The Benefits of Celibacy and Chastity

[NikolaiI]

A couple weeks ago I was reading a book, about the benefits of celibacy and chastity, and it was really remarkable and enlightening. I never knew how beneficial it was for health and well-being, physically, mentally and spiritually. This book was actually mainly centered on celibacy in males, and I don't know much about it with women.

But anyway, being celibate much improves how much energy one has, and one's ability to think well and creatively. The evidence is fairly persuasive for this. Sex depletes vital fluids, which if not depleted get reabsorbed into the body, to be precise, reabsorbed into the spine, which is where the nervous center is. Thus to be celibate retains the vital fluids which are very helpful for brain development and so forth.

Semen consists of almost the exact same chemical constituion as the brain. It is mostly lechitin, and the grey matter in the brain is composed of 20% lechitin.

As a disclaimer, I am not a scientist and I could be wrong about the wording of some of this. It's also been a couple of weeks since I read from the book, so forgive my imperfect knowledge. But it's my understanding that the vital fluids, when conserved, are reabsorbed into the spine, and that the nervous center is also around the same area.

If anyone knows more than I do and would like to share, please do! And of course I am very interested to know all your opinions.

Lastly, the list of scientists, philosophers, artists, mathematicians, and so forth, and geniuses from all fields, who lived continent lives is very great. I'll just list a few which are a little more well known to people, especially from the Western countries.

Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Democritus, Aristotle, Celsus, Prophets Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, Apollonius of Tyana, Plotinus, Porphyry, Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, Pascal, Spinoza, Newton, Leibniz, Handel, Kant, Beethoven, Schopenhauer, Thoreau, Spencer, Nietzsche, Tesla, Sidis...

Have any of you studied about the physiological and other benefits of celibacy and chastity? For me it is also connected with vegetarianism and avoidance of intoxication, which have somewhat similar benefits..

[ennison]

The benefits of celibacy are very overrated. But less overrated than the supposed benefits of intoxication.

[NikolaiI]

How are they overrated and by whom exactly? Western society glorifies sex more than anything, and the mentality is that women must expose themselves and put out if they will get dates, which is utterly degrading.

[MarkBastable]

But anyway, being celibate much improves how much energy one has, and one's ability to think well and creatively. The evidence is fairly persuasive for this.

Or as Rabelais said, rolling off a whore, "There goes another poem."

[mayneverhave]

Besides avoiding the risk of getting VD, I can't think of a reason to be celibate.

Sex is, like eating and drinking, a fundamental part of human existence.

[Scheherazade]

It might help one save money.

[Maximilianus]

It might help one save money.

Oh well, you don't have to pay for all you want... there are those who give services free of charge. They are like artists... just for the sake of the art is why they do what they do and give what they give...

Or as Rabelais said, rolling off a whore, "There goes another poem."

Wow, wow, wait! What if the whore is an inspiring one, uh? Rabelais could well say "there comes another poem"... unless he only got intercourses with uninspiring whores, in which case it's all his fault for choosing wrongly...

[Janine]

Nikalai, there actual medical evidence that this is true? I don't think that Beethoven or Michelangelo were celebate. Michelangelo wrote some very lusty love poems to someone(?) and Beethoven was known to have several lovers. I don't see where it diminished their brains in anyway. Doesn't the fluid quickly get replaced by the body and what about endorphins which are released when an orgasims take place?
What then, a lot of celebate miserable people walking around expanding their gray matter! I am not sure this is entirely true; where did you read it? If it were true, by now I would probably be an Einstein!

Max and Mark; you both have me falling on the floor with laughter. Scher, I love your line. I guess we would all save money; I think bachelors already know that.

[Maximilianus]

Nikalai, there actual medical evidence that this is true?

I humbly believe it's more like one of those mystical and philosophical paths, in which case I should say I don't really feel like walking such a path. I'm not that mystical

... Beethoven was known to have several lovers.

And there was a particular woman at the very top of his list. I can't recall her name right now, but I do believe there's some evidence that she was the woman he mostly loved, including physical love
We can fairly say the same about Bach, Shakespeare and Professor Tolkien. They were all husbands and fathers, and apparently their family duties didn't damage their creativity to a compromising degree.

Doesn't the fluid quickly get replaced by the body and what about endorphins which are released when an orgasms take place?

Have you noticed that you've just made it sound as a healthy practice?

What then, a lot of celebate miserable people walking around expanding their gray matter! ... If it were true, by now I would probably be an Einstein!

and I'd already be devising weird formulas and a full counter-theory to the relativity theory

Max and Mark; you both have me falling on the floor with laughter.

Laughter has been largely proved to be healthy.... what about celibate?

[Janine]

I humbly believe it's more like one of those mystical and philosophical paths, in which case I should say I don't really feel like walking such a path. I'm not that mystical

I don't know about that. D.H.Lawrence might disagree with that idea. He thought having sex one was being transfigured; isn't that mystical enough for you? He enjoyed sex and he was considered a genius! I am not sure if the evidence is conclusive here, concerning celebacy and intellectual capacity.

And there was a particular woman at the very top of his list. I can't recall her name right now, but I do believe there's some evidence that she was the woman he mostly loved, including physical love We can fairly say the same about Bach, Shakespeare and Professor Tolkien. They were all husbands and fathers, and apparently their family duties didn't damage their creativity to a compromising degree.

Exactly, I don't recall her name either, but one in particular was definitely his lover for years. I don't think they just held hands or kissed.

Have you noticed that you've just made it sound as a healthy practice?
and I'd already be devising weird formulas and a full counter-theory to the relativity theory

Exactly my point, Max...exactly my point!

Yah!

Laughter has been largely proved to be healthy.... what about celibate?

Right up there, along side of sex for endorphins. Just don't laugh at the same time!

[Jozanny]

If the word of a published and practicing writer means anything, celibacy dampens creative energy. My ex is impotent because he is sick, and I am not getting any action because I have given up looking, because, but even Chaucer knew the value of the bawdy.

[Nightshade]

Ummm I am sure I read somewhere that Michelangelo was what we would now call a pedophile with a taste for boys.

[mal4mac]

Wikipedia: 'Celibacy is, in its strictest definition, the lifestyle of someone who is and is striving to remain unmarried all his/her life. However, the term is often popularly used to describe a state of life where one chooses to abstain from all sexual activities, which is strictly "continence". '

I'll accept that the list of greats you mention were unmarried, how can you know if they were continent? Anyway, you can produce a list of married greats that is more impressive. Just off the top of my head:

Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Socrates, Einstein, Darwin, Schrodinger, Dickens, George Eliot, ...

So your idea that "continence = greatness" doesn't seem to hold semen ..er.. sorry, water.

Does anyone have a list of those who have admitted to be incontinent with no partner? Few since Diogenes have had the courage to admit that. Few (before Roth!) have had the courage to put it in their novels. Tolstoy bravely talked about a "safety valve", thinking the censors were too thick to get even a simple metaphor. Conversely, are there any who have bluntly stated they have been strictly continent? If so, do you believe them? :-)

[MarkBastable]

Lastly, the list of scientists, philosophers, artists, mathematicians, and so forth, and geniuses from all fields, who lived continent lives is very great. I'll just list a few which are a little more well known to people, especially from the Western countries.

Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Democritus, Aristotle, Celsus, Prophets Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, Apollonius of Tyana, Plotinus, Porphyry, Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, Pascal, Spinoza, Newton, Leibniz, Handel, Kant, Beethoven, Schopenhauer, Thoreau, Spencer, Nietzsche, Tesla, Sidis....

Let's assume you're right about these. Their celibacy would only support your argument if we failed to come up with a list of similarly great artists and thinkers who were not celibate.

But I think we can create such a list, easily.

Here we go - feel free to join in....

Picasso, Dali, Donne, Marvell, Dickens, Joyce, Mahler, Roth, Catullus, Titian, Maupassant, Tolstoy, Turgenev...

And these are just some of those who were - as it were - noticeably not celibate. If you included all those who were just ordinarily living a life of which sex was a part, you'd essentially have to list practically every artist and thinker that ever lived.

So unless you can come up with an argument that the people in your list are more creative and more driven than other artists, and that those qualities are attributable only to the celibacy, then reeling off a list of celibate artists gives no useful support to the original premise.

[NikolaiI]

Conversely, are there any who have bluntly stated they have been strictly continent? If so, do you believe them? :-)

Sidis.

And Janine, yes there is evidence that is true.

Also I didn't mention them, but every single Hindu saint or acarya has been strictly celibate. Narada, Sankaracarya, Sri Ramakrishna, thousands of others, enlightened persons. Also Buddhists were chaste, such as Lord Buddha, Milarepa, etc.; further enlightened Christians were also chaste, such as Jesus, although he wasn't really a Christian; then there is Fra Angelico, etc.

Perhaps later I can put some quotes from a couple of some of these people.