Prehension and Sleepsacks

First off, I think people know that I over-analyze a lot of things, and this is going to one of those points where I am over-analyzing to a point that people may start to disagree with what I have to say.

I have as of late become engrossed by sleepsacks, and have been thinking about them for long periods of time. And I think they have let me understand a lot more about kink than what I used to understand about the process and journey itself. I was at a gear weekend this last weekend (more about that at a later date, I will probably start posting my IML memoir in segments and then the gear weekend in segments as well, though the chronology will be a bit askew).

At any rate, this is in part a reflection after watching a prolonged scene itself, and seeing what I could see when I was looking at it objectively and not directly involved. I want to first give two observations/viewpoints that I feel underscore how I understand kink for myself. Each person responds to it in a different way, but this is the lens under which I view kink. Sex is a conversation between persons, and kink is an alternate type of conversation where two people may converse to understand one another in a new way. It’s more carnal and it can lead to learning about each other in a different level of one another’s psyche. Also, I feel like a Bottom can understand himself better via this category of conversation. Your conscience can prehend (in the words of Whitehead) with the more intimate parts of one’s mind via kink. I feel like sleepsacks are the first gear piece that have found me understanding how prehension works in kink, as one flows between understanding what is going on consciously and subconsciously via the sensory deprivations.



This picture is of therubberfreak, the first person I met at IML (actually met him on the Blue Line when he was part of a trio I asked for directions to the host hotel).

The gear itself promotes aesthetic objectification. It makes the body uniform and symmetric. Both of these characteristics are hardwired, abstract ideals in our minds. The hand placement forces the body to admit a level of posture, and while the Bottom struggles, the only muscles that can break the symmetry are the obliques, a muscle that cannot maintain that broken symmetry for long. When one laces the sleepsack, it adds more symmetry and then thins the body, giving another level of ideals approached, one then laces diagonally the rope upon the abdomen, making an abstract definition of a roped six-pack. Then this in turn makes the pecs protrude. I find it interesting and beautiful how the lacing of a sleepsack unintentionally adds these extra dimensions to the body.

Next a gas mask or an appropriate hood leads to a new level of symmetry by symmetrizing the head, while serving to objectify the Bottom, both in the Top’s and Bottom’s perspective. With this level of sensory deprivation and new mindset, the Bottom can now observe, feel and interact with stimuli and the world in a new headspace.

Let me explain what I feel that a Bottom feels in a sleepsack (in this case, I’d like to assume that the Bottom is sensory deprived as before). I feel one of the strongest points of BDSM immobilization and sensory deprivation is the fact that it allows, with other pieces of gear, to go into a state of isolation, and project oneself down into a level of impersonal trials and stimuli that the Top engages, while still keeping a conversation between the persons. There’s a loss of history, one’s headspace goes to the moment, and one can transcend further into one’s inner id. By keeping focus, I feel one can get to a new level for stimuli, whether it’s a new type of interaction, higher level of pain or stronger reaction to stimuli. This is where the prehension can be reached, and there’s a certain level of beauty attached to it all.