Corporal punishment can be an erotic massage and a sexual stimulant. Spanking, caning and flogging are the stimuli of choice for a least 10% of the population.

From the couples who play at gentle spanking with hand and hairbrush, to the more hardy individuals who need a thrilling thwack with a cane, anything that brings blood rushing to the tender tissues of the buttocks and genital areas can greatly enhance sexual foreplay. In some individuals, this also applies to the breasts and nipples and can even include the application of ginger and black pepper to enhance arousal.

But often people will say, “We are not masochists. We do not actually enjoy the pain, but we realise we have to endure it to get the results we do enjoy.” These results are both chemical and emotional and relate to both sexual domination with the erotic use of power, and to the effects of endorphins and opiates generated by the body in response to these stimuli.

In sensual play, anything that concentrates the mind on the erogenous zones brings increased pleasure, from gentle stroking with fur and feathers to gradually increasing sensations from various grades of floggers, paddles, tawses, canes and whips.

Wielded by a craftsman, these range from soft, wide, leather floggers which give a thuddy, massage-like effect, through grades of smaller and smaller implements which sting ever more fiercely. The sensations range from pleasure to pain, from a boring, plucking sensation to a burning intensity which finally subsides to a sensation you never want to end. This is where extreme care is necessary to ensure that no lasting physical damage is inflicted.

As long as the skin is pinked gently and persistently and the level of stimulus gradually increased, no lasting marks or harm should ensue, but cold, fierce strokes can bruise and even break unprepared skin. When the skin is persistently stimulated to a damp, gooseflesh texture it is also fragile and vulnerable, so common-sense should be used and it is always wise to stop whilst you are wanting more.

It has been suggested that the desire for such extreme stimulus arises from childhood abuse, particularly in incestuous families or in the tradition of the Public School. But this does not explain the fantasies of those men and women who have never experienced any such thing, but still derive extreme pleasure from the disciplinary attentions of a skilled, controlling partner.

It does appear that the desire for such erotic stimulus is innate to many highly sexed or sexually sophisticated individuals who have entertained these fantasies from puberty and find that to indulge them produces the most intense sexual arousal and orgasmic response.

But, as in all extreme forms of sexual play, common-sense, safety and negotiation are paramount. When one partner has had enough, the play should stop. There is a fine line between supplying an exquisite stimulus and actual abuse and this should never be over-ridden.

The Tragic Incident in South India

The child’s ear was poked with a rough needle, used for stitching jute sack bags, causing profuse bleeding. For which a piece of old dirty cloth was inserted by a cruel country quack. A hen was offered to appease the evil spirit that caused the disease and the blood of the killed hen was applied to the wound on the ear!

Kandasmy, who was working in a cracker factory in a small village near Sivakasi the “Cracker town” in South India, took his eighteen month old male child to the primary health center near his village for a urinary complaint. The child had some urinary problem and the doctor there in the government health center diagnosed hernia. A surgery was suggested. But frightened by a local people that the child’s disease was due to a curse from a demon or some evil spirit, the illiterate parents took the child to a quack who readily suggested a torture therapy. The ignorant parents had no other alternative except to follow the quack. Moreover, they were afraid of the expenses for the surgery and the other formalities in a government hospital!

Even in the Twenty-First Century 

There are still lot of such torture treatments going on! Torture, many times, is still handled as a tool of therapy. Flogging, caning, whipping with certain plant sticks, bleeding caused in some way, burning, amputating, etc. have been followed by some ancient tribes in the human history and are still followed as methods of treatment in some ignorant communities all over the world especially in Africa and Asia. Stating that they are purifying the bad energies in the body and mind or purging the stomach, or causing better circulation of blood, these torture therapists inflict all these tortures on ignorant victims who are already mentally prejudiced.

Here are some examples of torture therapies:

1. It is quite common even in these days to find insane patients treated with such cruel methods of flogging, whipping, binding in chains, etc.
2. In the history of Europe we have seen how flogging was used as a therapy. In the fourteenth century, during the Black Death plague in Europe, flogging was recommended both for preventing and curing it. This kind of torture is still followed in India in treating insane patients. There is a belief that the evil spirit can be cast away and the insanity can be cured by flogging with “erukkau”(calotropis gigantee) sticks!
3. If a person is attacked by epilepsy, he is branded in his hand with a hot iron.
4. The practice of scarring with hot iron for jaundice is still alive in many parts of India!
5. Many follow frightening therapies which I have not included in my list above, which are still more dangerous and complicated!

Why these Torture Therapies?

Illiteracy, ignorance, superstitions and prejudices are the main causes of such torture treatments. Traditional practices have a stronger role to play in these therapies. People still have the belief that diseases are caused by the anger of gods or by some evil spirits!

It is time for the Global Family to come forward to put an end to such torture therapies! Education, awareness, encouraging friendship among nations, cooperating with the good hearted Good Samaritans, etc. only can bring these practices to an end.