According to Osho, sexual perversion is what happens when natural sexual energy is blocked, shamed, or condemned; the energy accumulates and inevitably seeks an indirect, unnatural outlet. Perversion is not inborn but a by-product of repression, conditioning, and prohibitive morality; when natural expression is allowed without guilt, energy remains wholesome and creative.
If you stop your natural sexual feelings, they build up and come out in twisted ways—that’s perversion.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF PERVERSION IN REGARD TO SEX? Sarjano, perversion means your energy is not going in the natural way; the natural way has been blocked, suppressed, condemned. But the energy is there and collecting, it is bound to find some outlet. That outlet will not be natural. That outlet will be perversion. And the whole past of man is nothing else -- from different directions, for different excuses you have been told to cut off your natural paths for energy and expression. Man is an intelligent being. Even unintelligent animals are bound to find some way. In the wild, no animals turn homosexual; there is no need because there is no priest.
Osho, the one who tends a dhuni (sacred fire) all year—well, in terms of sexual perversion, can we place both on the same level? Or is there any difference between the perversion in the two?
I understand; what you say is quite right. The discovery of psychology over the last hundred years is that to cause suffering to others, or to cause suffering to oneself, or to honor the miserable, or to support the possibilities of suffering, is in one way or another a distorted form of the sex-energy—a sexual perversion. This is absolutely true. In fact, it is necessary to understand this. In truth, kama or sex is the lowest possibility of bliss—of pleasure. One should understand that sex is a natural, spontaneous pleasure given by nature. If one rises above it and discovers greater joy, then the need for the pleasure of sex no longer remains. If one rises above it and finds greater joy, then the pleasure of sex is no longer needed. Gradually, kama is transformed—it transforms—and ultimately it can become brahmacharya (celibacy). But if one does not seek greater joys…
What is sexual perversion? Why do strange sexual habits evolve, and from where? For example, sado-masochism.
Man is not what he appears to be, he is far bigger. We know about man only in a very partial way. You will have to understand these five categories: the first is the conscious mind. The conscious mind is a very tiny mind, just a little bit of you which can reason, think, rationalize, go through logical processes and is a little bit alert. It is a very tiny part of you, and we know man only from that tiny part. We have looked into the great palace of human consciousness from a very tiny hole, maybe the keyhole. And whatsoever we have seen through the keyhole is not the whole reality. Man is vast. Just hidden behind the conscious mind there is the unconscious mind. Its discovery is the great contribution of Sigmund Freud to humanity. The unconscious mind is nine times bigger than the conscious mind. It…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, AT WHAT POINT DID THE HUMAN MIND BECOME PERVERTED? Shakti Agita, the human mind became perverted when it started following priests and politicians against its own nature. Perversion happens the moment you go against your nature. You cannot throw your nature out of the window; it is within you. But if you go against it, its natural expression is closed. And when the natural expression is closed, the unnatural energy starts finding some other way, it has to come out. For example, celibacy creates millions of people who are perverted. Their perversion is rooted in their idea of celibacy; then homosexuality arises, lesbianism arises, sodomy arises, pornography arises. And now all that perversion has brought a new disease in the world, AIDS, which knows no cure.
[A sannyasin had previously written to Osho about her sexuality, which seemed to have become more intensified lately -- mainly been through auto-erotic activity. Guilt feelings surfaced from childhood, about its being a perversion. Osho checked her energy.] I told you to remain celibate for a few days specifically for this purpose, because once you are celibate for a few days, energy pools; it becomes a reservoir. And when it is a reservoir, then you can easily know where it wants to move, how it wants to be creative, what direction it wants to take. A person who is using his sexual energy continuously, never knows what the energy itself intends to do. And these are two different things. What your mind intends to do is one thing -- what your energy intends to do is totally different.