However, I have also done years of research into the connection, between spirituality and BDSM, and it is perhaps best to explain it by separating the D/s and the SM aspects and dealing with them separately.

SM, sadomasochism involves people inflicting pain/sensations on each other. This can be done, as in a ritual setting, without any form of hierarchies, at all. An example would be Nuns in cliesters, who for centuries were expected to flog themselves every night with a tiny scourge that had little barbed hooks on the end. In Medieval times when SM was a common Monastical activity, they simply used different words to describe it. Often they were in denial of the body, yet the body won, because such activities can create a rush of endorphins more blissful than an orgasm. They called this the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Nuns are brides of Christ, and he does show up to some, to consummate the marriage. You can tell which Nuns are getting it from Jesus, because of their happy glow. Others are cranky spinsters. When Jesus showed up with a hardon, they thought he was Satan and kicked him out.

That also covers a lot of "Modern Primitive" shamanic type activities such as branding and hanging by flesh hooks... using pain to achieve altered, transcendent states. The Gardnerian birching purifications fall under this category. Intensity can be an aid to sharper focus, even a Zen sit requires surrendering to the pain caused by sitting still for so long.. and the whack of the Master's cane if you get restless.

Once you start to look for the connection between pain and spirituality, you can find it everywhere. People seek spirituality to help them cope with the pain of life. The practice of SM tantra helps to give the body a good dose of endorphins, the body's natural pain killers.

When we were wild things, hunting and gathering we hurt ourselves often, yet had to keep moving. We evolved to be able to cope with pain but our human ego resistance messes up the instincts.

K. prvokes endorphin, and K. plus SM is a blissfully fiery combination that makes normal SM seem dull, by comparison. When your body is regularly beoing flooded with natural painkillers, it is much easier not to sweat the small stuff. We are becoming a society of prozac and valium, but the body has a better way built-in.

D/s, is Dominance and submission... hierarchy roleplay that does not require any sadomasochism at all. The concept of Dominance and submission can be softened by describing it as leadership and service. There is no spiritual organisation without some kind of hierarcical system. In some it may be elaborate, like the many degrees of Masonry or the Catholic system, Pope to altarboy. The Master of an ashram is its absolute dictator... hopefully a benevolent dictatorship.

Surrender is the prime directive to survive awakened Kundalini. Most of us are trained to be active in our lives, making our own decisions and forming our own opinions. We are taught to be independent and wilful. Learning to hand all decisions over to the smarter part of your mind, the part that is Infinite and Divine takes some getting used to.

I find that the idea of slavery to the Divine is more easily understood by the average modern western ego than some eastern sanskrit poetry about Kali devouring your guts.

Surrendering to the Mother Goddess is the most sacred form of D/s. That is what I teach, using the forms of Fem-Dom as training in surrender and submission so students can learn to become a slave of their own inner divinity.

The spiritual awakening process that is described so eloquently in terms of Kundalini, is universal to all religions. The shaking of the Shaker and Quakers is Kundalini Kriyas in action, so is the shaking in a voodoo ceremony and the dancing and drumming of the aboriginal populations, and the speaking in tongues of the Bible Belt.

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