Will is part of intellect and ‘spirit’ remains undefined.
Remember, the arrow goes both ways. If anyone can, over time, change physiological sexual responses from gay to straight, they are be able to go the opposite way. I don’t believe any amount of self-calming can make me respond to some guy’s hairy back. Not only would I never want to, but I don’t think it’s possible.
There’s a reason pedophiles are said to be incurable. If response is malleable, why aren’t pedophiles being cured?
Because adult-child sex is still a crime on the books. Therefore, historically, people who knew they had extinguished these behaviors within themselves just went about their business and didn't talk about it. Nobody is going to step forward and admit to a crime he had not been caught and prosecuted for. And those who were prosecuted and jailed and then participated in cure "research" had by that time accumulated many other co-morbid conditions stemming from incarceration, family disgrace, social shunning, etc.
These days, with the rise of social media and doxxing, people are starting to talk about this formerly taboo homosexual identification and might as well be open about it, since social blackmail is so very possible over social media. Support groups for those formerly practicing homosexual behaviors are viciously attacked by the progfascists, who don't want anyone to know recovery is possible. But pedophilia, despite the determined efforts and propaganda of its fans, is still a crime, and therefore still a long way from being recognized as something one can recover from. So classical scientific approaches such as double-blind studies aren't possible, because there isn't a level playing field between the various degrees and mindset of offenders.
I can't say one way or the other if pedophilia can be extinguished in an individual; all I can say is that if someone has such an incident in their long-dead past, such as between an older adolescent and a younger adolescent, crucifying this person in the media who has led an otherwise issue-free life for decades ever since is ghoulish fun for the progfascists—the same people who would rush to the jailhouse with candles and protest signs if the state were preparing to execute a violent child rapist with multiple, horribly injured victims.
We're a long way from having a reliable model of which types of offenders actually can recover, and where the legal line in the sand should be.
That's why I still favor life sentences for youngish child rape offenders and death penalty for mature, intimidating or violent child rape offenders. Because boo-hoo, this behavior is so toxic not only to its victims but also to society that it must be stamped out.
The reason I favor life imprisonment for youthful non-violent offenders (such as casual seducers and foolers-around) is that someday a reliable brain-centered technology may indeed be developed, and some offenders may be rehabilitated to rejoin society without danger of reoffense.
Until then, nuke the really bad ones and lock the milder pervs away.