what the heck is this about?

[katt_g]

MIS and I were talking about it, and she described it as different levels. There are things I do that put her in subspace, after a fashion, but it is a headspace where she is still somewhat aware of what is going on, and somewhat responsive. Not quite all there, but not quite a ll gone. And then there are the times where she is way far gone. Both are subspace, but perhaps not as far in.

yes...i can relate to this. most times i am the first one.

the original post about the 2 days of freezing following an episode, was definitely about a much farther gone time. that is why the shock explanation from bibunny made so much sense to me.

 

[Adakgirl]

Copies and pasted from a medical dictionary

endorphin
[endôr′fin]
Etymology: Gk, endon + morphe, shape
one of the three groups of endogenous opioid peptides composed of many amino acids, elaborated by the pituitary gland and other brain areas, and acting on the central and the peripheral nervous systems to reduce pain. There are three known, designated alpha, beta, and gamma. Beta-endorphin has been isolated in the brain and in the GI tract and seems to be the most potent of the endorphins. Beta-endorphin is composed of 30 amino acids that are identical to part of the sequence of 91 amino acids of the hormone beta-lipotropin, also produced by the pituitary gland. Behavioral tests indicate that beta-endorphin is a powerful analgesic in humans and animals. Brain-stimulated analgesia in humans releases beta-endorphin into the cerebrospinal fluid. Compare enkephalin.
Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.
endorphin
one of a group of opiate-like peptides produced naturally by the body at neural synapses at various points in the central nervous system pathways where they modulate the transmission of pain perceptions. The term endorphin was coined by combining the words endogenous and morphine. Like morphine, endorphins raise the pain threshold and produce sedation and euphoria; the effects are blocked by naloxone, a narcotic antagonist.

 

[Nymphomaniacal]

I guess it has to do with the fact that like everyone has said, we all need and desire the sexual stimulus and its normal. I think the "subspace" label is there because usually the sub is the one getting the various stimulants, but if a D allowed themselves to undergo the same intensity they would have the same experience. Sex is as relieving as it is stressful, and I wouldnt doubt that in some point during the play Ds would experience a small "subspace" of their own, it would just be viewed maybe a little differently. Im not a D I wouldnt know.

I think Cameron from the tv show House M.D. put it best...

"Sex could kill you. Do you know what the human body goes through when you have sex? Pupils dilate, arteries constrict, core temperature rises, heart races, blood pressure skyrockets, respiration becomes rapid and shallow, the brain fires bursts of electrical impulses from nowhere to nowhere, and secretions spit out of every gland, and the muscles tense and spasm like you're lifting three times your body weight. It's violent, it's ugly and it's messy, and if God hadn't made it unbelievably fun, the human race would have died out eons ago."

 

[Cattypuss]

The sub-space or whatever you want to call it that I get into during a long hard spanking/caning etc is VERY like the trance-like state that I used to get into when left for an hour with acupuncture needles all down my back when being treated in a Chinese clinic for back pain. Even though for me the first is very sexual and the second was very UNsexual.

Yeah, I think it's the endorphins.

 

[intothewoods]

I very much disagree.

Certainly the impact play ect. can help bring about hormonal changes in the body, but the endocrine and limbic systems are ultimately controlled by the nervous system. What ever they do, they do together. Startling things can make your body/ brain chemicals go haywire resulting in a wide variety of "out of the ordinary" states of being, many of which might fall under an individual's definition of subspace.

So yes, just looking at a flogger might bring back some memory, or cause a thrill of anticipation, and in turn trigger a mental slide and/ or physical sensation that a given individual might associate with subspace.

It's not as if we're talking about an empirically observable state of being.

I have been deeply in subspace from words on a screen. It was no less intense than hearing her voice, being touched, getting told off, or letting her write her name on me in bruises.

In fact there were times when words on a screen were much much worse.
Excited? no
Aroused? certainly not

Well, all feelings are chemical reactions in our body, so if we want to drop the word subspace from the kinky dictionary I have absolutely no objection.

 

[Homburg]

Well, all feelings are chemical reactions in our body, so if we want to drop the word subspace from the kinky dictionary I have absolutely no objection.

I tend to use "headspace". The problem with dropping the word is that it is still a valid concept, and far better to be informed of the reaction than to not have the information out there. What is needed is not excising it, but demystifying it.

 

[katt_g]

I think Cameron from the tv show House M.D. put it best...

"Sex could kill you. Do you know what the human body goes through when you have sex? Pupils dilate, arteries constrict, core temperature rises, heart races, blood pressure skyrockets, respiration becomes rapid and shallow, the brain fires bursts of electrical impulses from nowhere to nowhere, and secretions spit out of every gland, and the muscles tense and spasm like you're lifting three times your body weight. It's violent, it's ugly and it's messy, and if God hadn't made it unbelievably fun, the human race would have died out eons ago."

i love that show! what a great quote. i can so picture house and cameron in a D/s relationship...
he does have that cane....

Like morphine, endorphins raise the pain threshold and produce sedation and euphoria;

and that certainly explains a lot! thank you adakgirl!

I tend to use "headspace". The problem with dropping the word is that it is still a valid concept, and far better to be informed of the reaction than to not have the information out there. What is needed is not excising it, but demystifying it.

i like this term too, because it can be readily applied to anyone/any situation. and thank you...those of us joining after the start of programming need all the help we can get with demystifying sometimes. just a little nudge here and there to remind us that we're all pretty 'normal' (for lack of a better term )

 

[Netzach]

I think D's experience something but it involves different chemistry. If you are an adrenaline junkie, you are likely either an s type who LOVES being surprised and not more than a wee bit scared, or a D. It's that classic heavy-breathing, pinpoint-focus, world-stops-around-you thing.

 

[BiBunny]

I think D's experience something but it involves different chemistry. If you are an adrenaline junkie, you are likely either an s type who LOVES being surprised and not more than a wee bit scared, or a D. It's that classic heavy-breathing, pinpoint-focus, world-stops-around-you thing.

Or a little of both. *Whistles innocently*

 

[Homburg]

I think D's experience something but it involves different chemistry. If you are an adrenaline junkie, you are likely either an s type who LOVES being surprised and not more than a wee bit scared, or a D. It's that classic heavy-breathing, pinpoint-focus, world-stops-around-you thing.

I would like to know what sort of chemistry goes on in my system. As I've mentioned before, when I am really in the zone, I become hyper-aware. I touch everything, see everything, etc. It's too much data to process, really, so I often have spotty memory for specifics afterwards. Seriously, I'll be talking about a really potent scene after the fact, and the bottom will always remember more details than I do (aside from moments under deep headspace of course).

So it is both awesome, and a little frustrating. It's like I'm too... on. Sorry, words fail me in trying to describe this.

 

[Shankara20]

If you are an adrenaline junkie....

It's that classic heavy-breathing, pinpoint-focus, world-stops-around-you thing.

you rang!

 

[katt_g]

you rang!

hi! so glad to see you!

 

[katt_g]

I think D's experience something but it involves different chemistry. If you are an adrenaline junkie, you are likely either an s type who LOVES being surprised and not more than a wee bit scared, or a D. It's that classic heavy-breathing, pinpoint-focus, world-stops-around-you thing.

this brought an interesting thought to my head.

i know a sub who dabbled in drug use many, many years ago and had a preference for the pick-me-up variety. and i also know a Dom who preferred the mellow-me-out sort. funny how they both seem to have the opposite D/s hormonal addiction now!

 

[Netzach]

I would like to know what sort of chemistry goes on in my system. As I've mentioned before, when I am really in the zone, I become hyper-aware. I touch everything, see everything, etc. It's too much data to process, really, so I often have spotty memory for specifics afterwards. Seriously, I'll be talking about a really potent scene after the fact, and the bottom will always remember more details than I do (aside from moments under deep headspace of course).

So it is both awesome, and a little frustrating. It's like I'm too... on. Sorry, words fail me in trying to describe this.

That makes sense too. I tend to have no idea what they're talking about with X because I was doing Y and Z sometimes. However, my attention to Y and Z made them non-issues for the bottom.

 

[Homburg]

That makes sense too. I tend to have no idea what they're talking about with X because I was doing Y and Z sometimes. However, my attention to Y and Z made them non-issues for the bottom.

That is right about it, yeah.

I'm processing eight thousand things so that the bottom can really deeply grok two or three things.

 

[katt_g]

That is right about it, yeah.

I'm processing eight thousand things so that the bottom can really deeply grok two or three things.

*blush*....i had to go look that one up. i always learn something here.

 

[Homburg]

*blush*....i had to go look that one up. i always learn something here.

Sorry, Heinlein geek from way way back. The word stuck with me.

 

[Shankara20]

Sorry, Heinlein geek from way way back. The word stuck with me.

I grok "grok"


but what you mean "way way back" ?

 

[Homburg]

I grok "grok"


but what you mean "way way back" ?

I started reading Heinlein when I was seven or eight, I think. So nearly three decades. That counts as "way way back" for me. Hell, you aren't so old that three decades is a flash in the pan.

 

[Shankara20]

I started reading Heinlein when I was seven or eight, I think. So nearly three decades. That counts as "way way back" for me. Hell, you aren't so old that three decades is a flash in the pan.

I wonder if your Heinlein is my Vonnegut...

How nice--to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.
Kurt Vonnegut


A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.
Robert A. Heinlein

 

[Homburg]

I wonder if your Heinlein is my Vonnegut...

How nice--to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.
Kurt Vonnegut


A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.
Robert A. Heinlein

I read me some Vonnegut too. I found a lot of his work overdone and arrogant, but loved so many quotes, as well as numerous numerous characters. I found it surprising that I enjoyed "Cat's Cradle" as much as I did, given how tepid I was about the rest of his novels.

He does have a very special place in my literary background though, and that is that Vonnegut wrote my all-time favourite short story, "Harrison Bergeron." It is exceedingly rare for me to pick a favourite of anything, so being unequivocably willing to call this my favourite short story speaks to how highly I regard that piece.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Why do doms love Heinlein so? Seems to be a BDSM truism.

 

[intothewoods]

I tend to use "headspace". The problem with dropping the word is that it is still a valid concept, and far better to be informed of the reaction than to not have the information out there. What is needed is not excising it, but demystifying it.

The question is are we talking about the endorphin rush in reaction to pain, or all chemical responses that we have in the context of a relationship? I don't care either way. I'd just like to know!

 

[Homburg]

Why do doms love Heinlein so? Seems to be a BDSM truism.

That is an interesting question.

 

[katt_g]

my heavens this thread certainly took a left turn someplace while i was at work...lol