GrizzlyBear
Posts: 278
Joined: 3/26/2004 From: Missoula Montana Status: offline
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Noted BDSM safety nazi Jay Wiseman would have you believe that any form of breath play might result in someone dying. That may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but there are dangers that should not be glossed over. There are many sports that are more dnagerous than breath control, yet people accept the risks for the thrill involved. Just preventing someone from breathing for a few seconds is very unlikely to cause any problem, especially if it is done in such a way that active muscle tension on the part of the top is required to maintain the lack of breath, and that as soon as you release it they can breathe. Examples are the hand over nose and mouth, or the kiss combined with holding the nose closed. Much more dangerous are forms where some action on the part of the top is necessary to release them from the control. Queening is an example here, or many forms of noose play, including predicament bondage that involves a noose or a bag over the head. A few moments of distraction at the wrong time (for example during orgasm, or maybe the phone rings...) and you have a dead body. Practicing carotid artery control (the sleeper hold, the passout game etc.) has its own dangers. Bear in mind that in addition to the possibility of cardiac arrest, some amount of brain cell death occurs when the brain is deprived of oxygen long enough to lose consciousness. Brain damage is cumulative. Those cells never grow back, and the more you lose, the more chance that something important will be lost forever. Cardiac arrest from vaso-vagal nerve response is one rare but possible outcome. Young healthy people are less likely to have problems, but a number of kids have died doing it. Although these chokes are commonly used in the sport of Judo, apparently without any reported incidents, the degree of supervision and training of the people who engage in that sport is vastly different than that of most people playing with erotic asphyxiation. If you are going to do this, both parties must know and accept the risks involved. The chances are pretty small if you avoid the really risky practices. however they are not zero. Someone may die. If they do, the other party is going to jail, at the very least for manslaughter (negligent homicide). In this respect, breath play differs from sky diving, or heli-skiing, or rock climbing. No one goes to jail if you die doing those things.
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GrizzlyBear "Come to the edge," he said. They said, "We are afraid." "Come to the edge," he said. They came. He pushed them. And they flew. ~Guillaume Apollinaire
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