C. J. Van Vliet Quotes

“All the sex force not actually used for the perpetuation of the species must by transmutation be made available for higher evolutionary attainment.”

“Endowed as he is with reasoning powers, he must independently decide up on his own behavior, without the compelling guidance by instinct. Supplied with mind, he is expected to cooperate consciously with nature in her further evolutionary program.”

“Even the purest sexual act, even on those rare occasions when it is performed with propagative intention, is not creative.”

“Everything that increases the power of matter over man makes the body denser, lower in vibration and less fit to serve as an instrument for spirit. Even the body’s finest organs high in the skull become thereby less accessible to spirit.”

“Evolution is nature's process of allowing the latent qualities of the life force to come gradually in perfect manifestation.”

“For advanced evolutionary growth, passion must be conquered and the generative organs be used for generation only.”

“Human evolution has been at a standstill for many thousands of years. As far as we can look back into history and compare ourselves with the human elements of ancient civilizations, no evolutionary progress is noticeable. Our bodies have, if anything, deteriorated. Human qualities have not improved. Character, emotions, and motives for action have remained very much the same.”

“Ideals of today are realities of the future.”

“In its widest meaning the word 'desire' may be used to express a longing for the attainment of any form of satisfaction, be it physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual — a longing for anything that can be expected to provide passing pleasure or lasting joy. But in practical application the use of the word more often than not has been limited to signify a passional emotion for sense-gratification.”

“It is irrational to ascribe to nature the intention that sex should be used for sense-gratification, where that misuse is but an invention of the human mind. As well might be deduced from the existence of poppies and of all such plants from which man has seen fit to extract narcotics and intoxicating stimulants, that it is nature’s intention to people the earth with dope-addicts and drunks.”

“Man is the first product of evolution to be capable of controlling evolutionary destiny.”

“Nature — or whatever one may wish to call that force which manifests in the evolution of life and form — needs in her evolutionary work an almost endless series of generations in order to lead up to the final, perfect form. Through innumerable generations of minerals, of plants, of animals, of men, she is leading up to supermen and on beyond.”

“Not moderation, but elimination is the ideal in regard to evolution-retarding habits. In a sanitarium for dope-addicts it may be advisable to allow patients temporarily a restricted — but at the same time gradually diminishing — use of narcotics. Similarly it may be advisable to condone that sex-addicts (that is to say: all those who have habituated themselves to sexual acts) do not suddenly break their habit, provided they will gradually overcome it. But no sane person can opine that a continuous use of drugs should be prescribed for the dope-addicted patients — not even in a so-called moderate degree. Still less that it should also be recommended for those who are free from the addiction.

As little reasonable is it to claim that quasi moderate sexual activity must continually be indulged in by those who are addicted to such acts, and that also it should be recommended for all who are not so addicted.”

“Overstimulated by this unnaturally strong desire of his own making, man has looked for arbitrary ways in which to gratify it. Although reducing actual reproduction, he has discovered ways of unreproductive sexual action. But every such act, whatever form it takes, is a misuse of sex and uses up some of the life force that should be utilized for the support and the development of higher faculties.”

“Sexual action that is not propagative cannot be considered to be in harmony with nature’s purposes. Every attempt to justify unreproductive sexual action can only be the result of a wish to whitewash the addiction of humanity to sexual abuse.”

“Strictly, sex is only that which physically distinguishes female from male. It is but one of the manifold manifestations of nature’s unfathomable law of polarity. So also is electricity in its positive and negative poles, so is music in its polar opposites of major and minor; so are the contrasts of spirit and matter, of day and night, of repulsion and attraction. Innumerable are the expressions of polarity, of which sex is but one instance.”

“Unfortunately humanity has arrantly failed to make a serious effort to promote its own further progress. Instead of using the power of the mind to understand the responsibilities which freedom from blind obedience to instinct entails, mankind has refused to listen whenever it was reminded of the requirements of the evolutionary law. It was so much easier to lend an ear to the promptings of desire, which was an unknown element up to the human stage. It must have been very soon after the acquisition of mental self-consciousness and his becoming aware of stirrings of primitive impulses, that man began to use the mind to stimulate the desires of the body. In this way he has indulged the almost negligible sexual impulse which he inherited from the animal kingdom, until it has become a desire so strong that he has difficulty to control it.”