. Merely of interest for present purposes is the fact that many people — metaphysicians, psychics, spiritualists and students of occultism amongst them — believe, [Page 61] and often feel by experience convinced, that unseen-but-seeing entities are present wherever we may be.
Out of that conviction should logically come forth a particularly strong reason for all-sided purification. For who would want to commit a sensual act, or think an erotic thought, when firmly believing that all acts and thoughts are under constant observation — — and especially when considering that among those who watch may be one's spiritual peers, who want to help and guide one's inner growth?
AFTER DEATH. Curiosity impels the mind to want to know what is hid from human vision behind the drapes that shroud the metempirical realms of death.
Individual opinion remains a matter of conjecture or of belief — when it is not instigated by unconscionable disbelief.
Ideas derived from personal guesses are scattered around. And diverse accounts have been disseminated by various groups, by creeds and cults religious and occult — each claiming that its revelations contain the one and only truth. But as long as in several respects they differ from each other, there is cause for doubt about their [Page 62] accuracy. Moreover, each presents but sketchy bits of information without a clear picture in toto of conditions after death.
However, fortunately, below the differences, points of agreement loom; these indicate that there is a base of truth which is shared by all, and from which practical conclusions can be drawn.
Of special interest in regard to our subject is that nearly all agree:
that at the time of death only the physical body is cast off and actually dies, while the body-discarding human entity proceeds into another, a not-physical world:
that in that other world there is no propagation of the race; no birth of children — hence no procreation; no earthly use for sex — — therefore: no sex;
that individual conditions of existence after death depend entirely on what one's behaviour, yearning, and way of thinking has been while still in the physical body;
that sensual cravings, fostered during life in the body, become a scorching plague when, after death, without a physical body, they cannot be satisfied;
that the heavy dregs of coarse desires, to which a person has yielded at any time, [Page 63] will after death have to be removed by purging, burning out in a long and painful process, before th disembodied being can move to higher, finer, purer spheres.
Now a practical conclusion that can be drawn by anyone who feels that these brief statements contain truth, is:
that it is part of wisdom to forestall the tormenting process of enforced purification after earth, by freeing oneself voluntarily, here and now, as soon as possible, from the thought-fed cravings of the senses — — especially by overcoming those most despotic cravings which concern sex.
MANY LIVES? About a thousand million people — about half the number of those now on earth — believe in reincarnation, in a series of cyclical returns of a human soul into earthly existence.
To millions in the Orient, reincarnation is a tenet of time-honored religious and philosophical systems. In the Occident it is accepted by multitudinous thousands as a mind and heart satisfying explanation of puzzling problems of life an death.
A single life, they hold, is like a day in school: too short to learn all that must [Page 64] be learned. As many a day has to be spent in school to qualify for a diploma, so many a return to earth is necessary before one can graduate from humanity.
Usually combined with the belief in many lives on earth is the doctrine of self-responsibility for progressive evolution: that the nature of a following incarnation depends on acts and efforts in a preceding one; that thus one's fate, whatever it may be, is in the main sel-made.
From such considerations, reincarnations can and should derive the strongest possible motive for purification of their whole being — — especially for extinguishing the passions which, according to their own credenda, hamper their evolutionary growth through life after life on earth.
Convictions of any kind have little value, if they are not consequently and consistently applied in daily life.
A MYSTERIOUS FORCE. It is a well-known fact that one of the functions of the spinal cord is to serve as a transmission line for currents of nerve force, by which messages — reflexes, impulses — are carried from all parts of the body to the brain, and, vice versa, from brain to body parts, [Page 65]
Less generally recognized is, that brain and gonads are particularly closely linked by force conduits that run along the spine. The brain can gain, if it is nourished by force coming from the gonads. If that force fails to come up (on account of being misdirected at its source, and squandered in sensuality), the brain's capacity is impaired. If in addition some of one's mental energy is misspent on erotic imaginations — whereby sexually stimulating impulses are sent down to the gonads — then the brain is doubly losing.
There seems to be another, a very mysterious force which, when activated, moves up along the spine.
Extensive information about this transcendental force — called kundalini, or: the serpent fire — can be found in works on Oriental esoteric philosophy. It is described as originating in a chakra, a psychic nerve center, located at the base of the spine —near, and closely linked with the gonads — where in most people it lies and remains latent. But if aroused, it rises up along the spine, invigorating several other chakras on its way,until it reaches and enlivens the highest centers of [Page 66] spirituality in the head, bringing enlightenment to the individual.
In the Orient, the practical development of the kundalini is
taught by qualified gurus — spiritual
teachers — to pupils and disciples who, by following strict rules, must prove themselves capable and worthy,
and who remain under constant observation and guidance of the guru.
In the Occident, there are many — mostly dilettantish — students of metaphysics, who rather haphazardly
attempt to practice exercises for arousing the kundalini, after paying for a few lectures or a correspondence
course, in which the subject is alluringly, but superficially presented.
Apart from lacking constant, competent supervision, such students usually overlook the rigorous preparatory requirements — foremost of which is absolute abstinence from sensual concerns in thoughts as well as acts. As long as this dominant precept is not rigidly fulfilled, a prematurely awakened kundalini becomes a direful danger, which threatens to affect the body and the mind in most disastrous ways.
Let no one rouse the serpent fire without carrying a shining shield of purity! [Page 67]
THE IDEAL
“Let us worship the ideal, and struggle to reach it..... It has to be reached”.
— Vivekananda, Complete Works, IV, 146
Ideals are like lighthouses along the rocky shores of the turbulent ocean of life. The closer attention one pays to their significant signals, the safer one can navigate, and the easier it will be to enter without mishap the port of destiny.
A true ideal, like a signal tower, must emit a strong, clear light; impersonally, it must make itself visible to all within reach of its radiance. If the vision of some 'navigators' be so befogged that they cannot see its lights; if others find its rays too glaring, and will not look in its direction; if many fails to heed its signals — — that's not the fault of the ideal; it stands at all times ready to serve those who wish to accept its indefectible guidance.
In every phase of human life ideals can be found. The higher the ideal that one [Page 68] selects, the happier one will be in striving intently to let one's life reflect it.
In the realm of sex one has to find a workable ideal. To be rational, it must be in harmony with nature's plan and purpose. As previously shown, nature has intended in the successive phases of sex in evolution, that there must be less and less sexual activity, if the still latent faculties of more advanced evolutionary stage are to become manifest. Hence the ideal must call for a thorough subjugation of sex.
A simple, feasible ideal in the domain of sex can be formulated as follow:
passion must be conquered; generative organs must be used for generation only; the stirring influence of sex in all other aspects of life must be nullified.
This ideal is workable, because each one can begin to make an effect to apply it, and can gradually exemplify its effects.
It is practical, because all who freely, from inner conviction, put it into practice, gain something of immensely greater value than whatever they renounce. Theirs wil be an inner joy that outshines and outlasts all effervescent so-called pleasure. [Page 69]
In a world sinking into sex degeneracy the fore-outlined ideal is not expected to appeal to many people. Running counter all popular ideas on the subject of sex, it is more likely to meet with derision, disapproval and sneers. But no mound of adverse opinions can detract one iota from the inherent value of the ideal.
Perhaps only a few will grasp the fullness of its significance, and see that it holds the key to the solution of a great variety of vexing problems.
To fewer still it may seem sufficiently attractive to stir them into living up to it.
But whether accepted by many or none — — as an ideal it is the same for all. And, inevitably, all humanity shall have to live conformably to this ideal, before the world can attain its august destiny of veritable culture as an expression of universally accomplished humanhood.
Meanwhile, each person separately can reap the benefits which accrue from every effort to achieve
an enduring realization of the ideal. The initial step in that direction is to stop idealizing passing passions,
which try to thwart one's recognition of the sublimity of the true ideal. [Page 70]
“What part of yourself do you want to realize — your best self.....
or the lowest part of your nature?”
- FOERSTER, Marriage and the Sex Problems, II, iii, 179 [Page
71]
“We must feel ourselves too great, and to be born for greater things than to be bondmen of our bodies.”
-SENECA, Epistles, lxv. [Page 72]
“Innate within you is the power that counsels.... Within yourself is the power to restrain.... by the free will.”
- DANTE, Purgatorio, XVIII, 62, 72 [Page 73]
INDIVIDUAL STANDPONT
“All solutions ... depend upon the individual standpoint and.... ethical and intellectual evolution.”
- AUROBINDO, Essays on the Gita. xxiv, 223
The highways of evolution extends from dimmest past to a transplendent future. From the remote beginning it has been gently sloping up, almost unnoticeably increasing the degree of incline of the rising slant, until — after long, long stretches through the valley of eternity — it finally becomes a steep and ever steeper mountain road, narrowing into a trail.
Every living being stands somewhere on the evolutions' course. One a spot ahead of most beckons the beacon-light of the ideal as a promise of enlightenment to all who look in its direction. Even a momentary glimpse of its gleaming radiance will set astir a longing for quickening one's steps.
Each one is destined to move on — destined to go eventually beyond the beacon-light, to higher and higher ground, on to [Page 74] the mountain range's highest table-land.
And as one climbs, the ever-widening view becomes so all-absorbing fascinating, that even the memory of sensations, that were felt on lower levels, falls away.
Whether or not to pass on readily and rapidly from wherever one may stand — — that is a matter of individual choice.
Some like the point that they have reached so much, that they prefer to stay right there. Some want to loiter in the illusively alluring shadows of the bushes and the byways that border the main road. Some, tired, discouraged by the prospect of long distances yet to go, turn and shuffle back to lower, smoother stretches of the road.
Only a few clear-visioned and clear-minded idealists choose to go speedily on toward the radiant goal.
While, as they go, they try to rouse those whom they pass to come along with them — — they know; nobody can be forced. Each one is free to hasten or delay attainment of the luminous ideal, which — as one rises above the sham entrancement of sex — brings the steadily increasing inner peace and power of expanding consciousness [Page 75]
ATTITUDE
“As the human entity evolves .... it changes its view as to what is or is not desirable.”
— BRUNTON, Spiritual Crisis of Man, viii, 144
Whether or not the ideal, as delineated in a previous chapter, can be of much use to a person, depends to a large extent on one's attitude toward the divers problems which sex ineludibly causes to arise in the life of every individual.
That attitude may variously be prompted by pruriency, conventionality, thoughtlessness, incertitude; or by surreptitious teachings of unsound psychology; or, though rarely, by an intuitive leaning toward continence, out of which bent the will to subjugate sex can most readily be formed.
A candid self-analysis will show which of these factors is of decisive influence on the attitude, on which the choice between acceptance or rejection of the ideal depends. Without a willingness to tests its value, the ideal will be of no avail. [Page 76]
Undoubtedly in many cases abrupt rejection of the ideal will be so emphatic as to exclude any possibility of further consideration. Spontaneous acceptance can be expected from but a very few.
Between the few who unhesitatingly accept, and the many who hastily reject, thee is an intermediate group, more or less irresolute. Vaguely attracted to the ideal a goodly number of this group presumably are — — but they are oft mislead by the bold assertiveness, the specious sophistry, the merciless mockery, the contumelious taunts poured out on them by the unchaste crowd around them. They are made to feel almost ashamed that they do not indulge in loose carnality.
Lacking adequate support for their inclination toward the ideal, they are easily beguiled into believing that their own high-principled attitude is odd and unreasonable and unwholesome and wrong.
These outwardly still somewhat unsteady, but inwardly ready candidates for adherence to the ideal of continence need to be bolstered by being made to see:
that their attraction for sexual purification is perfection rational and right; [Page 77]
that the guidance they get from within is in tune with mankind's natural destiny;
that with a little effort they can exemplify in their own being the transcendent advantages of sexual purity;
that instead of allowing their pure vision to be smudged by other people's casuistry, they can learn to make the lucid luster of the ideal visible and attractive for others, and lead them toward it.
The many who without deliberation reject the ideal, do not want — while the few who accept it at sight, do not need — any persuasive reasoning in its favour.
This manual is therefore mainly meant for the vacillators. But it may also help already innately chaste idealists, by providing some unfamiliar date in corroboration of their ostensibly correct, thought far from popular concepts.
Preceding chapters were designed to influence one's attitude toward the ideal. The still to follow chapters can be of interest only to those who — assured of the genuine value of the ideal — are eager to govern and to curb any objectionable impulses which might still inhere in the body. [Page 78]
“What art is there, what method, what discipline to bring us there?”
- PLOTINUS, Enneads, I, iii, 1 [Page 79]
“Whatever the method .... every one must learn to master carnal appetites.”
- BUCKHAM, Mysticism and Modern Life, i, 32 [Page 80]
“The sexual impulse is particularly liable to be checked.”
- JAMES, Principles of Psychology, II, xxiv, 437 [Page 81]
SUGGESTIONS ONLY
“The most important condition for success ..... is to believe in its possibility.”
- WRETLIND, The Sexual Life, v, 115
Day-dream about being in a city of unequalled beauty, a veritable Utopia, located at the tip of a high, peninsular plateau. No rail, nor auto roads leading into it; no room for landing fields; air currents too unsafe for 'copters; boats would be smashed or run aground on rocks.
Yet, the variety of features and colour of the bright and happy faces of the citizens shows that they must have come from many different lands.
Inquire how they succeeded in arriving — — and each will have a different story to tell. From far or near, approaching from various sides, they have followed dissimilar routes. They had no maps, had known only the general direction in which to go. Along the way they had met with difficulties, varying in every case — which [Page 82] each one, traveling alone, has had to overcome by individual effort. No — they can give no definite instructions for others who may want to come.
On one point, however, all their tales tally: before they undertook the journey, they had made up their minds to reach the little-known wonder-city, of the existence of which they had felt unshakably sure.
That certitude had carried each successfully to the goal.
Once a person is convinced, by intellect or by intuition, of the rationality and sublimity of the ideal of sex-subjugation — — then that conviction alone will prove to be a reliable guide toward attainment.
Still, people ask for more detailed instructions. But not any set of rules can serve everyone, because individuals differ. A compilation of suggested ways and means, from which each one can glean some points for personal application — — that's all that can be assembled.
Whatever may be one's individual selection for personal use — — there
is one fundamental prescript to be followed by all from the start; to wit: purification. [Page 83]
PURIFICATION
“The destiny of the soul ..... is a destiny of purification.”
- MAETERLINCK, Wisdom and Destiny, xxvi, 72
With due apology to the haughty human race — — it can hardly be denied that in comparison with pure, perfectioned humanhood, humanity is in a rather putrid state.
In order to get out of this deplorable condition, and to approach consummate humanness, a radical process of purification of all phases of individual expression will be imperatively requisite.
One of the most prominent phases of expression — the one now in particular under consideration — concerns the sexual life. It — more than any other element at this time — needs to be purified.
Purification of all aspects of one's physical, emotional and mental life is not a wishy-washy notion, only fit for unfit weaklings to talk and prattle about. As a [Page 84] concept, it rests on solid foundations of sound reasoning. As a process, it demands persevering application of will power.
Like cleansing the Augean stables, a thorough purification of one's
whole being is more in the nature of a job for giants than for softies. It is an arduous task for idealists
of strong conviction and determination — — not
for morally mediocre, sense dominated, mass minded members of the multifarious human flock.
When in a home a thorough housecleaning is to be performed, it is of little use to sweep the dirt out of one corner only. And it would not be wise to open doors and windows to a blinding sand dust storm.
Nor can effective depuration on one's sexual nature be achieved by cleaning only one or two of the factors that are apt to arouse the libido. The process must be applied throughout, to every element of the complex human being.
While the purifying task proceeds, the clinging mud from giddy gutter games, that has weighed a person down, is gradually thrown off — thereby enabling one to rise above the sphere of sex-exciting storms. [Page 85]
PURE THOUGHTS
“Moral culture must begin .... with a change in one's way of thinking.”
- KANT, Philosophical Theory of Religion, v
The less the mind harbours thoughts about sex, the better — because they are liable to elicit sexual excitement. Yet, the problems which sex presents in every person's life, cannot be solved without giving the subject proper attention.
Thus, some thinking about sex is practically unavoidable; but if seriously applied to an effort to understand the basic principles of the rather perplexing subject, it will not cause any sexual agitation.
To concentrate on anatomical, or physiological, or pathological details is — except for professional purposes — neither advisable nor necessary.
Absolutely to be avoided is: to dwell in thought on voluptuous images. A sexual urge would hardly make itself felt, if it [Page 86] were not fed and aggravated by erotic fancies, which agitate the libido, causing a congestion in the genital region.
The gonads are aroused into external activity by lewd imaginings, in the same way as the salivary glands become active and cause mouth-watering, when one imagines chewing or testing delicacies.
The glands, in such cases, are activated mainly by intent mental preoccupation.
Unchaste thoughts not only rouse one's own concupiscence. They go out into the atmosphere, combine with similar thoughts of others, and tend to exert a baneful influence on receptive minds. For the sake of others, too, thoughts should be pure.
The mind is purified by constant control — — and by avoiding everything that can call forth lascivious images.
Once purity of mind has been firmly established, that purity itself serves as shielding armour — as a protective aura — which makes one's whole being impermeable to unwanted influences.
By establishing purity of and mastery over mind, one becomes impervious to passion, and gains forever mastery over sex. [Page 87]
PURE ACTS
“Purity...... gives the correct law to all. ”
- LAO TZE, Tao Teh King, 2, xlv, 2
The actions of a free, not by human interference domesticated and denatured animal, are controlled by instinct, by nature's intelligence. Thus kept in harmony with nature's dictates, the actions of the animal are right and pure for its evolutionary stage. The animal is not responsible for its acts, because it has not been endowed with a reflective mind, nor with free will.
Humanity stands higher than the animal kingdom on the evolutionary ladder by having reached up to discriminative intellect, and to at least a beginning of free will. Inherent in these higher qualifications is a growing responsibility for one's conduct: a human being can — and must — exert mental control over all individual behaviour.
When one's acts are not in line with nature's dicta, they are not right, not pure. [Page 88]
Nature's aim in regard to human sexual life — as previously explained — is: that there shall be less and less expression of sex, that it must be limited to propagation, in service to the race.
Whatever contravenes this aim, is improper, immoral, impure, perverse.
Although the two preceding paragraphs will be disputed, derided and denounced — they do provide a reliable standard for measuring the relative rightfulness and purity of individual acts.
Those paragraphs are in accord with the absolute morality, which is eventually to be reflected in the life of all.
Each forward striving member of the human family — with a little effort and determination — can even now come very close to a faultless expression of that high standard of morality.
Purification of the sexual life self evidently exacts omission of impure acts. But this alone — though useful, whatever the motive behind it — is not enough; it cannot be of any lasting value, if impure thoughts continue to pervade the mind. [Page 89]
PURE PASTIMES
“The only effective solution of the sex problem is the strengthening of rival interests.”
- INGRAM, The Modern Attitude, iii, 37
The performance of not always pleasant duties and of unavoidable, trivial tasks takes up most of most people's time. Only hours and days not so forcibly filled are available for freely chosen pastimes.
Selected for relaxation, for diversion from drudgery, an element of pleasure is a sine qua non in every form of pastime — — but there is a wide range in the inherent nature of that element.
According to the pleasure's quality, pastimes can help one to rise to a higher level, or cause one to slide down to a lower grade of evolutionary attainment. And since sliding down is an effortless procedure, most people find more fun in degrading, time and energy wasting pastimes than in wholesome activities, which can increase the strength of body, mind and character. [Page 90]
In order to aid a well balance development, pastimes must be designed to supplement the effects of enforced activities.
They must be chosen for the purpose of producing harmony between body-culture, sense of beauty culture and mind culture; these three should be kept from being built up at the cost of each other, because an overdose of one leads to lopsidedness.
No form of pastime, should ever be overdone. Whether it be sport, or artistic pursuits, or mental occupation — — one sidedness in any direction will constitute an obstacle against the needed harmony.
For the special purpose of attenuating sexual tendencies, pastimes must be chosen which, first and foremost, will divert attention away from sex exciting subjects.
To be thoroughly and enduringly effective, these pastimes must be supported by a conviction of the intrinsic value of the ideal of purity, and by a longing to put that ideal into practice.
When not thus sustained — and when not freely self-chosen — the thought diverting pastimes are still bound to be of some, although then not of maximal effectualness. [Page 91]
PURE HABITS
“Continence is largely a matter of acquired tendency and habit.”
- ARMITAGE, Sex Secrets, xiv, 260
Weeds grow exuberantly on an untended plot of ground. To turn this into a sightly lawn, with tidy beds and borders of exquisite flowering plants, the weeds must be uprooted and removed — — and constant watchful care is needed, lest remaining seeds of weeds sprout out, which might nullify the beautifying efforts of the flori-culturist. A short period of neglect can undo the work of years.
Like weeds are unseemly habits which profusely flourish where the soil of human character is not vigilantly cultivated — where lassitude has allowed objectionable elements to enter and to spread.
Unbecoming habits must be weeded out, in order to give pure, ennobling qualities a chance to grow and brilliantly bloom. [Page 92]
Outstanding among the nocuous habits, that are thickly covering the ground of human sexual life are:
the deeply rooted racial habit of co-habiting without fructifying intent;
the thoughtless excitation of sexual tendencies by tactile titillation or frivolous touch — including kissing and petting, and some degrades modes of dancing;
the frequent intense attention given by the mind to sexy subjects, by the eyes to lust inciting objects, by the ears to coarsening sounds;
a leaning to laziness, to scruples scraping luxuriousness, and to immodesty;
the customary dumping of sexuality arousing stimulants into the digestive system — in both solid and liquid form;
the use of sense-soothing drugs, which dull the finer sensibilities.
One of the fulsome drugs is tobacco's nicotine. Because of its low potency, it escapes inculpation as sex stimulator; but the mischievous power of tobacco in that direction lies in quantitative prominence — and, more wilily, in indirectness.
A claim about a direct link between smoking and pruriency may lack conclusive [Page 93] proof. But by slavish obedience to unnaturally developed cravings of the body-cells for their accustomed dose of nicotinic poison, the smoker's power of resistance against unwarranted demands from other cells or centers in the body is debilitated.
Thus does the smoking-habit slyly ease the way for sexual indulgence.
A closer link between these two is tentatively indicated by the fact that contemporaneously a noticeable disruption of sexual restraint coincides with the stupendous increase of smoking by both sexes.
In a world where nearly everybody is addicted to smoking, this concurrence will almost generally be looked upon as purely incidental; but psychologically analyzed it may prove to be an impure accident, which leaves many morally crippled.
In any case, tobacco is suspected of contributing to moral delinquency. It should be thoroughly investigated
on that score.
It is always difficult to uproot old habits — particularly such as are sense-gratifying. The body protests, when what it has been spoiled into considering to be its natural rights, are taken away from it. [Page 94]
Essentially, the body-pampering habits are neither natural nor right. They are not implanted by nature, but imbued by mankind. They are a product of the dregs of human cupidity, inoculated on the body, and nurtured by self-indulgence.
The body's rebellious resistance against deprivation of its spurious prerogatives can only be overcome by
power of the will, of which at least a little must have been developed in the character.
An endeavour to subdue the body's passions may sometimes cause physical discomfort. But those who are wise, and have a sufficiently strong will to persevere and win over unwisely adopted habits, do not regret the passing painfulness; they gain the incomparable satisfaction of accomplishment, and of spiritual enrichment.
Wisest are those who never allow themselves to become addicted to intractable, unwholesome habits — — who already know intuitively that yearnings of the body's sense form hard to surmount obstructions against the coming into expression of the finest potentialities of pure humanhood. [Page 95]
PURE FOODS
“The exorbitant demands of the sexual appetite.....are due to the incitements of an abnormally stimulating diet.”
- KELLOGG, Plain Facts, 1, 281
Purification of diet is a gradual process.
The kind of food, which individuals select — or which nations adopt as a popular diet — is an expression of, and therefore indicates, their stage of evolution, the degree of refinement of their sensitivity, the intensity — or lack — of longing for purity and for spiritualising progress.
The choice has now generally, and fortunately, risen well above that of the rather retrograde stage of the cannibals, who like to feast upon flesh.
At the still low, nomadic stage, there was rarely a chance to stay in one place long enough to sow and wait for the ripening of edible vegetation. Nomads had to be carnivores, feeding exclusively on carcasses of animals, killed in hunt. Since then, after settling down, the human groups [Page 96] have made a little step ahead by becoming omnivores — eating products of plant life, while also slaughtering animals for food.
Most human beings still cling tenaciously to the omnivorous diet. They relish it so inveterately, that they do not even want to hear about a better, higher, purer way of providing the body with all sufficient nourishment.
A steadily growing number of thoughtful people have come to the conclusion, that it is not necessary to eat any genus of the animal kingdom. They have become herbivores; they are vegetarians, living on products from the vegetable kingdom.
But vegetarians do not express the ne plus ultra of progressiveness in diet. An as yet small group has begun to feel that the killing of plants, too, can be eliminated by their becoming 'fruitivores', eating only fruits and nuts and seeds.
Beyond that may come a scientifically predictable stage, at which laboratories will provide synthetic food pills containing adequate nutriment for highly evolved 'pillivores', who will be free from kitchen slavery and kitchen consciousness. And following that .... perhaps a race, so [Page 97] far advanced in evolution, so refined in bodily structure, that it will be able to inbreathe all elements for nutrition out of the atmosphere. But, for the present, this is only a conjecture.
Of special interest in connection with the subject of this volume is the vegetarian diet — because rightly claimed as one of its advantages is: that it helps to attenuate sexual tendencies.
An established fact, brought out by many experts, is: that meat, as well as most food derived from animals, has positively aphrodisiacal qualities.
Reasons for adopting vegetarianism may range from a selfish seeking of sound salubrity, to an unselfish all encompassing compassion, which keeps one from wanting to take life away from any living form. Between these two extremes are several intermediate motives in various combinations.
Anyone in sympathy with the ideal of subjugation of sexual propensities should go as far as possible in dropping animal products from the daily diet.
First of all, red meats should be omitted; then all white meats and fowl; next [Page 98] in order: fish, and other creatures living in water; and, gradually, eggs and cheese and whatever else may be advisable.
Dietetic purification calls also for a breaking away from stomach idolatry; from artificially complicated culinary artistry; from taste denaturing, tongue and palate tickling condiments; from eating more than what the body's metabolism requires; from clogging the intestinal canal, thus avoiding undue pressure on the gonads.
To prevent such pressure during sleep — and to forestall erotic dreams — it is best neither to eat nor drink anything during the last few hours before retiring.
Living on fruit and vegetable juices for a couple of days at a time — and an occasional single day's complete fast — will prove to be of multifold value.
How far to go with the application of purificative means — — that is a matter for each one's personal decision.
The farther one goes, the greater the benefits — — not
only in the subjugation of sex, but in the acquisition of health, vim, alertness, and natural cheerfulness. [Page 99]
PURE DRINKS
“Alcohol ..... excites the sexual appetite, and renders it grossly impulsive.”
- FOREL, The Sexual Question, iv, 88
Alcohol and sex — these are the contemptibly tempting twosome which, separately and jointly, antagonize and prevent further human evolution.
In every imaginable way — by from flagrantly vulgar to speciously quasi-refined methods — they have catered to the desire nature of a sense satisfaction seeking humanity. They have thereby acquired almost unbreakable control over human bibacious and sexacious behaviour — — with evolution restraining results.
How sex activity interferes with human progress by keeping the gonads' output away from superlatively important centers in the brain — — that has been mentioned and explained in earlier chapters.
Alcohol acts along different lines toward the same end. Even moderate doses of [Page 100] of this product of decay affect directly and destructively those same extremely sensitive centers in the skull — the largely latent organs for intuitive and spiritual faculties. These cannot become potent so long as a person persists in holding on to pernicious habits that hinder and injure the system's most precious organs: the pituitary body and the pineal gland.
The action of alcohol on the sexual tendencies is more indirect than direct — but unmistakably definite, just the same.
An intermediate part in this procedure is played by what in current parlance has become known as: the Censor. This symbolically entitized element in the psychological composition of human nature is itself a product of evolutionary growth.
As, in the course of countless ages, humanity began to develop a modicum of mind and a minim of free will — — there waxed within the being a realization of responsibility for one's actions; and, concurrently, there was evolved a watchful something, which somehow signals a warning against behaviour that is inconsistent with the individual's stage of inner development. This probity promoting something — [Page 101] now quite suitably dubbed: the Censor — is practically the same as what has always commonly been called: one's conscience. Its locus operandi is in the brain.
When alcohol enters the system, it immediately affects the brain and dulls the conscience. The Censor in the fancied watch tower is stupefied and thrown off guard. Hence, no warning signals are sent out about the onrush of vexatious impulses — the sexual among them — which, now freed from the Censor's vigilance, seek to enforce satisfaction of their persistent and insatiable cravings.
In this way does alcohol, by subterfuge, encourage
the libido — — while at the same
time befogging the individual's discriminative power, and laming the will to resist insidious urgings that
may still be lurking in the system. Can anyone be sure that there is not a remnant of such urgings in danger
of being stirred up by alcohol?
Quite apart from the afore mentioned Censor, there is in the enormously complex human constitution another element which can, with a little imagination, also be personalized, and which, just like the Censor, [Page 102] impresses messages upon one's consciousness.
But this entity's promptings differ widely from the Censor's warnings; instead of cautioning against vitiating influences, they try furtively, enticingly to inveigle a person into the performance of unwise, unseemly, demoralizing acts.
This anti censorial entity may well be named: the Inciter. Soundlessly, from within, it cajoles and insists: “Come on, don't be a dullish dolt. Get some fun out of life. Do this, do that. You'll like it. It won't harm you. This is your chance.”
Each time the will weakened listener yields to these alluring exhortations, the Inciter is made strong in persuasively seductive power, and harder to be rebuffed.
So, the Inciter leads on from drink to sex — — and on, in many cases nowadays, to drugs, depravity and crime. Just a little alcohol can cause a considerable chain reaction of corruptive consequences.
The gross pleasure of imbibing alcoholic drinks should be absolutely avoided by anyone who is conclusively anxious to procure the serene satisfaction that comes with self conquest by subjugation of sex. [Page 103]
PURE SIGHTS
“Libidinous excitement is frequently awakened by optical impressions.”
- FREUD , Three Contributions, i, 21
The ancient story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is packed with symbolic indications of valuable verities. For instance, in connection with pure sights:
As long as men and women were still undefiled, they did not see anything impure in the sight of each other's nude form. Actually, there was nothing impure in it —because the beholder's mind was pure.
But after listening to the tantalizing talk of the
Serpent, after following its vicious suggestions and using sex for sensual gratification — — then,
to their polluted minds, the sight of nakedness became impure. And, ever since, that sight has continued
to to be — at least must be adjudged for most
of humanity to be impure, because most human minds lack sufficient purity. [Page 104]
NUDISM. Basically, nudists are right in assuming that nudity is not impure. Impurity is usually not so much in what one sees; far more often it originates in what one thinks about what one sees. For mankind 'as-is' with minds 'as are', this means that nudism in practice is nearly always liable to evoke some impure thoughts.
It has been claimed that nudism works as a moral cathartic. But pure minded persons do not need such a cathartic; while those of impure minds are not supposed to be admitted to nudists' camps. Who, then, remains, disposed and eligible, to join?
For health, an air and sunbath is undoubtedly a tonic — — but it does not require the presence of a mixed company of nudists to be invigorating.
Enthusiasts have proposed nudism as a panacea for the world's pravity, and for all its ills. But the road of evolution does not lead back to nature as outwardly manifest in the manner of existence of the naked forest dwellers; it leads forward to a manifestation of one's inner nature.
Progressive evolution can in no way be promoted by the shedding of one's clothes. What it needs
is the shedding of impurity. [Page 105]
STAGE AND SCREEN. Sights in themselves can become deplorably unclean when intentionally designed to attract an to pander to sensually-susceptible audiences.
Plenty of sexationally advertised plays and shows deliberately present suggestive spectacles, featuring near-nude performers, and passionate scenes which verge on the obscene. And many mushy movies, appallingly loaded with sex appeal, portray all kinds of so-called love-affairs — improperly implying that to yield to libidinous attraction is condonable, and even proper.
As long as a more or less ex-obsessed public patronizes
bawdy and lewdly allusive productions, box-office pressure will keep these in abundance on stage and on screen — exerting
a malicious influence on anyone whose mind is not quite pure.
READING MATTER. Via visual perception a reader observes and absorbs someone else's thoughts and thought-pictures which, as though in transparent cover, are encased in the printed words. The mind receives deeply penetrating and almost ineradicable impressions from what one reads.
It is therefore to be unequivocally regretted, that modern literature consists [Page 106] for a large part of novels in which lax sex morality forms the leading theme;
that even some highly talented authors will degrade their genius by including in their writings close to pornographic descriptions of various sensual acts;
that many public libraries permit on their open shelves the presence of volumes of which the text is dominantly erotic;
that the newsstands display rows of trashy booklets and salacious magazines;
that modern journalism feeds the spreading sex hysteria of a scandal-eager public with cheap and vulgar sensationalism;
that there is a growing trend to treat subjects concerning sex, in all mediums of public expression, in a brutally plain — be it semi-scientific, pseudo psychologic, or quasi-statistical — way;
that putrid, passion-provoking printed matter passes clandestinely from hand to hand, carrying foul scum from filth-filled minds to such as thirst to suck it up.
All of which is making it extremely difficult to prevent the invasion of vile imaginings into vulnerable minds.
Reader matter which is liable to sully one's thoughts, should once be all taboo. [Page 107]
PURE SOUNDS
“The stimuli to sexual excitement received through the sense of hearing ..... are more important than usually believed.”
- HAVELOCK ELLIS, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, IV, 134
Sound can create. With simple mechanical appliances it can be demonstrated that sound — whether instrumental or vocal — can cause small particles of matter to arrange themselves into patterns, varying from plain geometrical designs to intricate forms of exquisite beauty.
Sound can destroy. Some sounds can cause heaped-up particles to scatter, glasses to crumble, mirrors to crack.
Not only inorganic matter, but every integral element of living beings can be favourably or adversely affected by sound.
Sound can heal —and was applied for that purpose long before our era.
Sound can tranquilize and excite — it can harmonize
and it can harm human nature, human moods, and human passions. [Page 108]
MUSIC. The atmosphere is always full of music of all kinds. A person can select and listen to just the kind one wants.
Which shall it be? Restful or rowdy? Exalting classic, or exciting modern? Energizing harmony, or enervating syncope? Cool melody, or hot jazz? Uplifting, sane, pure, unadulterated, natural rhythm; or demoralizing, sanity threatening, impure, unnatural, discordant noise?
The choice is pro or con purification
SPEECH. Every spoken word starts an endless series of vibrations which spread its quality, good or bad, throughout the universe. While those vibrations travel on, the speaker remains responsible for — and subject to reaction from — their action.
Thus will the passions be inflamed by scurrilous conversation, indecent jokes, foul talk, suggestive
jesting, dirty stories, and mirth mixed with vulgarity.
Sound is a factor tremendous influence on the process of sex purification, which demands that only pure sounds be permitted to enter through the ears, and that only pure sounds go out through the mouth. [Page 109]
PURE EMOTIONS
“There is ..... an urgent need for proper training of the emotions.”
- MacMURRAY, Reason and Emotions, 67
During the slow process of evolution, there was a period — hundreds of millions of years ago — when none but primordial creatures existed on earth. The only emotions which, under nature's guidance, they were able to express at all were the primitive ones connected with self-preservation and with continuance of the species.
Not until a suitable nervous system had been developed could the range of emotions be extended; not until that system reaches its most delicate sensitiveness in a human being, can the whole gamut of emotions, up to the very most refined, be felt and find expression.
In humanity the emotions are no longer under the wisely restricting guidance of nature. Mankind has faculties — be they ever so small — of mind and of free [Page 110] will; and it has the responsibility to use these faculties in the selection and control of admissible emotions.
When the mind is mediocre and the will is weak, an ill assorted congeries of emotions is permitted to abide within the being. The most primitive and strongest of those emotions then have a chance to run amuck, and to crush the nobler, gentler, superior ones. Hence, in many cases the emotions which find an outlet in envy, anger, hatred, greed and gluttony and sensuality remain rampant.
The evolutionary task of every person is to give the emotions proper training — which, in regard to most, will mean restraining. Not an easy task, because too long have they been left unleashed and uncontrolled — — even when not encouraged and incited to serve selfish satisfaction.
What is needed is: to subdue the crude emotions, and to endue the finer; to eliminate all elements of selfishness; to replace physical attractions by spiritual aspirations; to cease to sanction impure sexual actions, and to demonstrate pure love; to lessen passion, and to compass compassion, which far surpasses all other emotions. [Page 111]
PURE EMANATIONS
“From the passions of mankind there pour into the world streams of living death.”
- MANLY HALL, Magic, 2, 31.
Radiation — — it is the basic principle for an understanding of latter-day science, and also of some phenomena of a metaphysical nature.
There is not an animate or so-called inanimate thing in the world, from which some sort of force, some kind of influence does not constantly emanate.
Light and heat, colour and perfume, magnetic and erratic rays, and streams of various qualities emanate from multifarious centers of radiation.
The Sun is such a center. So is every atom, every planet, every star. So is every metal, every flower, every living creature — — particularly: the human.
A subtle sphere of spreading emanations surrounds every personality. According to the person's character and mood, this [Page 112] auric sphere can be radiant, chaste and pure, inspiring others — or just the opposite.
Wherever emanations of one and the same kind are frequently produced, they accumulate, strengthening each other, and saturating the surroundings. Hence the divergently characteristic atmospheres in places such as churches, or libraries, or hospitals — — and the no less typifying, but less purifying atmospheres which inhere in nightclubs, gambling joints, bars, dope-dens, and bordellos.
Not by any of the five external senses can the intangible emanations be cognized. A sixth, an inner sense of sensing — not far developed in humanity — is required. Many, however, have this sense sufficiently developed to be vaguely aware of qualitative differences in emanations.
Likely to come with that awareness is the wish to seek companionship with those whose emanations tend to uplift — and an urge to shun people and places with degrading, sensually exciting emanations, to which one still might be in danger of responding.
And then, to help others, a conscious effort must be made to pour forth from oneself only the purest possible emanations. [Page 113]
THE ONE WAY: WILL
“If we determine our will .... we shall acquire an absolute dominion over our passions. ”
- SPINOZA, Ethics, V, Preface.
In many myths about slayers of dragons or serpents, final victory over the passion symbolizing monster is accomplished by the use of a magic sword — a sword of divine origin, that never fails to bring success to one who is able to wield it.
That sword stands for the will. When rightly used to overcome impetuous impulses of the body, the irresistible power of the will will in a short time silence their reprehensible urgings.
Will is the only indispensable factor in the decisive contest with one's lower nature. All the methods mentioned in preceding chapters are but facilitating minor means; all of those require cooperation of the will — while will alone, if strong enough, can achieve the conquest over carnality without the aid of other means. [Page 114]
After a person has acknowledged the validity of the ideal of continence — and a resolution has been made to master one's body-cravings — intense volition becomes above all else important.
First of all, of course, there must be willingness to use the will to conquer over every demoralizing
desire.
WILL VERSUS DESIRE. Set side by side, will and desire look different — as different as the two words sound — as different as the concepts in reality inherently are.
Far from identical are they; nay, they are strictly opposites. And yet, quite often the one is confounded with the other.
When a person works ambitiously for self-satisfaction — to gain wealth or fame, — authority or other worldly success — such a one is wrongly called strong-willed. It's not a case of will, only of strong desire.
In contrast, often wrongly dubbed desire is the aspiration for realization of an ideal and for evolutionary progress.
Will is endowment of the soul, coming down from on high; while desire is a propelling force in the personality, welling up from below. In other words; will [Page 115] expresses the power of spirit; desire derives its being from qualities of matter.
Will manifests where wisdom dwells; desires thrives where ignorant reigns.
Will grows stronger by renunciation; desire is intensified by gratification.
Will establishes stability; desire produces restlessness.
Will liberates and uplifts; desire enslaves and debases.
With progressive evolution will will expand into absolute will divine, while desire dissolves into desirelessness.
Will is destined to triumph over desire.
Between
the two — between will and desire — stands mind. Directed downward into matter, mind feeds
desire; directed upward toward spirit, it supports the will.
If mind sides with desire — as it so often does — the will can hardly find effective expression. Mind
must combine with will to nullify the unworthy instigations of persistent desire.
Not until the mind stops stimulating desire, can the will become sufficiently strong and free to extricate the soul from the perilous snares of provocative senses. [ Page 116]
FREE WILL. A perennial problem, on which debaters can exercise theirs wits, is: whether humanity has free will.
This question lends itself exceedingly well to polemical treatment by both, 'yeser' and 'no-er' — — because, while every human being is intrinsically endowed with the possibility to develop free will, most people have made such minimal use of that opportunity, that in them it may be considered to be practically non-existent.
When evolution stepped up from the animal kingdom to the human, a seed of free will was apportioned to every soul; but in the most cases its germination was neglected, its stunted out growth wasted.
Would it be better for humanity to have been given a full grown free will?
As little wise or safe as it is to leave a child entirely free to act just as it pleases — so rash and risky would it be to entrust a largely childish, selfish, sensual humanity with a sizable free will.
When one has made oneself worthy — by not misusing what little free will one has, and by striving to live in tune with nature's plan — then can free will expand. [Page 117]
TRAINING THE WILL. Fingers, in order to be able to play the piano — muscles, in order to be able to lift loads — mind, in order to be able to solve mathematical problems — all need to be trained for the specific purpose by regular practice — starting with easy services, proceeding gradually to difficult tasks.
In an analogous way, the will is to be trained for the purpose of subduing strong desires by exercising it — by first frequently refusing to gratify the demands of a dozen or more diminutive desires.
To say “No” to even the most innocent-seeming cravings is not a sign of negativeness; on the contrary: it indicates a budding of positive power of will.
Keeping in mind that exercises are not practised for their own ultimate end, there is no need to carry them on to the extent of self-torture. But they must be practised constantly and firmly — until the will can, with indomitable strength, deny gratification to the most imperial drive of sex.
A trained will will restrain desires. Great as the power of desire may be, the power of a well trained will is greater. [Page 118]
“Morals are no human convention, but are based on the soundest and most far reaching vision of the Sages.”
- De PURUCKER, Dialogues, 3, 228. [Page 119]
“There is no soul so feeble that it cannot .....
acquire absolute power over its passions. ”
- DESCARTES, Passions of the Soul, 1, 50. [Page 120]
“First and foremost let us have ... practice, practice, practice. ”
- NIETZSCHE, Dawn of Day, I, 22. [Page
121]
EDUCATION
“The purer one is brought up ..... the easier it will be to remain continent.”
- HUEHNER, Disorders of the Sexual Function, xvii,
266
Dealing with the as yet not satisfactorily solved problem of sex education, books and pamphlets and articles have been written by the score; lectures and debates held by the hundreds; methods tried out in homes and in schools. All, so far, without salient success.
There must be some fundamental reasons for the signal failure to find a serviceable solution. Couldn't it be that the main cause lie:
in magnifying the mystery of — while minimizing master — sex?
in a popular acceptance of deplorably misleading, fallacious ideas about sex?
and in a lack of qualified advisers to correct those erroneous notions?
Favorable results are expected in vain from instruction concerning the physical [Page 122] process of reproduction. Such instruction does not, as a rule, have the hoped-for effect — because concentration of attention on the relevant anatomical and physiological facts is more apt to promote pruriency than to inculcate purity.
True sex education should consist:
more in distracting the attention away from, than in attracting it to structural and biological and morbid data;
more in clarifying basic principles, which are the same for all concerned, than in emphasizing differences;
more in instilling a higher standard of sexual ethics, than in giving information on customary concepts about conception and contraceptives;
more in lifting one above physical and emotional impulses, than in holding one's thoughts down to these vulgar factors.
Qualified educators are needed. For this special task they, whether as parents or as teachers, must not only believe in, but exemplify in their own life the purity which is to be taught to others.
To qualify, most people first need self-education — perhaps with the help of this compendium as a consultative companion. [Page 123]
STEP BY STEP
“We must come to purity..... by degrees.”
- AGRIPPA, Occult Philosophy, III, liii, 518
As in every educational system, so in the School of Life there is gradation. No one can in one leap reach graduation.
In the Kindergarten of Life the least evolved souls are entertained with toys and games. Not much is learned. Practically no effort to make progress is required.
In the Grammar School of Life the largest groups of humans spend the longest time. Plenty of exercise in the solution of easy problems beings to take attention away from toys. But a majority want to hold on to childish games. Some even think that effort still remains unnecessary. These can never make the grade.
A relatively few enter Life's Intermediate School, where lessons are more difficult, requiring rather strenuous application, Here a foundation is being laid [Page 124] for an understanding of life's problems. Preparatory courses in self-thinking and in independent action are part of the program. But few escape the danger of the developing mental faculty: to apply it to increase the selfish satisfaction of personal desires and sense gratification.
Admitted to the University of Life are only those who seriously wish to dedicate themselves to the attainment of the hard to get degree of H.P. — that of Human Perfection — and who want to acquire an insight into life's mysterious enigmas, in order to be able to teach their fellow beings, and to guide them from the grade in which those are unto the next one above it.
A difference between the School of Life and ordinary school is: that each soul can step from grade to grade as fast as individual effort and ability permit. Even so, only a single step to the next following grade can be taken at a time. But none nee to be detained by the languor of others.
The simple secret of speedy advancement along any line — and that applies to the line of approach toward the ideal of sex-subjugation — is: never stop stepping. [Page 125]
CONSTANT EFFORT
“What we are depends ..... on the efforts we have mae to realize our ideal.”
- HUXLEY, Ends and Means, xiv, 333
In the sub-human kingdoms, evolution proceeds naturally, without any conscious effort on the part of the living entities — such as animals and plants — that have their being in those kingdoms.
Humanity's evolutionary development also might have remained as effortless a procedure as in the preceding stages, if mind induced desire had not upset the natural, slow but smooth running process.
But through ages upon ages humanity has fouled its evolution producing machinery, until the most delicate, essential accessories have become coated with a layer of hardened,passion pullulated filth — — causing a pause in human evolution.
To get the prodigious process going again, the impurities must be removed by unrelenting, self-willed human effort. [Page 126]
The encrustment of the implements of evolution is the compounded effect of erroneous attitudes and thoughts and actions of the overwhelming majority of individuals in generation after generation.
The task for all who understand the cause of evolution's halt is to eliminate the cumbrous crust.
At first, the greatest amount of effort is needed to keep from adding to the elements of putrefaction.
This calls more frequently for a refrainment from action than for action. But non-action can sometimes be more difficult than action. It definitely requires more effort not-to-do, and steadfastly to refuse to do, what the crowd around one does — than to act according to the prevalent, long racially adopted anti-evolutionary ways of the incogitant majority.
Not knowing that the major purpose of the gonads is to supply the elements for regeneration — most people draft them into serving sensual gratification.
Those knowing better should spare no effort not-to-do whatever tends to estop one's progress toward evolution's goal. [Page 127]
SOLVING PROBLEMS
“They who seek victory over their nature, at first let them practise with helps. ”
- BACON, Essays, xxxviii
Prior to the manifestation of discriminative mind, life holds no — at least no intricate difficulties.
In evolution, the sub-human kingdoms are not faced with troublesome dilemmas. Nature guides them and takes care of their needs.Or mankind cultivates or domesticates them, and somewhat unnaturally directs, or misdirects, their development.
Whether guided by nature's intelligence or by human's intervening influence — — the animal or plant does not have to solve any plaguy problems.
While in the vegetable and animal kingdom sex is the main method of reproduction, it constitutes no problem there — not anywhere, until the advent of mind.
Only for mind endowed humanity has sex become a knotty and almost insolvable issued. [Page 128]
Misapplication of mind has drawn sex away from its natural purpose. Now mankind must bring it back to its right place in nature's deep laid design.
In life, as in school, one has to deal with two kinds of problems.
The one kind consists of those which the teacher — or which the vvolution guiding power — puts before one for training. Correctly solving these envelops an ability to tackle the more difficult problems that await one in the higher grades,into which one then can gradually advance.
The other kind of problems is self-made, by unwillingness to apply oneself to the requirements of one's class — of one's stage of evolution — and by continuing to play the games, to hold on to habits, which one should have dropped long ago.
Sex has become an appalling human-mad problem. So stubbornly, and so over-long has humanity persisted in over stimulating and abusing the use of sex, that it has upset the scheme of evolution, and practically stopped evolutionary progress.
The sages have shown that this problem can be solved; it must be solved by all. [Page 129]
PROGRESSING
“It is ..... the struggle that deserves honour. ”
- PIKE, Morals and Dogma, xxxii, 857
When a baby learns to walk, it surely cannot be blame for tumbling, and tumbling again. By getting up, and by persistently trying not to topple over any more, it masters the child art of walking.
When a child begins to skate, it is to be expected that knees and nose occasionally make contact with hard surfaces,which only its skates are meant to touch. But by rapidly rising, and resuming its attempts to keep in balance,it acquires deft skill in the graceful art of skating, without further scarring of the skin.
Acrobats and tight-rope dancers, too, learn not to fall, and to gain balance and body control, by undismayed practice.
Very similar is the situation, when one begins to exercise the noble art of transcendental climbing toward the top of [Page 130] human perfection. A difference is: that then control must be developed, not only over body, but over senses and thoughts as well.
No blame, no qualms of remorse need follow, if at first
one should momentarily slip, and slide slightly down the slope — provided one quickly clambers
back, and resolutely endeavours never to lapse again.
Whatever art one may wish to master — it seems almost impossible to procure proficiency without making a few mistakes.
Mistakes and falls and failings can be made to serve a useful purpose, if they are accepted as an emphasis on what is to be avoided.But if they are purposely repeated — and if one one consciously indulges in them, and seeks to justify them — then they become perpetual impediments to progress.
Adequate progress cannot be made, until slips and backslides
are eliminated.
One of the steepest stretches of the trail that leads to ideal humanhood, is the section on which the last remnants of sensuality must be overcome.
Beyond that slippery slope, vistas of undreamt beauty will open up before one. [Page 131]
TEMPTATIONS
“When one has conquered temptation .... one finds oneself in a state of peace and satisfaction. ”
- KANT, Metaphysics of Morals, II, Foreword.
Strong must the character be, to stand up to temptations. To yield to them is a clear sign of weakness.
Temptations serve to test one's moral strength. They are as necessary in life, as in school are the examinations, on the passing of which a student's advance to a higher grade depends.
Examinations get more complex in every next grade.So, temptations become tougher as one grows. But if one is duly prepared, they will not be found difficult to pass.
In school, there is always a period of preparation between carefully graded tests. It would be foolish for a school child to take part in college examinations. Just as unwise is what especially young people often do, when they seek the risk of exposing themselves to temptations, for which [Page 132] they are not sufficiently prepared.
Temptations should not be sought; nor slyly dodged; but, after due preparation, firmly faced, when introduced by fate.
The most reliable preparation is an all-inclusive purification, as suggested and briefly outlined in this volume.
In our helter-skelter civilization, temptations of all kinds abound on every side. In the form of visual and auditory and olfactory and tactile and psycho vital stimuli, they vie with each other to stir up and test whatever susceptibility to sensual excitants may still exists. And all those stimuli are surreptitiously supported by viciously subtle and deceptive theories and false teachings about sex.
Responding to extraneous temptations are the body's cells. Hereditarily pampered an over stimulated, they furiously claim accustomed satisfaction — — the more insistently, if one opposes their demands.
But every unfaltering refusal weakens their power, while one's own will is fortified by being utilized. Thus, while striving toward the ideal, the final conquest over all temptation becomes a certainty. [Page 133]
REPRESSION?
“Civilized society would rapidly become a chaos if the were not for the action of individual repression.”
- CORIAT, Repressed Emotions, i, 9.
Repression? What a fulsome fate has befallen that poor word. Of quite respectable descent, it was kidnapped and adopted and trained by a psychoanalytic tribe.
After being branded by the meanings modifying clan with an ineffaceable stigma of ill-repute, it was sent out into the wily world of misleading popularized scientific and technical terms.
As a result of this exceedingly unfortunate experience, repression is now by many looked upon as an outcast — as a carrier of disease, as the causa causans of neuroses — with which hardly anyone will have anything to do.
“Down with repression!” — this has become the common cry of a fearfully frenzied faction of the unprofessional public. Lacking a clear understanding of the very [Page 134] specialized nomenclature of psychoanalysis — and misinterpreting it as a warning against conjectured danger in every form of control — swelling rebellious multitude has furiously attacked whatever even remotely resembles its own misconstrued conception of repression.
In frantic fear of hallucinatory neurosis, and in fierce hatred of all restraint, the revolutionists try to tear down the barriers which protect society against chaos and disruption.
Such barriers, built of disciplinary measures to hold anti social tendencies in check, are indispensable as long as humanity is not better, not more inherently moral, not purer in its whole being than it is.
If the impure, unruly elements in society and in the individual are not in some way repressed, they will prevent the expression of all that is noble and pure.
External control must be applied by law. But inward purity cannot be legislated into people. Law must be complemented, and later superseded, by self-control.
Sensible self-control over sexuality, combined with an attraction for the ideal of perfection, can never cause a neurosis. [ Page 135]
RENUNCIATION
“The renunciation of carnality .... signifies the striving of the species toward a superior order of existence.”
- FAGAZZARO, The Saint, ii, 45.
Renunciation is not as difficult, as dolorous, as dull a procedure as it is commonly supposed to be. Nor is it a sacrifice. For a sacrifice consists in freely and unconditionally giving up for others' sake something of special value to oneself; whereas renunciation is simply the glad relinquishment of something or other, in order to obtain something else,which for the renouncer is more worth having.
People renounce without reluctance the citizenship of their land of birth, to become naturalized in a country of their own choice. Kings have blithesomely renounced their kingship, when they had to choose between it and personal love. Worldly wealth has willingly been renounced by individuals who felt that in self-imposed poverty it would be easier to find the wealth of [Page 136] soul that is of greater value than material riches. Sages have always readily renounced physical gratifications for the realization of spiritual attainment.
So do more and more wisdom seekers cheerfully renounce
a sexual life — along with everything
that tends to stimulate sex — in order to gain the summum bonum, toward which the ideal of perfect
purity opens up the only safe and certain way.
Sex renouncers nowadays are not necessarily solemn or sour ascetics, practising self-torture, retiring to desert or forest, or hiding behind cloister walls, away from the world's temptations.
Most present-day renouncers of sex see no good sense in self-centered isolation. They know that the strength of character required to reach their goal must be developed in facing and resisting the pressure of life's most vital problems in the world's midst — — not in escape therefrom.
In close and constant contact, they can encourage others by quietly demonstrating, in action and in being: that useful competence, contentment and felicity and mirth are compatible concomitants of continence. [Page 137]
MEDITATION
“One who properly uses meditations ..... acquires true perfection.”
- PLATO, Phaedrus, 249.
Every thinking person does a little meditating once in a while. Musing, concentrating, contemplating, reflecting — — all of these are minor modes of meditation, in so far as they draw one's attention away from the incoherent conglomeration of impressions that constantly impinge upon a person's receptive consciousness.
A characteristic feature of all phase of meditation is a withdrawal from distracting thoughts and influences,while focusing the mind on a self-selected subject.
In elementary forms of meditation the single-out subject is more or less related to the material world; in its advanced stages one becomes absorbed in quests pertaining to the spiritual world.
Instructions for meditating usually consists of precepts which more particularly [Page 138] have to do with its progressive grades; they will stress the need of a specially dedicated place, and of adopting some special posture of the body; they may recommend the recitation of special verses, the repetition of special affirmations,the incantation of special words or phrases, and the burning of incense; and very often they advise special ways of breathing.
Compliance with this kind of ritualistic rules can undoubtedly be of value for expert practice of prolonged, deep meditation. But such rules need not be followed when meditation is lightly used as an auxiliary factor in the subjugation of sex.
A few hints for a fairly simple, relevant form of meditation follow.
Upon awaking, and when retiring for the night, sit or lie down for a few minutes in a quiet place, in perfectly relaxed posture. With eyes closed, remain fully awake. By will exclude all thoughts about surroundings and about material problems.
Think of the body as enveloped in an aura of white light, which can dissolve all erotic elements. With regular practice, noticeable effects will very soon ensue. [Page 139]
TRANSMUTATION
“Inner growth ..... is always based on the transmutation of sex energy. ”
- OUSPENSKY, New Model of Universe, xii, 519
From the beginning of existence of the world, nature has exemplified unparalleled processes of transmutation. Its whole system of evolution is one of constant change, of multifarious ways of transmutation of lesser forms of expression into suitable ones for a fuller manifestation of its unfathomable, boundless potencies.
Humanity — being nature's adolescent child — is destined to become a capable, self-conscious cooperator with its universal parent. It is therefore gradually allowed to know more about, and to handle experimentally, nature's fine forces.
In line with this evolutionary plan was the work of the alchemists. Those who were looking for material results tried, in their primitive ovens an retorts, to imitate nature's proceedings, in which it is supposed [Page 140] to have produced the most valuable metals and precious stones by transmutation of baser substances.
Modern scientists — intent upon the fundamental structure and the inherent qualities of physical materials, as a basis for materialistically practical achievements — have made astounding progress along their special lines of study and endeavour. More accurate and extensive knowledge — supported by greatly improved machinery for applying tremendously increased temperature and pressure — has enabled them to delve deeper and deeper into nature's methods of physical transmutation.
But focusing one's attention on physical phenomena,
one is apt to lose sight of the fact: that nature — besides its palpable manifestation in transforming physical matter — also
possesses unlimited power to bring about far more important transcendental modes of transmutation.
Locked in the human body are forces, which nature has provided, and which by proper transmutation can hasten human evolution to undreamt fulgency.
The repository in which those forces are stored up, is located in the gonads. [Page 141]
The hermetic philosophers among the alchemists of the Middle Ages were quite familiar with the intangible process of transmutation of evolution furthering forces within the human body. This process was, in fact, already known to the initiates of the Ancient Mysteries.
Now, all who wish can gain a general understanding
of the forces deposited by nature in the gonads. All who will search can find the key, that will enable them
to draw from the supply of transmutable force available in the vital storage place. All who prepare the proper
facilities, can have that force transformed into factors that will improve their physical condition, add
to their faculties of intellect and intuition, and aid their spiritual unfoldment.
The actual process of transmutation — whether taking place in the little alembic of the alchemist, in the colossal cyclotron of the modern scientist, or in the human body — is not, and could not be, performed by any human being. That miraculous accomplishment remains nature's very own.
All that a human individual can do, is to assist in nature's plan by appropriately conditioning the implements for its work. [Page 142]
For the transmutation of the force concealed in the gonads — in the sex glands of both sexes — into salutary, intellectual, intuitional and spiritual power, an individual must make it possible for nature to carry out that task.
Nature, the cosmic parent of all that is, may well insist that humanity — its favourite, eldest child — shall strive to be of some assistance in the all-embracing scheme of evolution. At the very least, mankind should show a willingness to cooperate in the the transmutation of the gonadic force, on which its own chance for effective further evolution depends.
No satisfactory transmutation can be consummated, so long as a person continues to squander the force in sensual, sexual, non-generative functions.
A thorough purification of all aspects of human existence is of paramount importance. Such purification must be based on an understanding of evolution's purpose; it must be inspirited by idealism, sustained by effort,and directed by will.
Then can the transmutation take place that will help to raise the race to majestic heights of evolutionary grandeur [Page 143]
SUBLIMATION
“The great task of humanity has always been ..... to sublimate sex.”
- BERDYAEV, The Destiny of man, i, iii, 83
The process, by which the gonadic force is guided into channels for non-sexual utilization, has been so often indiscriminately called either transmutation or sublimation, that it has become difficult to find out whether any difference in meaning is implied by these two terms.
Yet — while both basically refer to the same process — il would seem logical to speak of sublimation only when the redirection of the generative force is carried out to the most sublime degree: when that force is deflected from all sexual phases toward an awakening of spiritual fervour.
So considered, sublimation is the highest aspect of transmutation. It goes beyond the transference
of the libido into body-building, or into true art-producing, or into intellect intensifying energy. [Page
144] Ultimately — instead of being dissipated in purposely unreproductive mating, or in still
more humiliating perverse acts — the sexual energy must unequivocally be conserved, and transformed into
spiritual power, by consummate sublimating.
Neither transmutation nor sublimation of the generative force requires in any way cooperation of a mate.
The necessary favourable conditions for such accomplishment must be provided by every individual, male or female, separately and independently.
It cannot be too often stated that sex is only a physical differentiation. Whatever psychological differences may seem to exist between the sexes, are the result of humanly instituted customs, artificially inbred and upheld through the ages.
Man and woman are inherently alike in possibility of expressing the noblest emotions, of developing clear intellect, of opening up the intuition, of reaching up to spiritualization. Either of them can, and eventually must cognizantly make the effort to prepare for transmutation and sublimation. Each must do so entirely alone. [Page 145]
Although humanity in its entirety is destined to achieve complete sublimation of the gonadic force — — not all individuals are, at this time, capable of attaining it to the same extent.
While some seem favoured by fate with an intuitive knowledge about the factuality, the feasibility, the means and the methods of sublimation — — others are congenitally disabled by a lack of mentality and of will power; while in still others, who are born with defective gonads, the central power station cannot produce a sufficient amount of transmutable force.
But, nearly everybody with just a mote of mind and glimpse of the ideal should not find it difficult
to launch upon, and to a noticeable degree succeed in the evolutionary task of sublimation.
In order to be successful, sublimation — even more than the lesser forms of transmutation — requires as a preliminary the most thorough, many sided purification.
No goal is worthy of a greater effort; because effective sublimation is the perfection of humanization:
it brings into expression one's innermost, highest Self. [ Page 146]
“What mortal pen ..... describe the infinite potentialities ..... that await one who has learned the secret of conquering the flesh. . ”
- ANONYM, Magazine Article. [Page 147]
“The attainment of the highest ideals .....
becomes possible when the lower elements in one's nature are overcome. ”
- HARTMANN, Occult Science, v, 88 [Page 148]
“The truths which underlie the vast problem of sex .... will lead .... to spiritual intuition. ”
- BLAVATSKY, The Secret Doctrine, II, 433 [Page 149]
PRINCIPAL BENEFITS
“All the sexual forces can be ..... transformed into purest energy.”
- ADAMS BECK, The Way to Power, xi, 193.
Before applying oneself to a course of training, one naturally wants to know what benefits eventually can be reaped.
Stress must be laid on the word 'eventually'; for, while possibilities can be described, actual results depend upon a student's aptitude and dedicated effort.
Scattered through this volume are many hints about exceedingly valuable results, obtainable by diverting the current of gonadic force away from sexual waste — and by utilizing the entire capacity of the gonads for worthy purposes.
Enhanced health; lasting youthfulness; hale old age;
increased efficiency; radiant happiness; serene idealism; clearer intuition; expanded consciousness; undreamt
new faculties — these are among
the likely benefits of determinately willed continence. [Page 150]
HEALTH. Whatever the cause, wherever the blame — the physical wellbeing of most people is congenitally more or less impaired. This fact makes it generally desirable to improve the condition of the body with which one comes into this world.
The responsibility for this task, which at first rests almost entirely on the parents, becomes one's own when discriminative minds has been developed. By that time one should have been informed:
that essential, vitality-controlling life-force is produced in the gonads;
that non-generative sexual activity detracts from and vitiates that force;
that, therefore, positive continence is a pertinent health-protecting factor.
The dweller in the body can to a large extent control the quality of the atoms, of which the body ultimately consists. These atoms come and go; they are constantly being removed, and replaced by others.
According to one's character, one's conduct and one's thoughts, the coarser atoms will be cast out and finer ones attracted — or just the opposite will take place.
The process of purification, outlined in several chapters in this volume as a means [Page
151] of facilitating continence, will at the same time help to build the body into as healthy and as vitalized a
structure as the limitations of one's destiny permit.
LONGEVITY. Conservation and transmutation of the gonadic
life force, in combination with all-around purification, will enormously increase one's chances for longevity — for
an enjoyable, sound, sane and sagacious old age.
EFFICIENCY. The output of a private electric power station of limited capacity can be used, either for useless gadgets for the amusement of its owner, or for the driving of useful machinery.
In every individual the gonads are the power producing
station, while the brain is one of the most useful mechanisms. The more of the gonadic force is diverted
to the brain,the more efficient the person can become — and the better one can succeed in whatever
one wishes to accomplish.
UFLIFTMENT. The more the gonadic force goes up to higher organs instead of to the lower, the more one's whole being is lifted up. Life becomes fuller, as awareness [ Page 152] expands. Appreciation of the beauty and the wonders of nature refines one's taste.
A growing feeling of kinship with all that lives brings with it aspiration to apply only the loftiest standards of ethics and morality to one's own behaviour.
Attraction to philosophy leads to an extension of knowledge into wisdom; to an understanding of universal laws; and to a deeper insight into the purpose of life.
In every way, life becomes richer in reaching for the rapture of an ever expanding consciousness.
JOY OF LIVING. When vital energies are no longer frittered away in momentary, outward, impure, so-called pleasures — a superb, lasting, pure, inward joy will become manifest.
The joy of triumph over sensual temptation is in itself worth the effort to subjugate the sex-symbolizing
serpent.
PURER LOVE. Marriage is a marvellous, basic institution in human evolution.
It is a training ground for noble qualities, where all less laudatory characteristics are subjected to interminable tests and contactual temptation. While its [Page 153] sexual aspect serves the continuation of the race — is still more significant purpose is to raise the individual from selfish sex attraction to unselfish love of soul.
In an ideal marriage — in which sex communion is limited to intended fructification — the
partners can attain the utmost human happiness of a companionship based on purest love.
IMPROVED PROGENY. Whether believing in heredity, or
in attraction of like to like, or in arbitrary decree of fate — is is no more than logical to expect
that the purer the parents, the better the chance for their children to come into the world with healthy
bodies and excellent qualities of character and mind.
FREEDOM. Freedom from the pressing power of passion is one of the most precious possession; it is indispensable for advanced evolutionary attainment; it surpasses all more familiar forms of freedom.
When self-discipline in overcoming sexual impulses
is determinedly practiced, this inner freedom — not
obtainable in any other way — can ever enduringly be enjoyed. [Page 154]
INTUITION. Nature's boundless intelligence reaches down into the animal to guide it by instinct. Humanity must reach up to a higher level of that intelligence, by making itself receptive to intuition.
Purification will clean the windows of the soul, so that one can received intuition's fullest,
clear illumination.
SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT. The basic rule of every system of spiritual training has always been — and must remain — catharsis,i.e., purification of one's whole being.
The most important benefit of conscientiously applied catharsis is the coming into expression
of that most sublime element of the human constitution: spirituality.
Not everyone who refrains from sexual acts, can expect to gain all the named results. Negative continence, imposed by compulsion, lack of opportunity, or disability, is of little consequence.
But if abstinence is based on recognition of the true significance of the ideal — and on an urge from within to approach the ideal — then, gradually, all the specified benefits are bound to be realized. [Page 155]
ONWARD, CIVILIZATION!
“It is impossible to ignore the extent to
which civilization is built up on renunciation of..... gratifications.”
- FREUD, Civilization and its Discontents, iii, 63
Evolution's artificially stunted outgrowth — so proudly called 'civilization' — is far fro what a real, wisely cultured civilization would be; very far from what some day it must, and will be.
The social conditions of a group of human beings reflect the average inward state of its members. In relation to the group, every individual in it is comparable to a body-cell. If many cells are defective, the body is diseased, and may become a wreck. So does a civilization become decadent, when many of its members are morally ailing — as proven by the decay and fall of past civilizations.
To mend one's own body's condition, the cells must be improved; and every redintegrated cell bolsters the betterment of other cells. Analogously, to rectify the [Page 156] failing state of civilizaton, a thorough purification of the component individuals is requisite. This must be accomplished mainly by individual effort.
Thus does self-purification — by subjugation an sublimation of the sex force — benefit
the race, by helping to bring our pseudo-civilization closer to the not only mentally, but morally cultured,
advanced state of a more humane, more humanized society of humankind.
There are already many people — many more than one might guess — who are awake to the dangerous condition into which our civilization has been brought by prevalent erroneous practices and ideas about sex.
Many are willing to work on self-purification — as much for the sake of improving the race, as for personal benefit.
While removing the barriers which have long delayed the onward march of a civilization that should have kept pace with evolution, those practical idealists hold high the standards of a transplendent future.
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