Ecstasy
The word ecstasy usually refers to our total immersion in an an experience to the point where we can completely lose contact with everything else going on around us. This can be called an altered state of consciousness and is a common experience in BDSM.
The intensity of many BDSM experiences can compel surrender to the experience itself. For example, a flogging or bondage scene can create physical or psychological feelings which are so intense that they push all other awareness out of our minds. Indeed, to get the most out of BDSM this surrender---as opposed to resistance or trying to tough it out---is necessary. We must actively accept and embrace the experience rather than merely let it happen.
This concept of surrender is vital. Emmanuel Ghent[1] notes that this can be accompanied by feelings of ecstasy. See also Peter Masters[2].
The intensity doesn't come only from what, say, a dominant does to their submissive. It has been noted that BDSM activities can serve to push aside the civilised facade which we need to maintain in order to operate in our wider society, and expose our True Selves to achieve more primal satisfaction. This too is a component in the intensity and helps to create the ecstatic total immersion.
Ecstasy doesn't just knock on the door of submissives, slaves and bottoms. Dominants, masters and tops also experience this total immersion through their concentration on their partner. We can perhaps usefully differentiate between these by considering that tops, masters and dominants experience an outwardly-focussed total immersion, while submissive, slaves and bottoms experience an inwardly-focussed total immersion.
Ecstastic episodes usually last only a short time, from seconds up to perhaps half an hour, though under some circumstances they can last considerably longer. There can be some overlap with subspace.
References
- ↑ [Ghent1990] (p. 111)
- ↑ [Masters2008] (p. 98)
| 
