Chapter 7: Boys and Girls

The fourth brain state is activated at puberty with the glandular release of sexual neurochemicals. Our first orgasms or mating experiences imprint moral, sexual, and social roles that usually remain constant for life but are influenced by what society considers right and wrong. The imprinting of this circuit determines preferred sexual roles and favorite modes of sexual pleasure as well as ideas about reproduction and parenthood. Many people spend a lifetime hiding his or her real sexual desires by mimicking the accepted sex roles of society and will only reveal true preferences to a trusted partner.

The fourth circuit could also be called the guilt circuit because many of us modify our behavior based on social acceptance or disapproval. The first effort in most mystical traditions is to change the normal fourth circuit attachment by having their followers either take a vow of celibacy, if they are on the right hand path or participate in group sexual activities, if they are on the left hand path, such as the followers of Aleister Crowley.

I discovered girls in the fifth grade and they discovered me. Girls helped me feel a part of things again; I fit in. I stopped being the class clown. I liked to dance, and the girls I knew liked that and said I was cute. Life definitely became better.

I graduated from high school in 1964, I never took part in the 60s sexual revolution or drug scene. I was very serious and acted like a responsible man in my mid-thirties. It seemed natural that I was able to bypass all the craziness going on in the Haight/Ashbury-Berkeley area, even though I lived only miles from there. Young people were flocking to the San Francisco Bay Area from all over the United States just to be part of the pop revolution, but I hardly even noticed. I had two jobs and was enrolled full time as an art major in the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Before I knew it, I was married and had a family.