The Power and Philosophy of Semen

Retention
Sages and philosophers on the benefits of retaining

By Harry J. Stead
What persuaded me most to quit masturbation and pornography was the
discovery that there is a vast amount of literature across every culture
and religion that records the power of the male vital energy, the seminal
fluid, and the importance of retention for health and wellbeing. This idea
has been treated again and again throughout history and in all
languages, and yet it is not known or spoken of, except by a few small
circles and creeds, in modern Western society. In fact, the West seems to
support the opposite idea, that masturbation and ejaculation, even if
done multiple times a day, is good, even healthy, and has no negative
consequences. To the scientific mind, semen has no intrinsic value
except for the fertilization of an egg in the womb. But this, it seems to
me, is another instance in which our scientists brand everything beyond
the scope of their limited methodology as unreal and even impossible. As
the Taoist Master Mantak Chia notes:

‘Some Western scientists may scoff at the idea that semen is an

immensely powerful substance. Yet no one can deny the
prodigious life potential in the seed of a single man. By
gathering this life-generating force within oneself, one collects
tremendous energy.’

(Taoist Secrets of Cultivating Male Sexual Energy, page 23)

The sad fact is that science is still largely ignorant about the dynamics of
sexuality. By contrast, the Taoist tradition, the core of Chinese culture, is
eight thousand years old, and so has more interesting things to say on
the matter. The first principle of the Taoist sexual practice is the
conservation of sexual energy. Excessive ejaculation is believed to
weaken the nervous system and lead to illness of the body. ‘The sages’,
Mantak writes, ‘considered one drop of semen equal in vital power to
one hundred drops of blood.’ (Page 3) Therefore, from the Taoist
perspective semen is considered precious and not something which
should be wasted without good reason; ideally, one should only ejaculate
for the purpose of procreation. Instead of being continually released out
of the body, the Taoists practice channeling the excess vitality upwards
whereupon it heals and strengthens the organs and the mind and
elevates creative and cognitive abilities, and provides a vast source of
vitality. Sexual energy is regarded by the Taoists as having far more
potential for nourishment than even food, and so the practice of
cultivation is thought to be vital for the fulfillment of one’s potential.

In Hinduism, there is a similar tradition called Brahmacharya which

translates as ‘behavior which leads to Brahman’, and this, in particular,
includes abstinence from lust and sex. Perhaps the most famous
advocate of Brahmacharya was Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk who
was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India during the late
nineteenth century. In his book ‘Practice of Brahmacharya,’ he described
semen as the ‘Prana of Pranas… It is the hidden treasure in man. It
imparts Brahma-Tejas (‘the glory, or the rays, of Brahman’) to the face
and strength to the intellect.’ (Page 21) Then in ‘Raja Yoga’ he describes
how when the sexual energy is controlled it is converted through a
natural process into Ojas Sakti, meaning spiritual power:

‘The Yogis say that that part of the human energy which is
expressed as sex energy, in sexual functions, sexual thought,
and so on, when checked and controlled, easily becomes
changed into Ojas, and as this lowest center is the one which
guides all these functions, therefore the Yogi pays particular
attention to that center. He tries to take up all this sexual
energy and convert it into Ojas.’

(Raja Yoga, page 60)

Ojas expresses itself in individuals as magnetism, charisma, and

strength, and so everyone and everything will feel a peculiar attraction
to those who harness this energy. He writes thus:

‘One man may speak beautiful language and beautiful

thoughts, but they do not impress people; another man speaks
neither beautiful language nor beautiful thoughts, yet his
words charm. That is the power of Ojas coming out.’
 (Raja Yoga, page 60)

This would explain why people who begin the practice report that they
feel greater attraction from the world, that the world seems to respect
their presence more than before; and that they are becoming more and
more sociable and outgoing whereas before they were introverted and
easily exhausted by social interaction.

These ideas may seem foreign and too religious for a modern audience.
However, there is also significant support for the practice of retention
from various secular works. Perhaps the most famous example is
Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think & Grow Rich’, in which he addresses ‘The
Mystery of Sex Transmutation’. In this chapter, Hill asserts that men can
harness their sexual energy, the most powerful of energies, and redirect
it for material success and creative genius. He goes on to list a number of
men who reportedly practiced sexual transmutation: ‘George
Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, William Shakespeare, Abraham
Lincoln…’ These men, he asserts, were made geniuses because of their
discipline in this practice. He writes:

‘The desire for sexual expression is by far the strongest and

most impelling of all the human emotions. For this very reason
this desire, when harnessed and transmuted into action other
than that of physical expression, may raise one to the status of
a genius.’

(Think and Grow Rich, page 183)

Fredrich Nietzsche also recognized the potential of sexual vitality, and

wrote that when contained and transmuted this energy ‘is the strongest
nourishment and, perhaps more than any other factor, it prompts the
stimulus of power, the unrest of all forces toward the overcoming of
resistances, the thirst for contradiction and resistance.’

(Friedrich Nietzsche (NOTES, 1880–81)

As I have demonstrated, this information is not reserved in one specific
culture or religion, or part of the world. Rather, it is found everywhere
and throughout history. And yet somehow our society has forgotten. So
in their ignorance men, today are damaging themselves by indulgence. I
can’t see how this will change anytime soon. But the truth remains, that
semen is the source of a man’s strength and creativity, and when he
wastes it on the frivolous activity he wastes away his potential, his
manhood, and gradually reclines into a passive and mediocre state.