by Hermes Solenzol Everything I described in Ask a Neuroscientist: The physiology of BDSM (Part 1) – How Pain Moves to the Brain forms the so-called ascending pain pathway, which goes from the skin to the cerebral cortex. There, in the cortex, is where the pain becomes conscious, it is felt with its particular emotional…
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Ask a Neuroscientist: The Physiology of BDSM (Part 1/2) – How Pain Moves to the Brain
by Hermes Solenzol We need to rescue the word “sadist”. In the vanilla world it is often taken as a synonym of “cruel”, but in the BDSM culture we know this is not true. We are not cruel, we don’t like to cause suffering, just as masochists do not like to suffer. It is only…
Ask a Neuroscientist: A Fresh Look at Marijuana in the BDSM Scene
by Hermes Solenzol The recreational use of cannabis is now legal in my home state of California and in eight other states and Washington DC. Medical cannabis is legal in 28 states. So now more than half the people of the United States has some form of legal access to marijuana. In fact, marijuana use…
Butt-Plugging a Novice
by Hermes Solenzol Buttplugs are very effective ways to put somebody into submissive mind space. Being penetrated is always an intimate sensation, and the use of an object adds an element of humiliation. Targeting the anus increases the feeling of intimacy and vulnerability, because of the taboos associated with it. Moreover, anal sensations tend to…
How to Avoid Hurting the One We Love
by Hermes Solenzol It is quite ironic that the person who loves you the best is also the person who is able to hurt you most deeply. Apparently, romantic relationships entail a great deal of suffering. Everybody seems to think that this is unavoidable, that suffering is just the price of admission for being loved….
Ask a Neuroscientist: Pain Physiology, Explained to a Bottom
by Hermes Solenzol Imagine that you are being spanked… Stop getting so excited! This is supposed to be a scientific explanation! As I was saying, imagine that you are being spanked, and you are feeling that familiar stinging, warm pain in your behind. In reality, you don’t feel the pain in your bottom. You feel…
When Your Dom Can Sleep With Anyone He Pleases, But You Can’t
by Hermes Solenzol This practice seems to be quite common in the world of Dominance/submission (D/s). I have seen people who I respect a lot as Doms do it. And, given the enormous overlap between BDSM and polyamory / non-monogamy, it’s something that needs to be considered carefully from the ethical point of view. It…
The Seven Elements of Submission
by Hermes Solenzol Although much has been written about the different techniques used in bondage and sadomasochism, less effort has been put into systematizing the dynamics of a Dominance/submission (D/s) relationship. D/s is much more complex than the Dominant simply ordering the submissive around. It begins when the Dominant and the submissive agree that they…
Panic Attacks in BDSM Scenes
by Hermes Solenzol Among the many problems that can happen in a scene, panic attacks can be a serious one, especially if the Top doesn’t know how to handle them. They are more common than you may think. Last month, during a talk I gave at Threshold (the BDSM organization of Los Angeles), I asked…
BDSM is not science, it’s an art!
by Hermes Solenzol Borrowing from the name of a popular website, I fucking love science! I fell in love with science when I was a pre-teen and have studied it ever since. These days I make a living doing scientific research on the physiology of pain, which is kind of convenient for a sadomasochist. I…