1,000
@RanaG I'm just making fun of what seems to be a particularly bizarre and obscene poll, surely there's nothing wrong with that, we both voted for the same choice
@TheAllMemeingEye why is it obscene? Gooning is the supreme dopamine source of all other sources (food is bad, normal sex is too dull, excercising requires more effort)
@RanaG A few questions:
Why is food bad? Many foods are healthy and tasty π
Why is sex duller than gooning? (I wouldn't know lol)
If dopamine is all that matters, aren't opioids technically an even stronger source?
Also note that obscene doesn't equal bad, in many cases it's funny, even though it can also risk detracting from the reputation of the site e.g. most of the entries in this market
@TheAllMemeingEye any food above a bottle of huel is basically a slightly thicker fat layer under your skin
@TheAllMemeingEye 3) there is no external drugs that releases dopamine that's non-destructive (in the long term)
@RanaG Are we certain that this activity itself isn't mildly destructive via addiction in the long term?
@RanaG normally in cases like this I would make a joke market to settle the dispute, but once again, the market creation prices are TOO DARN HIGH π
It's addictive in the sense that it's the most harmless source of dopamine per unit and comes with the benefits of energising you, increasing focus and improving mindfulness
@RanaG I thought erotic activity famously exhausted people? hence why it's often depicted in media as followed by sleep?
@TheAllMemeingEye on exhaustion: it's the opposite, I excercise more often, self care better and do more stuff on days of goon
@RanaG I initially assumed y'all were joking about this but the amount of detail is becoming sus lol
@RanaG some of the comments in this thread would qualify for the out-of-context market if they didn't also make no sense even with context
@RanaG im not really. I just tried once a few days ago which im not sure counts. but i like the idea. Really this poll is too low-fidality. But i am scared of getting band if i make more gooning markets/polls
@RanaG for example, i would like to know how many gooners do it purely for pleasure, and how many also see increased focus etc.
@jim increased focus + mindfulness + making food obsolete + being more energetic
Also if you cut your calories to 500kcal per day, you get huuuge benefits over your lifetime which compounds the benefits even more
@jim I suspect the vast amount of time required for the activity would more than cancel out the time saved by negligible focus improvements lmao
@RanaG This is gradually starting to sound more like a healing crystal cult or some shit but with the McGuffin swapped
@jim My baseline intuitive estimate of the numbers are as follows:
95% of the population have masturbated ever
80% do so regularly
30% have gooned ever
10% do so regularly
0.001% do so for the mystical benefits
@jim If you want a large dataset of people willing to give this kind of information about themselves to actually test any theories about this, your best bet is probably to pester Aella to ask her readership about it lol
@TheAllMemeingEye Also like vanilla masturbation and gooning are polar opposite. One is pure lizard brain, the other is pure executive function control
@RanaG I mean, sure, I'm not going to die on this hill, but you must recognise that you're making wild crazy-sounding claims about this topic with nothing but presumably personal anecdote to back it up, and due to the 'tism I can't tell whether you genuinely believe this or are just bullshitting me for the lulz
@TheAllMemeingEye I mean of course it is purely personal experience, but
1) If I can experience it then a sizeable portion of population could
2) stuff like the last sentence are obvious from theory side
yo @AnnaCherry do you care to weigh in on this extremely important debate, possibly the most significant debate of our times?
@TheAllMemeingEye maybe it's just an advanced form of abstinence, people have known about the benefits of that forever
@jim but in the modern era abstinence is widely known to actually cause various psychological problems isn't it?
@jim @RanaG New hyper-cost-effective Effective Altruism cause area just dropped:
ASI alignment through human cognitive enhancement through promoting gooning
Scale: infinite, eternal future light cone of hedonium
Tractability: super easy, barely an inconvenience
Neglectedness: nobody else be cray cray enough to try this yet
@TheAllMemeingEye finally, an EA cause i can get behind. Except that i view alignment as immoral. But the cognitive enhancement part is good
@TheAllMemeingEye because Omohundro's universal AI drives are the perfect guarantee of morality, and alignment entails the destruction of these drives in the aligned AI
@TheAllMemeingEye I wouldnβt go so far as to invoke the prefrontal cortex since Iβm sure there are exactly 0 neuro studies on thisβ¦
BUTT as someone with my own edging training experience, emotional control is a huge part of it, that isnβt really present in basic masturbation. Itβs all about holding off instant gratification, which does involve some executive control.
How are we defining gooning? My understanding of it is cumming many times in many hours, more like draining yourself rather than doing tantric edging until one big payoff
@AnnaCherry thank you, finally someone talking sense and not part of the goon cult lol
Yeah what you say sounds much more plausible, combo of instinct and executive control obviously present for both, but more executive needed for the delay
The market creator gave a definition at the start of the comment thread, but the very fact that you're more familiar with a different meaning highlights my earlier point that the phrase is so unclear as to obscure any findings from the poll
Do you believe the bizarre claims made in this thread about borderline mystical-sounding mental benefits?
@RanaG Hi! If we go by the definition posted earlier, then yeah, it's still a No from me.
Gooning would be hell because it would throw away even more of my life than my current level of horny already does. Arousal has zero trance-like qualities for me; even psychological arousal feels more like an itch that draws constant attention to itself until scratched. And it only gets worse if you add the physical component of an π erect, rock-hard penis ππ€ͺ. I jokingly refer to erections as "being subjected to the strongest force in the universe", that's how intense they feel to me. In that state, it's best to release that tension through orgasm as quickly as possible, and bathe in the released oxytocin and prolactin to relieve the stress caused by the arousal.
So why would I want to artificially prolong that stress? Only if there's an incentive at the other end, similar to the health benefits of cold showers or regular exercise, but I couldn't care less about achieving a "hypnotic, trance-like state". Heck, even NoFap has more convincing promises.
The faster I orgasm, the faster I can go back to focusing on production for GDP, or do other life things that actually get me where I want to be.
@Schneefackel I always love your citation-heavy posts.
But I disagree. I think you approach sexual arousal with the wrong mindset that the objective is release rather than focusing on the experience.
@RanaG Of course you would disagree! π You're a woman, so your arousal curve is more drawn out by default. Going from there to gooning seems like just a small step. For you, it even seemed rational, so you tried it, and immediately noticed benefits. Awesome!
But it's much further removed from my reality. I get that arousal by itself can be a pleasurable experience. Heck, I do enjoy it myself from time to time. But classic release-focused masturbation leaves more than enough room for this enjoyment. It gets old really fast and my brain quickly gets bored and wanders to some other thought. That old meme is very real in that regard. Same reason why porn gets boring once the protagonists stop talking and start monotonously moaning.
And neither mindset is wrong. It's just different outlooks and preferences that you can either mutually and empathically respect and arrange yourself with, or you can't and you break up over it. π
(Ha, managed to get at least one citation into this one. Almost wanted to write something like "you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum of blue balls where they raised us penis-havers", but I have no priors that would back that claim in your case. π)
I come back with more education on the term! Last month or two have taken me into a crash course, including my favorite current gooning specimen. This fella will edge essentially all day, and sometimes he will get close or overshoot the edge, in which case he lets go and has this like mini hands-free orgasm (I call it such because it leaks sme aount of very visible semen, not just precum), but it's distinct from an actual full orgasm to completion (which I also have witnessed).
Not sure about benefits of mental clarity, but I Can see it being good in various ways. Personally, being horny for extended periods of time is like having slow-release cocaine and probaly opioids in your body, so it's definitely a fun experience to stay in that highly dopaminergic state of arousal. It's likely also quite good for longevity as it maintains a reminder to your body as a sexual being. As for men, I Can see having some periodic release or at least getting close and then denying it can possibly give that post-nut clarity, without the emotional comedown that some men get after orgasm. It also likely makes the eventual climaxes themselves soooooo much more satisfying, which can be an issue with masturbating without a partner. I reckon that is why so men seek us camgirls out! Gooning likely shares a lot in common with tantra.
Opioid is endorphins/pain relief and crosses over with oxytocin (Feeling loved) not a depressant, you're thinking of GABA (alcohol). And cocaine is not directly a stimulant, in the sense that it is dopaminergic, so it induces mania -- stimulating the brain neurons is not the same as the colloquial "stimulant" term, so I understand the confusion! Glutamine is the neuron stimulant (MDMA) ..also part of why MSG tastes so good, your taste neurons are being activated all to fuck π