Your e-mail message: "Good. Day sir I am writing this in hopes that you could enlighten me. I have been having these moments when I Do t he thing is that I have been always having these sexual thoughts wherein I dominate or rape interests me. Maybe because I want to have control because in real life I a m like a mirror, a person who is undecided. These thoughts have been affecting my life and that when I think of a relationship most of what o think now is sex and that disturbs me a lot. I am hoping sir na you could advice for I believe that you are full of wisdom in these things. Sir these rape thoughts are normal or not ? And please how could I curb it." My reply: Hello ____________! Those thoughts are normal. Lust and the sexual urge involve power, control, and domination--which you can see not only in the actual physical position of human bodies engaged in the sexual act but in those of animals as well. Even when sexuality is expressed in an art form, such as dance, it depicts attitudes of power, control, and domination. Self-sex is the safest solution that functions as a safety gauge for the average person. Sports and martial arts are also good, albeit indirect, channels. The best solution, however, is the defense mechanism called sublimation. Recall that, in medieval times, philosophers thought that they could turn base materials, such as lead, into gold, which Carl Jung later saw to be an allusion to the refinement of the soul. Other examples of sublimation (using base materials and putting them through a process that elevates them to something higher): culinary arts, sculpture, and, yes, painting. Many Renaissance painters were thrown into prison for picking up boy prostitutes or having young lovers called bardassas--yet, later on in life, they abandoned this practice and produced some of the greatest art the world has known. A lustful person has a great artist within him. That is why I have always believed that all criminals in prison could have been great artists, except that they did not meet the right teacher at the right time.