Gooning: How Porn-Induced Trance States Are Changing Masturbation, Intimacy, and the Erotic Brain
Sunday, July 13, 2025.
If porn-induced dissociation had a mascot, it would be the glassy-eyed man in front of six screens, edging into oblivion. His jaw slack.
His dopamine hijacked. His browser history a Dantean archive of algorithmic seduction.
This is not just porn addiction.
This is gooning.
And it’s quietly becoming the most extreme expression of compulsive masturbation in the digital era.
What Is Gooning?
Gooning refers to a trance-like state during extended masturbation sessions, usually involving hours of edging—delaying orgasm for heightened pleasure—while consuming hardcore pornography.
Unlike casual porn use, gooning is immersive and ritualized, often involving elaborate setups known as goon caves.
The term originated in porn subreddits and message boards in the early 2010s, evolving into a distinct subculture.
Today, gooning is discussed in porn recovery forums, sexual health communities, and increasingly, in the offices of concerned sex therapists.
The Neuroscience of Gooning: Dopamine on Overdrive
Gooning floods the reward system with dopamine, particularly in the nucleus accumbens, the same brain region involved in sex addiction, drug use, and gambling behavior (Hilton & Watts, 2011). Repeated exposure to hyper-stimulating pornographic content can lead to:
Dopamine desensitization
Escalation to more extreme porn
Delayed ejaculation and erectile dysfunction
Porn-induced anorgasmia
These symptoms are now widely recognized in research on problematic pornography use (PPU), especially among users who report 4+ hours of solo edging a day (Kühn & Gallinat, 2014).
The Debate: Is Porn Addiction Real?
The legitimacy of porn addiction is hotly contested.
Proponents argue that chronic porn use can rewire brain circuits in ways that mimic other behavioral addictions.
Many clients report a loss of interest in real-life sexual intimacy and increased need for extreme or niche content—classic signs of tolerance and escalation.
But critics argue the term is misleading.
In a widely cited review, Ley et al. (2014) found little evidence that porn use is inherently harmful in the general population.
They suggest that many who report feeling "addicted" are actually struggling with moral incongruence—a conflict between personal values and behavior (Grubbs et al., 2015).
A middle ground is emerging: while not all heavy users are addicts, gooners may fall into a subset of users experiencing a compulsive behavioral loop requiring clinical attention.
Gooning as a Cultural Symptom: Capitalism Meets Carnality
Natasha Dow Schüll coined the term addiction by design to describe how gambling machines were engineered to prolong "time-on-device."
The porn industry has taken that Limbic Capitalism blueprint and added lube.
Platforms like Pornhub use:
Infinite scroll
Algorithmic novelty
Escalation cues ("you might like this…")
Niche targeting based on watch history
This is not organic arousal. This is limbic capitalism: monetizing your nervous system one edge at a time.
Sherry Turkle (2011) noted that digital intimacy creates a false sense of connection. Gooning takes that to the extreme—no partner, no touch, just an endless loop of sexual self-absorption disguised as pleasure.
Erotic Dissociation vs. Erotic Connection
Gooners often describe their sessions as "sacred," "trippy," even "spiritual."
But if gooning is a kind of worship, then the deity is a ideal fantasy construct with no reciprocity.
Unlike erotic mindfulness—where attention is focused inward, with breath and body awareness—gooning produces erotic dissociation.
You are stimulated, yes, but also severed from the relational context that makes sex, well, human.
Where tantra aims for union, gooning achieves eros sans intimacy.
The result is often a hollow climax and a long exhale of regret.
Psychological and Relationship Impact
Clinicians report growing numbers of men who:
Can no longer climax with partners
Report emotional numbness
Feel shame and secrecy about their solo habits
Experience porn-induced sexual dysfunction
Replace intimacy with sexual self-isolation
In relationships, gooning can function as a digital affair.
Partners often report feeling betrayed—not by another person, but by the glowing rectangle and what it now represents.
Is There a Way Back? Yes, But It’s Not What You Think
Quitting cold turkey isn’t the only option. The goal is not abstinence, but integration. Healthy alternatives include:
Scheduled Masturbation Rituals: If you have few options, Structure time for self-pleasure with intention—not just compulsion.
Sensate Focus: (Masters & Johnson): Re-learn physical touch without pressure to perform.
Erotic Mindfulness Practices: Slow solo touch with attention to sensation, emotion, and breath.
Ethical Porn Use?: Is it possible to choose content that centers consent, narrative, and realistic intimacy? Technically, yes.
But in Practice?
That depends on whether you’re watching porn with your prefrontal cortex or your limbic system.
Let’s not pretend your arousal template was shaped by thoughtful conversations and good lighting.
It was forged in the fires of adolescence, by accidents, confusion, and whatever your dial-up connection didn’t block.
But here’s some possible good news: There are thought leaders who beleieve that you can train your desire. Just like you can retrain your attention span or your stress response. With practice, patience, and yes, perhaps a little ethically-produced erotica, some folks maintain that it’s possible to bring your values and your arousal into the same room.
I don’t agree, but we need to discuss these ideas, nonetheless. They may not cuddle, but they’ll at least nod politely.
The difference? One is making attentive love to yourself. This is a widespread, accepted practice in a culture of narcissism.
The other is being gulped wholesale into the digestive tract of the Limbic Capitalism monster.
But Limbic capitalism’s hand puppet tell us thati’st possible to consume porn that emphasizes consent, narrative, and realism.
Of course—just like it’s possible to smoke a meditative cigarette or launch a sustainable oil spill.
Let’s be honest.
Sexual arousal isn’t governed by ethics committees—it’s run by the lizard brain, wearing a trench coat and whispering, “click the on the 18 year old redhead with school girl uniform.”
You don’t choose what turns you on; it chooses you.
Usually during a formative childhood moment involving static-filled cable and deep confusion. That’s your love map, not your politics.
Ethical porn is like artisanal meth—technically possible, but fundamentally missing the fu*king point.
I’ve spent time here discussing ethical porn because it needs to be more thoughtfully and courageously debated.
Are We All Gooners?
Gooning may be the perfect erotic symptom of our cultural moment: infinite choice, no direction, intense sensation, no meaning.
It masquerades as pleasure but often delivers emotional flattening.
My intent is not a call for moral panic. It’s a call to reclaim presence.
To return to embodied experience.
To rebuild your erotic relationship with yourself.
To notice—not just what arouses you—but what nourishes you.
And to ask the unsexy but urgent question:
Is this actually making me feel more alive?
Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Böthe, B., Vaillancourt-Morel, M., Ste-Marie, C., Bergeron, S., & Demers, M. (2019). A longitudinal study of pornography use and sexual difficulties among male and female adolescents. Journal of Sex Research, 56(12), 1445–1457. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2018.1556238
Grubbs, J. B., Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Hook, J. N., & Carlisle, R. D. (2015). Transgression as addiction: Moral incongruence and perceived addiction to pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44, 125–136.
Hilton, D. L., & Watts, C. (2011). Pornography addiction: A neuroscience perspective. Surgical Neurology International, 2, 19.
Kühn, S., & Gallinat, J. (2014). Brain structure and functional connectivity associated with pornography consumption: The brain on porn. JAMA Psychiatry, 71(7), 827–834.
Ley, D. J., Prause, N., & Finn, P. (2014). The emperor has no clothes: A review of pornography addiction. Current Sexual Health Reports, 6(2), 94–105.
Masters, W. H., & Johnson, V. E. (2013). Human sexual inadequacy (50th anniv. ed.). Little, Brown. (Original work published 1970)
Prause, N., & Steele, V. R. (2020). Sex, love, and dopes: Debunking myths about pornography and addiction. Psychology & Sexuality, 11(1-2), 1–16.
Schüll, N. D. (2012). Addiction by design: Machine gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton University Press.
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. Basic Books.