The Introspective Potential Of Masturbation

Sexuality is a significant part of human existence, including the spiritual side of human life.  After all, the Bible credits God with making humans sexual beings--and yet many Christians shun what God intentionally created.  Christians who have difficulty bringing themselves to address the issues regarding interpersonal sexual behaviors usually have difficulty addressing self-pleasuring, even though it offers the potential for thorough reflection on the personal nature of pleasure and the fact that pleasure itself is far from sinful.

Masturbation can be enjoyed with little emphasis on self-awareness and with immediate pleasure in the spotlight, but self-stimulation can also be a deeply introspective experience.  One can explore one's mind just as thoroughly as one's body with or without additional stimulation in the form of mental imagery or erotic media (of a Biblically legitimate kind [1]).  Since sexuality is such a deep part of human existence, this should not come as a surprise.

The social dimensions of sexuality do not account for its full scope, and this was not a fluke on God's part.  Since the act of masturbation is objectively nonsinful (Deuteronomy 4:2), there is nothing problematic about admitting that God made the human body to be capable of giving itself sexual pleasure.  Moreover, since sexuality is a phenomenological thing with physical expressions, it is the psychological aspects of masturbation that can be the deepest and most pleasurable.

All pleasure is experienced on a personal level, but only select pleasures are self-imposed.  Masturbation is especially personal because it falls into the latter category and because it is a sexual act, a manifestation of the capacity for sexual pleasure that God implanted within humans.  Christians have all the more reason to enjoy masturbation for its pleasure and its introspective potential, as it is a natural, nonsinful expression of human sexuality.

If people were to more openly discuss the emotional and spiritual aspects of masturbation, perhaps self-pleasuring would not be seen as something that is of practically no philosophical or spiritual relevance.  On the contrary, masturbation can express deep features of human introspection and spirituality.  It is only because of a reluctance to engage topics of sexuality on a rationalistic level that more people have not realized this.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-truth-about-erotic-media-part-2_19.html