Book excerpt: Higher consciousness and sexual sublimation (diverting sexual energy to the brain) are inextricably linked in most of the world’s meditation methods. So where does seminal retention fit in? Seminal retention techniques can be used by male practitioners who want to continue sexual relations without the deleterious effects linked to ejaculating. While best meditation practices dictate renouncing ejaculation and sexual relations, seminal retention techniques do provide a compromise for males not able or not willing to give up sex. In the East, people have always known about the connection between higher consciousness and what goes on below the waist. Seminal Retention and Higher Consciousness: The Sexology of Kundalini explores this connection, and its sexological implications. First, there’s a limited amount of semen in the male body. Neither you, nor I, can change this; it’s a biological fact. Second, although you can’t replenish what’s been lost, you can conserve what’s left. Today, it’s understandable that young, vital individuals working on kundalini activation techniques want to maintain a normal sex life. Formerly, the only way to avoid the deleterious physiological effects linked to ejaculation was to avoid sex altogether after activating kundalini. That is not acceptable to this generation: The sex drive is too powerful to simply put it on the back burner in favor of abstinence or abstention. Today’s seekers want instant gratification, free license to ejaculate at will, at the same time, they pursue higher consciousness. Fortunately, there is a way to reconcile the two, a series of seminal retention techniques I discovered after activating kundalini. But before revealing these secret techniques, let’s examine some of the effects various authorities on kundalini had to deal with. First, Gopi Krishna writing in 1977: “At the present time, we can say, that perhaps twice a week to once in two weeks would be a safe measure for indulgence in the sexual act. This is of absolute importance for those who would like to awaken the Serpent Power. “On one occasion, after months of abstention, I prematurely had a contact with my wife. The next moment, because the energy did not come up to feed the brain, I seemed to sink into a pit of horror and terror, so much so that I thought that if nothing happened to save me from this terrible situation, I would die. “People realize these mistakes when they are sixty or seventy years old. There have been many cases in which men of advanced age have repented the folly of their youth.” Second, before I mastered retention techniques, I discovered first hand how much the brain needs the elixir and I wrote about it in Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time: “My head is imploding and the elixir is being summoned to my brain for life support. I curl up in a fetal position. To no avail, my nerves are like an electrical fire searing the very conduits that enclose them and there isn’t enough elixir to cool them. Certainly, if I try to lead a normal sex life, I’ll simply exhaust my resources. I can feel the elixir waning and, as Gopi Krishna put it, ‘a tongue of golden flame searching my stomach for food.’” I learned the hard way, but you don’t have to. Not if you take the time to master the techniques discussed in this book. Yes, I suffered bouts of physical pain, like the ones described above, that led me to seek and ultimately find techniques that not only allowed me to continue sexual relations, but also allowed me and my partners to experiment with new pleasures. In ancient times, sex relations and higher consciousness were a no-no. Today, seekers want both. And they can have them…within reason. The biology hasn’t changed; Kundalini still needs the energy. But, if you can control the energy as it surges up the spine into the brain and not allow it to flow out, you can navigate the tricky waters between sublimation and ejaculation.