The feeling of expansive unity that Sagarin describes is regarded as the signature trait of a mystical experience. “When that area of the brain gets down-regulated, we can lose the distinction between ourselves and the universe.”
“One of the things that resides in the prefrontal cortex is our sense of self,” Sagarin elaborated. Sagarin attributes the changes in a submissive’s consciousness to a temporary reduction in prefrontal-cortex activity, which is thought to be integral to the euphoric and dissociative experience of endurance runners, meditators, and individuals under hypnosis. The submissive seems to enter a different altered state of consciousness that the BDSM community refers to as sub-space-a pleasurable and timeless, almost floating feeling.” “Dominants show evidence of flow,” Sagarin explained, “a very pleasurable state that occurs when people are in optimum performance and tune out the rest of the world. The psychologist’s latest paper investigates the potential for sadomasochistic activities to induce altered states of consciousness. study of BDSM-identified couples found reductions in self-reported stress and negative affect, as well as increases in intimacy following BDSM play.Īccording to Brad Sagarin, the effects can be even more profound. The practitioners were less neurotic, more extraverted, more open to new experiences, more conscientious, less rejection sensitive, and had higher subjective well-being.Ī subsequent U.S. While psychology has historically defined sadomasochism as strictly pathological, there is some research that supports Rogers and Thole’s perspective.Ī study from the Netherlands found a greater prevalence of positive psychological traits in BDSM practitioners than in the general public. For the next 48 hours, we will not leave this cabin. In order to better understand their technique, which they call Light/Dark Therapy, the couple invited me to participate in an immersion with them. The objective is to activate repressed emotions in order to process them in a safe and supportive environment. While conventional psychotherapists still debate the ethics of hugging their patients, Rogers and Thole have pioneered a form of intensive therapy that incorporates consensual BDSM activities into their sessions with clients. However, rather than experiencing “significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning,” the pair credits their lifestyle with producing dramatic improvements in mental health. Respectively, they meet all primary criteria for Sexual Sadism and Sexual Masochism Disorders. Rogers, a self-identified dominant, enthusiastically endorses having “recurrent and intense sexual arousal from the physical or psychological suffering of another person.” In her desire to be the object of that suffering, Thole, a self-identified submissive, is his mirror image and ideal mate.
The American Psychiatric Association has its own definition. People are very surprised when they find out who we really are.”Īt Group Sex Parties, Strict Rules Make for Safe Spaces Merissa Nathan Gerson “I have this soccer-mom vibe, and Leslie has a businessman vibe. “We come across as really straight and vanilla,” Thole noted with a grin. The other clutches the nape of his partner’s neck, 33-year-old Tani Thole.
The burly 36-year-old has one hand on the bar of a jail cell. I am talking with Rogers in a dungeon beneath a cabin in Salinas, California. I'm going to a place with you where I shouldn't go, and we’ll meet there, and in the end we’ll realize that we are still capable of being loved.” What I'm re-creating in BDSM is like war-but in re-creating war, I'm ending it.
“Whether they are soldiers or victims,” Leslie Rogers explains, “there is nothing that binds people together better than war. The subject of our conversation is BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sadism, and Masochism), a discipline that includes a wide variety of consensual power-exchange activities suggested by the various implements on display. Whips, chains, collars, gags, blindfolds, handcuffs, knives… My eyes roam the soundproof room in which we are enclosed.
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