Substance Dualism In Sexuality

Sexuality spans both human consciousness and physiology, making it an integral way in which the objective distinctions between consciousness and matter can be seen.  The very personal nature of sexuality--not personal in the sense that it needs to be kept secret from others or treated as something to be withheld except among friends, but personal in the sense that it connects with the core of a person's mental characteristics--mean that it is also a very potent thing about one's being.  The fact that people generally seem to at least vaguely recognize that there are explicitly physical and nonphysical aspects of sexuality is what makes some rejections of substance dualism all the more idiotic.

Sexual thoughts, desires, attractions, and a general readiness for sexual activity on an attitudinal level are all manifestations of sexuality within a consciousness.  Without a consciousness, none of these things could be experienced.  A person's mind can be sexually excited without any physical indication of these thoughts or mental experiences.  Like any other thought or emotion, sexual thoughts and feelings (psychological feelings as in emotions, not physical sensations) are immaterial, having no tangible existence while being real all the same.  A rational person will not fight the truth that parts of sexuality appear to an individual within the nonphysical well of their intentions, emotions, and thoughts called their mind.

Arousal of the genitals, in contrast, is a physical phenomenon that may or may not occur in connection to sexual thoughts or desires.  This takes place purely on a material level, yet there would be no perception of sexual physiology if it was not for the mind already being in existence.  The body can be sexually aroused and can sexually perform without mental excitement and vice versa.  On one level, this is clear to many people from their own experiences even without intentional rationalistic thought, but it has to be specifically considered for the illustration of substance dualism to be fully absorbed.

Mind-body dualism encompasses every part of human life.  Indeed, it could not be any other way: any bodily action involves both the will and physical activity, and thoughts and perception can be present even when the body is at rest.  Sexuality is one of many ways that the differences between mind and body, these two "substances" which are always part of waking life, are both involved in the same general part of human existence.  Desires, thoughts, and physiological reactions are so clearly distinct that it takes an immense level of stupidity to mistake one for the other.