Leo, what is your view on porn and masturbation when pursuing higher conciousness?

[Martin123]

@Leo Gura

Quote

We often talk about addicts as though they simply have "quantitative problems". They "use too much", and should "cut back". But porn addictions also have a qualitative component: they change sexual taste. Here's how.

..

One key driver of plastic change is the reward centre, which normally fires as we accomplish a goal. A brain chemical, dopamine, is released, giving us the thrill that goes with accomplishment. It also consolidates the connections between neurons in the brain that helped us accomplish that goal. As well, dopamine is secreted at moments of sexual excitement and novelty. Porn scenes, filled with novel sexual "partners", fire the reward centre. The images get reinforced, altering the user's sexual tastes.

Many abused substances directly trigger dopamine secretion – without us having to work to accomplish a goal. This can damage the dopamine reward system. In porn, we get "sex" without the work of courtship. Now, scans show that porn can alter the reward centre too.

Once the reward centre is altered, a person will compulsively seek out the activity or place that triggered the dopamine discharge. (Like addicts who get excited passing the alley where they first tried cocaine, the patients got excited thinking about their computers.) They crave despite negative consequences. (This is why those patients could crave porn without liking it.) Worse, over time, a damaged dopamine system makes one more "tolerant" to the activity and needing more stimulation, to get the rush and quiet the craving. "Tolerance" drives a search for ramped-up stimulation, and this can drive the change in sexual tastes towards the extreme.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/26/brain-scans-porn-addicts-sexual-tastes

I can't get behind the notion that in a 'consciousness raising community dedicated to enlightenment, self-actualization and self-development', the one person virtually almost 99% members look up to is advocating for porn, which is an addictive substance causing damage to people's brains and relationships.

There are people here who have severe porn addictions that are significantly impacting their lives, and your advice of enabling porn and labeling it as not harmful is simply irresponsible. It's a pattern of enabling addictions.

If you wish to keep your stance on porn so be it, I just hope there will be enough free-thinking individuals to call you out on it.

[herghly]

34 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Stop watching PornHub. Buy quality porn.

It surrpsies me with all the practices you've done and how open minded you are that you have  never looked into semen rention.

 

[Rasheed]

5 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Stop watching PornHub. Buy quality porn.

What do you mean by quality porn? What is quality porn? Where to find it? Where to buy it? How to differentiate low quality and high quality porn? (This is not a joke. This is a serious question, I am asking seirously) 

[AtheisticNonduality]

There

is

need

to

destroy

your

Stage

Blue

shadows.

Thank you.

[Rasheed]

1 hour ago, AtheisticNonduality said:

There

is

need

to

destroy

your

Stage

Blue

shadows.

Thank you.

People here say that porn is bad for people not because there is some God or spaghetti monster in clouds who will get upset, they say it because it is proven that it fucks person’s brain. That’s it. 

[Chives99]

1 hour ago, Rasheed said:

What do you mean by quality porn? What is quality porn? Where to find it? Where to buy it? How to differentiate low quality and high quality porn? (This is not a joke. This is a serious question, I am asking seirously) 

Anybody who buys porn in this day and age needs a good luck at themselves, literally any genre is available for free, you have an office fantasy it's out there, hippie chick fantasy it's out there 

[Danioover9000]

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Stop watching PornHub. Buy quality porn.

   See? Making a suggestion callously with little to no regard for what your actual problems with sexuality, what your sexual needs actual are at, what degree of porn addiction you are at. Maybe until you've actually done the practices, done semen retention and made a video about it we would take your suggestion more seriously. Some hardcore spiritual masters have channeled their sexual energy into enlightenment.

[Rasheed]

1 hour ago, Chives99 said:

Anybody who buys porn in this day and age needs a good luck at themselves, literally any genre is available for free, you have an office fantasy it's out there, hippie chick fantasy it's out there 

Yes, even most ridiculous stuff.  I asked not because of that. I ask because I am interested in what Leo means by saying quality porn. 

[erik8lrl]

Everyone is different, follow your heart and intuition. Nothing is wasted, it is all love. If you feel porn is bad for you, simply stop. Good and bad are not separated if you can see the whole picture of reality. 

[AtheisticNonduality]

2 hours ago, Rasheed said:

People here say that porn is bad for people not because there is some God or spaghetti monster in clouds who will get upset, they say it because it is proven that it fucks person’s brain. That’s it. 

Metaphorical gods and spaghetti monsters there sure are. ANYTHING can fuck a person's brain if you don't take care. You are only limiting yourself.

[Danioover9000]

   It's now undeniable that semen retention and Nofap can help you with this addiction. However, some here are not open minded and actually try out these practices, and instead make suggestions to go purchase porn without knowing full well of negative consequences, and instead spread this mind virus of porn being super healthy. In other circumstances, these types of people would be punished severely for their spreading of ignorance.

[Karmadhi]

Porn, masturbation and higher consciousness are independent variables

[Danioover9000]

@Karmadhi

7 minutes ago, Karmadhi said:

Porn, masturbation and higher consciousness are independent variables

   Actually, not really independent variables. If you happen to have similar or stronger addiction to porn and masturbate several times a day, it's a more difficult circumstance to developing higher consciousness. While you can masturbate to other sexual objects or to other intimate partners, porn is still one materiel that makes masturbating easier to do, more stimulating.

   Leo hasn't talked zero about semen retention or any spiritual practices regarding sexuality, yet freely gives advice to people combating their strong urges. Not really open minded at all.

[Karmadhi]

@Danioover9000 I feel like Leo has an insanely high sex drive and is unable to do noFap due to his high sex drive. He said in his teens he was able to ejaculate 10-20 times a day which i find insanely high personally. If you are not at that level of sex drive then you can control it without much problem. I did nofap for 140 days (hard mode so no sex either, just wet dreams which i could not control) and i have difficulty meditating for 1 hour so yeah its not that hard. 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Karmadhi

[Danioover9000]

@Karmadhi

12 minutes ago, Karmadhi said:

@Danioover9000 I feel like Leo has an insanely high sex drive and is unable to do noFap due to his high sex drive. He said in his teens he was able to ejaculate 10-20 times a day which i find insanely high personally. If you are not at that level of sex drive then you can control it without much problem. I did nofap for 140 days and i have difficulty meditating for 1 hour so yeah its not that hard. 

   That's his problem, not to mention whatever subconscious baggage he has that's reinforcing this frequency. I don't know if his frequency lower significantly or is still relatively high like 7-15 times a day ( further complicating this is he has a gf.). However, to then go and tell other people to freely buy pornographic material is a bit reckless. If you're gonna go into spirituality this hard, why don't he also cover spiritual sexual practices? I really hate when people project their own bullshit onto other people without doing any exploration or work on it themselves.

   I have a relatively high sex drive, but that doesn't stop me from exploring semen retention and Nofap, due to my adolesence and childhood experiencing strange shit that helped open my mind a bit. To me, being too horny is not a valid excuse to not explore Nofap ,and if you are up to the challenge, semen retention. Eventually, in the future, this practice will be acknowledged as a valid approach, to self actualization and to spirituality, that to deny it would be as ridiculous as to deny that the earth is round, and making such reckless sexual suggestions a ridiculous inhumane act, and transcending that sex karma as an actual worthwhile journey, not as some fringe freak conspiracy theory. 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Danioover9000

[Danioover9000]

@Martin123

12 hours ago, Martin123 said:

@Leo Gura

I can't get behind the notion that in a 'consciousness raising community dedicated to enlightenment, self-actualization and self-development', the one person virtually almost 99% members look up to is advocating for porn, which is an addictive substance causing damage to people's brains and relationships.

There are people here who have severe porn addictions that are significantly impacting their lives, and your advice of enabling porn and labeling it as not harmful is simply irresponsible. It's a pattern of enabling addictions.

If you wish to keep your stance on porn so be it, I just hope there will be enough free-thinking individuals to call you out on it.

      I don't think people will want to call him out on it, but there are a few here that do so. I'm surprised that he has claimed to have researched many spiritual fields, yet won't mention those spiritual fields that utilize sexual energy was a way towards enlightenment, like Tantric Yoga and Daoism energetic branches. It's probably still  a lot of sexual karma for him to burn through still.

    He said in one of his psychedelic videos or his god/infinity/consciousness videos that it'll take a while for most of us to get to his level of understanding and consciousness. Well, it's the same here: It'll take him longer to reach that level of spiritual sexual mastery of the Taoists and Tantric Yogis of Tibet, to utilize sexual energy towards enlightenment.

[lmfao]

On 03/10/2020 at 0:21 PM, Michael569 said:

Found the article. It continues as follows: " As the man keeps edging and thus keeps experiencing intense pleasure, he enters a state of trance where his mind intimately merges with his cock : the gooning state, where he and his dick become one."

Can confirm that this is factually accurate. 

If you ever try and force your penis to the limit of edging, porn, desensitisation,you'll end up in the zombie state. Not a place you want to be. 

 

Also, even if Leo says porn is fine, that's just like, his opinion man. It's up to you.

I know that for myself that my porn use is an addiction and not purely a function of "nature" , so that should be enough for anyone considering to do nofap. 

In practice I don't do nofap. I do "less fap" 

 

I have heard Leo validate the existence of porn addiction before in his addiction video. Idk what it's been like on this forum. 

Edited October 4, 2020 by lmfao

[Danioover9000]

@Rasheed

3 hours ago, Rasheed said:

Yes, even most ridiculous stuff.  I asked not because of that. I ask because I am interested in what Leo means by saying quality porn. 

   I think high quality porn here is meant by not just the porn being only exciting, but you also feel love and intimacy as well, like it gets your heart pounding as well.

   The highest quality sexual release is with a non-physical entity, hours of sexual transmutation, leading to multiple orgasms of the balls, the heart, the mind and so on, until it leads to Samadhi. the second highest would be with actual real partner, full body mind orgasm. Lower than that, different types of masturbation and porn that is exploratory, both kinky and intimate types. There are lower levels still, but I think the lowest is digital only, typical porn.

   Ideally, no porn and do Nofap and semen retention, but I do expect a lot of young men will more than likely seek out porn anyways, so maybe through experience that some people will be able to transcend this addiction for good.

   Maybe the ones that don't get you arrested, or infect your computer with viruses. That's a start too.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Danioover9000

[Chives99]

@Danioover9000 that doesn't really need stating.

I still find it laughable that paid porn is higher quality. I find though when I really can't focus on some work at home a quick nut sorts Me out , so I can get rid of them thoughts and get back to normal, it really is a good stress relief

[Danioover9000]

@Chives99

On 10/4/2020 at 11:27 PM, Chives99 said:

@Danioover9000 that doesn't really need stating.

I still find it laughable that paid porn is higher quality. I find though when I really can't focus on some work at home a quick nut sorts Me out , so I can get rid of them thoughts and get back to normal, it really is a good stress relief

   It does need stating, more for me because I tend to forget that every time I jump off a burning sinking ship to a ship, I forget that ship is sinking too, and every ship is not a safe haven so to speak.

   With the paid porn versus free porn, I think it comes down to accountability, because you are putting some effort into paying the porn, versus easily clicking on every porn vid. Also, you get to shop more consciously versus seeing the free porn thumbnails mindlessly.

   It's interesting that some people do need to nut before serious work or other activities. That usually drains my motivation and energy more to do those serious works, and my focus even gets a negative hit.  

Edited October 6, 2020 by Danioover9000