A cornerstone of the sexual manifesto is based on a unique perspective on semen and its role in physical and mental health. I believe modern medicine generally credits this fluid with a limited purpose relegating it as a byproduct uniquely elaborated by the male sex glands and serving primarily as a nutrient-rich fluid accompanying and feeding sperm on their mission to fertilize an egg and procreate the species. Outside of this reproductive function, semen is the expendable ‘jizm’ that is part of the orgasmic crescendo when consummating a sexual act. Men are recommended to ejaculate with regularity, especially during the virile 20’s and 30’s, in order to keep the sexual machinery clean and refreshed.
Ancient Taoist, Hindu, and Judaic wisdom offer a different perspective, one which is gaining credibility in medical and scientific circles. Ancient Judaic texts assigned a sacred nature to semen since it was seen as holding life itself and fundamental for the ‘go forth and multiply’ mandate assigned to fertile couples. However, the Old Testament, in Leviticus 15, shines light on another purpose to semen that appears more ‘alchemical’ than procreative. If you find this section in a Bible directly translated from Coptic Greek(not suffering the major modifications in the King James and more modern translations), you will find reference to the concept that, by ejaculating semen, a man is deemed ‘unclean because he has stopped distilling his semen’ and he therefore must go through certain cleansing rituals.
For the ancient Taoists and Hindus, semen also sustained much more than a reproductive function and was seen as holding life energy and its loss had serious repercussions on mental function as well as physical and emotional health. Both of these doctrines document in depth the nature of the endocrines and how frequent withdrawal of ‘essence’ would negatively impact the balance of the entire endocrine system and each gland’s regulation of important body functions. Their advice is to not always consummate sex acts with ejaculation and that, as we age, we should gradually refrain from getting to ‘peak orgasm’. Ergo, we have the concept of semen retention.
Women were left out from being beneficiaries of semen distillation or retention because of the apparent physiological absence of semen. Although women had the power to bring forth life and were revered as sexual tutors and initiatresses; nevertheless, women were often still given a position of inferiority in Eastern sexual practices, often being reduced to enabling men to more easily absorb and increase their own essence. Many of the ancient texts discuss sex from a male point of view and avoid discussing how sex could benefit women.
Now things get interesting, especially for women. Semen is made in the body through a process of filtering blood and storing this fluid in the prostate gland(males also have the seminal vesicles and the Cowper’s gland), host to a large array of vital nutrients shared by the other endocrines and the nervous system. Women have a gland homologous to the male prostate; however, there is great variance in its appearance anatomically and chemically. There is also variability in female ‘ejacutation’, where a sexual fluid is produced similar to male semen in composition but distinct from vaginal lubricating fluid and urine.
What I am getting at is this: semen has a function in our lives that goes beyond procreation and recreation. Semen is a fluid produced by a vital member of our endocrine system- the sex glands. Ejaculation and ejacutation, although being highly pleasurable, have their corresponding deficit-creating effects on the other endocrines and the brain. Sex has the potential, better than any other form of exercise or super multivitamin, to fortify and rejuvenate the body and mind when we understand the inner workings of our bodies and avoid adopting conventional methods of sexual practice and gratification. This sexual manifesto opens up exciting new choices about how we can cultivate lasting healthful benefits from our sexuality and ultimately ‘be all that we can be’.
