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If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with all the terms in the title of this article. However, let me briefly define them for newcomers. NoFap is a secular community and support group dedicated to helping people who want to give up porn and masturbation. Semen retention refers to the practice of abstaining from orgasm, believed by many to increase energy and power in other areas of life. Semen retention is related to the concept of sexual transmutation. Sexual transmutation is about intentionally transforming sexual energy into non-sexual pursuits, like physical fitness, innovation, and education.
Napoleon Hill, in his famous 20th century self-help book, Think And Grow Rich, dedicated a chapter to “The Mystery of Sex: Transmutation.” In it, he gave this famous description of sexual transmutation that I often like to cite.
Sex desire is the most powerful of human desires. When driven by this desire, men develop keenness of imagination, courage, will-power, persistence, and creative ability unknown to them at other times. So strong and impelling is the desire for sexual contact that men freely run the risk of life and reputation to indulge it. When harnessed, and redirected along other lines, this motivating force maintains all of its attributes of keenness of imagination, courage, etc., which may be used as powerful creative forces in literature, art, or in any other profession or calling, including, of course, the accumulation of riches.
Other celebrities, including Steve Jobs, Kanye West, and Nikola Tesla practiced some form of semen retention or sexual transmutation.
Many NoFappers, semen retainers, and sexual transmuters have inquired about the relationship between semen and the biological and social benefits that people experience when they abstain from porn and masturbation.
For example, one study suggested a trade-off between fertility and secondary-sex characteristics. Men with higher sperm concentrations (i.e., they were more fertile) had higher-pitched voices. Several studies indicated that sperm quality decreases over time as one practices semen retention (e.g., study).
Could it be, upon abstaining from organism, that the brain diverts the sexual energy of fertility into other areas of the body?
We know that energy is a finite resource; it makes biological sense that the brain would divert unused sexual energy into helping an individual become more attractive to the opposite sex. On the other hand, when we are regularly ejaculating via porn and masturbation, the brain believes we are doing well sexually and feels impelled to invest a great deal of energt into our fertility.
How do wet dreams factor into all of this?
A wet dream is an ejaculation. An ejaculation would seem to undercut the process of semen retention because it entails a release of sexual energy. People on NoFap / semen retention / sexual transmutation often get discouraged after experiencing a wet dream.
Wet dreams, based on my experience during the last few years, have had almost no observable effects on the subjective benefits I’ve experienced while on NoFap / semen retention / sexual transmutation. Wet dreams, no matter how sexually charged, are very different from consciously watching porn, masturbation, and having sex. The sexual release of a wet dream is only a fraction as powerful, if and when sexual stimuli was at all involved. Granted, wet dreams may have certain biological effects that we have not even begun to understand. However, subjectively, in terms of how we feel, I think wet dreams make a big difference only when we believe they qualify as some big enemy or compromise.
With that said, there are ways to limit wet dreams for those interested. Wet dreams, which are unconscious processes, are often a function of conscious processes. When we feed our minds with sexual stimuli during the day, then our probability for experiencing a sexual wet dream at night increases.
Some spiritual people have asked, Is a wet dream a sin?
If your wet dream was caused by perverse sexual thoughts you were consciously entertaining during the day, then it is my belief that those thoughts were the sin. The wet dream would merely be the effect of something you already did in the past. Mind you, not all wet dreams are sexually charged, and so only certain wet dreams would be of any concern at all.
Overall, don’t focus on anything unconscious that you cannot control; focus on what you think consciously when you are most in control.
Finally, wet dreams can also be caused by nervous, ungrounded energy. When we are chronically anxious, we ejaculate a lot faster and are more readily influenced by mental stimuli of every kind. If you are an anxious person, and you desire to prevent wet dreams, then practice remaining calm and in control of your body; you may be surprised when involuntarily body processes follow suit.
Those are just my two cents. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Until we get more data, we will have to go by our best judgment, experience, and observation on topics like these.
If you liked this article, check out 7 Toxic Beliefs That Keep People From Quitting Pornography. For the complete archive of articles, click here.
