In general meaning, sensory deprivation (Latin: sensus – feeling and deprivatio – loss) is a condition in which a person is not satisfied with his physiological, psychological needs. In BDSM culture has, almost, the same meaning, but with a little difference – psychological practice, the restriction of signals coming from the sense organs (sight, touch, hearing, sometimes other senses), or a complete privation of the possibility of using them during an action.
The goal of practice is to increase the feelings of the submissive, and psychosexual pleasure for the Dominant. The helplessness of a person gives complete control over the body and emotions. If you block one sense organ, the other becomes aggravated.
For example, if are blind and deaf for the moment, you can focus on your body and feel everything in a different way, everything becomes more sensitive. The excitement, in trying to predict the actions of a partner, will help to excite feelings for both of you
There are several main types of sensory deprivation:
Partial – limited the opportunity to see and hear. For example, using blindfolds, earplugs, special leather helmets. A simple and safe way to sharpen feelings. The restriction of eyesight activates the hearing if you combine it with hearing loss it will make the surprise effect stronger. In combination with rope bondage or handcuffs, this allows you to make the sensations from physical influences much brighter.
Total (mummification for example) – more complex option, which allows solving several tasks:
- if used for subsequent physical impacts on the “mummy”, it allows you to create a feeling of complete helplessness (like shibari) and can be used as an element of SM practices or sexual games;
- and if left the “mummy” in resting state, this practice will allow depriving sub’s influence on what is happening around, as much as possible. This method is based on trust in Dominant and allows you to show this trust most fully.
Floating – the total sensory deprivation, in which not only eyesight, hearing and touch are excluded, but also other sensory organs which tend to forget – the temperature receptors and the vestibular apparatus (the orientation in space is lost). The person immersing in a special water chamber, the temperature and density of which is close to the temperature and density of the human body.
In these conditions (lying in the dark and silent) with the complete absence of external signals, various psychological effects coming up. This type mostly using in therapy and lasts from 10 minutes to an hour.
Partial sensory deprivation, when submissive can be quickly released, is completely safe, if not used for a long time. The only contraindication is a phobia. Mummification, like other options for complete sensory deprivation, requires special precautions. First of all, to avoid injuries, after a motionless state, the submissive must lie or be securely fixed. You can not leave him/her alone. In addition, sensory deprivation can cause panic attacks, fraught with serious psychological trauma.
The main question: Why? In practice, where sensory sensations are so important, why would someone need to limit them? There are several reasons for this, and each is important for the Dominant and the submissive:
Control: Depriving the natural mechanisms of perception of information from the outside and self-defense. We significantly expand the management capabilities of both the body and the soul. The submissive becomes helpless, and the Dominant receives an additional instrument to control;
Strengthening of other feelings: If one of the feelings is deprived, the remaining ones are used more intensively in an attempt to compensate for the loss of information;
Expectation: By blocking any of the senses, we force the submissive to languish in anticipation of subsequent events. We all know that waiting is one of the most effective tools in the Dominant’s arsenal.