Magnetation Methods of Birth Control

by Margaret Sanger

Surely this is something to be squarely faced by every intelligent man and woman, and serious enough to deserve our untiring interest. Something must be wrong. What is it? Does this theory offer a solution to any? It may. Nearly all women who practise it testify to its benefits, while few men complain of it. Those who do, say that to control the ejaculation to-day means a seminal loss later during sleep. The advocates, however, say this will occur at first, but after the organs become accustomed to their new function this will wear off, and there will be no seminal loss.

All men in the Oneida community realised that this control was a necessary attainment if they would be regarded with favor by the women in the group. Its accomplishment was necessary to their mutual happiness, and they had to learn it. If there is a method which in practice expresses the highest mutual affection and reveals one’s own strength and power, then by all means let mankind know it.

There is no earthly reason why men and women should not study the laws of sex expression as any other science is studied, and it should be a study not only intellectual, but of experience and adjustment. If, as is claimed, the experience of this method must be practised on a higher plane of thought than the purely physical, then certainly it must tend toward a finer companionship and understanding between men and women than the fleeting physical gratification prevailing at present. If there is anything which controverts the traditional uncleanliness previously attached to the sex relation, if there is anything which brings a blending of body and spirit or an ennoblement of the character of the individual, then by all means let us have it in its fullest detail, and let this revolting ignorance and prudery holding sway over men and women’s minds so long be swept away for all time. Let us have light, through discussion, experience, and adjustment.

There are few men who desire to expose the object of their affection to the burden of bearing children faster than her health will permit. They realise a woman’s strength is greatly undermined and her beauty and grace fast ebbing away; but ignorance and tradition have him in their grip. He knows nothing about the means to prevent it, and allows the one he loves best to wither and fade before his eyes.

It is especially necessary for the woman to be free from the mental dread of pregnancy. There is nothing so productive of nervous disorders or so likely to decrease the sexual attraction or magnetation as fear and anxious thought. Perfect confidence in the man’s ability to control himself is essential to the perfection and desired results of these methods. Just as one begins, so can one develop. Young men and women about to enter alliances and desirous to establish a lasting affection and higher bond between themselves can easily put this method into practice and control the sex functions. The more magnetic the individual, the greater the sex attractions between those who love, and the stronger the bond will grow between them, through this “magnetation” method.

The expression and adjustment of all theories is so largely personal that special regulations can scarcely be given. The road to science and the great natural laws are discovered through experience: there is no education but that of experience.

TESTED THEORIES AND PRACTICAL TRUTHS.

From Those Who Have Practised This Method.

I am a young man twenty-four years of age, enjoying the most vigorous health. For two years after becoming engaged I delayed marriage, simply because I did not think my income sufficient to support a wife and the children which I regarded as an inevitable consequence. Happily for me, a friend who knew my circumstances wrote me about male continence. The ideas contained in this discovery were so different from all my preconceived ideas of what constituted marital happiness that I was inclined to reject them as utterly impracticable and absurd. But the more I thought of the matter, the more clearly I saw that if there was a possibility of these new ideas being true, they were exactly adapted to a man in my circumstances, and that they made my marriage immediately practicable.

The wholly new thought, that retaining the vital seminal secretion in the body, instead of spending it recklessly, might make a man stronger, cleaner, and better, also seemed to me not irrational. With some misgivings, therefore, I ventured upon marriage; and, thanks to this practice, it has been found a complete success. I have had a continuous honeymoon for four years, besides having the daily use of my wife’s invaluable services in my business, and have never been conscious of any irksome constraint or asceticism in my sexual experience, and my self-control and strength, mental and physical, have greatly increased since my marriage. In the light of my own experience, I regard the idea that the seminal fluid is a secretion that must be got rid of as being the most pernicious and fatal one that can possibly be taught to young people.