Nevertheless, in the long term, these practices stopped working for me, and actually harmed my sexuality (I didn’t bust a blood vessel or anything, although such a thing has happened to people - even more obsessed than me, perhaps - practicing some other more advanced techniques). The proper warnings do not appear often enough nor at every point where they should, and worse, the system does not have all of the elements in it that would allow long-term sustainability of itself or true achievement of the goals it purports to allow you to achieve. I would heartily discourage men from attemting to engage in long-term “semen retention,” as the techniques mentioned DO NOT (contrary to claims) actually cause “sublimation of the sexual energy” or other such descriptions.

In other words, although this Healing Tao system contains some value, in my opinion, I consider it a partial, cobbled-together, bastardized, commercialized, culturally-appropriated version of Taoism. Guys, you need to cum, and you will, eventually, whether you want to or not. Maybe you will get into a state someday, somehow, where that statement no longer applies, but to grasp after such a state or try to create it prematurely will only lead you astray and potentially hurt you.

For what I’m into now along these lines, and what I consider a more healthy, whole, and authentic path, if you’re curious, check out http://www.traditionaltao.com .

Through all the talk here, I’ve become disturbed (again) by the lack of consideration among many for individual happiness. Some of us don’t want an expectation of pregnancy, nor segregation and conflict and pain or any of it all.

I’ve become very tired.

Plus it perpetuates the nuclear family format which I don’t like.

I think the concept of free choice is related to the socio-biological fact that our species is neither completely monogamous nor polyamorus. Think of every one of the tem commandments and how it might be different they would be if women were allowed to be promiscuous and property was shared. Our current society only formally acknowledges monogamous heterosexual relationships. I think people are made differently in who they are attracted to as well as how many people they can sustain relationships with. I know that part is random but I am usually pretty random. Thus the fact that I am talking about hypothetical rites when everyone else is looking for a modern alternative birth control.

I have heard that the pill is actually good in the fact that using it for a year can lower the chance of breast cancer. If you and your partner aren’t interested in Taoist healing love practices which claim to lessen periods by recycling the life giving yen chi into creative energy that can be used to heal or develop spiritually. In males the practice encourages males to withhold semen to use the energy in a similar way. Which is a lot more work than monitoring a cycle but carries amazing benefits. I know it sounds like new age mumbo-jumbo but imagine how well martial artists can fight and apply it to sex.

Reducing caloric intake (especially animal fats) and having vitamin deficiencies can stop menstruation at the cost of your health. Though some people think reducing calories really do live a lot longer than people who eat a lot and exert themselves to burn extra calories. I don’t know what I think about that.

Though the easiest method I have heard of is for men to wear tighty-whities to lower sperm count also I think soaking the testicles in hot water could probably have the same result.

I’d like to point out that the relationship between wolves and deer has nothing in common with the relationship between human peasants and human investment bankers. I find social Darwinism really offensive.

Likewise why isnt any species in nature behaving in this manner and holding back on reproduction, population and net consumption? Deer on an island or yeast in a bottle keep growing until disaster strikes. Except people never look beyond these simple analogies and wonder why despite this suicidal behaviour the world is still full of reckless creatures like deer and yeasts.

And of course the answer is that competition from within your species, and pressures from predators and parasites, normally provide the counter pressure. This means that not fulfilling your biological potential (to eat, breed, build condos etc) is a form of existential insincerity and falsehood. If you can do it and you choose not to then someone else will and you will be erased from history. If we cannot trust our own instincts then we cannot trust anything. And right now in history human instincts are telling us to consume the planet. And if we choose not to, then someone else will. The odds of coordinating six billion people to feel guilty in the same way at the same time are nigh on impossible.

Humans are odd because we keep winning arms races with other species that might have balanced us by changing our behaviour again and again. Fire, tools, agriculture, medicine, etc. Our only possible saving grace is our ability to turn on ourselves. The wolf is the doctor to the deer herd, just as the investment banker is the doctor to the african peasant. The deers life looks less pleasant than the wolfs (being eaten hurts), but without the wolf its life would be far worse (starving en masse hurts worse). The peasant’s life looks less pleasant than the banker’s, but can we really be sure that it would be better and not worse if the banker didn’t exist?

Perhaps HGs stay infertile longer due to their lifestyle, I don’t know. I think I remember reading that in some tribes sex is taboo for a nursing mother. That would definitely keep the population down.

Breastfeeding, it’s not a guaranteed method of birth control.

No, and I didn’t mean to suggest so. Rather, Shane asked how hunter-gatherers control population, and when you spread it over an entire society, it will help keep a limit to population growth. Of course, as nice as that may seem for society at large, when you face the potential of an unwanted pregnancy, that hardly matters. Two totally different scales of concern, with completely different considerations.