The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity

Book Review: An underrated book full of seriously effective holistic health hacks

I kept hearing about The Tao of Health as I investigated tantric sex techniques, something I was curious about since I'd heard it discussed on a daygame podcast interview years ago.

You've probably heard of Taoism and are maybe thinking, that's some wu-wu eastern spirituality, right? It has some religious undertones (that I don't subscribe to), but mostly it's just a holistic tradition for health, developed over thousands of years and now adopted by many biohackers. Taoism as presented in the book is very pragmatic; a set of techniques to exercise greater control over your autonomic nervous system. A lot of what you'll learn are breath control methods, which are prerequisites to tantric sex and being able to achieve multiple orgasms as a man. Check out my article and podcast on, How to Breath like a Jedi.

As I wrote in-depth about in my book, cultivating myself as a tantric man has resulted in the beautiful, harmonious relationship I have with my wife - it's made a difference for us...

Mission accomplished

On vacation in Primorsko

Just out walking the dog

Date night dining

Life is good on the black sea coast

At Obzor beach

Catchin' some rays

The wifey brought some sexiness to this video about downloadable medicine

If you want to take your sex life and lovemaking skills to the next level I also recommend reading The Multi-Orgasmic Man, Slow Sex: The Art and Craft of the Female Orgasm, and She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman.

Minus one star because the last chapter or two of the book really goes off into the wu-wu deep-end into a bunch of unfalsifiable mystical ideas. If you're a pragmatic rationalist you can just skip these chapters.

Check out this cool 3-minute summary of the book I made super-speed reading my favorite passages from the book...

Taoism is the only major world philosophy that stresses the importance of disciplined sexual relations as an absolute prerequisite for health and longevity. (368-369)

Taoists measure their lives by counting breaths, heartbeats, and (for males) ejaculations. (6345-6346)

With diligent practice, some men can even learn to approach the very brink of ejaculation and enjoy all the exquisite sensations associated with it without spilling a drop of semen. (5801-5802)

Taoist sexual regimens aim at slowing down the rate of dissipation and retarding the overall aging process by establishing (5180)

men too may experience sequential miniorgasms without actual ejaculation, and it dispels the notion that birth control is primarily a female responsibility. (5813-5814)

As a person gets older, it stands to reason that sexual intercourse grows ever more important as a form of preventive therapy against disease and aging. (5406-5407)

the Taoist view that excessive ejaculation ruins the kidney glands in men is essentially correct. (5415)

No other civilization has even come close to the sort of “national longevity” enjoyed by China for almost 5,000 years, and, not coincidentally, no other civilization has paid such close attention to details of food and sex. (5320-5321)

In all the ancient Chinese sex manuals, woman is always depicted as the guardian of sexual arcana and the supreme source of life-sustaining essence and energy. In these texts the woman plays the role of the great initiator and teacher of sex, while the man is described as a sexually ignorant bumbler. (4853-4855)

The nose is the only organ in the entire body other than the sex organs and breasts that contains erectile tissue. (3067-3068)

What neither Davis nor Ali realizes is that sexual intercourse without ejaculation prior to a fight or a gig would improve their performances even more than if they abstained altogether. (4882-4883)

By the time they reach 30, men should entirely give up this self-defeating habit and start conserving semen exclusively for intercourse with women. (4896-4897)

A woman, by contrast, may masturbate to her heart’s content without damaging her stores of essence and energy. (4898-4899)

the woman gets stronger and stronger, from both her own orgasmic secretions and her assimilation of potent male semen-essence. (4827-4828)

The same point applies to homosexual relations: they are harmless for women but highly detrimental to men, (4903)

the nature of Yin and Yang make it clear that man and woman are not created equal. (4918-4919)

lubrication of the vagina and engorgement of the penis before the two organs meet directly are the first fundamental signs of the interplay of Yin and Yang. (5003-5005)

For a woman, deep finger pressure on the Triple Yin Intersection (San-yin-jiao)...located just behind the shinbone about 3 inches up from the inner anklebone is particularly effective in arousing sexual energy. (5010-5012)

vigorous massage of a man’s feet and toes will assist him in attaining the four conditions of erection by stimulating energy to travel to the associated organs through the meridian network. (5025-5026)

mutually beneficial sexual relations between man and woman based on medical rather than moral considerations. (5180-5181)

It’s a well-known medical fact that semen and cerebrospinal fluids consist of the same basic ingredients, so preserving semen nourishes the brain by making more essential nutrients available to it. (5203-5205)

The reabsorption and general circulation of retained semen-essence may be greatly enhanced in both men and women by performing some deep abdominal breathing immediately after withdrawing from intercourse. (5205-5207)

Deep abdominal breathing helps to relieve blue balls - practice also helps relieve the “fullness” sometimes felt in the scrotum after voluntary retention of semen. (5211)

It is said that after she had successfully drained 1,000 virgin boys of their Yang-essence and energy, she attained immortality and rose to heaven, (5221)

In applying the Tao like this, a woman must make absolutely certain that her partners are healthy, vigorous young men in their sexual prime and that they ejaculate inside her every time. (5222-5224)

Nothing is more disruptive to harmonious relations between husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, than the incapacity to provide mutually satisfactory sexual relations. (5278-5280)

Body heat opens wide the pores of this stretched skin, and the rhythmic rubbing of vagina and penis causes biochemically significant amounts of female essence to be absorbed by the male. (5419-5420)

Such serial retentions also redirect the man’s unexploded sexual energy inward and upward. (5475-5476)

Men should not attempt this method of “pumping up” extra essence and energy by repeatedly playing with the “fire” of ejaculation until they have first mastered semen retention and established their own ideal ejaculation frequencies. (5477-5479)

Ejaculation Control A man may attain health and longevity if he practices an ejaculation frequency of twice monthly, or 24 times in a year. (5487-5489)

The body must invest a lot of essence and energy to fully replenish semen supplies and reestablish proper hormone balance after a man ejaculates. (5500-5501)

20 percent of male semen is composed of cerebrospinal fluid. (5508-5509)

When having sexual intercourse with women, a man should emit semen only 2 or 3 times in ten. (5529-5530)

complete abstention from ejaculation is just as harmful as excessive emission. It creates a deep yearning for sex that disrupts the harmony of essence, energy, and spirit, and ultimately leads to the even greater loss of sexual essence and energy through the uncontrollable, intense nocturnal ejaculations. (5565-5567)

You may also help minimize the loss of essence and energy due to semen emission by learning to “come lightly” (5571-5572)

Instead of thrusting to a frenzy just prior to ejaculation, approach the brink slowly and gently and savor the exquisite sensation of release, then deliberately squeeze off the urogenital canal with a deep contraction of the anus and penile shaft before the ejaculation is over. This will conserve about 20 to 30 percent of your semen while still providing the desired ejaculatory release. Immediately after emission, rhythmically contract the entire urogenital diaphragm for a minute or two by practicing anal sphincter locks. (5572-5576)

Or try intercourse with and without ejaculation late at night and compare the amount of sleep you need and how you feel upon arising the next morning. (5582-5583)

Since breathing controls heartbeat, the primary exercise for controlling ejaculation is deep, rhythmic abdominal breathing performed in the same manner as during breathing exercises. (5605-5606)

Each application of the anal lock keeps the semen from pouring forth. (5607)

He should close his eyes, concentrate his mind, press his tongue against the roof of his mouth, arch his spine, and stretch out his neck. He should then open his nostrils wide, close his mouth, and take in a very deep breath. If he does this in time, he will not ejaculate. Instead, the semen will return and ascend naturally by itself. (5615-5617)

In addition to constricting the anal sphincter, he suggests pressing the Confluence of Yin, a vital point located midway between the anus and the scrotum. (5620-5621)

“If you tighten the lower part of your bowels to shut off the flow of energy there, semen will stop moving naturally.” The sort of contraction he suggests begins with the same basic anal lock used in breathing exercises, but it is extended along the entire length of the perineum all the way to the urogenital tract. (5623-5625)

“Take the index and middle fingers of the left hand and press them at the point midway between anus and scrotum. If this is done with sufficient pressure and combined with deep, slow breathing and gnashing of the teeth, then the semen will not be lost.” (5626-5628)

the one recommended most often by the ancient adepts is “9 shallow, 1 deep.” In addition to providing a rhythmic counterpoint to shallow thrusts by giving the woman a sudden change of pace, deep thrusts are very effective in “pumping” the penis back up to full tumescence whenever a man loses part of his erection in applying techniques of ejaculation control. (5636-5639)

The beginner should begin with a woman who is not too attractive and whose Jade Gate is not too tight. (5669)

If he feels overly excited, he should stop thrusting immediately and withdraw his Jade Stem so that only one inch remains inside the Jade Gate. (5672-5673)

It takes most beginners many months of diligent practice just to master the basic methods of breathing and locking the gate, (5678-5679)

When utilizing the anal lock for ejaculation control, you should apply it strongly while your lungs fill up, hold it tightly as you briefly retain the breath, but do not release it during exhalation, as you would in ordinary breathing exercises. (5692-5694)

While urinating, a few seconds before the flow of urine stops, sharply lock the anus and contract the penile shaft to squeeze off the ureter and halt the flow, as if you were “holding it” while looking for a toilet. After a second or two, relax the contraction, let the flow of urine resume, then immediately squeeze it off again. (5700-5702)

Taoist sages seem to favor the thrusting sequence of 9 shallow/ 1 deep, (5959-5960)

“There is no greater aphrodisiac for a man than variety in women.” (6185)

Like all herbal therapy, aphrodisiacs must be taken over an extended period of time in order to have the desired effects. Since they employ no synthetic chemicals or other artificial ingredients, they must work naturally with the body’s circulatory and endocrine systems, and this takes time. Count on 2 or 3 months of daily doses for noticeable enhancement of sexual potency. (6197-6199)

contains large amounts of the chemical phenylethylalamine, a substance produced in the brain when a person is “in love.” Cosmopolitan magazine recently proclaimed chocolate to be one of the top ten aphrodisiacs available in the world today, and at the court of Louis XV it was taken frequently as a sexual stimulant. (6226-6228)

Aphrodisiac spirit - The recipe is for what the Chinese call Medicine Wine (yao-jiou), more aptly known as Spring Wine. (6287-6288)