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by fredch 3006 days ago
No, bodily "energy flows" are all in the head. It's very easy to think yourself into all sorts of physical sensations.
2 comments

So how do you explain the ability for a man to delay orgasm as long as desired through tantric sex? The technique is to draw energy upwards from the genitals so as not to reach an energetic "critical mass" and trigger the "usual reflex".

However if you were to mean that energy flows are controlled by the mind, then you'd be bang on. "Where the mind goes, the chi flows" as they say.

Because sexual response is controlled by the brain.

If I imagine myself in a calming forest, I can feel calmer and my heart rate may go down. Does that mean I magically transported my soul to a forest or some other such superstition?

Yes.

Or at least some cultures { think of it / use language } in that way

It's nothing to do with reducing your arousal, but redirecting the nervous energy away from the genitals.
where in the head? Is there a region in the brain this occurs?
The thing is, if I see a fire and put my hand in it, I'll experience pain. An MRI scanner would be able to detect certain parts of my brain being excited.

If my brain was then artificially stimulated in the same region, no doubt I'd feel the same pain again. However, none of this means that the fire wasn't real in the first place.

Of course, it's interesting because perhaps the fire isn't real and it's just some fringe part of the brain playing up, but I'm not sure how you'd go about designing an experiment to work that out (i.e. whether the circuits exist because the fire is real, or whether they've evolved some anomalous behaviour).

Most likely somatosensory thalamocoritcal networks (the anterior parts of the parietal lobe and the corresponding thalamus). Maybe the insula, which is involved in visceral sensations as well.
HPA?