This thread was in part inspired by this thread about pornography addiction. Now, having been on a lot of spiritual forums and reading other spiritual material, I have often read about men talking about how cutting out or cutting down on masturbation has increased their feeling of vitality, gives them more clear-headedness and improves their spirituality.

Now, I have never identified with this - I feel exactly the opposite (I am a woman). I am single at the moment, and if I don't practice the act of self-love and orgasm at least once every few days, I feel frustrated and unfocused. Orgasms make me feel energised and recharged, and more able to focus on my spirituality without distracting thoughts.

Could this be due to a difference in the way female and male orgasms work on a subtle energetic level? It makes sense when you think about it, because the male orgasm is designed to transfer life energy/sperm inside the woman's womb. The female orgasm isn't vital for procreation but it does help in the conception process (I have forgotten how, it's been a long time since biology class!). It would make sense that the female orgasm 'takes' a bit of life/energy, qi or whatever from the man in order to prepare the womb for new life, but what does this mean for solo-loving? I did a search for info on this a while ago, and while I could find a lot of information on the spiritual mechanism of the male orgasm/ejaculation, not so much on the female one. But after a long search I did find one source which said that female orgasms are designed to absorb qi, while male ejaculation expels it.

I like the idea of having a magical energy-absorbing uterus :)

PS. I suppose I should have replaced male orgasm with ejaculation, since according to tantra it is the semen which carries qi, and the ideal for a man is to learn to orgasm without ejaculating.