Is porn actually harmless, or are we just pretending?

[Natasha Tori Maru]

11 minutes ago, Basman said:

You can call it a compulsion. It's like the word "narcissist". It's an exact term. Using it flippantly is unserious and a misuse of serious medicial terms in my opinion.

It fits and gives gravity to the problem some people have. 

It's way above compulsion in terms of how bad the issue can inhibit the individual. 

Anyway, you are simply trying to argue some side semantics I am just not gonna agree with. 

[Basman]

8 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

It fits and gives gravity to the problem some people have. 

It's way above compulsion in terms of how bad the issue can inhibit the individual. 

Anyway, you are simply trying to argue some side semantics I am just not gonna agree with. 

Which is why it's unserious. It's not true.

"Addiction" is easily used to sneak in all sorts of assumptions. It's not just semantics it's epistemological.

Edited yesterday at 09:31 AM by Basman

[Basman]

When talking about excessive porn use, and excessive media use in general, people tend to ignore the historical and socialogical trends that brought us here in the first place. Like the untethering of social bonds, the difficulty of getting a job, work itself lacking dignity in the modern age, lack of meaningful aspirations (and by extension too much free time), etc.

Maybe porn is just the friends we didn't make along the way. 

[bazera]

@Basman Have you ever been addicted (okay, used compulsively) to porn? Because it can get much much worse than your 7-8h/day gaming thing.

Nofap community has some silly idological side as well, but you can't just assume all those people doesn't really have an issue and are bullshiting. Millions of people are going through some really hard times because of porn induced issues and are desparate for help.

It's no way the same thing as compulsive gaming. Not in the same ballpark.

Not to mention the struggle that some of the spouses / partners go through when their partner has compulsive porn habits.

https://www.reddit.com/r/loveafterporn/

Just read some posts here. You'll get some idea of what I'm referring to.

Edited yesterday at 09:39 AM by bazera

[Basman]

12 minutes ago, Basman said:

"Addiction" is easily used to sneak in all sorts of assumptions. It's not just semantics it's epistemological.

For one, it's masking how value ladden judgement of what constitutes "porn addiction" usually is. How much guilt plays a part. 

[bazera]

5 minutes ago, Basman said:

"Addiction" is easily used to sneak in all sorts of assumptions.

Like what assumptions specifically for "porn addiction" case?

[trenton]

@Monster Energy one thing that should be concerning is how easy it is to access porn. When people post this on the internet, anybody can access this including minors. In fact, given a cellphone and incognito mode, there is a realistic chance that a parent would never find out if their child was looking at porn.

In my case, I initially didn't look at porn and was confused by this behavior. However, when I was a teenager I was watching a police show. They were investigating a sexual predator. A police officer said that he would take pictures of women to increase sexual pleasure during masturbation.

Once given this information, it gave me the idea to now look at porn. My family never seemed to find out. It is possible that they knew, but stayed silent. In any case, I did access pornography as a child. Once I experienced the initial high, this brought me back to it in adulthood.

My recommendation is that we should probably make this content more difficult for minors to access. Maybe you can't simple Google images for pornography. That's what I did. Maybe Google would have to remove this content from being findable via these means. They might need to be isolated to websites to make it a little harder to find. Then if the minor does go to that site, I'm not sure what other measure should be used.

Does anybody think minors looking at porn is a problem?

[bazera]

26 minutes ago, trenton said:

Does anybody think minors looking at porn is a problem?

Of course, kids get hooked onto that shit in their early 10s. By the time they are in their late teens or early 20s, porn already did the damage.

[Ramasta9]

Psychically you are cheating yes I feel. I remember a while back with a previous partner, we were having some troubles and i was feeling unsatisfied in bed and started looking at porn and i realized she was feeling more heartbroken and starting having feelings for others out of the blue about the same time or shortly after i started watching porn again. I also feel the more i watched porn the worse our sexual intimacy became. Eventually she cheated on me physically but i felt I may have cheated on her first psychically. 

I remember Christ saying in one text (paraphrasing) that even looking at another woman lustfully already breaks her heart before you even unite with her. This is why i feel being in nature long term away from screens can cure the minds perversions.

Two things i have observed which tend to destabilize relationships /sacred unions: Porn & Psychedelics.

You will rarely find anyone who does any of the two often be in a stable relationship or be stable to hold one.

Sooner or later it will fall apart, because they are not learning to cultivate a higher love but escaping...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Ramasta9

[cistanche_enjoyer]

6 hours ago, Ramasta9 said:

Two things i have observed which tend to destabilize relationships /sacred unions: Porn & Psychedelics.

I can understand porn, but why psychedelics? 

To me it was almost the contrary: psychedelics increased my ability to love and “opened my heart chakra” (sorry for the spiritual slang but I hope you understand what I mean). This then improved the quality of my relationships.

 

[Ramasta9]

2 hours ago, cistanche_enjoyer said:

I can understand porn, but why psychedelics? 

To me it was almost the contrary: psychedelics increased my ability to love and “opened my heart chakra” (sorry for the spiritual slang but I hope you understand what I mean). This then improved the quality of my relationships.

 

I understand that and need to refrain this better, but mostly because modern psychedelics, especially these "new-age" high-dose synthetics) tend to greatly and prematurely expand our energy field, far more than it was meant to by the original / natural plant, so grounding back into the body and regular life on earth becomes exceptionally more challenging.

I remember after a period of heavy use of N-N-DMT and 5-meo and LSD / MDMA ect... I was needing help and met a few shamans / healers who told me my consciousness has been expanded all over time/space due to such substances and i needed re-balancing and integrating my mind / body / spirit. After they did their work through chanting, smoke, massage, bathing in nature without any stimulation and other means, i felt much better and more grounded and stabilized thereon. I was experiencing almost schizophrenia type side-effects from over-use and not following proper shamanic guidelines and grounding work. I realized later that synthetic / isolated molecules were far more problematic than the natural ones that have evolved with us and with their divine intelligence and self-guiding mechanism in tact.

I later learned through observation of modern weed and psychedelic use, is often, especially the more expansive and synthetic substances (without their body of consciousness) tend to 'scatter us' energetically more than support.  Psychedelics temporarily loosen and disrupt the brain's "default mode network" (the system that maintains a stable sense of self). Which feels expansive but also destabilizing, especially without proper grounding work.

They also tend to increase suggestibility and emotional amplification, so people become more open, but also more impressionable, which can deepen insight while also create more confusion, especially in relationships. Such substances don't just "open you up", they greatly amplify whatever is already there, so If there's insecurity for example, it can become even more intense. Regular use can affect motivation, emotional regulation, and focus, sometimes leading to avoidance/withdrawal, and reduced relational presence.

Both porn and certain substance use share a few underlying / similar dynamics: They can shift focus inward (private stimulation, altered inner states) rather than toward shared, grounded connection. If used to cope rather than heal, they may bypass the skills needed for communication, repair, and intimacy. They can also create a mismatch in partners. For example: If one partner uses heavily and the other doesn't, it can create differences in emotional availability or values. Some substances (especially high-dose psychedelics or potent modern cannabis) are simply very strong and chemically imbalanced and unnatural, regardless of origin, which our biochemistry simply struggles to handle and sees such as foreign substance.

Traditional shamans and healers usually follow ancient rituals and guidelines that often buffer destabilizing effects. Modern use is often unguided, frequent, and disconnected from structure, which can lead to the "scattered" and nervous system "burnout" that can sometimes take weeks, months, or even years to stabilize. I speak from experience, not only with myself, but many others I have dealt with and helped over the years during my travels and gatherings / retreats / vision quests.

I trust this makes more sense now and clears the confusion, hence why i put modern "supercharged" synthetic / isolated substances in the same boat as porn. Both are drugs, not true-medicines, as found naturally evolved and perfected in nature. 

Soon as man changes nature, its a direct insult to Gods perfect creation and destabilization of nature, thus ourselves. 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Ramasta9

[Basman]

23 hours ago, bazera said:

Like what assumptions specifically for "porn addiction" case?

How much about it you judge as bad and something to feel guilty about. How value ladden judging something as an "addiction" is. That's why medically there are very strict standards for something to be considered an addiction to avoid bias. 

They way most anti-porn advocates use the term is to mask (though maybe not deliberately) their religiosity. And surprise surprise, the biggest predictor of having a "porn addiction" is religiosity.

Quote

Now, researchers have put a nail in the coffin of porn addiction. Josh Grubbs, Samuel Perry, and Joshua Wilt are some of the leading researchers on America’s struggles with porn, having published numerous studies examining the impact of porn use, belief in porn addiction, and the effect of porn on marriages. And Rory Reid is a UCLA researcher who was a leading proponent in gathering information about the concept of hypersexual disorder for the DSM-5. These four researchers, all of whom have a history of neutrality, if not outright support of the concepts of porn addiction, have conducted a meta-analysis of research on pornography and concluded that porn use does not predict problems with porn, but that religiosity does.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-who-stray/201808/science-stopped-believing-in-porn-addiction-you-should-too

Most of this anti-porn stuff is conformist nonsene.

Also, illustrates how religion conditions people to have low self-esteem by setting impossible standards. There's nothing unnatural with the inclination to jerk off to porn, which is why culturally religious dudes are so vocally against. They feel guilt but can't help themselves, so they externalize the issue. 

[Basman]

On 3/20/2026 at 10:38 AM, bazera said:

 

Not to mention the struggle that some of the spouses / partners go through when their partner has compulsive porn habits.

https://www.reddit.com/r/loveafterporn/

Just read some posts here. You'll get some idea of what I'm referring to.

Bro, these people are terrible. So much insecurity, victim mindset and lack of communication. Imagine secretly tracking your spouses phone...

[No1Here2c]

The issue here is not the thing itself but what happens when the human mind comes into contact with it.