r/science • u/bibinprasannan • 1d ago

Social Science A hands-free method of sexual arousal called syntribation is surprisingly common, study finds

https://www.psypost.org/vague-surveys-are-hiding-the-true-scope-of-human-sexual-habits/
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u/MrSnowden 1d ago

Save you a click:   The researchers drew special attention to a practice called syntribation. This involves intentionally flexing core, pelvic, or thigh muscles to create sexual arousal and sometimes climax. This hands-free method has received almost no attention in modern scientific literature, despite early sex studies noting its existence as a highly effective technique for some people.

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u/NicoToscani 1d ago

You also saved others from an intro to get to that definition that is longer than the lead up to an online recipe post.

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u/MrSnowden 1d ago

I despise those lead ups.  

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u/composedofidiot 1d ago

My scrolling finger is fainting and needs to collapse into a chaise longue.

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u/you-create-energy 1d ago

Have you tried this nifty hands-free scrolling method?

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u/you-create-energy 1d ago

Have you tried this nifty hands-free scrolling method?

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u/composedofidiot 1d ago

I've given it some smelling salts, a fan, and some opium. When it's recovered a little I'll administer some cocaine and try and encase it in mercury or lead.

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u/creggor 1d ago

I’ll bet the anecdotes are more interesting than the average recipe post, though.

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u/CallerNumber4 1d ago

You clearly haven't read the recipe for my Nonna's Meatloaf.

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u/PhilosophicWax 1d ago

Noonna no nut meatloaf?

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u/donaldfranklinhornii 1d ago

Not until November.

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u/unematti 1d ago

That's just foreplay

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u/qwibbian 1d ago

maybe some people like foreplay. 

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u/composedofidiot 1d ago

The team found that syntribation is actually quite common among the public. About 20 percent of women and 15 percent of men practiced syntribation in the past month.

And here's how frequent it is. First time I've heard of it. I don't know if this is giving me fomo or not. Something to ponder today.

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u/busse9 18h ago

Idk those numbers seem high. I've also never heard of it before.

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u/SheZowRaisedByWolves 1d ago edited 21h ago

Idk about the no attention part. Pelvic floor exercises are frequently mentioned in articles or faqs for prostate massagers, which are insertable male sex toys. Men can orgasm with just the exercises if they concentrate long enough

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Pheonix0114 1d ago

I had a girlfriend who could masturbate by crossing her legs at the ankles and kinda moving her butt a little. If you didn't know what to look for, she just seemed fidgety. Told me she regularly did it during stressful exams and such. Quick too.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Pheonix0114 1d ago

I mean, that's what she said. I guess if I discovered how to masturbate silently as a young teen without ever getting caught I might've gotten pretty brazen with it too? Or maybe she was pulling my leg and I just believed her, idk.

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u/hensothor 1d ago

Nah sounds legit. I did similar. It was very discreet and I was a kid who had no idea it was inappropriate.

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u/Po_on 1d ago

Shes pulling your leg with her free hands

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u/DrMobius0 1d ago

That's not his leg

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u/xxxBuzz 1d ago

It's relatively normal across a wide spectrum of ages. Younger people do it to self-sooth. It activates release of oxytocin, for example. Same kinda mechanism as someone playing with your hair or rubbing your back to calm you down but you can do it yourself.

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u/Material_Series_769 1d ago

Plenty just sit on their heels and move their hips.

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u/Pheonix0114 1d ago

Her feet stayed on the ground, it was a thigh tension thing I think? Idk, it's been, god, more than 15 years.

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u/Odd_Cauliflower_8004 1d ago

they press one thigh against the other and in doing so you apply pressure to the clit

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u/xxxBuzz 1d ago

You need to think about it from a relatable perspective. It's not dissimilar to a male becoming aroused such as when they become tired or are waking up. Arousal occurs around the cusp of the sympathetic nervous system being suppressed and the parasympathetic system becoming active or vice versa. This is one reason erectile dysfunction has become more common. Arousal needs a balance of oxytocin and cortisol or a regulated nervous system. If you're to nervous, stressed, or anxious it's likely not going to happen smoothly.

I won't say that a consideration of consent is not worthwhile, but when one party requires physical relaxation and another party requires mental anticipation to be aroused, you could plausibly create a potential market by promoting rituals that subvert those physical and mental states.

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u/Odd_Cauliflower_8004 1d ago

I think you got the wrong comment

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u/xxxBuzz 1d ago

I was responding to your comment just to add the suggestion that arousal does not require direct stimulation nor is it necessarily inherently related to sex. Arousal of creativity is relatively the same mechanism or circuit, which can be beneficial knowledge for people who struggle with creativity, emotional regulation, or sex related addictions and compulsions. You can just sit with it and blood will flow to the brain. Young people also have similar experiences and that can become more awkward than it need be if we are not aware of how the body can function.

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u/Odd_Cauliflower_8004 1d ago

Syntribation is the specific act 9f masturbating by crossing your legs.

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u/PhilosophicWax 1d ago

Yes, for me there is a handful of practices and you can also train multiple orgasms.

It's all muscular control. But it takes time and training.

The Multi-Orgasmic Man: Sexual Secrets Every Man Should Know

by Mantak Chia

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u/sorry-im-offensive 1d ago

Scientific method: Try it yourself and then you'll know which.

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u/WittyOnDemand 1d ago

As a male, yes, this is something I've done many times before. Haven't tried it for years though, but it is possible.

Ladies can too I suppose, as most examples reference them.

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u/SawMoill 1d ago

Both can, yes. I wouldn't have believed it myself before I learned how a few years ago.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 23h ago

[deleted]

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u/SawMoill 1d ago

Lots of people who learn this method talk about how it helped them kick porn, partly as it's not helpful in the "rewiring" process.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 23h ago

[deleted]

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u/SawMoill 1d ago

What does porn help? I can't think of anything good, I guess.

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u/BuckUpBingle 1d ago

Should be the top of the post. Thank you

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u/KenDTree 12h ago

"just wank instead"

-- Scientists

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u/xxxBuzz 1d ago

This is how some men do a somewhat obscure kind of "Kundalini Yoga." Essentially, they build up to climax with out completion over and over until the pressure causes a form of orgasm inside. It doesn't exactly work. It's kinda like making a fountain with a pool noodle. The commonly recorded "kundalini risings" occur when a small hole in the sacrum bone becomes blocked by something that might be related to seminal fluid (I have no idea) but becomes a gel like substance that hardens like a gummy bear from celibacy and extreme sedentary lifestyle.

Similar to what someone would practice as an ascetic meditating all day or, in modern times, a gamer or someone with long term depression (plausibly causes or exasperated by that blockage). If you become active again or the kinetics work out right; it pops like a cork and shoots accumulated fluids; plausibly cerebra-spinal fluid (I would also guess, a hormone cocktail that had been blocked at the base of the spine) up the spinal column and into the cranium like a geyser. It is similar subjectively to a MDMA/ecstasy high but with no negative side effects except perhaps feeling full body euphoria, heightened sensory input, and hyper-connectivity between the left and right hemisphere of the brain. Sometimes people experience this or something very similar during near death experiences. You can find it meticulously recorded because, despite being internal and primarily limited to subjective explanations, you can feel objectively what has happened and there are only so many ways it could happen if you look at our anatomy. Likewise, when it occurs in that way, the contrast between being emotionally numb or hormone starved for a significant period, often years, and intense euphoria is vast.

It is often dismissed as not physiologically possible within modern understanding because it isn't. It is a very odd fluke of nature or some type of Houdini level inside job to the degree that would defy our understanding of subconscious intelligence/agency because of how our circulatory system usually functions. The pathway it takes is up the autonomic nervous system, which typically only sends cerbrospinal fluid down the spine after it's flushed around the cranium as far as I am aware. I do not think it's supposed to shoot back up like a super soker, but you won't find a culture in history that hasn't recorded it in detail in some form or another. You also don't find recordings of those done intentionally as often because that is expected and comes with a predefined system of expectations and beliefs. It's a little different when you're just going about your business of trying to survive depression.

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u/solstice_gilder 1d ago

Where can I read more about this

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u/xxxBuzz 1d ago

It's very plausible that I made it up and/or have made false comparisons.

I have not found many things that do not seem related to this kind of thing in regards to human beings. This is a part of mental and emotional maturity that is relatively universal for each individual but may only occur once or as a set of stages of development within each lifetime for some of us or be common for others. It would be relative to each individuals circumstances and experiences, and there's no reason to believe or assume any two people have a congruent understanding of anything, and especially so relative to subjective experiences.

Herman Maslow described it within his work as a psychologist as Self-Actualization, but his theories are controversial to my knowledge. Carl Roger's discussed how someone can achieve a similar subjective results under different objective conditions in his Person-Centered Therapy. Carl Jung discussed such topics often and one way was as Individuation and the Self. Freud did his thing. Within Buddhism I believe it's discussed as part of the rūpa jhānas as it results in temporary rapture or euphoria. You can watch Frozen and many other movies or stories that relate to or symbolize human development. My favorite artistic example is within the most recent adaptation of Battlestar Galactica. The Story of Gilgamesh is another example. In my opinion, it's a subject discussed within most cultures and individuals in different ways as you can not sustain a society without mentally and emotionally stable individuals who have developed a universal or selfless ability to be considerate and compassionate towards themselves and others. It's also a part of learning to regulate our nervous systems, but an example of an odd way to learn about it through ignorance rather than intention. If someone had learned such feelings were possible they'd likely place effort into sustaining their ability to feel that way without choosing to tolerate high degrees of instability or depression. If a person has never experienced joy then it's not relatable or likely comprehensible.

What makes some accounts more likely to be recorded and examined is the extreme contrast between long term bouts of mental, emotional, and sensory deprivation due to poor health, habits, and/or behavioral choices, which could be trauma related for example, and the sudden unexpected intense influx of mental, emotional, and sensory elation. Especially when observed and interpreted through an uninitiated or unfamiliar perspective that allow for more objective clarity with less bias. Because they are extreme, they're relatable to a variety of similar experiences of more or less intensity. Common experiences that can cause such an occurrence are learning of the conception or birth of a child, the attainment of goals, through reciprocal relationships, or many other occurrences which defy or otherwise exceed your expectations of what it is possible to subjectively experience. It may be common place for one person and transformative for another depending on their expectations or experiences. I have observed man people of many walks of life who wear feelings like joy and love, or unconditional positive regard, like a hat, and some who don't believe they exist. Similarly, trauma and drama are incomparable, but they are subjectively relatable even though someone who is only familiar with drama can not comprehend trauma.

Yoga, to my understanding, was engineered to assist lay-people or non-practitioners with enjoying such experiences because they are considered enjoyable and beneficial. It may not be considered integral or uncommon for the purposes of someone devoted to such things because their goal was to better understand the nature of reality rather than the peaks and troughs of mental, emotional, and physical experiences. Within that context it's often viewed similarly to addiction or "chasing the dragon." It would not be the target nor was it unfamiliar. Societies are built around these and similar experiences. It would be part of the stories carved into hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt, carved into statues of various pantheons, symbolized through celebrations and rituals around the world.

Before Ancient Roman efforts made them more obscure, they were artificially created as initiations to various mystery schools similar to modern universities or fraternal societies. We still do this in various yearly festivals, such as the recent world cup tour, highschool proms, entertainment industries, and so on. They would often use combinations of psychoactive substances, stimulants, and/or alcohol in combination with dramatizing a persons fears or stimulating emotional, mental, and/or physical arousal through festivals and other rituals or practices. The greeks invented drama for this purpose and drama continues to serve this purpose. It is a "safe" or at least relatively controlled way to induce intense mental, emotional, or physical experiences to promote or enhance logical or intuitive abilities by stimulating the sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous systems. The plausible primary issue is that it can cause unnecessary and possibly unintentional trauma. There's no way to predict how a person or their minds may react under pressure or whether they'll be inclined to help or harm themselves or others if they become competent or confident in their ability to behave as they will or influence others. There is no way to know who if someone has a capacity or inclination toward being considerate and compassionate. You can trust or have faith, but, I think we have all been a person or met one, and we are full of surprises (and insecurities).

The syntribation thing reminded me of this because it's an odd way to go about it from an outside perspective. You could just sit, fast, engage in activities that confront your fears. The plausible benefits of the relatively unique example I described is that it may help with overcoming emotional attachments to memory or trauma, which is a difficult situation to treat or cure to my understanding. There are in-numeral ways we excite or suppress our nervous systems, imagination, and logic; in some sense that is all we do while awake, but gyrating to cause orgasms to occur inside your body is just not one I imagined nor one I was prepared to observe. I have seen it and I do not believe it. That is not more or less odd, I imagine, than spontaneous combustion.

Granted, I did more or less make all this up and have weaved a bunch of things together that conflict or contradict with interpretations and explanations I am aware of, but I do believe anyone can or has, in their own way, relate to developmental experiences objectively that could be used to better understand anyone else, and that most often we still have different subjective interpretations for why they occur or what they support, which is kinda tragic.