ANCHORING OF RELIGION BY MEANS OF SEXUAL ANXIETY

Religiosity that is hostile to sex is the product of patriarchal authoritarian society. The son-father relationship, which we find in every patriarchal religion, is only the inevitable socially determined content of religious experience. The experience itself, however,

derives from the patriarchal suppression of sexuality. The function that religion comes to serve in the course of time, the bearing of obedience towards authority and renunciation, is also only a secondary function of religion. It can build upon a solid foundation: the structure of patriarchal man moulded by means of sexual suppression. It is the negation of the pleasures of the body that serves as the living source of the religious view, and is the axis of every religious dogma. This is especially evident in the religions of Christianity and Buddhism.

Anchoring of Mysticism in Childhood

Lieber Gott, nun schlaf ich ein, Schicke mir ein Engelein.

Vater, lass die Augen Dein, Ûber meinem Bette sein. Hab ich Unrecht beut getan, Sieb es, Ueber Gott, nicht an. Vater, bob mit mir Geduld und vergib mir meine Scbuld.

Alle Menscben, gross und klein Mogen Dir befoblen sein.

[Dear God, now I go to sleep, Send me a little angel.

Father, may your eyes rest upon my bed.

If today I have transgressed Overlook it, dear God.

Father, be patient with me And forgive my trespasses. May all men, big and small,

Be recommended to your Mercy.]

This is one of the many typical prayers that children have to recite before going to sleep. The content of such texts is ignored. And yet these texts are a concentrated form of the substance and emotional content of mysticism. In the first couplet, we have a plea for protection; in the second, a repetition of this plea made directly to the ‘father’; in the third, a plea for forgiveness for a committed sin: may the God-Father overlook our trespasses. What does this guilt-feeling refer to?

What is it that God is supposed to overlook? The guilt experienced from the playing with one’s sexual organs stands at the top of the list of forbidden deeds.

The forbidding of the child to play with his sexual organs would be ineffective if it were not reinforced by the idea that God sees everything, and therefore the child has to be ‘good’ even when the parents are away. Those who feel inclined to dismiss this association as a stretch of the imagination may be convinced by the following impressive story. It gives a very dear picture of the anchoring of the mystical idea of God by means of sexual anxiety.

A girl of some seven years of age who was consciously brought up without any idea of God suddenly developed a compulsion to pray. It was compulsive because she really didn’t want to pray and felt it to be against her better judgement. The background of this compulsion to pray is as follows: The child was in the habit of masturbating before going to sleep every night. One night, for some reason, she was afraid to do so; instead she had the impulse to kneel down in front of her bed and to recite a prayer similar to the one quoted above. ‘If I pray, I won’t be afraid.’ It was on the day she renounced masturbation for the first time that fear appeared. Whence this self-renunciation? She told her father, who had her complete confidence, that a few months earlier she had had an unpleasant experience while on vacation. As so many children, she and a boy had played at having sexual intercourse (‘had played Mummy and Daddy’). Another boy had suddenly come upon them and had shouted ‘shame’ at them. Though she had been told by her parents that there was nothing wrong with such games, she felt ashamed and, in place of the game, masturbated before going to sleep. One evening, shortly before the appearance of the compulsion to pray, she had walked home from a house party with several other children. Along the way they had sung revolutionary songs. An old woman passed them who reminded her of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. This old woman had called out to them: ‘May the Devil take you - you band of atheists! ‘That evening, when she wanted to masturbate again, it struck her for the first time that perhaps there really was a God who sees and punishes. Unconsciously, she had associated the old woman’s threat with the experience with the boy. Now she too began to struggle against masturbation, became afraid and to allay her fear began to pray compulsively. Prayer had taken the place of sexual gratification. Nonetheless, the fear did not give way completely. She began to have frightful nocturnal fantasies. From that time on she was afraid of a supernatural being who could punish her for her sexual offences. Hence, she recommended herself to His care. This constituted a reinforcement of her struggle against the temptation to masturbate. This is not to be looked upon as an isolated occurrence. It is typical of the process whereby the idea of God becomes embedded in the overwhelming majority of the children of religious cultural circles. As we have learned from the analytic study of fairy tales, the same function is served by such fairy tales as Hansel and Gretel, in which there is a concealed - but for the unconscious of the child unambiguous - threat of punishment for masturbation. We cannot at this point enter into the details of the genesis of the child’s mystical thinking from such fairy tales and the relation between mystical thinking and sexual inhibition. In all cases treated by character analysis, it was clearly shown that mystical sentiments develop from the fear of masturbation in the form of a general feeling of guilt. It is difficult to understand how this fact could have been overlooked by analytic research until now. One’s own conscience, the internalized admonitions and threats of the parents and teachers, are objectified in the idea of God. Scientific research

has made this clear. It is less clear that faith and fear of God are energetic sexual excitations that have exchanged their goal and content. Accordingly, the religious feeling is the same as the sexual feeling, except that it is imbued with a mystical, psychic content. This explains the frequency with which sexual elements appear in many ascetic practices, e.g., the delusion of some nuns that they are the brides of Christ. It is not very likely that such ideas attain to genital consciousness. In most cases they revert to other sexual paths, e.g., masochistic martyrdom.

Let us return to our little girl. The compulsion to pray disappeared when she was made aware of the origin of her fear; this awareness made it possible for her to masturbate again without feelings of guilt. As improbable as this incident may appear, it is pregnant with meaning for sex-economy. It shows how the mystical contagion of our youth could be prevented. Several months after the disappearance of the compulsion to pray, the little girl wrote a letter to her father from a summer camp:

Lieber Karli, there is a cornfield here and we have set up our hospital on the edge of it (only pretending of course). We always play doctor there (we are five girls). If one of us has a hurt on our ding-dong, then he goes there, where we have salves and creams and cotton. We swiped all that.

Who will deny that this is sexual Cultural Revolution? Sexual revolution, yes - but Cultural Revolution? The girl is in the same class with children who are an average of one to two years older than she, and her teachers bear witness to her diligence and talents. In politics and general knowledge she is far ahead of other girls her age, and she has a very lively interest in reality. Twelve years later, she was sexually healthy, intellectually outstanding and socially liked.

The Anchoring of Mysticism in Adolescents

Using the little girl as an example, I attempted to show how religious fear becomes anchored in a small child. Sexual anxiety is the main vehicle in the anchoring of the authoritarian social order in the child’s structure. Now we want to pursue this function of sexual anxiety into the puberty period. Let us have a look at one of the typical anti-sexual pamphlets.

To Land or to Strand

Nietzsche: Their souls are steeped in mire, and woe unto us if the mire is imbued with intellect.

Kierkegaard: If Reason alone is baptized, the passions remain pagan.

Two rocks are placed in the life of each man. He can land on them or be stranded on them, set himself right or be dashed to pieces: God and - the opposite sex. Countless young men are stranded or fail in life, not because they did not learn enough, but because they fail to gain clarity about God and because they cannot cope with the instinct which can bring man ineffable happiness, but also unfathomable misery: the sexual instinct.

There are so many men who never achieve full manhood because they are dominated by their instincts. Actually, strong instincts alone are no reason to be grieved. On the contrary, they constitute wealth and intensity of life. They are the rousing cry to a strong personality. But the instinct becomes a burden to itself and a sin against the Creator,

when man ceases to keep it under control, loses his authority over it and becomes its slave. In man, it is either the spiritual or the instinctual, i.e., bestial that predominates. The two are incompatible with one another. Thus, every thoughtful man is one day faced with the imponderable question: Do you want to know the real meaning of your life, to illuminate it, or do you want to be consumed in the fiery furnace of your unbridled drives?

Do you want to live your life as an animal or as a man of God?

The process of attaining manhood - which is what we are concerned with here - is the problem of the hearth-fire. Tempered and controlled, the fire illuminates and warms the room, but - mercy upon us, if the fire leaps forth from the hearth I Mercy upon us if the sexual instinct so dominates the whole man that it becomes the master of all his thoughts, acts and endeavours!

We live in sick times. In earlier times, one demanded that eros be disciplined and made responsible. Today we are of the opinion that modern man no longer has need of discipline. In this regard, however, we fail to see that present-day man living in the big city is much more nervous and weaker of will and therefore requires more discipline.

Cast your eyes around you: It is not mind that rules in our fatherland. Unbridled drives have the upper hand, and among our youth it is chiefly the undisciplined sexual drive, which degenerates into immorality. In the factory and in the office, on the stage and in public life, it is the spirit of the half-world that holds sway; obscenity is the order of the day. And who can say how much joyous youthful pleasure goes to ruin in the plague-palaces of the big city, in the dance-halls and cabarets, pin-ball galleries and obscene movies! The young man of today considers himself pretty clever when he adheres to the hedonist theory. In truth, however, the words of Goethe’s Mephistopheles apply to him:

‘He calls it Reason, using light celestial Just to outdo the beasts in being bestial.’

Two things, yes, two things render difficult the process of attaining manhood: the metropolis with its abnormal conditions and the demon in ourselves. The young man who comes to the metropolis alone for the first time, perhaps from a well-sheltered home, sees himself surrounded by a wealth of new impressions. Unceasing noise, exciting sights, erotic books and magazines, bad air, alcohol, movies, theatres, and provocatively dressed females everywhere he turns. Who can stand up to such a concentrated onslaught? And to the external temptation, the internal demon is only too happy to give his assent. For Nietzsche was right, ‘the soul is steeped in mire.’ In all men ‘the wild hounds are howling in the cellar’ waiting to be set free.

Many fall prey to the compulsion of immorality because the dangers were not explained to them at the proper time. Such men will be grateful for an open word of warning and advice enabling them to escape and turn back.

Usually, one is first exposed to immorality in the form of masturbation. Scientific investigations show that this is usually begun at a frightfully early age. It is true; the consequences of this bad habit are often exaggerated. Yet, the judgement of respected physicians must give everyone pause for thought. Professor Dr Hartung, long-time senior

physician of dermatology at the Allerheiligen-Hospital in Breslau, has this to say on this matter: ‘There is no doubt that an excessive indulgence of this propensity is severely harmful to the body, and that it is precisely in later life that disturbances result from the indulgence of this vice. They are usually manifested in form of general nervousness, mental incapacity for work and physical prostration.’

He also stresses the fact that the young man who practises masturbation does something dirty in his consciousness: be also loses his self-respect and bis clear brow. The continual consciousness of a loathsome secret which has to be concealed from others, morally degrades him in his own eyes. He goes on to say that those young people who indulge in this vice become indolent and sloppy, lose their desire to work, and that all kinds of nervous and irritable conditions weaken their memory and their efficiency. Other respected physicians who have written on this subject agree with Dr Hartung.

But masturbation not only fouls the blood, it does away with spiritual forces and inhibitions which are necessary for the process of attaining manhood. It deprives the soul of its resoluteness. If it becomes habitual, it has the effect of a gnawing worm.

However, the consequences of immorality with the opposite sex are much worse. It is certainly not by chance that man’s most terrible scourge - venereal disease - is a result of this transgression. It is only astounding how incredibly foolish people are in this area, people who otherwise tend to be sensible.

Dr Paul Lazarus, Professor at the University of Berlin, painted a shocking picture of the deep psychic and physical illness of our people caused by venereal disease.

Syphilis must be designated as one of the most effective grave-diggers of our national energy.

But also gonorrhoea, which many young men are foolish enough to take lightly, is a serious and dangerous disease. And the very fact that it is not possible for medical science to cure it with certainty should be enough to banish all levity on the subject.

Professor Binswanger had this to say about venereal disease: ‘It is remarkable that cases of infection which appear to be very minor lead to severe suffering, that often many years elapse between the original infection and the outbreak of an incurable nervous complaint, and that more than 60% of the cases of that disease, which occurs so frequently today and is called a softening of the brain by laymen, can be traced back to earlier sexual infections.’

Is it not a thought which shakes us to our innermost core that, owing to such sins of our youth, those who will one day be closest to us - wife and child - may have to suffer such terrible illnesses?

But I have to mention one other aberration, which is far more rife today than some would imagine: homosexuality. Let us make this much clear at the outset: We want to extend our warmest sympathy and understanding to all those who, owing to inclination or heredity in this area, wage a quiet and often desperate struggle in an effort to maintain their purity. Hail to those who achieve a victory, for they wrestle with God on their side. But just as Jesus loved the individual sinner and helped everyone who wanted to be helped, yet countered sin itself with holy earnestness, so we too to counter the phenomenon of homosexuality which corrupts our youth and our people as a whole. There was already a time in which the world was on the verge of drowning in a flood of

perversity. At that time it was the gospel that vanquished the culture so engulfed in the putrefaction of these repulsive offences and lewdness, and established a new culture. Speaking of the slaves and victims of these sins, Paul wrote to the Romans: ‘. . . and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men. . . For this reason God gave them up. . .’ Romans 1.27 & 2.6. Homosexuality is the mark of Cain, of a godless and soulless culture which is sick to the core. It is the consequence of the prevailing view of the world and of life, the highest aim of which is love of pleasure. Professor Foerster has rightfully stated in his Sexualetbik: ‘Where spiritual heroism is made fun of and the sowing of one’s wild oats is glorified, everything which is perverse, demonic and vile plucks up courage to manifest itself openly; indeed, it scoffs at the healthy as an illness and sets itself up as the standard of life.’

We see today things which man fears to admit in his most hidden depravity. Completely different things will come to light, and then one will understand that only a great spiritual power - the gospel of Jesus Christ - can be of help here.

However, some will raise objections to what has been said. ‘Are we not dealing,’ you will say perhaps, ‘with a natural instinct which has to be satisfied?’ - Unchained passions are not something natural, but something highly unnatural. In almost all cases it is only through one’s own guilt or through the guilt of others that the wicked desire is sowed, ignited and fed. Take an alcoholic or a drug addict: Is his craving for alcohol or morphine something natural? Only by indulging this vice repeatedly does it become an unnatural craving. The instinct implanted in us by God for marriage and the preservation of mankind is in itself good and not at all too difficult to curb. Thousands of men are successful in controlling it in the right way.

‘But isn’t it harmful for a mature man to abstain from these things?’ Professor Dr Hartung, whom we should like to quote again, says literally: ‘I will answer you short and clear: No, it is not. If anyone ever told you that a healthy man could get sick from chastity and abstinence in the broad sense of the words, be put you on the wrong track altogether. And if that person had really thought over what he told you, then he was either an ignorant or wicked man.

One must be urgently warned against the use of contraceptives. The only sure protection is abstinence until marriage.

I have made an honest and truthful attempt to open your eyes to the consequences of immorality. You have seen the ruin of both body and spirit of those who indulge in these sins. Added to this, however, is also the harm which results to the soul from this vice. I swear to you in holy earnestness: Unchastity is a crime against God. It deprives one of one’s peace of mind and prevents one from obtaining true joy and serenity. It is written: ‘For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption . . .’ Gal. 6:8.

The spirit of the half-world moves in with inevitable necessity wherever the connection to the over-world is lost.

For all those, however, who do not want to be or do not want to remain the victims of immorality, I want to add a few words of advice and encouragement. One must make a complete break with the sins of immorality in thought, word and deed. This is what must be heeded by those who do not want to become its slave. Obviously, places of corruption

and sin must not be sought out, indeed, everything must be avoided as much as possible which would in any way assist corruption. Thus, association and intercourse with immoral young men and women are to be avoided at all cost; the reading of obscene books, the viewing of vile pictures and the visiting of dubious performances must also be avoided. In short, you have to seek out good associates, through whom you will be preserved and elevated. Everything is to be recommended which hardens the body and eases the fight against immorality, such as gymnastics, sports, swimming, hikes and getting up as soon as one wakes up. Moderation in the consumption of food and above all of beverages. Alcohol is to be avoided. All this, however, is not enough, for many men, even when they follow this advice, are forced to make the painful discovery that the unchained instinct is much too strong. Where are we to find the firmness so necessary to resistance: the energy needed for victory, if we are not to lose what is best in us, our personality? When temptation comes to us in glowing allurement, when the blazing fire of sensual pleasure shoots forth, -we find that education alone does not help. Energy, vital energy -that is what we need to master our drives and to subdue the vile forces in us and outside of us. There is only one who gives us this energy: Jesus. Through his bloody expiatory death, he not only procured remission for us - so that we can find peace from the indictment of our conscience - he is also the vital energy of a new, pure life for us, through his very spirit. Through him, even a will paralysed in the service of sin can become firm again and be resurrected to freedom and to life, and successfully stand the test in the difficult struggle with sin.

Let him who wants to achieve real freedom come to the living i saviour, who has deprived sin of its power and has abounding energy and help for everyone. This is not Christian theory, but a fact which many sorely troubled young men have tried and experience daily. Whenever possible, unbosom yourself to a sincere Christian and true friend, who can counsel and help you in your struggle. For there will be a struggle, but a struggle which promises victory.

And now, in conclusion, let me address this question to you personally: How are things with you, my friend, and what do you intend to do with this admonition?

Do you want to ruin yourself to please frivolous and unprincipled people? Or do you want to join forces with pure, noble men, whose company will elevate your soul and harden your will to struggle against everything vile? Do you want to be a man who, through his words, his example and his being, is a curse to himself and others, or do you want always more intensely to be a man who-is a blessing to his fellowman?

Do you want, for the sake of a few moments of transitory pleasure, to ruin your body, character and soul - now and forever -or be saved, as long as there is still time ?

I beg you - answer these questions honestly and have the courage to do what God has made clear to your conscience I

Choose honestly! Half-world or Over-world? Animal or Man of Spirit? Land or Strand?

In this pamphlet, youth is given the alternative: God or sexuality. To be sure, ‘full manhood’ as well as ‘super-manhood’ requires more than asexuality, but this is its first prerequisite. The setting up of ‘animal’ and ‘man of spirit’ as opposites follows from the setting up of ‘sexual’ and ‘spiritual’ as opposites. It is the antithesis that always forms the

basis of every theosophical moral philosophy. It has been unassailable until now because its basis, the negation of sex, was not impugned.

From early childhood on, the average youth is faced with the acute conflict between sexuality and fear, the heritage of the authoritative parental home. A pamphlet such as the one quoted above forces the youth in the direction of mysticism without, however, getting rid of the difficulties. The Catholic Church circumvents this difficulty by periodically absolving the youth’s masturbation in confession. By so doing, however, it entangles itself in another difficulty. The church maintains its basis in the masses by two kinds of measures: It binds the masses to itself by means of sexual anxiety, and it stresses its anti-capitalistic position. It condemns the life of the big city with its many opportunities of leading young men and women astray, for it must fight against the revolutionary sexual force that is awakened in the youth by big-city life. On the other hand, the sexual life of the masses concentrated in big cities is characterized by an acute contradiction between a pressing sexual need and minimal material and structural possibilities for gratification. Essentially, the nature of this contradiction is that the very family authority that has been destroyed by the economic crises and by sexual anguish is again defended by every available means. The recognition of such contradictions is very important, for it opens broad possibilities of assailing political reaction’s ideological apparatus in its weakest spot.

Where is it that the youth is to seek the energy to subdue his genital titillations? In faith in Jesus! As a matter of fact, he does derive an enormous power against his sexuality from his faith in Jesus. What is the basis of its mechanism? The mystical experience puts him in a state of vegetative excitation, which never culminates in natural orgastic gratification. The youth’s sexual drive develops in a passive homosexual direction. In terms of the drive’s energy, passive homosexuality is the most effective counterpart of natural masculine sexuality, for it replaces activity and aggression by passivity and masochistic attitudes, that is to say, by precisely those attitudes that determine the mass basis of patriarchal authoritarian mysticism in the human structure. At the same time, however, this implies unquestioning loyalty, faith in authority and ability to adapt to the institution of patriarchal compulsive marriage. In short, religious mysticism pits one sexual drive against another. It even avails itself of sexual mechanisms to achieve its goals. These nongenital sexual stimuli, which it has partially set in motion and partially brought to a peak, determine in turn the mass psychology of the followers: moralistic masochism (often with distinct physical manifestations) and passive subordination. Religion draws its power from the suppression of genital sexuality, which, on a secondary level, entails a regression along the line of passive and masochistic homosexuality. Thus, in terms of the dynamics of the drive, religion is based on genital anxiety and on the substitution of genitality by secondary impulses that are no longer natural to the adolescent. Sex-economy’s task among religious-mystical adolescents is to pit the natural genital demands against the secondary (homosexual) and mystical drives. It is in complete accord with the objective line of development of social progress in the sex-economic sphere: elimination of genital negation and affirmation of adolescent genital sexuality.

However, the question is not exhausted solely by disclosing the mechanism by which the masses are infected. The cult of the Virgin Mary assumes an especially important position in this. Let us have a look at another typical pamphlet.