Monday, January 14, 2013

Mummification Theory

There has been an interesting conversation started on Fetlife that is related to my post last month about the evolution of a bondage-restraint-latex fetish.

The conversation tends towards discussing the psychosexual roots of restraint and mummification, and further along also delves into skintight coverage. Some of the people adding to the conversation seem quite knowledgeable on the topic! I will try to include a balance of the discussion without posting everything.

Ok, so I have this theory about mummification lovers...
by Various Contributors

My theory is that people who like mummification were born with the desire for the feeling of being compressed and encased. I'll go further and hypothesize that this applies to people who enjoy being snugly bound in sleepsacks, vacbeds, straitjackets, etc. as well.

Everything in my life history seems to line up with this theory:

As a baby I would always fall asleep and be happiest when I was swaddled in blankets or sheets (according to mom, I obviously don't remember it).
As a kid, I had an inflatable mattress that I would inflate only slightly then roll up inside. I recall enjoying the feeling of compression, even though I was far too young to associate any sexual feelings with it.
Up to this day, I always sleep rolled up under blankets. Even when it's hot out, I want at least a sheet or something over me and I find it difficult to sleep when I don't have something covering me.
What are your thoughts? Did you always, on some level, enjoy mummification? Is my theory completely nuts?

Thank you for taking the time to read and share your thoughts on this.

* Personally I don't feel this applies - I've always felt the need to be able to move around freely and not feel constrained by clothing or bedding or whatever it may be. I'd be interested in hearing whether anyone else feels that your theory applies to them though.

* A friend of mine had some thoughts on this... mummification could also be seen as a desire to be close to death. A dance with suicide. You are confined, unable to move, breathing through a little tube just waiting for the next time someone places their finger over it cutting off your only life line to the outside world. I suppose it's the same reason people enjoy collars being tighter and tighter. No doubt reasons for this fetish vary. Associating infantile feelings of being in the womb or swaddled as a baby could very well factor in too. In any case, it's a hell of a lot of fun.

* I have to agree with the theory. I began rolling myself up tightly in a large bed sheet at age 5 or 6. I enjoyed the feeling of being tightly encased. Shortly thereafter, long before puberty, I found that if I rolled myself up tightly, then eased myself over the edge of the bed so my crotch was pressed into the wood slat on the edge of the bed, I would get a pleasant sensation in my groin. I didn't know at the time, of course, that this was a prepubescent orgasm. Once I was old enough to have erections, still before puberty, I realized there was a sexual connection. I masturbated to orgasm mummified or in, or fantasizing about, other forms of bondage for years, with no ejaculation. At age 14, I had my first ejaculation with an orgasm.

Was I born with the desire and am I hard-wired to sexually enjoy bondage for more than half a century? Or did my early experience with mummification put me on that track for the rest of my life?

I really don't know.

* Developmental theory is well studied, and it is quite logical from many perspectives. All humans are hardwired to associate 'contact' with social and emotional acceptance. These usually include the mother's embrace at birth and the caring contact of family throughout a person's childhood. Newborns are wrapped in swaddling because it is known to calm infants. I believe this practice only confirms and enforces that desire for contact as validation, security and survival. A lack of family contact (hugs, tickling, massage, attention and compliments) will often exaggerate the desire for contact. I definitely fall into this category.

I do also believe that the adrenaline/fantasy theory is also valid. 90% of the sexual response is in the thoughts of a person. But the sensory part is amazing, and 'pulls the trigger' for most people that are setup this way. I'm one of them too.

Power exchange, trust, fantasy, sensory overload, and even 'bucket list' are the top drives that come to mind. The number of ways to accomplish the desired results is only limited by a persons imagination and budget, which results in a wide variety of separate fetishes.

* many autistic individuals or those with nerve disorders and sometimes a sense of 'out of body/out of control body' experiences, also find they enjoy the feelings and experience of being 'mummified' in tight wrappings. So to make a proper theory/description, one should look at it from a physical as well as psycho-emotional state, not just from a fetish perspective. afterall, we are more then just our fetishes. :)

* Yep. I'd have to agree. Had this huge European pillow and I'd always crawl inside the pillowcase when I was little not even realizing it was sexual. Then learned to roll myself up tightly in my sheets. Got to the point where I wanted more so I tricked my siblings into zipping me into a sleeping bag and then putting belts tightly around me. I said I wanted to be a magician/escape artist and always bet them I could get free. Then I 'begged' them not to leave me alone and of course, they usually did. Then I was free to enjoy myself!

* Yes, same here : no idea it was sexual - this came later

* This is something that has always fascinated me...why some people crave anything restraining, binding, skintight, while the thought of being incapacitated in this way or tightly covered nauseates others. I think it speaks volumes about the complexities of our minds and what we find stimulating. I always thought the swaddling/calming thing was part of it; and within that desire for the swaddling, a sexual trigger was manifested at some point, thus becoming a fetish or kink. Could there be more psychosexual complexity to this? Maybe some of us weren't swaddled enough or held enough by our mothers? Maybe there is a desire to return to the warm, compression and serenity of the womb for others? Maybe that's too much Freudian quackery, and it's simply a matter of how the internal wiring is done. I can't get enough skintight, compressioney goodness while my partner gags when wearing a turtleneck. It's funny and fascinating.

* A return to the womb seems the most reasonable to me. Especially to those who slide into a delicious comfort zone when fully encased. Perhaps even napping.

* I believe this is more physiological than we think. It is the total giving up of yourself and "the world" in order to be cared for by your top. The need to be away and to be nurtured. The desire to be taken away from the noise and worries of the world. I think the compression and sensory removal is all part of this mindset which allows for an experience like this which can not be compared to anything else.

* In my case it's more about the things you listed than the things in the original post.

I guess I've always felt the lack of positive emotions during my childhood/early teen years (I'm not aware of that but when I think about the atmosphere in the house it certainly wasn't heart warming to say the least) and I've started developing the encasement fetish very early (actually some of my first memories are of such activities). But what's peculiar is that I was a switch from the very beginning lol I tied up/wrapped my toys as well as myself.

It's just one of those things that are fun to think about but I don't really wanna know why - it's something very fun right now and since my emotional life doesn't suck and there are no unresolved issues there's no good reason for me to poke around that subject.

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