What is subspace?

[UAlbanyGirl]

I'm new to this particular fetish and my new domme has instructed me to start this thread to learn about this term. Can anyone help me?

 

[CutieMouse]

It's a fancy term for the endorphin hit submissives may experience as a result of BDSM activities.

wikipedia - subspace

 

[Stella_Omega]

One of our regulars shared this adorable account of extreme subspace;
http://forum.literotica.com/showpost.php?p=41977671&postcount=14

I've always used either red-yellow-green, or for a while, a five-color variation: red-orange-yellow-green-blue. The latter got too complex, so I decided to just stay with something everyone of driving age should be familiar with.

I've told this story before - a couple of times, I think - so those who have already "heard" it can skip on to the next post.

I took my then-sub (later wife #3) to her first ever play party at which we were going to play. (She'd been to one or two where we just observed other folks playing.) She and I discussed what we planned to do: spanking, some paddling, flogging, and if things were going well, caning. We discussed safewords (again). Sooo... she's finally up on the spanking horse, I spank, her butt turns pink, then red. I check with her every few minutes: "Color?" "Green." All good. Paddles. Butt turns redder. "Color?" "Green." Floggers. Butt and backs of thighs and upper back an interesting variety of pinks and reds. "Color?" "Green."

I switch to the cane. Now, we *have* played with the cane before. She loves/hates it. She hates the sting. She loves the cold that rises up from underneath. She hates the sting. She loves the welts. She hates the sting. She loves the bruises that show up a day or two later. You get the idea. I give her six well-spaced-out strokes over a period of four minutes or so. She's squirming, as usual; darker red stripes appear on her cheeks; welts rise. "Color?" "Green."

Another ten strokes. After the eighth, I notice she's not squirming as much. After the ninth, she barely twitched when the cane came down. After the tenth, she didn't move a muscle. Not one. Is she breathing??? Yes. I can see her back rise slowly, gently. Whew!

"Color?"
No response.
"Color, honey?"
"Huh?"
"Give me a color."
[Long pause; I'm reaching to unstrap her from the horse.] "Purrrrpllle."
(What? Purple? That's never been ANY kind of safeword!)
"Honey? Green, yellow, red? Give me a color."
"Ohhhh... greeeeeeeeeeeen."

Yeah, her first trip to subspace, and my first time ever getting "purple" as a response to a safeword request. She later told me my voice was coming from a long, looooongggg way away...

Be aware that Sir Winston is a very principled man. And that is quite likely one reason she fell so deeply.

 

[njlauren]

It doesn't have to come from endorphins (though it often does happen in scene play), it is a state where a bottom or submissive kind of enters an altered reality, it for me is a place where time literally isn't there and I am kind of in a special place where all that is there is the sensations of play, the feelings/connection with my dominant, and touching what seems to be the whole universe (that is my experience, everyones is different). I suspect it is a sort of trance like state, part of the problem with subspace is it can override normal protective controls we have, someone in deep subspace can stop knowing if damage is happening and such....the reason I say it isn't just endorphins from play, is I know people who go into it simply from being in the presence of their dominant and being there as their sub/slave, they just slip into it when they are serving or whatever....like anything, I suspect any two subs definitions will be different. Thing about subspace, you try to get in it you won't IMO, it has to 'happen'...

 

[Netzach]

It's a fancy term for the endorphin hit submissives may experience as a result of BDSM activities.

wikipedia - subspace

This.

See also, running, hypnosis, religion, mountains. If you are a human being with a relatively normal brain, physical challenges will start the flow of endorphins. Repetitious tapping will start to cause your mind to feel far away, whether it's a pencil on a desk and a therapist's voice, or a flogger on your ass and your Dom's voice. Simple and factual, neat thing we do.

Subspace can be neat, subspace can be fun, but often I see subspace being used as a blunt object to beat would be tops and doms over the head, because PRECIOUS SUBS GO THERE MUST PROTECT NOW YOUR PROBLEM.

Subspace is something submissives should know about and handle. It's bottoming skill. Subspace is something you need to take responsibility for as you learn how it affects or doesn't affect you.

I think lauren has a good point - I personally differentiate between people who get that way from serving, from submissive feelings, from being submissive to a specific person, in which case some of those vulnerabilities definitely are in play - you've got a relationship, I'm assuming that goes in two ways and is consensual. Nonconsensually projecting yourself into a relationship with someone just because you're bringing her her purse is not cool and does not obligate the other person to you.

I don't think that an SM player loses all responsibility to take care of himself/herself because magic endorphin feelgood rush, any more than my magic endorphin feelgood rush post-yoga means I should wait to cross the street a minute, rather than feel ENTITLED to help crossing the street.