I only had to see the title of this article to know that I should post it here :) 10 years of research on a beautiful but endangered bird finds a direct link between male sexual showiness, aging, and sperm vitality. A video of a display is included 8)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14388541
From my subjective experience of people I know, I believe that something similar is true in humans males - that practicing Karezza / Tantra / Taoism for a couple of decades leads to noticeable youthfulness. Four guys that I know between their late 30s and 40s who have practiced Taoist or Tantric sex since their early twenties look way younger than other people their age, and when people find out their true ages it's always a surprise, as they would have guessed 10 years younger or more. I should note that these guys also are serious about good diets and exercise - two of them are Yoga teachers, and one a world famous rock climber - all have done these sexual practices combined with spiritual practice and meditation.
Just my subjective experience :)
Makes sense!
It really does make sense (and those birds are so interesting!)~~but not only because of "conserving semen"~~but also because in karazza/tantra lovemaking, you spend *so much* time in a lovely embrace of the bodies (whereas conventional sex is mere minutes sometimes). I can see how loving skin-to-skin bonding can cause all kinds of wonderful hormones to be released throughout your body.
I hope I've found my fountain of youth!
Rachel
~Be present when you are with people. Breathe deeply and listen not only with your ears but more importantly with your heart~~
What would be human male
What would be human male showiness? The article doesn't say anything about sex itself. It's the pre-sex showiness that is the factor.
John Holmes?
He died at the age of 43?
(sorry! might not be a good example!)
Rachel
~Be present when you are with people. Breathe deeply and listen not only with your ears but more importantly with your heart~~
@ porshiebo
Interesting observation. Is that how you got interested in this material?
Freedom you are absolutely
Freedom you are absolutely right that the article is about male showiness, not sex itself. The sexual showiness I would guess does result in more sex - but that isn't written, and something rather diffierent could be going on - like a stress response from the sexual showiness or something. Precisely why and what mechanism(s) go between the sexual showiness and the aging response are what we really want to find out on this forum, I think
Suggestions for what may be going on are not written in the BBC article, but I suspect there may be some in the research paper (linked to at the bottom of the article). I downloaded the .pdf of the research paper but unfortunately can't open it in this internet cafe - amazingly no acrobat viewer installed here. I will try and view it later somewhere else
@Marnia - Am I right in thinking that you are asking me if it's because of those friends that got me interested in this material?
The answer to that is basically yes, one of those people I mentioned dropped the idea of taoist sexuality, sperm rentention etc. on me when I was 19, prior that I had no knowledge.
This person at the time was 32, and taught a yoga retreat I went on in Thailand. He is extremely well read and experienced in a massive range of traditions, and at that point doing meditation and yoga practices for 8 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. His yoga retreats were basically an invitation to people to come and practice with him, at mininal cost, and maximum brain-washing!! Haha, not really brainwashing, but he did certainly seem set on turning people's realities upside-down. As well as all the yoga, we had afternoons lectures from him after lunch, and one of those lectures was about sexuality and spirituality. As a result of that week, I not only got into exercise (at first yoga, then other things) and deepened and widened my interest into spiritual practice, but I have permanently been convinced of the merits of Taoist sexualiy.
Until that retreat I had no idea about sperm retention and had been mastubating regularly like any other teenage guy. After that day I never went back to daily masturbation.
I did quite a lot of reading about spiritual traditions in the couple years after that (I had a lot more time than I do now...) But the my ideas about sexuality didn't evolve in any big step after that - all the books I read on Taoism (Mantik Chia etc) didn't tell me anything new that I didn't hear on that retreat. It wasn't until the day that I came across this forum (and on the same day bought Cupid's Poisoned Arrow) that I got another evolutionary step forward in my ideas about spiritual sex.
Could be many things
Maybe they're frustrated by failure. Or maybe they need to be showy because they were already frustrated, discontent, etc.
@ Rachel - I think you are
@ Rachel - I think you are right that the hormones from affectionate touch and bonding are very important! Probably just as important, or more important than sperm retention is
Here is the best information I have come across on how people find a fountain of youth - I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't watched it :)
Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+
Thank you~
That was an interesting speech--thank you! (I feel I do most of what he talks about already!)
But now I don't want to live any longer than my lover does, lol~~from Winnie the Pooh:
“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”
Rachel
~Be present when you are with people. Breathe deeply and listen not only with your ears but more importantly with your heart~~