Us humans have five different senses: Sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. In BDSM-play sometimes one or more of these sensors are deprived (sensory deprivation). A blindfold for example can take away someone’s sight, causing them to act upon the remaining senses; hearing, smell, taste and touch. This is a fun way to make the other aware of their senses, because in general they become more intense.
Sight
In our daily routine we use our ability to see more than any other sensors. That explains why being blindfolded is a beloved sensory deprivation in erotic play. Next to blindfolds, masks are often used. Some masks don’t deprive sight completely, but only limit it. And other masks don’t just deprive sight, but also deprive hearing because they also cover the ears.
Taste
It is virtually impossible to deprive someone of the taste senses, but they can be influenced, for example by overwhelming them with food that has strong taste sensations. You can think of onion, ginger, sour candy, toothpaste, peppers, or mouth water. This way you can mask or enhance certain taste sensations. Smell and taste go hand in hand. By covering the nose, the taste is reduced.
For some extra fun you can delve into the taste buds in the mouth. Some parts of the tongue are said to detect certain tastes and you might overload those parts with that particular taste. Placing extreem sour candy on the side of the tongue can cause the eyes to tear.
Smell
Smell is easy to block by placing a squeezer on the nose or cover it with a cloth. This will cause a reduction in taste. By placing a mask or hood that blocks smell, sight and hearing, the ‘victim’ will become more sensitive for touch. Both pleasant and unpleasant touch will be intensified.
Do pay attention that the person can breath normally and can say their safeword!
Hearing
Hoods, ear plugs and headphones with noise control or loud music are a great way to limits someone’s hearing. It’s even possible to induce some kind of Pavlovian response, when noises and kinky acts are combined. The music will block other sounds and the body will respond to music, because it will be prgrammed (like Pavlov’s dog, that started to drool with certain sounds, because he thought he would get food). Dissonant electronic music has a side effect that the person will get confused. It is also a technique that was used on prisoners on Guantanamo Bay.
Touch
Depriving someone of the touch sensor is a different matter. The skin is not only a sensitive organ, but it is also the largest organ of the human body. The only way to eliminate someone’s sense of touch, is by placing some kind of barrier (for instance using liquid latex, latex clothing, platsic foil, etc.), or by using sedate someone temporarily with local anesthetic. Both methods are not without danger (because of allergies, cut of blood circulation, blood pressure) so you really must know what you are doing.
How to apply sensory deprivation effectively?
Try to block just one specific sensor and start playing with another. For instance, blindfold a person and then tease him or her with a feather tickler or start a massage with scented oil. This can be amazingly erotic. The effect is often very surprising!
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