Has anyone experienced any benefits from not having sex and not masturbating?

[TheConqueror]

I have been experimenting recently. Last few months I've been quite fatigued and generally in a state of poor ish health. I've more or less been masturbating daily to porn. The orgasms and enjoyment really started to become lower and lower. I just felt like I was going through the motions as opposed to really doing it in an enjoyable way. It had just become a habit that I repeated day after day with little thought or enjoyment.

Anyway. Ive been reading up on it. There is a lot to be said on it. I think, even if people don't buy into some of the theories; what definitely made sense to me is reward circuitry. I.e, the more you repeat a pleasurable experience, the less valid and pleasurable that experience becomes. Your brain becomes desensitized to it all. By bashing to porn everyday - to me, your kind of teaching yourself/mind that you don't need to go out and search for women. You don't need to have this lust for life. Your taking the easy option. You need to teach yourself that bashing daily to porn is not compensation for getting with real women.

So now I'm aiming for long term changes. My goals right now are to reduce masturbation/ejaculation to once a week. Perhaps every two weeks. I hope to become more energetic in the process, both in engaging with women, and in my daily life as a whole. I don't think masturbation is morally wrong or anything like that. I just think you need to practice moderation and discipline to some degree.

I find some things intuitively make sense to me. This makes sense to me. Sure, the latest science seems to only give us 'good for you mantras', but sometimes you need to find the truth yourself through your own observations. Again, I dont think masturbation is inherently wrong. I just think that if you apply some common sense, it seems logical to reduce your masturbating/porn use. You need to stay hungry and ambitious in life.

Btw, I think guys in their late teens-early 20s will still have the highest sex drive they will ever have - so they may be able to do it more frequently, and probably not realise any difference. But as you get older, you do start to notice.

[Choice90]

Conqueror, very well-written post.

I'm trying to do the same. Something that might help is by going to stickk.com which is a great way to check yourself on goals. It is a website that you 'check' in every week.

If you met your goal (say, not whacking it), you report it (takes literally two seconds) but if you don't meet your goal, then you pay a set amount to charity (can be any amount; $1, $5, $10, etc.).

Your reporting time can be a week, month, two months, doesn't matter.

stickk.com allows you to create a public or private profile. Out of fear of anyone finding out my 'goal', I just created an alias. [On a side note, when I called their customer service line to ensure my profile was private, on the other end of the phone was someone who I went to high school with, so my cover was potentially blown there :-). That said, I've still kept going with stickk.com...]

[M Ken]

Several thoughts coming to my mind.

1) Gandhi have written a lot about his abstinence. He fought with it persistently and he won. And he says that sex is like animal-like instinct

2) Osho have written a lot too. When he was asked, why he say no word about abstinence, he answered that if you meditate sexual instinct will die itself

3) Some Russian yogis say that standing on your head (and meditation, but there is nothing new in meditation) really helps to abstinence. I totally agree with them. I started doing two things - standing on head (i've progressed till 9 minutes, but be careful, then you have to be in prayer pose for a few minutes) and meditating (20 minutes before I go to sleep). And I think I succeed. If I intentionally won't go to watch porno, or if I intentionally don't think about girls, or some girl is kissing me, then I don't even think about sex. And, by the way, if you have abstinence without any parallel practice (meditation), then you'll have a lot of sperm coming out of you. But if you really practice yoga, tiny bit of sperm is coming out of you.

4) Did you notice that in Polyphasic Sleep you've become less addictive to sex? Did you notice that going to bed and waking up is breaking all your promises about sex? It means that sex (as animal-like movements, not tantric sex) is just animal instinct that should be changed.

5) I registered and have written this huge message with my poor English, only because had the same problems and nobody give this kind of knowledge on a silver platter.

PS Will word know someday the word "Polyphasic"?

[John Lemire]

I had no sex and didn't masturbate all last year. I was raw vegan at the time and noticed my desire for sex diminished quite a bit. Actually it is more accurate to state that my drive was more under my control.
I noticed more energy, and still do, when I don't masturbate more than a once or twice a week. The energy drop is quite noticeable if I do it to often.
I don't know if it helped my spiritual practices, I am not sure how to "transmute" that energy yet. Anyways its a interesting thing to try. You will learn a bit about your energy and vitality at least.

[saddenedoldsoul]

wow! i only looked this up because of the high amount of benefits. and curious as to see if anyone else has come to notice them aswell.
Personally ive found and proved to myself, that it is healthier not to masturbate. it gradually makes you healthier, and funny enough makes you better looking. sounds strange yes. it is. give this a shot because ive constantly been trying to regain the health that i had when i had slowed down but have had trouble regaining it only because masturbation is an addiction and thats the only reason why ive had trouble re-acheiving these results. firstly, it may take a little bit of time, depending on how long you can last and also, this may sound strange and is extremely difficult to explain or even comprehend WHY! but we go through periods of regaining more from not masturbating and gradually as we do it more, the amount we gain from not doing it decreases. its like a cycle, where at the begining you achieve double the results, then next you achieve normal and it slowly decreases until you acheive nothing, then masurbate again and for some reason (until you do it next) refraining from doing it actually makes it worse HAHA! (believe me, try this and you will see results) but only this once in the cycle is it bad to refrain from doing it. then it goes through the cycle again where first you achieve double and so forth. also masturbating withing two days, is a slow descent in your health, and within the first day you did it an even quicker one. Never the less, i realised i got better looking, firstly i started noticing very slight slight changes in my face, once you wouldnt notice unless you were paying quite abit of attention. my weight distribution got better, and i started gaining more weight on my upper body instead of my legs. slowly i noticed i started gaining more weight in my face and my face began to look smoother. while all this weight was re-distributing. and finally it even gave me the appearance my face was even better structured baha ( honestly give it a shot because i promise u'll notice benefits and if you dont believe me do it for the fun of it ). because my whole body was better proportioned i had better coordination and it doesnt really suprise me too much. i was doing no fitness at all. i noticed i had better energy levels,because i gained confidence from looking better i was actually happier and this is possibly one of the main things that got me through depression because suddenly i was getting recognition whereas before i couldnt because i was too shy and felt to ugly.

anyways listen to my advice at least give it a shot and if you cant see any difference go back to wanking. you have nothing to lose and suprisingly even tho you may know the secret now, dont feel its so easy to achieve because its rly hard not to masturbate

[ChrisGinsburg]

I think the only universal thing about masturbating is that drains your energy. If you're looking to have more energy, learn moderation. It's also another thing to get attached to. Cutting down as many attachments as you can is always a positive experience. Many people masturbate because they associate it with relieving feelings of anxiety, frustration, loneliness or anger. It becomes less about anything sexual and more about an unconscious desire to relieve stress. Replace maladaptive coping tools like masturbation with things like exercise or meditation and you're likely to be feeling better. In any case, masturbation is not evil or bad. Just like anything else, it's how you use it.

[Mythouse]

Originally Posted by andrew112

Has anyone experienced any benefits from not having sex AND not masturbating? If so, what were the benefits? Were they spiritual benefits, mental benefits, physical benefits, etc. ? Did Christ (theoretically speaking for the non-believers) ever have sex or masturbate? Does abstaining from sex and masturbation make one stronger and more successful? Does it increase spiritual joy or the sense of accomplishment?

I am curious about this because I managed to go for 2 1/2 years without any sexual thought, action or engagement, but did not experience any benefits at all from it. I was not more spiritual at all. In fact, I was not spiritual in any way for the entire 2 1/2 years. I then decided to experiment with masturbation to see if it made any difference at all. The only difference I see is that I always regret masturbating and wished that I never did it. I always end up thinking to myself, "If I never masturbated, maybe I would have experienced some kind of benefit from abstaining from it, like an increase of energy or an increase in testosterone to aid in my exercise routine."

I once read about a study that was done by some Chinese doctors who observed some men who abstained from sex and masturbation for an entire week. They reported a 50% testosterone increase in the men. That is a significant increase. I would like to experience this benefit, but for some reason, my mind keeps telling me that I would not get any benefits at all from abstaining from all sexual thoughts/actions. Has anyone else experienced anything like this or have been in a similar type of situation?

I know this post is disorganized, but it is the best I can do at the time.

Mile Davis has been quoted in saying "Never cum before a show" As a singer/musician, I have felt the positive effects of that discipline for years now. This past month, I decided not to have anymore ejaculations to see how it would feel. "Horny" is the word, but instead of trying to keep the Mojo quiet, I spend time pleasing myself, all without having an orgasmic ejaculation. I am getting better at bringing my body to the threshold just before which allows that nice clear fluid to come out without the white spermatazoa. I'm finding that sex is becoming way more enjoyable. And like the lad mentioned above, when there's a partner on board, this means hours of sexual pleasure. To top it off, I'm walking around with that special energy. For me, this ties into the teachings of Kundalini. If we can abstain from ejaculating, energy(Chi) can be ushered up the spine which goes through all of the energy centers getting them to spin better. When the energy reaches the Crown chakara, we get plugged into the cosmic library. I like it. I'm liking the even keel (long term) pleasure more then the short lived orgasm. I'm interested to see how it will all pan out. A big thanks to everyone and their links. I will most definitely be checking it out. Good luck on your path.

[stanmrak]

Whatever benefits there might be - they're not worth it! Even if it promised 40 extra years of life... no thank you. There's sure to be other ways to garner the same alleged benefits without depriving yourself.

[joelr]

Originally Posted by andrew112

I am curious about this because I managed to go for 2 1/2 years without any sexual thought, action or engagement, but did not experience any benefits at all from it. I was not more spiritual at all. In fact, I was not spiritual in any way for the entire 2 1/2 years. I then decided to experiment with masturbation to see if it made any difference at all. The only difference I see is that I always regret masturbating and wished that I never did it. I always end up thinking to myself, "If I never masturbated, maybe I would have experienced some kind of benefit from abstaining from it, like an increase of energy or an increase in testosterone to aid in my exercise routine."

I once read about a study that was done by some Chinese doctors who observed some men who abstained from sex and masturbation for an entire week. They reported a 50% testosterone increase in the men. That is a significant increase. I would like to experience this benefit, but for some reason, my mind keeps telling me that I would not get any benefits at all from abstaining from all sexual thoughts/actions.

This study:
A research on the relationship b... [J Zhejiang Univ Sci. 2003 Mar-Apr] - PubMed - NCBI

along with another found a rise in testosterone on the 7th day (140%) of abstinence but then all the subjects returned to baseline levels.

If that is indeed what happens then the boost in test is pretty much worthless.
140% rise in testosterone for an average man isn't significant anyways. If it was permanent it would be something but one day makes little difference. The average level is somewhere around 300 and a man with high levels is ~6-700. So you might reach the level of a person with high test for one day.
But there are no reports of those with permanent high test levels getting more action, just more heart attacks and strokes at a younger age.

My experience with taking time off from sexual activity was just having more time.