More younger males seem to prefer visuals but sometimes can't get them, so they use their imaginations instead. Some males in their 20s and older report that after a while, pornography began to lose its ability to stimulate, so they turned either to erotic fiction or to their imaginations.]
As a boy, I always relied on my mind to create fantasies, and this worked fine. When I first saw some soft pornography, it was a huge turn-on and I often masturbated to it – right to orgasm. However, I did not have to have it, and it was easy to masturbate without it. As I have grown older, however, I find that pictures, videos, sounds, or stories, while not exactly necessary, are a great help. They help me build a strong erection more quickly than I can do now with just my imagination. I often use this material until I am close to orgasm, when I usually set it aside and concentrate on my own thoughts and feelings. I rarely climax while still looking at a picture or video. I definitely get my best orgasms from my imagination and really concentrating on the feelings in my penis and groin. Despite 34 years of regular masturbation, I still find it hard to believe what wonderful feelings and sensations it gives me.
- age 48, United Kingdom
This Week's Wackiest Response:
I find that thinking of cute little elves singing "That's Life" is much more erotic then watching any Disney animation – but only if they have just tripped over their skipping rope.
- age 17, United Kingdom
I actually prefer to read stories. Some erotic stories turn me on more than videos, pictures, or even my unaided imagination. With a good sexual story, I can masturbate all night.
- age 25, Florida
I prefer to masturbate without looking at pictures. When I do view them, I always feel much guiltier afterwards.
- age 15, Delaware
I prefer to use my imagination, but sometimes that isn't enough. I turn to porn only when I need to get off. I have found that the experience is much better if I can get a fantasy going in my mind. The problem with videos is that I try to time myself to what I am watching, and I sometimes lose my erection if the video gets boring. But in my mind, I can let my imagination go wild. The orgasm is much better without the use of videos. Pictures don't do a thing for me; it really has to be a video. I guess what I like about fantasizing is that you can do the impossible.
- age 21, Illinois
I usually use visual stimulation, but sometimes I have a lot more fun and a more intense orgasm when I use my imagination.
- age 13, Massachusetts
Usually, when it's a "planned event," I like to use erotic stories or start off with a little dose of porn to get me in the mood. This is fun because my arousal levels rise and fall with whatever happens in the story. But it's the late-night sessions, when I can't sleep because I'm so aroused, that are often more intense. This is when my own fantasies and imagination take me along for a ride.
- age 20, Australia (female)
Using my imagination is better because I think about girls I know and have a chance with. Pictures are nice, but I am never going to tap that source, if you know what I mean. The "reality factor" is what makes using my imagination better. I like to think about what I am going to do with my girlfriend or other girls I know, and not some picture.
- age 17, Louisiana
I morally oppose pornography because it often presents people in a degrading and unreal fashion. The few photos I've seen include women far more beautiful than any I know and men far better endowed than I shall ever be. So, why look at someone so unlike my friends or myself? I have a great imagination, but if I need inspiration, I prefer stories to visual materials. More precisely, I like to peruse readers' responses to JackinWorld questions, or weekly biographies, while gently massaging my penis through my clothes. Later, when I'm relaxed and naked in my bed, I can stroke to my heart's content, freshly inspired by what I've read. That may be tame by today's standards, but simple minds enjoy simple pleasures!
- age 60, Michigan
Masturbating is such a pleasurable time for me that I always close my eyes. It makes sense to use my vivid imagination. It seems more enjoyable because I can do anything I want. Pictures are a good preparation, but after that, it's all up to my imagination and my hand.
- age 14, Oregon
I prefer visual aids, because I would much rather get the session over with and ease my sexual tension. Using my imagination usually ends in a better orgasm, but hey – we don't always have time to take the longer route.
- age 20, Pennsylvania
I often just use pictures to get an erection and to get into a "horny" mind set. But I find it difficult to actually masturbate to pictures, because I look at them on the computer and usually masturbate in bed, in the bathroom, or on the floor. A few nights ago, I put the laptop on the floor and masturbated while humping a pillow and looking at the picture. It was great, but the best are when I think of great fantasies – the kind that make my stomach feel nervous because they are so exciting. No picture can replicate that feeling.
- age 17, California
I enjoy both. At different times, each method is extremely satisfying. Also, online pictures can be fulfilling because of the very wide variety.
- age 38, Connecticut
I like my imagination better. If I were to look at movies or pictures and my parents caught me with the sites left on my PC, I think they'd probably throw me out of the house, which is dumb. But I don't think my parents believe in masturbation, so I have to wait ages for them to go to sleep.
- age 14, Australia
I like to use a combination of both. I start with a sexual fantasy, using my imagination, and then once I have an erection I continue the fantasy while looking at pictures. Sometimes I apply the people to the fantasy; sometimes I just use the pictures as additional stimulation unrelated to the fantasy. I find that using both my imagination and pictures simultaneously is the most effective and enjoyable way for me to masturbate.
- age 45, Tennessee
I am presently attracted to a couple of my guy friends. I don't know if it's just a phase of puberty or if maybe I'm gay. Anyway, when I masturbate alone, I like to imagine experimenting with them. But when I masturbate with them, we always look at Playboys. So for me the answer is both. I like thinking about them more than looking at the Playboys – but to be able to see them, I have to look at the Playboys, too.
- age 13, Australia
As a Christian, I don't believe in pornography. I'll go for the vivid imagination and skilled, practiced hands every time. Because I also think lustful fantasies are just as bad, I like to imagine every nerve and instinct firing against my will. I love to imagine the battle not to ejaculate, iron will against driving waves of pleasure...Ah jeez, see what I mean?
- age 25, Ohio
I like my imagination, because that way, I don't have to look at someone else's ideas. I can come up with my own, and it's easier to feel part of it with my eyes closed!
- age 16, New York (female)
Pictures and videos are great but somewhat limiting. My imagination is tuned specifically and exclusively to *me* – my preferences or my mood of the moment. I write the script, and then do the casting, editing, and (sorry!) shooting. I can choose to recall sessions I've enjoyed by myself, with friends or my lover, just as they happened, or rearrange the people and what happens as I wish. If I happen to come up with something that seems to have possibilities, maybe we can try it out for real later on. While not procreative (thank such gods as may be), masturbation can and ought to be a very creative pleasure!
- age 22, California
I used to just think of things, but after seeing porn, it's harder to have the same effect when I just think about sex.
- age 15, Canada
Pictures and videos are great when I have the time – but if I'm lying in bed and can't sleep, I imagine doing it as my boyfriend sleeps next to me. I do this quite often and have gotten questioned about it only once. He calls it "stealth masturbation." Nothing moves but my fingers! It happens pretty quickly, and the orgasm is a perfect send-off to sleep. Just achieving an orgasm while he's sound asleep feels like I got away with something so nasty!
- age 29, New York (female)
I usually use just my imagination, which I've gotten very good at from lots of practice. I remember experiences with a girlfriend and then add to them. Sometimes I like to look at one photo – nothing disgusting, just a beautiful nude woman – and then use my artistic imagination to put my girlfriend in it. It works quite well. Most of the time, I don't have pictures around, so I make my brain work as well as my arm.
- age 14, Alabama
As crazy as it may sound, I stay away from pictures and images. When I masturbate, I think of how good it feels. It's the same way if you get a massage: You're not exactly thinking erotic thoughts, but you know that it feels good. The same goes when masturbating. I think of the feeling. You may ask, "Why?" It all comes down to my religion – I'm very religious. That doesn't mean I'm quitting masturbation, but it does mean I can avoid corrupt images. Does that make sense?
- age 19, Florida
I usually use photos or videos to get ready. They provide a good start because they're real and right in front of me. Then I go somewhere private and use my imagination. I can picture anything I want and no one knows it. The imagination is the best part.
- age 17, Illinois (female)
I prefer looking at pictures or videos. As I have grown older, pictures or erotic stories are usually necessary for me to achieve an orgasm. Even during sex with my wife, I look at pictures or ask her to read an erotic story out loud.
- age 60, Texas
Pictures and videos are better. Although my imagination is vivid, I still believe that to give total concentration to masturbation, you need something to provide the images for you.
- age 17, Arizona
I prefer visuals and my imagination equally. Sometimes I'll be looking at pictures and then my imagination takes over. Sometimes my imagination isn't working so well and I end up looking at pictures. Sometimes I use only imagination or only pictures. It depends on the time of day, my mood, or whether I've seen someone particularly hot that day. However, I have to say that my strongest, most frequent orgasms when masturbating have been to some very hot videos that bring me to several strong releases in a very short time.
- age 40, Georgia
I prefer pictures to my imagination, but I don't like videos. Using my imagination alone is too much work. Watching videos is no fun at all. But looking at pictures and then using the visual with my imagination is "just right."
- age 18, Canada
I like to use my vivid imagination, because pictures and videos are too hard to find, especially at my age. Further, there are no taboos for my imagination!
- age 15, Australia
My imagination is far better than anything shown in pictures, both still and moving with audio. My imagination involves me actively in the story, which reinforces manual stimulation. My imagination speaks directly to my current activities and interests (an ever-changing mixture) that cannot be duplicated commercially. I can dynamically adjust the tempo and intensity, and include my friends and acquaintances. My imagination takes me visiting into outer space and to other times and places. I just had a great mutual session with William Shakespeare while he was working on "A Midsummer Night's Dream!"
- age 54, Florida
I have masturbated for about two years now and have tried just about every technique there is. Pictures and videos are fun for stimulation, but I find myself *loving* to just lie there with my eyes closed and imagine "things" that pictures and videos can't show. My imagination can take me *anywhere* I want to go – no limits.
- age 14, Kansas
I personally love browsing the Internet for pictures to look at. Doing this while I masturbate means I don't masturbate too quickly, so the session can last for over an hour! Believe me, the ejaculation at the end is much stronger than normal because I have been going at it for so long.
- age 19, United Kingdom
I always prefer a vivid imagination to pornography. I love to take past events and "relive" them with my imagination. It has become the only way to turn me on.
- age 17, Washington (female)
My best experiences have been when I use only my imagination, perhaps because I fantasize much more often than I look at pictures or videos. It is much easier to use my mind to create whatever mental environment I want. When younger, I used porn more frequently – both magazines and video. Sometimes those experiences were intense – especially when I could climax at the same time as the people in the video. The problem was that eventually, I had (or wanted) to have harder and harder porn to get me aroused. I had started off turning on to sex scenes on network television; then I moved up to cable, then needed soft-core videos, and eventually had to have the XXX stuff. So, I think using my mind is better (although having someone to do it with is the best!).
- age 28, North Carolina
I used to prefer only viewing pictures or videos. But as I got used to them, they became redundant and stale. Now, I find that my imagination leads to a much better masturbation experience. When using my vivid imagination, I tend to focus more on the sensations than what I'm looking at. Also, my imagination works better for thinking of my girlfriend, who lives far away from me. Our imaginations are all we have when we can't be together and have to resort to the telephone (which leads to far better orgasms than anything I've ever experienced from visual aids, aside from a picture of her).
- age 22, Virginia
I used to hate the idea of erotica before I tried it, but after looking at some pictures and films, I have actually come to enjoy it. Some of them go places I wouldn't think of on my own. Of course, I can always remember the erotica later and embellish it in my imagination. So, I guess it's both.
- age 19, Tennessee (female)
I usually look at pornography and then masturbate using my imagination. I am a Furry, which means I believe in the human-animal central consciousness. (I am not a zoophile!) So, my fantasies tend to be on the fantastical side. The experiences tend to be more extended and more pleasurable when I use my imagination rather than look at images. Erotic literature on the other hand has a way of feeding the imagination, and so it helps the masturbatory experience.
- age 16, United Kingdom
Trying to imagine intense sexual actions is much harder for me than pulling out the good old videos and simply fantasizing about myself there. Any video does the job unless it's one of those extreme ones.
- age 19, New Jersey
It doesn't matter – as long as I have my vibrator.
- age 14, Florida (female)
I prefer to look at pictures and videos while I masturbate. If I feel like I have a fantasy coming on, then I close my eyes and let my imagination go wild. But usually, I need pictures and videos – at least to get started. The visual stimulation helps arouse me, but my fantasies can sustain the experience until I climax. The experiences are different, in that climaxes reached through fantasy are much more intense than those when I use pictures or videos.
- age 39, California
I have always masturbated using my imagination, but now that I'm in high school, I am so busy that I have hardly any time. So, I got a mail-order catalog and used my mom's credit card to buy a vibrator and a dildo. It was discreet, so it wasn't embarrassing for me. Now, I put on an erotic movie, preferably one about two girls, or I log on to the Internet, look for erotic pictures, and buzz myself.
- age 14, Oklahoma (female)
For most of my youth, pictures (mostly), films, and videos fired my imagination and fantasies. When I grew older, I could travel the world to less inhibited countries to fulfill some of the experiences I desired that are unattainable here in England. With those real-life experiences now firmly locked inside my brain, I can call upon them at will and replay them in my imagination (sometimes with embellishments) to enjoy when I don't have the real thing. Pictures, films, and videos are a catalyst to fantasy. But a fantasy based on real life is the greatest turn-on. Whatever the brain can conceive can be achieved. What greater motivation can there be?
- age 54, United Kingdom
I used to use just my imagination. Since I've been able to get on the Internet, I have looked at some pictures, but my favorites are the erotic stories I've found. Many are just plain gross, but there are many good ones. Masturbating to a good story is highly exciting. I get my best orgasms that way. The only problem is that I have to be very careful. If I'm home alone, I can strip down and do it right at the computer, which is best. If I'm not alone, I can read a couple of stories to get turned on, and then I retire to my bedroom to finish off. When I do that, I like to prepare by taking off my underwear and wearing loose shorts so I can play with myself while I read. A couple of times I've gone all the way like that, which is nice except it makes a mess.
- age 15, Maryland
I always masturbate to my imagination and most frequently to images of my wife and me in our pleasure of sex. My imagination is better than any picture or video could be.
- age 45, Tennessee
It depends on the circumstances. If I'm going for a good, long session, I use my own imagination. It also depends on whether my parents are home (because I can't talk to them about this stuff). If they are home, I use the bathroom and turn on the fan. In that case, I use my imagination. But if my parents aren't home and I just feel like enjoying myself normally, I go onto the Net and look for some good pornography while I masturbate.
- age 15, Canada
I use my imagination, but only in a particular way. I get naked, curl up with a tablet and pencil, and write a sonnet with the rhyme scheme abba, cddc, effe, gg, about a situation that begins innocently but becomes more and more overtly sexual. And I'm fastidious about meter and appropriate tone. The trick is to get the final couplet written before my gloriously satisfying climax.
- age 51, New York
I like having videos sometimes, because I like to hear the sounds, see the movements – just feel the whole thing. At night, when I lie in bed, I use my imagination, fantasizing about someone I have talked to during the day. I recently videotaped myself masturbating, and believe it or not, it was such a turn-off that I destroyed the tape. I thought it would be erotic, but all I could think of was, "Gross! I look like *that* when I do it?"
- age 21, Texas
Masturbating while looking at pornography and using my imagination are two different experiences for me. When I masturbate to pornography, there is no emotional bond – it is pure lust and visual stimulation. When I masturbate to a fantasy using my imagination, I can be with any person I want and create an entire scenario or have my favorite things done to me. This is a much more involved masturbation session, and I find it to be more enjoyable, too. Porn is good – but if I have the time, I go for a masturbation session that actually means something to me. Besides, it might even come true.
- age 17, Florida