Richard Rose’s Psychology of the Observer The Path to Reality Through the Self

Sexuality and the Transmutation of Energy 179
does not matter if 90% of all dogs have fleas or ticks—this should not legislate for all dogs that fleas
and ticks are either normal, natural, or divinely programmed for dogs to have” (Rose, 1981, p. 17). It
does not matter what the majority of people are doing. The masses of humanity may well be hopeless
in any given lifetime. The individual of intuition cannot afford to wait for 51% of the population to
agree with him before affirming what is true.
Rose feels the current trend of libertarian values will not only not lead people to spiritual
realization, but not even to organic health on a generic barnyard level. He derisively exclaims: “We
have evolved a psychological/psychiatrical science developed by perverts and onanists who have
discovered a system of studying the mind through the anus” (Rose, 1982, p. 131). He thoroughly
condemns the “If it itches, scratch it” school of sexual response.
I have not encountered any authority figure in the mainstream psychology profession who
understands the truth about sex and its real significance (as referenced in Chapter 2). They either
ignore the subject or get it dead wrong. To reinforce the public’s tendency towards dissipation as
being healthy and natural is not therapeutic, but “enabling” (the term used in substance abuse counseling
to refer to the misguided compassion of family members that excuses and compensates for the
addict’s pathology rather than confronts it and helps the person to overcome it.) It would be more
compassionate to encourage people to fully feel the void they wish to fill with pleasure, and help
them locate their misplaced souls that should fill it.
So, the picture we have of organic life is that we are placed within a system of Nature in which
a certain amount of energy is provided to the individual during the course of a lifetime; a designated
portion of which is to be used for reproduction and its familial consequences. This satisfies Nature.
Although we do not know Nature’s ultimate purposes in this scheme, nor what Master it serves, the
system is well-balanced and it seems to work. There is some leeway allowed to us beyond this
generic minimum, however; this unexplained license proving troublesome for many. We are left to
wonder if there is anything more to be done, or discovered, beyond comfortably vegetating in our
pre-destined groove.
There are three courses open to us. We can waste our vital energy by indulging in sex way
beyond what is necessary to fulfill our natural function, for assorted confused reasons; gradually
degenerating ourselves and our eventual offspring. We can come to understand what the natural
function of sexuality in a healthy state actually is and adhere to it, trusting that the wisdom of the
Earth is a sure and justified foundation. Or we can judiciously use some of this energy projected
through us for our own purposes.
We have no choice but to be subject to this pressure and tension. In fact, this is the source of all
desire and suffering in the relative world-scene. As Rose explains: “Nature implants in animals an
irritation of magnitude so intense that release from it brings joy or ecstasy, depending upon the
degree of suffering” (Rose, 1982, p. 145). This applies to everything from sexual climax to mystical
bliss, which some have noted have a similar dynamic and are sometimes related. He has stated that
this partially explains the mystical joy felt by ascetics who have deprived themselves of the physical
and social enjoyments of life in exchange for a bid for some higher exaltation, which on some level
they eventually grant themselves. Rose qualifies the seemingly ultimate spiritual value of such ecstasy
by claiming: “The rewarder is man, in all cases. And man as a rewarder, can only give that
which he already has” (Rose, 1978, p. 222). He is saying that this reactive bliss is still an emotional
“pay-off” on the human level, and not the meaning of Realization. This is not meant to belittle the
value of sexual restraint but only to note that its purpose should not be that of bargaining, nor should
even the highest psycho-physiological joy, however well deserved, be mistaken for the bliss of nonrelative
spiritual Being.