MASTURBATION AND WET DREAMS By @Lanre_Olagunju

More caution has to be taken these days since notable words have been released from religious quarters. May I offer to advise that you don’t laugh whenever you are in the bathroom, especially if you fall into the category of those who get inspiration under the influence of the shower, else, it would be simply assumed that you’re having a nice time playing with yourself.

It’s a known fact that there are a couple of grey areas in religion. Many of these cloudy zones are better handled by personal interpretation either based on one’s level of understanding or conviction. If you cast your mind back a little, you will remember that it used to be quite controversial to wear a pair of trousers to church as a woman, now we all know that it doesn’t stop the anointing from flowing from the altar. In addition, we all know that the era that God is only pleased with hand woven hair or hair plaited with local thread is long over. Today, contrarily, men won’t even let women have enough shampoo and hair relaxers to go round.

In the same way, I nurse the apprehension that masturbation, one-day, will become the prescribed religious way-out of avoiding the real thing. Just as it is secularly advertized that “if you no fit hold body, abeg use condom”. Or what exactly was pastor Chris Oyakhilome thinking or trying to say when he said “masturbation is not a sin against God” in that video? Was he trying to say that the guilt that comes with touching one’s own sex organ for the promise of pleasure is not from God, or was he just trying to emphasize that Christians might as well, now freely wank in the Lord?

Irrespective of cultural attitudes and religion, masturbation has been found in all societies. Fifteen years of research in human sexual behaviour by the famous sexuality researcher, Dr. Alfred Kinsey, revealed that 95% of males and 60% of females had at a point masturbated. Of the three forms of sexual release, sex, masturbation and nocturnal emission widely known as wet dreams, masturbation has pulled more controversial attention for itself than others, especially among the religious.

A whole lot of fabrications have been conjured from time immemorial as regards the addictive habit. Opinions that masturbation leads to blindness, physical problems such as mental illness and growing hair on the palms aren’t true. Some even nurse the idea that others, including medical doctors and sexual partners, will be able to tell if you masturbate. Another interesting one is that men will run out of semen or sperm if they masturbate excessively. The testis is a factory for mass sperm production and masturbation isn’t going to close down that factory. Myths of this nature and a host of others are big opinions with no factual medical basis.

Medically there hasn’t been physical or mental side effects like many of these myths propose, but doctors are worried about over masturbation especially when it’s a symptom of obsessive/compulsive disorder. Too much may lead to a reduced response to other people’s touch, which might be injurious to any relationship. Obsessive masturbation may be offensive to one’s sexual partner as it might be seen as a substitute for seeming unsatisfactory intercourse. Compulsive masturbation can be a major challenge if it affects a person’s daily personal or professional life or when it hinders a person from fulfilling their responsibilities and commitments.

If religiously we claim that wanking is sinful and morally we regard it as shameful, then what about nocturnal emission, where ejaculation occurs while asleep? Doesn’t nightfall also bring some level of shame during the first occurrence? May be you need to remember how embarrassing it was to first discover that the cartographer in your sexual center can also conjure maps well designed with beautiful white paintings. How many times did you wake up to wonder who sketched the maps of countries and places that don’t exist all over your short and bed spread?

It is well expected and reasonable to say that we are not responsible for our actions in our sleep but according to research by Alfred Kinsey, men who have low masturbation may have higher frequencies of nocturnal emission, though taking certain drugs containing high volume of testosterone might as well be responsible. Also, Dr. Vora in his book ‘Wet Dreams’ said wet dreams are almost constant accompaniment of young adult who are yet to explore sex.

He described wet dreams as a natural way of getting relief of sexual tension while still observing continence. He further explained that a healthy man living with his wife in normal condition should not necessarily have them including those who are given to regular masturbation, for there is little time for the accumulation of the secretion to produce distension of the vesicles.

Some nurse the impression that even wet dreams are bad, though they cannot ascertain that they are sinful, since its occurrence is not under any willful control. It should be noted that the cause of nightfall is not always related to erotic thoughts or dreams. They majorly occur when the reproductive organs are unable to hold excessively produced seminal fluids. One might as well conclude that man needs to ejaculate from time to time even when he’s not sexually active.

This implies that the body can hold a max amount of semen and when it reaches its threshold, it needs to get rid of the excess. So if two actions achieve the same result, how come one has been more controversial than the other?