The Mental Aspect of Fetish Play & BDSM
Transcendental Aspect:
To help explain the transcendental aspect, I paraphrased from the article:
The Art of S/M: By Rick Umbaugh - http://www.domsubfriends.com/library/artofsm.shtml
"Enlightenment is not within the teachings of others, but within the self... One must only be willing to view themselves with an open mind and heart, to see the cosmos and harmony within. For then, when they turn their eyes from their own self, shall those eyes be open to the rest of existence and see it for what it is... Existence simply is." (Hyde, Umbaugh http://www.domsubfriends.com/library/artofsm.shtml)
At first to many, fetish play may seem superficial, though it is anything but. For many practitioners in our alternative lifestyle community, the art of S/m [D/s & M/s] is as intricate and advanced as the art of karate or archery. For instance, the art of fencing requires the application and acquisition of physical skills that are then applied to another human being. This requires certain empathy towards another person, which goes beyond normal human interaction. In the martial arts these skills are applied to overcome the resistance of the other person, while in S/m the skills that are used are used to overcome the mental resistance of your lover. Both of these require the empathy to feel what another person is feeling, and in a sense to predict what they are going to do before they do it.
Another aspect of this is to make sure in play that your partner leaves the scene a more enlightened person than when play first began. This can take the form of a wildly good orgasm to enlightenment to some Zen connotation, but the objective is to leave the bottom in a more satiated state then they were previously. As the violinist plays a violin in order to give it depth and pliability, the subs' body is played in ways to attain liberation. (Umbaugh http://www.domsubfriends.com/library/artofsm.shtml)
This can take the form of liberating a long-held fantasy to liberation from the mundane every-day of society. The difference between music and S/m, which makes so much of what it involves so intense, is that music exists for a mass audience, while S/m creates music for an audience of one. More importantly the instrument is also a participant. It is a dance in which two people acquire a different state of mind, a transcendental state has many names but is without definition.
Viewed from the realm of religious experience, participants in fetish play use many of the same techniques as mystics and shamans, except in fetish play it's referred to as recreation vs. religion. The transcendental state reached by some during play is often compared to what Russell Shorto refers to as "god-drug", a physical way of short-cutting oneself to feeling as if one is in presence of gods without appealing to more traditional religious practices. (Umbaugh http://www.domsubfriends.com/library/artofsm.shtml)
Thus for some, Domspace and subspace produce feelings of having a godly nature, or being in a godly realm. This transcendental state which is the objective of (most if not all) fetish play, is believed by the author to be closely related to the world of Zen and Tao.
The transcendental aspect of BDSM and Fetish play via web camming takes the art to another level, because the empathy involved and the ability to overcome the mental resistance of a lover takes place virtually, rather than face to face. The ability to overcome the mental resistance of and take power over a lover in a virtual setting intensifies the BDSM relationship tenfold. Contrary to popular belief, the physical sensations of Fetish and BDSM play are very much involved, if not more involved, when playing virtually. The physical sensations involved with virtual BDSM and Fetish play are often intensified because they are physical sensations caused without physically interacting. A power exchanging happening face to face between two lovers is one thing, but a power exchange intensified virtually, sometimes over millions of miles, is entirely more enthralling.
