Sex is the very basic problem. And all the habits that man has created are basically sex-oriented. That’s why no society allows total sexual freedom.
“All the cultures that have existed – sophisticated, unsophisticated, Eastern, Western, primitive, civilized – all cultures have tried in some way to control the sexual energy of man. It seems to be the greatest power over man. It seems that if man is allowed total freedom about sex, he will simply destroy himself.
“Skinner reports about a few experiments he was doing with rats. He has invented a new theory, that electrodes can be put into the human or animal brain, attached to particular centers in the brain, and you just push a button and that center will be stimulated inside you.
There is a sex center in the brain. In fact, you are more controlled by the sex center in the brain than the actual sex center of your body. That’s why fantasy works so well.
That’s why pornography has so much appeal. Pornography cannot appeal to the sex center itself; it stimulates the brain center attached to the sex center. Once the mind is active, immediately the sex center, the physiological sex center, starts being active.
“Skinner fixed electrodes in rats’ brains and taught them how to push the button whenever they wanted sexual stimulation and an inner orgasm. He was surprised by what happened, he was not expecting this: those rats completely forgot everything – food, sleep, play –they forgot everything. They continuously pushed the button. One rat did it six thousand times and died pushing the button. Six thousand times! He forgot everything, nothing else mattered.
“Sooner or later, some Skinner or somebody else is going to also give you a small box to keep in your pocket and, whenever you feel sexual, just push a button and your brain center will become active and will give you beautiful orgasms and nobody will ever know what is happening inside you. But you will almost follow the rat because then what is the point of doing anything else? You will kill yourself.
“Sex is such a great attraction that if there were not limitations on it… First there is a limitation that body puts on it. A man cannot have too many orgasms in a day; if you are young, three, four; if you become older, then one; when you become a little older still, then even that becomes difficult – once a week, once a month. And, by and by, your body puts many limitations on it.
Women are freer that way. The body has no limitation. That’s why, all over the world, women have been completely repressed.
“She has not been allowed freedom; she has not been allowed even freedom to have orgasms in the past because she can have multiple orgasms. Within seconds she can have many orgasms – six, twelve. Then no man will be able to satisfy a woman; then no man will be able to satisfy any woman. Then only group sex will be able to satisfy. A woman will need at least twelve husbands, and that will create tremendous complexities.
“That’s why, down the centuries, for thousands of years, women were brought up in such a way that they have completely forgotten that they can have orgasm. Just within these fifty years women have again started learning what orgasm is, and with their learning, problems have arisen all over the world. Marriage is on the rocks.
Marriage cannot exist with women having the capacity of multiple orgasms. And man only has the capacity for one orgasm. There can be no compatibility between the two.
“Then monogamy cannot exist. It will become difficult. This society and the pattern that it has evolved up to now is doomed. Man has released some energy that has always been kept under a certain rigid control. But the attraction has always been there, whether you repress, whether you control, discipline, that doesn’t make any difference. The attraction is there – twenty-four hours, deep down like a substratum, sexuality goes on like a river flowing. It is a continuum. You may eat, you may earn money, you may work, but you are doing everything for sex.
“Somewhere, sex remains the goal, and this pattern has to be changed, otherwise your energy will go on being drained, your energy will go on being dissipated, your energy will go on moving into the earth.
It will not rise toward heaven. It will not have an upward surge.”
END
Excerpted from Osho, Learning Happiness, Talk #7 – Sex Is the Basic Problem
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