“We must behave as people do in a besieged city: they watch where the attackers are strongest and the defenses weakest. If they fail to do this, the city is lost. In the same manner we should keep our eyes carefully on the point where the devil most often attacks us, where human nature is weakest, where our frailties lie, and here we should keep guard most vigilantly.” ~ Johannes Tauler
According to a Center for Behavioral Neuroscience study led by Emory University psychologists: “The emotion control center of the brain, the amygdala, shows significantly higher levels of activation in males viewing sexual visual stimuli than females viewing the same images.” In addition, a corresponding study, as reported in the periodical “Psychology Today,” regarding the heightened sensitivities of men to visual sexual cues stated: “As soon as the lust-inspiring image registers in their brain, they become turned-on—not only physically but psychologically, too. Exposure to such erotic stimuli immediately activates the parts of their brain related to getting an erection…‘Men’s greater sex drive may be partially due to the fact that their sexual motivation pathways have more connections to the subcortical reward system than in women’” Therefore, the vast majority of men need some sort of visual stimulation in order to trigger a mental and or physical sexual response.
Most boys, who grew up in the post-porn modern era, from the late-1960s to the present, can testify that many of their early childhood memories are awash with images of the sexualized female body; mine included the notorious “Angels in Chains” episode from “Charlie’s Angels,” Playmate Dorothy Stratten roller-skating in a bikini at the televised Hugh Hefner parties, and the omnipresent poster of a barely covered Cheryl Tiegs. In those days, many of us went to bed and dreamed of those women. Yet, those images would not have been in our brains if we had not seen them first. And, herein lies the great danger of porn, For unlike women, who languorously read over sappy historical novels, and drag unwilling boyfriends to romantic movies, men almost solely rely on the concrete and the visual; hence the absence of a female Michelangelo or Andy Warhol.
As Johannes Tauler warned, men must first recognize where their protective walls of chastity are most likely to be breached; and, as the studies prove, this will naturally occur in the eyes. As a boy, I can vaguely remember masturbating and reaching climax only through the sheer power of mental visualization (fantasizing.) But, that only occurred after the mental image became implanted by originally viewing something from the main-stream media - on television or in a magazine. Once I discovered actual pornography, I became thoroughly enslaved to it. I needed porn to fantasize, I needed porn to masturbate, and I needed porn to climax. I couldn’t live without it. I was locked in and I couldn’t escape. For, it would be like someone who is addicted to heroin going back to alcohol in order to achieve the same high; its neither chemically nor physically possible. With that in mind, avoid all forms of sexual stimulation; because those images will last a lifetime: over 30 years later I can still remember the Playboy Roller Disco TV specials. In the end, its best to not ever let those pictures get in your head. If they are already there: take hope in the fact that they will fade with time. But, only through much prayer and fasting. Slowly then, you will begin to rebuild and fortify those areas of damage, and the temptations will lessen in frequency and strength and become easier to defeat.
Note: During my own time as a porn addict, and with regards to the countless men I have tried to help with their addictions, I never met one who just solely looked at porn and never masturbated with it. Therefore, porn always leads to masturbation; while the porn addict will rarely, if ever, masturbate without the use of porn. Therefore, porn, or sometimes sexually stimulating imagery in the main-stream media, will inevitably cause the viewer to masturbate; consequently forcing the victim to fall deeper into dependency and sin.