i dont think its the same with masturbation. I think there are chemical reactions which occur between a man and a woman which simply dont occur with masturbation. And you're just wasting sperm, and the body is most likely wired to expect sex rather than masturbation. it's unreciprocal, and you're cells and your gut knows more than your conscious mind does. I'm pretty sure it's considered abnormal by all of your cells, and probably leads to a short lived life and suffering. It is energy being lost and there's no one to reciprocate. You can't there by simply imagining it. Hell what if you DON'T KNOW how to imagine it because you've never had sex, never had love. That makes it hard to manifest in your life in the first place, because you can only get things by knowing what you want. If you don't know what you want (because you've never had it) how can you get it in the first place, and really know what it is you're desiring? Your biology pretty much comes to expect it and depend it. Society does as well and your ability to interact and socialize. IF you don't get a mate youre just congesting all that energy, your sperm and all. Theres no release like that when you're with a woman. If you have her you are less prone to obsession, to lust, etc. etc. etc. just read the damn thing.
The only way to be celibate is to not desire sex at all (which means no masturbation) to KILL your sex drive, and make your penis shrink and your testicles shrink as this is the only way to save yourself from basically becoming mad. If it's healthy I don't know. I wonder if other animals can put up with it without having themselves INSTINCTUALLY feeling worthless. It is usaully those who do not mate that DIE FIRST and cannot survive.
Maybe you can transmute the sexual essence but that takes basically inhuman skill.
Besides that, pretty much all aspects of society depend on your ability to find a mate, and be able to interact with women. if you can't interact with women (and therefore men) which comes with knowing gender as well, you won't get anywhere in life.
So yeah you can act like macho all you want but scientifically speaking it doesn't hold.