/Daily Fix

"There's a very wise man I know named Fakir Musafar who lead a workshop in which he discussed how placing tight bands around your arms and waist and legs and simply wearing them for a period of days or weeks changes the way you view the world. Last year I took his workshop on ecstatic shamanism. It was an investigation of the various sorts of rites common in India and in Native America. Other cultures have used the body to experiences states of existence and have used transsexuality to have mythic voyages. That I found to be a very powerful thing! A lot of the bondage and flagellation techniques that people... use have been practiced for centuries. Convening people and having a focused and centered ceremony with the sole intent of gathering and capturing that essential sexual and spiritual energy – and working on it, writing all over it, actually heightening everybody’s awareness –  is something that’s made its way deeply into my concept of myself and my sexuality. Along with D and S and bondage, there’s magic that I have a higher respect for now. There are a lot of primal places you can go. You need to take care in visiting those places, but the people I’ve been meeting and the activities I enjoy are transforming my concept of myself as a spiritual being."

- Robin Young, in an interview from the Bondage chapter of quite possibly the deepest and most informative book on BDSM play: Different Loving by Gloria Brame, William Brame and Jon Jacobs.