Insight about semen retention/No fap

[electroBeam]

Here is an insight I discovered personally for myself. My mind and body doesn't work like everyone's. Its quite different, so this insight may be totally inaccurate for you.

There are 2 camps in the no fap movement: the ones who say it doesn't work, and the ones who say it does work.

Its a really heated debate, because both camps believe they are absolutely right. Both camps assume that what they believe is true for everyone. Both camps are incapable of admitting that bodies, minds are different, and for some people nofap is powerful, while is totally true for others that nofap does absolutely nothing.

 

I've always been in the nofap is bullshit camp, and for me its definitely true. Nofap does absolutely nothing for me. I was doing some body awareness work today and discovered why that might be, and why nofap people actually get lots of value out of nofap.

 

Within myself, I noticed that fapping (and sex with women) puts you in a state where there is less assertion and dominance and movement in growing kundalini energy, or prana or whatever you want to call it. For me, it puts you into a sedative, peaceful state, like a zen sort of no mind peace. It also reduces your desire to move energy up the spine.

Growing kundalini energy, or prana energy is definitely useful and powerful, and if your entire spiritual practice relates to working with this energy, nofap would be extremely important. Yet if you mainly use mindfulness and consciousness techniques that don't rely so much on this energy, then nofap would have minor benefits. Working with such energy isn't really necessary or a requirement for contemplation, mindfulness, letting go, etc.

The other thing I have personally noticed, is you can actually draw in energy without semen retention at all. You can draw in energy purely from consciousness. If you're at a vibrational state where every atom of consciousness is buzzing with bliss, then those atoms of consciousness can draw in energy into your system, and using semen is less required. As a corollary to that, I also feel like where your energy work is focused, greatly affects whether semen retention is super important. For me personally, my energy work is always focused in the forehead region. Yet if I was to do lots of energy work and focus it in the sacral region, semen retention would be more important. If I was to draw energy up from the sacral to the forehead, that would require semen retention, yet if I do (what I normally do) and draw energy from the forehead, then semen retention is less required.

 

I'd love to have more deeper discussions about the precise mechanics of the energy system on this site in terms of semen retention. I personally don't think semen retention is either necessary or not necessary, but rather depends on the specific approach you're going about energy work, and different systems could cater for the semen retention route vs non semen retention route.

I've never really resonated with the semen retention route personally. For me specifically, semen retention was like putting loads of focus and effort into a certain type of discipline that had no real empirical basis for effectiveness for me. I couldn't feel exactly how semen retention would benefit me, I didn't feel morally wrong for not doing it, I didn't feel like I was missing out or letting myself down. Infact I always felt like the amount of effort I could put into maintaining semen retention, would much better serve me in actual spiritual practices like kriya yoga or meditation, contemplation, qigong - all of which I got results from without semen retention, even though the books outlined it was necessary.

[peanutspathtotruth]

I'm gonna play devil here and confront what you're saying. 
How can you know that it is not working just because you "feel" like it doesn't? How would you know what you're missing out on if you're not giving this technique a true shot, not for a few weeks or months, but for a few years? (Or have you actually done this? Doesn't sound like it) What if the true reason for doing this only reveals itself far down the road, when you have kept AND transmuted the energy for a very long time? Of course I completely respect your opinion, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but, saying this in a kind and constructive manner - it feels to me like you're only justifying an already hardened position, and your reasoning seems not very strong or convincing to me.

[electroBeam]

2 hours ago, peanutspathtotruth said:

I'm gonna play devil here and confront what you're saying. 
How can you know that it is not working just because you "feel" like it doesn't? How would you know what you're missing out on if you're not giving this technique a true shot, not for a few weeks or months, but for a few years? (Or have you actually done this? Doesn't sound like it) What if the true reason for doing this only reveals itself far down the road, when you have kept AND transmuted the energy for a very long time? Of course I completely respect your opinion, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but, saying this in a kind and constructive manner - it feels to me like you're only justifying an already hardened position, and your reasoning seems not very strong or convincing to me.

You could try many techniques for a few years, more then you've got time for in your lifetime. You'd probably find some of them are way more powerful then semen retention. Yet you've missed out because all the time you could have spent on those techniques, you spent on your semen retention techniques.

And that's exactly what happens when you dismiss "feeling it" and do techniques because a guru told you, or for dogmatic reasons, etc. 

Patience, persistence, letting go of the resistance of doing techniques, having the honest to observe whats actually happening rather then what your ego wants, are all super important. But doing a technique for none other than to do it for years is silly in a timeless universe. 

[peanutspathtotruth]

1 hour ago, electroBeam said:

You could try many techniques for a few years, more then you've got time for in your lifetime. You'd probably find some of them are way more powerful then semen retention. Yet you've missed out because all the time you could have spent on those techniques, you spent on your semen retention techniques.

And that's exactly what happens when you dismiss "feeling it" and do techniques because a guru told you, or for dogmatic reasons, etc. 

Patience, persistence, letting go of the resistance of doing techniques, having the honest to observe whats actually happening rather then what your ego wants, are all super important. But doing a technique for none other than to do it for years is silly in a timeless universe. 

I see your point, but that's not what I was saying. I was asking how you can be so sure about your conclusions without doing the necessary experimentation. Has nothing to do with other techniques or even the technique itself. Of course feeling and intuition is important, I don't dismiss that, but I see its application for such general statements at least something to be questioned and inquired into. 

[electroBeam]

1 hour ago, peanutspathtotruth said:

how you can be so sure about your conclusions without doing the necessary experimentation. Has nothing to do with other techniques or even the technique itself. Of course feeling and intuition is important, I don't dismiss that, but I see its application for such general statements at least something to be questioned and inquired into. 

of course, that's what this thread is about!

13 hours ago, electroBeam said:

I'd love to have more deeper discussions about the precise mechanics of the energy system on this site in terms of semen retention.

 

[Consilience]

@peanutspathtotruth is saying to try no fap for a significant amount of time before drawing conclusions.

After my 30 day experiment I became straight manic with my work ethic at the expense of sleep. It actually started hurting me more than helping, the mind’s drive was so intense I started becoming less focused, less present, and was fixating on life purpose work in an unhealthy neurotic, unsustainable way. Perhaps this was because I havent been trained how to properly handle such a spike in energy.

On the other hand, I “feel” optimal retaining 3-5 days before release. Good balance of drive with the release of tension. When considering the nature of semen retention energy, it is literally the creative energy of the universe, it holds the power to create consciousness and life itself. It’s no wonder retaining and transmuting this energy seems to have a powerful effect. So in terms of mechanics, I believe contemplating from the context of “this is the energy of creating consciousness from scratch” is important. 

[electroBeam]

1 hour ago, Consilience said:

So in terms of mechanics, I believe contemplating from the context of “this is the energy of creating consciousness from scratch” is important. 

Nice one!

1 hour ago, Consilience said:

When considering the nature of semen retention energy, it is literally the creative energy of the universe, it holds the power to create consciousness and life itself.

When you say semen retention energy, do you mean the sensation of horniness? Or something else? Could you give some pointers as to how I can locate and become directly aware of this energy? Any little exercises you could come up with?

When you say it creates consciousness, after ejaculation, the universe doesn't disappear(you don't fall asleep) so is there still semen retention energy even after ejaculation? Or is that an incorrect understanding?

Lastly, what's been your favorite learning resources for semen retention and energy exercises that utilizes it?

Edited January 14, 2021 by electroBeam

[kag101]

17 hours ago, electroBeam said:

I've never really resonated with the semen retention route personally. For me specifically, semen retention was like putting loads of focus and effort into a certain type of discipline that had no real empirical basis for effectiveness for me. I couldn't feel exactly how semen retention would benefit me, I didn't feel morally wrong for not doing it, I didn't feel like I was missing out or letting myself down. Infact I always felt like the amount of effort I could put into maintaining semen retention, would much better serve me in actual spiritual practices like kriya yoga or meditation, contemplation, qigong - all of which I got results from without semen retention, even though the books outlined it was necessary.

Bingo!

[Potato People King]

@electroBeam I will give you (and anybody interested) my modest and brief view on the subject of semen retention and nofap.

What inspired me to experiment with this discipline is precisely the views on semen retention proclaimed by famous spiritual masters. The claims about its powers and repeated argumentation about its necessity when following spiritual path was something that drew me to it. It made me want to experiment with it.

Since I was curious, I also visited nofap forum and saw interesting posts there. The people there seem to have various opinions on various subjects connected to sexuality, including semen retention. Some preach it, some think it is not something to follow. I got an impression that what somehow unites the people in the community is a common view that porn and masturbation is bad for your life. That you should aim to have satisfactory real life sexual encounters and healthy social life overall. The community is very much based on an idea that porn is harmful for you and the community also provides a material for support of that argument. Some people in the community aim for (and maybe claim) superpowers, some report no noticable positive changes, some even negative experience (when practicing nofap). It's really variable. My assumption is that most of the people practicing nofap go for healing their sex life, not necessary for spiritual advancement. The semen retention practice is especially tied with spiritual path. Nofap to me is more about not warching porn and not masturbating. It resembles more a therapy than spiritual practice.

I cannot really tell you much about precise energetic mechanisms of semen retention. I did not research it enough. To be honest, the attitude of great masters toward it is enough for me right know to experiment with it. Also my own experience with it so far has been positive enough to keep me going.

There is a lot of information online for anybody who is interested. Keywords are semen retention/nofap/brahmacharya.

Very good, brief overview video on semen retention: