Margaret Sanger - Magnetation Methods of Birth Control

Transcribers Note:

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

In the previous pamphlets, English Methods of Birth Control and Dutch Methods of Birth Control, one finds a duplication of the methods given in the first pamphlet, Family Limitation. The French methods of Birth Control are so nearly the same that I have decided not to duplicate these again, but to give instead a list of the books and pamphlets issued by the French League, and also cuts or pictures of some of the articles they have for sale at their headquarters, 27 Rue de la Due, Paris. These will be found at the end of this pamphlet.

I also find that the methods used to control births in Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, India, Russia, and Japan have all been greatly influenced by the English and Dutch Neo-Malthusian Leagues (the two oldest Leagues). To give further national methods would be only a waste of time and material, and would add nothing to what has already been given. This does not mean that there are not many other mechanical devices. There are numerous ones; but I still find that there is nothing better, safer, cheaper, or more convenient than the pessary mentioned in Family Limitation.

In France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Sweden there are strong Neo-Malthusian movements advancing the Birth Control theories by lectures, literature, and practical means. In Russia, Japan, India, and United States there have been recently feeble attempts to establish Birth Control movements; but as yet they have remained embryonic.

I have decided to close this series of pamphlets with the following explanation of the Magnetation method, and feel that I have said all that I can say of interest on Birth Control methods. I have gladly donated my mite toward what I consider essential to womans economic, social, and sexual freedom.

Before closing this series of pamphlets on the practical methods of Birth Control, I feel in justice to the many readers and subscribers of the Woman Rebel who inquired about the theories of Magnetation, Male Continence, Sedular Absorption, Karezza, and Zugassents Discovery, that this series would not be complete without giving at least a general idea of these theories and their practice.

It is interesting to note that the magnetation theory had its best and longest practice, as well as its beginning, in America, under the title Male Continence. This method was practised for over forty years by a group averaging 130 men and 150 women known as the Oneida Community. They occupied a part of the old reservation of the Oneida Indians in New York State, and lived in a harmonious and prosperous form of Communistic society. John Humphrey Noyes was the head and founder of the group. Through personal experience and prolonged study, he discovered the theory of male continence. Since that time many others have come forward with the same theory under various names. Almost without exception, each advocate has injected some kind of religion into it. The Oneida Community was particularly a religious sect, and Alice B. Stockham, the author of Karezza, was a fervent religionist. However, aside from this, there are fundamental truths in the theory which bear thinking about and should not be discarded without some consideration. In view of the thousands of testimonials of the healthful results of the practice of these theories, I present these methods like that of the others, and for convenience shall classify them all under one head, Magnetation.

There are thousands of men and women who object to the practical and mechanical means of Birth Control, who feel that the pessary, condom, and douche are gross and sordid, and take away the artistic and spiritual beauty of the act. It is those whom the magnetation method will interest most. There are others who will claim that this method is not satisfying, and can find no enjoyment in its practice. But so are there thousands of men and women who can pass a beautiful painting and receive no inspiration from it, or listen to a charming selection on a musical instrument and receive no emotion from it. So are there many whose natures are not so constructed that they can enjoy or benefit by this method. There is no doubt that the successful attainment of this method is dependable upon a fine spiritual bond between the two who enjoy its practice.

The advocates of the magnetation method ask you to first analyse sexual intercourse. They claim that you will recognise in it two distinct acts, i.e., the social (or amative) and the propagative. Those who practise the magnetation method content themselves with and prefer the social act, unless the procreative act is desired. It is usually held that the sexual organs have two distinct functions, viz., the urinary and the propagative. The advocates of the magnetation theory claim that the sexual organs have three distinct functions, viz., urinary, propagative, and amativei.e., they are conductors firstly of urine, secondly of semen, and thirdly of social magnetism. Each one separate and distinct in itself.

The organs of propagation are physiologically distinct from the organs of union in both sexes. The testicles are the principal organs of reproduction in the male, and the uterus in the female. Sexual conjunction of male and female no more involves the discharge of semen than of the urine. The discharge of semen, instead of being the main act of sexual intercourse, is really the sequel and termination of it. Sexual intercourse pure and simple is the conjunction of the organs of union, and the interchange and flow of magnetic influences through that conjunction. The seminal discharge can be voluntarily withheld in sexual intercourse, or it can be produced without sexual intercourse, as in masturbation, which demonstrates the fact that the discharge of the semen, and the pleasure associated with its discharge, is not social, since it can be produced in solitude: it is a personal and not a social act.

The physiological analysis of the procreative act shows that the pleasure of the act is not produced by contact and interchange of life with the female, but by the action of the seminal fluid on the internal nerves of the male organ. The desire and that which satisfies it are both within the man, and may be obtained without sexual intercourse. The amative function, or the simple union of two persons, is a distinct and independent function, giving a medium of magnetic interchange superior to that gained through the reproductive function. It is the presence of the seed and not the absence of it that makes the bull superior to the ox, and it is the stimulating, retaining, and absorbing the semen in the man, and directing it into other creative channels, which make the amative act of greater benefit and more healthful and vitalising than the procreative act.

Most of us know that creative energy expressed through the sexual nature is an instinct to perpetuate life; that it has its origin in and is co-existent with life itself; that it is the power back of all purposes and plans; that it is the self-pushing force that gives the individual the ability and desire to do and to perform; that it is the impelling factor and inventive genius in all mans handiwork. That this force operates in the multiplication of atoms and molecules, in the attraction of germ to sperm cells. The process of growth and fulfilment of functions is propelled by this energy, which is operative throughout all Nature. It is the force back of and expresses itself through the physical life of man and animal.