Sacred kink: finding psychological meaning at the intersection of BDSM and spiritual experience

This study posed to participants the phenomenological question: Can you describe, in detail, a specific time when you had a spiritual experience while engaging in a BDSM scene? It was the goal of the researcher to understand the psychological meanings of spiritual experiences, occurring either spontaneously or through deliberate induction, had by participants who were actively engaged in BDSM scenes at the time of the experience and to capture a limited view of this lived experience. A descriptive phenomenological psychological approach was used to explicate the key psychological constituents of this phenomenon as it was lived.The key constituents discovered in this research were (1) ordeal, (2) surrender, (3) visionary experience, (4) embodied sense of an energetic force, (5) sense of spiritual presence (Other), (6) self-surrendered/transcended state of consciousness, and (7) deeply personal and lasting transformation. Clinicians could possibly use the context of this research to better understand clients who are positively engaged in BDSM in the same way that one might view the religious and spiritual practices of a client.