I’m always curious about the physical processes associated with subspace. I’ve written about it in the past (for example here), despite the fact I know very little about the subject. Fortunately this is the internet, and they let any idiot with a keyboard post his random thoughts.
I do know that Oxytocin is thought to be a part of the subspace brain chemistry. I was therefore intrigued to encounter this article describing how it can be purchased and administered as a nasal spray. The sales pitch is based on improving love and relationships, but it made me wonder what affect it would have on BDSM play. I love the strong wave of emotions I get deep in a scene, so would this make it easier to get to that point? Or would combining the intensity of a scene with a heavy dose of this hormone just end up screwing you up? And if it did work, would that be actually be a good thing? Or would it feel like shortchanging your BDSM relationship?
For someone who tends towards a hedonistic lifestyle, I’m surprisingly straight when it comes to drugs. Big fan of food, drink, and sex, but never smoked a cigarette or done a line in my life. So I’m unlikely to be the guinea pig for this particular experiment. But I would be fascinated to read the results if someone ever repeated the article writer’s experiment in a kinky context.
I’ll leave you with a shot from Men in Pain that represents one of the best ways to get me into subspace – nipple torture. No nasally administered hormones required. Just squeeze and twist.
I’m not comfortable with reductionism, and the notion that emotions and things that are subjectively experienced reduce to the presence or absence of certain chemicals in the brain doesn’t quite satisft.
What is cause and what is effect?
I’m sure that if you examined the brain biochemistry of male submissives in all sorts of D/s situations, you’d come up with some interesting findings. But why did they actually choose to put themselves in those situations in the first place?
What are the existential implications?
More questions than answers I’m afraid.
Well at the end of the day we’re all bags of chemicals and electrical impulses! Unless you assume that something like a soul or divine spark exists.
Personally for my own sanity I do make a division between what I think of as ‘self’ (my mind) and the physical stuff that supports it. But that’s a hazy line. I think it’s undoubtedly true that the chemicals the body produces in a BDSM scene can have an affect on the mind. Feeling a temporary wave of love for the domme is a case in point. Is that my mind or my body or what? Similarly I feel happy and buzzed for days after a scene. There are no doubt lots of complex reasons for that, but I’m sure part of the story is a brain biochemistry one.
As for why anyone puts themselves in those situations, well that’s a question that could be the basis for a hundred books!
As you say there are a lot more questions than answers. And I’m afraid my thoughts here are not exactly well formed or coherent in my own head.
-paltego
Hi,
I am very interested in this topic but like you am not the kind of person to experiment with this sort of thing. Endogenous brain chemicals should do the trick. I have read a few articles on brain chemicals and how they interact with sexual response, but they are sometimes contradictory. A prevailing notion in male chastity circles is that oxytocin, the bonding hormone, is induced during sexual arousal and depleted upon ejaculation by the increase in serotonin. I happen to be watching “Why Sex is Fun” (favorite topic, lol) on TV last night and it was implied that oxytocin itself is responsible for the spasms that lead to male ejaculation. That’s the first I’ve heard of that. I wish to research this a bit more.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a brain chemical explanation for my intense feelings of bonding with my wife when she denies me orgasm and she experiences the intensity of her own. Part of me thinks that it is simply her acceptance of my desire for submission makes me feel loved and accepted.
At any event, it was an hour long show with the major goal as to answering the question of: why do women orgasm? What a great topic! The narrator casually mentioned that male orgasms on average last 6 sec whereas female orgasms last 20 sec. And then she said, “plus, we can have multiple orgasms”. That’s my kind of programming 🙂
Thanks for the pointer to the TV show. I’ll look out for that one. Sounds interesting.
I’ve not heard of the link between ejaculation and oxytocin before. I’ll dig into that a little more. Personally I’ve never felt the same intensity of feelings on ejaculation as I get deep in subspace, but that might be an issue of relative amounts of oxytocin, rather than an absence in one case. It’s also hard to untangle the existing emotional connections and complex feelings from the more pure brain chemistry of the moment in a scene. History and relationships obviously matter.
I have heard that serotonin is linked to ejaculation. One theory is that low levels of it lead to premature ejaculation: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7657092.stm
Fortunately I’ve not run into that problem. Or at least not since I was a very horny hair trigger teenager 🙂
-paltego