This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here .
What is the premise of the Think and Grow Rich sexual transmutation theory? How can sex energy be transformed into creative imagination?
The Think and Grow Rich sexual transmutation theory describes the desire for sex as being a form of energy that can be redirected and channeled to fuel creative thinking. You will need immense willpower to transform your sex energy into the creativity you need to achieve your goals.
Read on to fully understand the Think and Grow Rich sexual transmutation theory.
Understanding the Think and Grow Rich Sexual Transmutation Theory
According to Think and Grow Rich sexual transmutation theory, the desire for sex is the most powerful of human desires. Some people risk their life and reputation to get it. This energy can be harnessed to help you achieve your goals.
Hill refers to sex as being both energy and as an emotion (a state of mind). The emotion of sex has three benefits: the perpetuation of the human race, maintenance of health (it has therapeutic value), and transforming average ability into genius via “transmutation.”
Sex energy transmutation means harnessing the power of sex energy to make you wealthy by redirecting your thoughts from the physical expression of sex to creative efforts. When redirected, the powerful motivating force of sex energy can be a creative force for art, literature, music, invention, or achieving riches. Redirected sex energy is the creative energy of all geniuses.
As suggestive evidence, take the sex organs out of an animal, and you remove all the fight and energy from the animal. A castrated bull becomes as calm as a cow.
The emotion of sex needs an outlet; it shouldn’t be repressed but instead given an outlet that enriches the body, mind, and spirit. Applying the Think and Grow Rich sexual transmutation theory to transform sexual energy into creativity requires willpower.
Creative imagination is unleashed when a stimulant — sex energy being the most powerful one — acts on the mind to increase brain activity or vibrations. The other stimuli are love, burning desire for money or power, music, friendship, a MasterMind alliance, mutual suffering through persecution, autosuggestion, fear, and drugs or alcohol. But these are far less powerful than the stimulation from the desire for sexual expression.
Of the stimuli, only sex and love, which are particularly powerful together, can inspire genius. Napoleon Hill found that every great male leader he analyzed was inspired by a woman.
For example, when Napoleon Boneparte was inspired by his first wife Josephine, he was invincible. When he ended his relationship with her, he was defeated. Similarly, Abraham Lincoln discovered his creative imagination when his love of Anne Rutledge triggered sex energy transmutation. A businessman noted that his attractive secretary’s presence drove him to new heights of creative energy.
Salespeople and others with strong charisma create their personal magnetism by applying the Think and Grow Rich sexual transmutation theory, whether they realize it or not.
People without formal education can achieve greatness through the use of creative imagination, stimulated by sex energy. But people rarely achieve great wealth or other success before age 40, because they waste their energies in the physical expression of sex, rather than harnessing the energy for mental creativity. For example, Henry Ford’s and Andrew Carnegie’s greatest achievements occurred after age 40.
In addition to sparking creativity, the emotion of sex combined with the emotion of love changes people for the better by enhancing judgment, balance, calmness, and focus.
Of course, sexual energy when overindulged can be as damaging as drugs or alcohol. A sex-addicted person has lost rationality and willpower. The application of the Think and Grow Rich sexual transmutation theory should be done responsibly and with temperance.
Advice on Love
- Love is life’s greatest experience.
- Love is spiritual; sex is biological.
- All love is beneficial.
- Enjoy love while you have it rather than worrying about losing it.
- Even if you loved and lost, love still benefited you.
- No two love experiences affect you the same way.
- When love and sex are blended, marriage brings a state of mind as close to spiritual as we can get.
———End of Preview———
Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full Think and Grow Rich summary :
- Napoleon Hill's 1937 guide to success
- How to use thoughts, visualization, and affirmation to achieve wealth
- The importance of a Master Mind group and how to start one