Traditional

This theory that semen comes from the body is an ayurvedic understanding wherein different materials of the body "distill" to form purer substances which are then extracted by the testicles as semen. The fact that semen comes from the testicles is no big discovery. The value of semen was stressed by ancient philosophers & doctors.

The basic principles of ayurveda involve a metaphysical understanding of the elements. The bodies tissues are divided into seven:

  • Rasa (Plasma)
  • Rakta (Blood)
  • Mamsa (Muscle)
  • Meda (Fat tissues)
  • Asthi (Bone)
  • Majja (Marrow)
  • Shukra (Semen)

The semen can be extracted by the testicles or reabsorbed to strengthen the body and brain.

Here is a doubt asked to Swami Shivananda
http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/download/may_ianswer.htm


196. Observance of Brahmacharya would appear to be meaningless, because scientists, through laboratory tests, have proved that semen cannot be reabsorbed into the system and that the brain has nothing to do with semen.

Semen is a mysterious secretion that is able to create a living body. Semen itself is living substance. It is life itself. Therefore, when it leaves man, it takes a portion of his own life. A living thing cannot be put to laboratory tests, without first killing it. The scientist has no apparatus to test it. God has provided the only test to prove its precious nature, viz., the womb. The very fact that semen is able to create life is proof enough that it is life itself.

I have thousands of letters from young men who have wasted this precious fluid and are in a miserable plight. Several young men even go to the point of committing suicide! Through reckless waste of semen, they lose all their physical, mental and intellectual faculties. Those who are perfect Brahmacharins have lustrous eyes, a healthy body and mind, and a keen, piercing intellect.

Scientists with their test tubes and balances cannot approach subtle things. No amount of dissection of the body will be able to tell you where the soul is, where life is, or where the mind is. Through the practice of Yoga, the seminal energy— not the gross physical semen— flows upwards and enriches the mind. This has been declared by the sages. You will have to experience it yourself.

-- Swami Shivananda

Ok enough swamis, what did the father's of western civilization have to say?

(You know, since the Spartans died to give us this western civilization and all)