The Case Against Masturbation Addiction

If you look on allaboutlifechallenges.org, you will find that masturbation addiction occurs when the “need becomes so overwhelming that the addict does not have the power to keep from masturbating.” It goes on to explain that this is a gateway to other sexual addictions, including “multiple affairs, sex with prostitutes, or other illegal activities.” Don’t worry, a few lines down, the words, “we are three part beings – body, soul, and spirit,” assure us that this is, as Penn & Teller would say, “Bullshit!”

All About Life Challenges is a Christian (they prefer to call themselves followers of Jesus) recovery organization that specializes in recovery programs for everything, including alcohol abuse, rape survivors, and…of course, people recovering from masturbation addiction. I went to some other sources to see what others were saying. One site, sexualrecovery.com, looked promising. It didn't have the religious overtones of the others. However, when I read one man's "testimony," I was livid. Here's what the masturbation "addict" said, "My association with masturbation was simple, every morning when I showered I masturbated to fantasy and every night before I went to sleep I masturbated to porn to help me relax." Oh no! Twice a day?! How horrid! Definitely an addict! I soon discovered they heavily endorsed the 12-step SAA (Sexual Addicts Anonymous) model. In SAA's 12-step program, as with most of them, there is a heavy reliance on playing victim and surrendering to a higher power.

I sifted between these sources and found a few more, looking to see what these masturbation recovery counselors were saying the “problems” of masturbation were. Many started with the emotional, or mental, problems. One such site was newlifehabits.com, which said that masturbation was not what the body was made for and that “the single person should be in control of their body and life before getting into a marriage otherwise the outcome of the marriage can easily be predicted.” The author further suggests that masturbating actually hinders the relationships in our lives. Where his evidence to back this up exists, I’m not sure. But allaboutlifechanges.com agreed. They said that, “Masturbation, by its very nature, is a selfish act.” He then goes into how this will ruin your relationship with your spouse, as it did with him. Louanne Cole Weston, PhD doesn’t seem to agree in her article Masturbation: Healthy for Relationships. She says that many relationships contain higher and lower frequency partners—that’s when he wants it all the times that you don’t and vice versa. She says that masturbation (for both men and women) is actually helpful in reconciling this imbalance, which can actually improve your relationship with your partner. Furthermore, masturbation reduces stress, can help you sleep, and make you feel better about yourself. 

As for the physical effects of masturbation addiction, the newlifehabits.com guy says, “the body was not made for masturbation.” He then explains why hormones make us feel good and why it’s important to save this pleasure for marriage. Similarly, the allaboutlifechanges.org guy says, concerning the physical problems with masturbation, that learning to get that quick fix through masturbation “isn't very satisfying to a spouse in a sexual relationship.” Wow! How insightful. And yet neither of these guys mention actual health problems that arise from masturbating. That’s where I come in. In Melbourne, Australia, Graham Giles conducted research on prostate cancer, concluding that men who ejaculated most reduced their risk for prostate cancer by a third. The ones who masturbated least had a higher risk of prostate cancer. A 2004 publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirmed this, stating that "...men who reported frequent ejaculation over their lifetime - that's more than four to seven times per month, in case you're counting - had fewer overall cases of prostate cancer than those who ejaculated less often….And those tireless individuals averaging 21 or more ejaculations a month over their lifetime showed only half the risk for developing the disease." So as it turns out, there are actually medical benefits to frequent masturbation. Who woulda thought? Although, maybe allaboutlifechanges.com and newlifehabits.com would prefer that you endure the beautiful, God-given battle of prostate cancer with your supportive wife. After all, nothing brings people closer to God than experiences such as these.

In conclusion, masturbation isn’t bad. As recent studies have found, it's harmless. There isn’t some evil addiction out there, but religious fanatics get behind it to scare people into a notion of righteousness. It is reminiscent of the ex-gay recovery programs, which CSI author Karen Stollznow wrote a wonderful article on, called Straight Talk about Straight Camp. Check this information out for yourself and look at the scientific, medical, and psychiatric findings around masturbation. You will find that there is nothing inappropriate or devastating about an active masturbation life.

REFERENCES
"BBC NEWS | Health | Masturbation 'cuts Cancer Risk'" BBC News - Home. Web.

Leitzmann, M. F. "Ejaculation Frequency and Subsequent Risk of Prostate Cancer." JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 291.13 (2004): 1578-586. Web.

Shpancer PhD, Noam. "The Masturbation Gap." Psychology Today (2010). Web.

Weston PhD, Louanne Cole. "Masturbation: Healthy for a Relationship." WebMD. Web.

Kyra's Praise

I would like to extend great praise to Jeff Knight, Glen Cunningham, and LARSE for speaking up about JZ Knight/Ramtha's school for enlightenment. For those who do not know, JZ Knight claims to channel Ramtha, a 35,000-year-old Atlantean warrior. Ramtha says that we have the ability to perform seemingly supernatural abilities, including the ability to heal our bodies of incurable disease, communicate using ESP, and move objects with our minds (telekinesis). Ramtha's School of Enlightenment (RSE) has never offered verifiable proof of any of these supposed abilities.

Jeff Knight was JZ Knight's ex-husband, who did an interview in 1992 to expose JZ Knight. Glen Cunningham was Knight's bodyguard, who came forward to help others understand the sorts of goings on behind RSE's closed doors. LARSE is a group of former RSE students. Their wonderful interviews show us a new perspective of alleged channelers such as JZ Knight. The insights contained in them are an invaluable tool in understanding how self-professed channelers work.

Here are some of their videos:

Jeff Knight : Interview with JZ Knight's former husband.
Glen Cunningham Part 1 : Interview JZ Knight's former bodyguard.
Glen Cunningham Part 2 : Continuation of Glen Cunningham's interview.
LARSE Lecture : Former students speak up about the Ramtha School for Enlightenment.

For more information on LARSE, you can visit their website at http://www.enlightenmefree.com/.

Even More Energy Work from Caroline Myss, "PhD"

Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential by Caroline Myss

I saw this book on the shelf and knew we were soulmates. Chronicling Caroline Myss’ evolution as a medical intuitive, SACRED CONTRACTS proves that there is still more energy work to be done than just the chakra work that her other books discuss. In fact, there’s a whole new “science” we have to come to understand. It’s called archetypes. Myss claims that she started realizing after her book WHY PEOPLE DON’T HEAL that there had to be something else causing illness (surely not because no one was healing because of her materials). A $17.00 (softcover) journey into understanding our sacred contracts—agreements that we must have made pre-this-life—reveals to us archetypes such as the prostitute, the child, the saboteur, and one other that supposedly is important. These all play an integral role in our bodies, relationships, and abundance and seem to have some all-important lesson to teach us. Myss’ divine wisdom is gathered from old woo that has been around since before Carol Jung used this sort of work in his teachings. A quick foreword from her hopefully deluded mentor Norm C Shealy, MD, gives this book some senseless credibility, despite the lack of empirical evidence to support any of the claims made within it.

This book, over all her others, gave me the impression that Caroline Myss was deluded more than anything else, which I sincerely hope is true. At some point in her introduction, she mentioned a man whom she had done a lot for in his “energy field”. I hope that she is not discussing the same “energy field” that Emily Rosa found no evidence for in her test on Therapeutic Touch practitioners in the 90s. Regardless, this book sold really well and started Myss’ archetype kick, which she has since strayed from—in favor of her Teresa of Avila work in ENTERING THE CASTLE.

SACRED is a cesspool of gibberish, and one of the hardest Myss books to read. It harps on and on about a topic that could have been covered in a small booklet. Alas, we have to once again endure Myss’ anecdotes and alleged miraculous healings. Steer clear of the archetypes. They are way too much work and there are other philosophies, including her own, that provide much simpler paths to enlightenment.

DISCLAIMER: As always, Myss' work does not claim to be able to heal every person, as she recognizes there are many mystical forces that could block a miraculous healing. Now, it can even be a contract you made before you came to this earth!


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Abraham's Hypocrisy

The other day I ran across this quote, from Orlando, FL workshop 11/10/2007

ABRAHAM: We are suggesting that when you are receiving from source energy, you are not finding the words that have already been written. You are finding new explanation of it....Don't go back and regurgitate what has already been written.

And yet, they are regurgitating the words of William Walker Atkinson's Thought Vibration or Law of Attraction in the Thought World (1906), Napoleon Hill's The Law of Success, and Prentice Mulford's Thoughts are Things. Not only that, but they continually regurgitate catch phrases that have been around since the dawn of the New Age movement (ie you create your own reality [Jane Roberts]). Truly Abraham is a collective group of the greatest hypocrites in all the universe.

xoxo
Kyra

The Lack of Medical in “Medical Intuitive”

“Dr.” Caroline Myss alleges that she is a medical intuitive—someone who can diagnose illness using her own seeming “second sight.” Myss has no verifiable evidence of being able to diagnose illness, and she does not open herself up to medically verifiable tests, even though a medical intuitive’s abilities can easily be tested in double blind experiments. Rather, in place of evidence, she offers a continuous stream of anecdotes and testimonials.

On a more scientific note, An Experimental Test of Psychic Diagnosis of Disease (as featured in he Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine) showed no benefit in using any sort of psychic diagnosis as a form of diagnosing disease. In Emily Rosa’s experiments with TT (Therapeutic Touch) practitioners, she found that these “gifted” individuals could not even detect where a person was, let alone feel the energy of their bodies. Basically, there has been no scientific study that has been able to prove the validity of any medical intuitive’s abilities.

For something that has no medical evidence supporting it, I find it interesting that Myss would go around touting the term medical intuitive. The word “medical” seems to be a weasel word, instantly giving credibility to the “profession” by making it appear to have a science behind it. You might as well have scientific, anthropological, and geological intuitives. Doesn’t that make what they do sound like something worthy of respect? As for the term “intuitive”, this seems to be just a new, more respected term for psychic. I read a wonderful article from the Committee of Scientific Inquiry, entitled Psychics Aren’t Psychics Anymore, by Karen Stollznow, which discusses how this new buzz-word is all the rage in the New Age community. I give credit to those of Myss’ generation for bringing this word to the forefront of modern woo.

Either way, for someone like Myss, who acts like she has nothing to prove, the term medical intuitive and her bogus “PhD”, makes me think she does. So why doesn’t she open herself up to scientific testing? Simply put: she’s got a good gig going and knows she would fail any double blind experiment she was offered. I give props to her for being smart, but not for using a term like medical intuitive to deceive innocent people with a lack of understanding of how non-medical what she does is.

References

David E. Young, Steven K. H. Aung. An Experimental Test of Psychic Diagnosis of Disease. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 1997, 3(1): 39–53. doi:10.1089/acm.1997.3.39.

Rosa, Linda; Rosa, Emily; Sarner, Larry; and Barrett, Stephen (April 1, 1998). “A Close Look at Therapeutic Touch". Journal of the American Medical Association 279 (13):1005–1010. doi:10.1001/jama.279.13.1005. PMID 9533499.

xoxo

Kyra

Open Letter to Esther Hicks, Louise Hay, and Caroline Myss

Dear Esther Hicks, Louise Hay, and Caroline Myss,

You have made some extraordinary claims. Mrs. Hicks, you allege that you speak for the nonphysical collective consciousness, Abraham—who says that all ailments can be healed mentally. Miss Hay, your work claims that it can heal all sickness, including AIDs. Dr. Myss, in your book Anatomy of the Spirit, there is a story about a man who was miraculously healed of AIDs.

All three of you beautiful ladies have been teaching for nearly 30 years. I am astonished that none of you have done this already, but if you could produce—out of all your years in this business—a single, documented instance of a person being miraculously healed of AIDs or any incurable illness, I think the world would be amazed, and all of science would be transformed by such evidence. Mrs. Hicks, I will not ask you to present any evidence of Abraham’s existence, as you have made it clear that that cannot be proven. All I will ask of you is the same that I ask of Miss Hay and Dr. Myss, for I am aware that Abraham has spoken frequently on the sort of healing that can occur when we release resistance.

If your materials have truly benefited many, I have no doubt that you will be able to come up with the evidence I am inquiring about. If anyone would care to present such evidence on your behalf (beyond vague testimonials), I would be happy to see it.

Now, I understand that you have each insinuated, if not flat out stated, that you do not feel a need to “prove” anything. Yet, I suggest to you that if, as you each have claimed, these healings are based on universal truths, then I see no reason why you cannot produce a single provable case.

I eagerly await your evidence!

Yours truly,

Kyra

Hay House: Pseudoscience for Louise Hay's Pocket

Louise Hay’s initial success came from convincing AIDs and HIV patients that they could heal their illnesses using the mental processes that she herself had allegedly used to cure her vaginal cancer. Out of the many AIDs patients who have followed her over a span of nearly 30 years, it is remarkable that we have yet to hear of a documented case of someone who cured themselves of AIDs/HIV because of Hay’s materials.

Despite the lack of proof behind her work’s validity, Hay has managed to create a media empire, including a successful publishing house and online radio channel. Though the immense success of her business is unquestionable, the many authors she promotes are. She is the publisher of the notorious charlatan Sylvia Browne, former Amway star Jerry Hicks, plagiarist Neale Donald Walsch, and the bogus credentialed Caroline Myss and Doreen Virtue. Regardless of the dubious nature of their careers, she seems to be more concerned about their net worth than she is the authenticity of their teachings. In fact, when asked what she thought of the validity of Sylvia Browne by The New York Times, she even said, “Now don’t ask me that. She’s one of our most popular authors.” It is evident she isn’t willing to hop on Browne’s rocking boat, except to get a little commission out of the cash-cow Browne has created.

On top of her complete disregard for authenticity, she doesn’t even care that many of her author’s teachings do not agree with each other. Take Caroline Myss, for example, who regularly on her radio program dismisses the notion of doing things because they “feel good”. Yet this is a major principle in Jerry and Esther Hicks’ teachings. Myss and the Hickses are all top Hay House authors. Perhaps Hay is far too busy repeating affirmations for wealth and abundance to notice the discrepancy. On the other, more likely hand, she doesn’t care because she is just after a percentage of their sales. I would accuse Hay of being as irresponsible as Oprah Winfrey in her promotion of such garbage, but I actually give Oprah more credit than Hay, believe that she is foolishly buying into the validity of the authors she supports. Hay, on the other, in my opinion, is just after the money and is willing to let whoever manages to weasel their way to the top of the New Age circuit into her home.

With books leaping onto The New York Times Best Sellers list, people purchasing overpriced tickets to her I Can Do it! Conferences, and even more people tuning in to her online radio channel, Hay can easily retire from the responsibility of anyone’s problems that derive from following the pseudoscience of any of her authors’ materials. Now, she can sit back and let the wheels that she has set into motion continue to hypnotize people into believing the alleged validity of New Age philosophy, as borrowed from Dark Age woo. The more I look at Hay’s career, the more I become convinced that she is nothing more than a fragmented avatar of the equally inauthentic founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy.

xoxo
Kyra

Entering Her Castle: Caroline Myss' Irrational Thinking

In Entering the Castle, Caroline Myss writes, "In the spiritual journey, you use irrational, invisible means to search for an even more invisible soul" (Castle 206). I can only hope that the healing that her books promise is more visible than the other things that she's discussing.

This same advocate of irrationality, wrote an article on HealYourLife.com, entitled The Gravity Factor, explaining how Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity came from a mystical experience. While Isaac Newton was a follower of mysticism, his revelations could be proven by science and made sense of through mathematical formulas. Myss, on the other hand, neither has nor tried to prove any of her principles scientifically (I guess with the spiritual journey being irrational, she doesn’t have to). Yet she continues to give lectures and workshops on them regardless. She asks you to release your silly critical thinking skills. In fact, she implies and sometimes says straight out that those who do not embrace this irrational, divine experience will not experience the healing in their life that they seek. This is the absolute worst kind of trickery I have ever come upon. Of course, that isn’t actually the case, considering in the late 80s, she co-authored a book called "Aids: Passageway to Transformation,” which suggested the sort of “belief systems” that caused people to manifest this illness upon themselves.

Myss encourages people to throw away their critical thinking skills and to blindly follow her theories and philosophies about the Divine, regardless of how dubious they may be. But considering her bogus, unaccredited PhD in “Energy Medicine” that she so eagerly touted on the covers of her books till the 2000s, we shouldn’t be surprised by any of the nonsense that she proselytizes.

Louise Hay: You Disgust Me! (a review of You Can Heal Your Life)

You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I once held a great respect for Louise Hay, but in her recent publishing years, she has proven herself to be as much of a fraud as the authors she promotes, including the charlatan Sylvia Browne, former Amway star Jerry Hicks (with his wife Esther who speaks for "nonphysical"), plagiarist Neale Donald Walsch, and phony PhDs Doreen Virtue and Caroline Myss. This book, though including some practical advice that she has pulled from Aaron Beck's work in cognitive therapy, contains an overwhelming amount of woo that makes outrageous claims regarding the power of mind. She disregards science and logic in exchange for dubious pseudoscience that encourages self-blame and guilt regarding disease. This wouldn't bother me so much had the dawn of her career not been acquired through her claim to AIDs patients that they too could heal themselves if they got rid of their "bad thinking". Nowhere in these books does she speak of any AIDs patient's miraculous cure due to her work. And since this book, she has yet to offer any credible evidence that it can do this.

I am appalled by this, not because it offers false hope, but because she is preying on a demographic of desperate people who are looking for answers. She claims to have these answers, but offers no proof beyond anecdotes and testimonials. This is no greater than the testimonials of Christian Science (incidentally their leader Mary Baker Eddy was known for having kidney stones in her old age and relying on morphine to ease the pain even though her text claimed they should rely solely on God for relief). This is one of the most irresponsible feats that has ever been accomplished in publishing, and though I believe it could bring many some emotional relief as they use the processes that have been sampled from cognitive therapy, I also believe that it will and has brought to many a sense of guilt and self-blame regarding the tragedies of their lives.

This book will claim a science to healing, but there is no institution (including Hay's) that offers hard proof of these facts. And if you will read the disclaimer in the beginning, you will be reminded that this author is not to be held accountable to your failure in using these principles.

Due to this book, Louise Hay has now created one of the largest New Age publishing houses in the world. And she has made it clear through the authors she publishes that she is more concerned about the bottom line of her company than she is people's well being. It is a shame to say that this modern Mary Baker Eddy, known as the affirmations guru, is nothing more than a charismatic charlatan.

If you do decide to venture into this book, do so with critical thinking skills and remember that this author will take on no responsibility for your success or failings in these teachings. Also look at the credibility of her own healing, which can be explained as a lie, misdiagnosis, and perhaps, if she is correct, divine healing. Her words will likely validate you, send you swooning into good feelings, and overwhelm you with the presence of love as she constructs an imaginary world where you create your reality through your thoughts. Just make sure when you set this book down to leave that world behind as well.
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xoxo
Kyra

Genesis of Abraham: Sheila Gillette and Esther Hicks

*Those who do not like the term channeling can substitute it with “receiving from nonphysical” wherever you see fit.

Esther Hicks explains in several interviews and books that she was encouraged to meditate by Theo, a group of archangels channeled by Sheila Gillette. This, in turn, she alleges, led her to her own experience with Abraham. I find it interesting that Esther’s own group was encouraged by a channeler who seems as suspicious as she does.

Gillette claims that Theo was the first to be talking about 2012 and the earth changes in her youtube interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5LIXft1ff8. I don’t think that Edgar Cayce would appreciate that claim, but nevertheless, I listened to a podcast interview with Gillette and Theo at http://www.speakingmetaphysically.com/speakingmetaphysically/Sheila_Gillette/rss.xml and was not impressed. In this interview, Gillette claims:

-she can move objects with her mind (even spoon bending!).

-she has experienced levitation. The angels levitated her bed one night.

-she automatic wrote prose in 15th Century Castilian Spanish.

With regards to the spoon bending and moving objects, Gillette explains, "I don't do that anymore. To me that--that takes it to a different place.” This interests me because earlier in the interview, Gillette says that she was a very analytical person and that these sorts of experiences occurred to prove to her that what was happening was real. And yet, why does she think that others would not need those sorts of proofs to be convinced of all this? If her experience is genuine, why is she not, like a scientist, doing her best to prove it? She claims that she is just trying to spread her message. Would not scientific validity spread her message worldwide—rather than just to the comparatively insignificant number that attend her seminars and ask for phone readings?

Einstein, Newton, Bohr, and Darwin didn't shy away from proving their theories. They didn't think that offering proof would take it to "a different place." Yet, this whole disinterest in providing evidence runs rampant in the world of channeling. Neither Gillette nor Esther Hicks feel compelled to prove anything to anyone. We just have to take their word for it.

xoxo
Kyra