Mistress Sidonia's Femdom Blog

The Unintended Spiritual Path Pt3

For most of us drawn to the BDSM world our motivation is a base, sexually driven one. There is however, occasionally, an unexpected by-product – a slip into the realm of mysticism and spiritual transformation. This is not the goal of sado-masochistic play so it can be a surprising, unnerving and powerful encounter. These experiences should not be confused with ‘subspace’ which is a common altered state for most submissives – part letting go, part lust and part adrenaline high. These are deeper and more powerful transcendental occurrences which are hard to explain as they need to be ‘experienced’ however, I will attempt to try to outline how and when some of the overlaps occur.

Beyond Subspace into the Mystic:
Mortification of the Flesh & Pain as the Pathway
One of the most direct links between BDSM and reaching an unintended spiritual state is the infliction of pain. Many religions and spiritual philosophies use physical pain as part of a ritualised ordeal, in Christianity the practice of ‘mortification of the flesh’ involves fasting; sleep deprivation; the wearing of uncomfortable clothing; or self-flagellation. The tradition of self-flagellation, usually whipping oneself, is still prevalent around the world in Catholic & Shi’a Islamic communities. (For Christians this act allows them to join Christ in his redemptive suffering.) While Shamans use physical pain to enter a spiritual trance in order to peel away illusion and enter the spirit world.

Pain can be a ‘rite of passage’ as we must deal with our fear of pain, however fear exits in the mind while pain is truly of the body – an unmistakable sensation that puts us in the moment and reminds us we are alive. In BDSM we accept the pain, we don’t fight it, we go into the centre of the pain, we bask in it. We experience the ecstasy (or rapture) of pain. It becomes an acknowledgment that the body is just our vessel and that we exist beyond it.

The implementation of pain can induce a state known in BDSM as ‘subspace’, the ‘high’ or exhilaration a submissive can feel during a scene, induced through sustained intense pain/pleasure.  This response is created by our sympathetic nervous system as it produces adrenaline & endorphins, to cope with the experience, this also happens during exercise or extreme sports. This natural physiological and emotion response can be a first step towards a spiritual state.

Mortification of the flesh is not always directly connected with physical pain, it is at act of subduing one’s bodily desires, in Christianity it was the act of ‘putting your sin to death’. BDSM games can indulge in sexual tease’n’denial, cuckolding and enforced chastity; here the ‘subduing of one’s sexual desire’ with denial and suffering paradoxically become deeply sexualised acts.

Our interest in BDSM is driven by our base sexual desires and unconscious primal urges and not intended as a means to enlightenment and transformation – though interestingly it has huge overlaps with religious rituals and these unexpected spiritual revelations and altered states still leave a deep impression.

The Unintended Spiritual Path
Read Pt1 Here:   Rites of Passage & A Retreat from Ego
Read Pt2 Here:   Bondage as Meditation & Outer Transformation as a means to Inner Transformation
Read Pt3 Here:   Beyond Subspace into the Mystic: Mortification of the Flesh & Pain as the Pathway

Read also: Entering Subspace – Altered States

The Unintended Spiritual Path Pt2

For most of us drawn to the BDSM world our motivation is a base, sexually driven one. There is however, occasionally, an unexpected by-product – a slip into the realm of mysticism and spiritual transformation. This is not the goal of sado-masochistic play so it can be a surprising, unnerving and powerful encounter. These experiences should not be confused with ‘subspace’ which is a common altered state for most submissives – part letting go, part lust and part adrenaline high. These are deeper and more powerful transcendental occurrences which are hard to explain as they need to be ‘experienced’ however, I will attempt to try to outline how and when some of the overlaps occur.

Bondage as Meditation
Prolonged extreme bondage and enclosure scenes, by their nature, enforce long periods of sensory deprivation – you cannot move, see, hear or speak. After the initial chatter of the mind has exhausted itself and the sexual thrill has subsided you are left in an intensely peaceful and meditative state. A way to go inward because all of the external is removed. This can produce an out-of-body experience, the body is recognised as only a vessel and consciousness is separated creating an overwhelming interconnectedness between self and god/universe. Where you are beyond time and space. To step out from the ruts of our habitual, materialistic comfortable lives, our emotions & thoughts; and return to a transcendental state.

This altered state while in intense bondage can also produce an emotional regressive return to the womb – of being swaddled, nourished and cared for by another. You are returned to a childlike state, removed from modern life and its stresses and responsibility.

Outer Transformation as a means to Inner Transformation
Central to BDSM play is ritual dressing, the domme must look powerful, sexually aggressive, warrior-like, while the sub is naked and hooded symbolising their insignificance, inferiority and vulnerability. We also choose or are given new names for ourselves – dommes with an elaborate title and honorific, slaves a simple nickname. Thus we use costumes and names to take on a new role.

One of the most dramatic changes is gender cross dressing, this transformation encompasses an obvious physical change but more significantly a powerful emotive shift – an embodiment of their true emotional self, where they finally feel whole & complete.

These transformative acts allow the player to leave their ‘old’ self behind, to forget it exists to transform into something new, to play out other versions of themselves. To put on a new mantle and open a door to new possibilities. To leave the ‘body’s baggage’ of habits, ideas, thoughts, opinions & emotions behind. This is another route to come out of ourselves. Essentially it is not what you put on but what you take off.

Human beings easily adapt to change (though they are scared of it and fight against it). Actually, our sense of self, our identity – of who and what we think we are, is more fragile than we imagine. Put into a new environment it will change and adapt almost instantaneously easily forgetting what it was. By ‘playing’ at being another self (and BDSM is a form of adult play) we are trying this new self out and the more we step into the role, the more we easily become it. Thus play becomes a route to an inner transformation, an unstoppable sea-change and the beginning of a personal metamorphosis.

The Unintended Spiritual Path
Read Pt1 Here:   Rites of Passage & A Retreat from Ego
Read Pt2 Here:   Bondage as Meditation & Outer Transformation as a means to Inner Transformation
Read Pt3 Here:   Beyond Subspace into the Mystic: Mortification of the Flesh & Pain as the Pathway

Read also:  Entering Subspace – Altered States