My personal ascension or
And I'm Gonna Organise Some Changes In My Life I'm Gonna Exorcise The Demons Of My Past I Just Feel I Can Be Anything... That I Might ever wish To Be And Find Myself Just Where I Wanna Be Make My Wildest Dreams Come True! (S.Harris)
This is to be the story of how I got suspended. It`s going to be a rather long one, so please sit back and enjoy (click on pictures to enlarge).
One year ago, I didnt even know that such a thing
as " body modification culture" even existed. I
m just a regular
guy whos
pushing forty, lost most of his hair, has neither tattoos nor piercings
(but quite a few involuntary scars) and otherwise leads a life that
s
best described as 'bourgeois'. Why would somebody like me who had no
prior interest in body
modification
at all and certainly no desire to expose himself to voluntarily
inflicted pain get to do this?
Now, that`s easily explained.
Years ago, I had my neck broken in an accident. The treatment of this
injury included suspending my head/upper body from a
rig fixed to the hospital bed through screws anchored in my skull, with
ever increasing counter-balancing weights added over the course of
several
weeks in order to slowly stretch everything so it would get realigned
back
into place
before finally operating on it. This has been an extremely painful and
horrific experience. Getting the fixation points for this contraption
screwed
into my head while fully conscious, having to watch it all in close-up
and give
feedback to the operating team - this was definitely the worst
thing that ever occurred in my life and one traumatic experience that I
hoped
to overcome, one way or another, by suspending.
I found this site merely by accident. In my line of work, I need to follow IT legal literature. So at the end of 2005, I read about a german government body declaring this here site "hazardous to the development of german youth" and court-ordered search engines to exclude it from their index in Germany, effectively trying to censor BME (read more on this here and here). I thought "WTF, what`s on a piercing site to warrant something like that?" Since there also was a raging discussion about this unprecedented case going on in the IT community in Germany, that sparked my interest and I decided to take a look around BME. First, I was greeted by a fascinating cover picture of a beautiful girl suspending (whom I had the honor to meet, too!). From there, it was just a few clicks into the suspension section. This was what hit right home, in the "I always wanted to do something like this" sense. I literally got "hooked" and could not get this out of my head any more.
Fast forward a few months. By then this 'suspension thing'had
materialized from an elusive dream into something more tangible,
meaning my mind had accepted the general idea of actually doing this
myself.
That was when I started to research suspension in earnest by e-mailing
people about their suspensions and asking if it would be
possible for me to do it the way I intended. I wanted to suspend from
the front of my body where I could actually see what was going on and
deal with it. And
since in all the pictures of resurrection suspensions that I had seen
everybody had this
totally peaceful look on their faces, that was the way I wanted to go
(little did I know...).
The responses I received from everyone were overwhelmingly positive.
This community has embraced my idea and made me feel welcome in a way
that I have never experienced before. Ive had people going out of
their way, telling their experiences and feelings to a complete
stranger who
happened to ask some questions via e-Mail just to help him along with
his quest to get suspended. Without the encouragement that I received
from everybody,
most notably from Steve
and others on his team,
I don
t think Id be where I am today.
Still, everyone agreed
that my choice of suspension style was not the best thing for me,
especially since I had issues with my neck. So I settled on a coma
suspension instead in which I
d have my legs
rigged separately so that they could be unhooked and I could try
resurrection if I felt like it.
A few weeks and dozens of messages later, I decided that it would be
best to watch
with my own eyes what suspension is like and signed up to attend the swiss
body modification meeting, a
suspension event which took place not far from where I live. This
proved
to be my first encounter with the body modification community - a very
pleasant
experience. Meeting people there, speaking with them and watching
them
get suspended in an almost magical
setting at night under a tree solidified what I had in mind and I
decided to go through with it all
the way as soon as possible.
I secured a date with the team of my choice that nicely aligned with a trip I had to take to the US anyway, booked the flights and made travel arrangements. No turning back now. This gave me another three months to prepare, physically and emotionally. By now, I knew the suspension FAQ by heart, even started to lose some weight to stay within the weight limits recommended there. And let my mind deal with and accept that soon there would be sharp pointy objects be stuck in my body and I`d be subjecting myself to intense pain because I WANTED TO.
I arrived in beautiful New Mexico a few days prior to the day it was
all bound to happen and got to know and trust everyone involved in my
suspension in person. I was promised "a lot of fun" and this promise
was kept. We went on trips together, hung out together and
generally had a good time.
Finally, the big day had arrived.
I got up before dawn, jumped into the
car and headed out for a trip into the mountains. Seeing the sun rise
while soaking in some natural mineral
hot springs out in the solitude of wilderness definitely is the best
suspension preparation technique ever. I felt completely calm and at
ease with myself.
There was no fear, no nervousness at all.
But the clock was ticking and I suddenly had to hurry to get back in
time for the 7pm time the suspensions were supposed to start. I
remembered that I should eat something before so I grabbed me some
sandwiches on the way.
When I got there - twenty minutes late -, the house and back yard were
full of people and the
suspensions had already begun. I was handed a few sheets of paper I
should sign. While reading
through them, I suddenly felt a wave of anxiety hit me like a freight
train, totally unexpected and certainly not welcome. I had not been
prepared for this and I did not know how to
deal with it at all. Well, I tried to force myself to concentrate on
what I had in front of my eyes and after a little while it got better
somewhat.
Then I proceeded into the yard to watch the suspensions and meet all
the others.
I still felt very nervous, and then the hospital-like smell from the
Technicare that was slowly dispersing throughout the house made me feel
really nauseous. At one point, I could not stand it any more. I needed
to get out of there, and quick. So I got me the
leash and went for a really exhaustive 6-mile run around the
neighborhood with one of Steves dogs for an hour. That did the trick -
I didn
t feel nervous any more; the
anxiety was gone as fast as it had come. I came back just
in time to see someone go up from two hooks in his chest, which was an
awesome, deeply emotional experience to watch and it helped to put
things in perspective again. And then I tripped in the
dark and my foot got trapped in a hole in the ground, spraining my
ankle. That hurt. Badly. Everyone was joking about that, too - you
certainly don`t
need feet for flying...
Eventually the last of the others finished suspending
and the place emptied out pretty fast. Now it was only me
remaining with the team. There was no plan as to who goes up when that
night. It just fell into place that I was last - originally I wanted to
do suspend at
sunset.
So Steve asked me: "Are you ready"?
"Sure am, lets do this".
"OK then, take off your shirt and lay down there". So, this is
it. I felt like those would be the last words I
d hear in this life.
I went into the piercing room, took off my shirt and laid down on the massage table in there. I would receive eight 8g/3.2mm diameter hooks in total, with two sets of four being pierced simultaneously each time. Steve put on gloves, took a marker pen, had a quick look and a few pinches here and there and proceeded to mark my torso and legs with sixteen tiny little dots to mark the entry and exit points for the hooks. After that, the skin in the areas where the hooks would go was cleaned with Technicare.
Then it was time for the thing I was afraid of more than anything: those hooks...
I felt strangely calm, like a doomed man on the chopping block waiting
for the blade to fall. This just HAD to hurt like nothing Ive known
before. And we still were joking about my ankle - everybody was
right, it really didn
t hurt anymore.
The hooks came out of their sterile pouch and were mounted on needles.
Then I was told that I should breathe in deeply and exhale slowly
(which
I did anyway). The hooks would go in on the exhale.Then
Steve and Bennett had a brief discussion about whether or not they
needed to go through
something they called a "complete breathing cycle" with me. As I
"obviously had done my homework" they decided to go ahead, but not
before the "don`t forget to breathe" lecture one more time.
Everyone lined up at my sides, hook in one hand, my pinched up skin in the other. "Ready"? "Yes".I took a deep breath in, started to exhale slowly and braced for THE PAIN. Then "pierce".
What happened next was amazing - and completely unexpected. First, I
felt a sharp stinging painsensation all over my body as the
needles penetrated the skin, followed by an
indescribable feeling when the hooks were being pushed through under
the skin and finally another sting as the needles found their way out
the other side, followed by the hooks.
It was WAY less painful than expected and over in maybe five seconds.
The left knee hook took a little longer than the others.
All my fears and doubts that I had built up over months about the act
of getting those hooks put in me were just carried away on the big wave
of adrenaline that hit me right then. All that fear suddenly
did not matter anymore. I felt relieved, although the onslaught of
adrenaline made my body shake a little which I didn`t like one
bit.
Then I sat up and got to have a small break as the next round of hooks
was prepared, allowing for the adrenaline to settle.
Everyone congratulated me on my skin that was so easy to pierce (well,
I soaked it for more than three hours that day so it should be nice and
soft...). Then more "don`t forget to breathe" reminders and
everything was ready for the second round.
The
second set went like a dream. There was even less discomfort
(thanks to the adrenaline, I suppose) and when they were all in I got
up,
admiring my newly acquired shiny additions to my body. I was amazed
that
it actually felt good to have those hooks in me - I could feel
them
shift inside when I moved my muscles. This was a strange but pleasant
sensation. I wondered to myself: "This is what makes people get
piercings?" My left knee
hook started bleeding right away, though.
Everybody then walked out to the tree I was set to suspend from,
taking the
table with us. I carried "my" rig, a beautiful heavy steel
work of art, painted bright red with "ASCENSION" prominently displayed
on its sides. Ascension, that was what I wanted to achieve
tonight.
I laid down on the table once again, with the hooks sticking out from me and their 'eyes' looking up in the air, eagerly awaiting what was to come. I felt just great. There was no pain at all and no fear, just a great sense of anticipation of things to come. I thought that after the hooks, I had the worst already behind me... Somebody handed me a roll of paper towels to be used as a head support. I put my head down on it and all around me everybody was suddenly busy with ropes, attaching the rig to the tree and the like.
The
rope (550
parachute cord)
was threaded through the eyes of the
hooks on "my" side and connected to the rig, starting from the
makeshift head cushion, then my chest. The chest hooks immediately
started to bleed as the skin was stretched even the tiniest bit.
Normally, I don`t bleed heavily from wounds, but this was different.
Probably because I followed the good advice everyone had given me and
drank water by the
gallon the week before, thinning my blood more than usual in the
process. At first I tried to contain
the trickle of blood using a paper towel, then I just let it run.
They also hurt quite a bit, as if to prepare me for what
was to come. The rig pulled not only upward, but also towards my feet,
and that definitely was not very comfortable.
Everything was now set and ready to go.
The
tension was slowly increased, while at the same time the rigging
was adjusted to ensure all hooks were pulling evenly and I was
beginning that long journey up in the air.
Now, I was proved wrong about my assumption regarding the most painful
part
of suspending. It certainly wasnt the hooks. This really HURT.
A LOT. No other way to describe it.
The skin was
pulled away from my body in areas that are sensitive and tender and my
body apparently was trying to tell me that it did not like what
happened. THE PAIN got more intense with each little tug on the rope
that promised to lift me up into the air. The whole time, I had Bennett
talking to me, constantly reminding me to breathe steadily and try not
to tense up and fight the pain but relax into it. That
s easier said
than done and I tried my best to concentrate on my breathing and push
the pain away from my conscious thinking. Tried, but did not succeed.
This my best was not enough. I hate to say it but the pain just
got too intense for me to handle ( at least thats what I thought), so
I
asked to be lowered down again to take a break. I
m not sure if I even
left the ground at all; most probably not. I hardly noticed then, but
there were copious amounts of blood flowing primarily from my chest
hooks.
They lowered me all the way down again but retained a good deal of the tension. But that intense, overwhelming pain was no longer there. I felt relieved and disappointed at the same time - relieved because the pain was gone, disappointed because I didn`t manage to successfully leave terra firma.
Then I had an idea that seemed brilliant to me at the time: Why not
grab the rig - that had nice handlebars for exactly that - with my arms
and use them to support my weight until Im safely up in the air and
have left the painful "going up" phase behind? Plus, I would be in
total control of the amount of pain this caused me, and being in
control myself would be easier. Well, the answer was "we would not
recommend this, it makes things even harder, but it
s your suspension
and we
do whatever you want to". So I clamped my hands around the shiny
handlebars and asked Brandon
on the rope to pull me up again.
This time, I did get off the ground very quickly. They continued to
lift me up until my feet cleared the table, then took it away. There
was only very minimal pain this time. I thought: "Great - I`m up!" All
that remained now was releasing my hands from the rig and I would
be free.
Well, I was in for a big surprise: I COULD NOT LET GO. My hands
plainly
refused to obey the orders my brain gave them and continued to keep
their firm grip on the rig. I was prepared for a lot, but not for that.
My fingers would not open, no matter what I tried to coax them into
letting go.
As this didn`t work out either it was "down" one more time. The table was quickly put back below me and I was lowered down to it once again.
Then I did what I wanted to do all along: I asked to be handed the rope to pull me up myself. No problem - but for that I needed to put on gloves, as the rope was supposed to be "clean" and shouldn`t be touched with my bloody hands. So I was given a pair of latex gloves, put them on and Brandon handed me the rope. I thought: OK, this is supposed to be like mountain climbing - nothing new for me. So I grabbed the rope with my left hand, pulled, moved my right hand up the rope, then shifted my grip to the right hand, pulled, then the left hand again and so on ad infinitum. That did it. I inched myself up from the ground. I could feel the hooks move on my chest and there was intense pain every time I pulled at the rope but that was a far cry from what I felt at the first try. This time, it was not predominant and I could relegate it to a place outside my mind where it did not matter any more at all. I was in control, and that was what mattered. Right hand - pull, left hand - pull, right hand -pull, left hand - pull and so on. I was running on autopilot in my own little world. Not losing my grip on the rope and pulling it with all the force I could put into it from this awkward position was all I that was on my mind. I had tuned out the rest of the world.
And then, suddenly, I had reached the end of the line where it didn`t go any higher. I was all the way up. I did not even have to think one second before letting go of the rope and handing it back over to Brandon - this seemed the most natural thing in the world.
I was free. Flying, hanging from nothing but hooks in my body. I
had
just
achieved my very own ascension.
I closed my eyes and savored the moment. Everything just fell from me
at this point. The anxiety, the fear of not being able to cope with the
pain, everything negative just was so meaningless now. My mind
has moved on to some other, higher plane of existence. I had found
myself.
Then everyone around applauded and congratulated me. I made an effort
to
get rid of the gloves in a glamorous manner by trying to throw them
away like an artist on stage which sent everyone laughing.
After a while of just floating there, zoned out in my minds
space
while looking up at the sky and the tree with my perception of time and
space left behind on the ground, Bennett asked if I
d want to swing a
bit.
Now, being moved about was the best feeling ever. Beforehand, I never believed that suspension was fun - I actually had arguments about this point with people. Well, I was wrong: suspending iscan be fun indeed. I had such a great time "flying" up there with my bloody wings (the blood on my back looked like butterfly wings - an amazing sight) that I wanted this to go on forever.
At one time, though, I wanted to have my knees
unhooked to try resurrection.
And then we had to discover that I could not have my knees cut down
because we forgot about that during rigging. They should have been done
separately but werent. So I
d have to try resurrection another time.
Oh well, I didnt mind too much; I
ve had a great, intense
experience even without this.
But there is an end for everything, and even my maiden flight had to end at one point. My feet were freezing and becoming increasingly numb (it got cold - remember, we are at 5,000 ft. and it is almost October). I had completely lost any perception of time and when I was told that I was up in the air for a little more than ninety minutes and it was close to midnight I could not believe that at first. So I decided to come down again. The table was brought below me, Brandon untied the rope from the tree and I was slowly lowered down on it. The moment I touched the ground again, I felt heavy like I carried the weight of the whole world on my shoulders. That really was strange and irritating for a moment. Lots of other suspension experiences mentioned this, but reading about something and actually experiencing it, well that`s different.
The ropes were cut and I sat up. I was amazed at the amounts of blood that had accumulated on my body - my back looked like something out of a Hermann Nitsch 'action painting'. I had some beautiful ladies take care of my poor body by taking out the hooks, cleaning off the blood and bandaging the wounds. There wasn`t much trapped air, so I got around the infamous post-suspension massage. My left chest exit hole did not want to stop bleeding at first and needed something like three bandages before it finally stopped. And walking felt a little awkward at first.
I felt elated and exhilarated, totally at peace with the world and myself. Physically spent but mentally charged. There was a deep sense of accomplishment now where questions were before.
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. I stayed with some of the team for a few more hours, talking, reviewing pictures, watching some old suspension movies and generally savoring my experience before I finally called it a night and went home.
The bandages came off the day after. There was a little bruising around the chest hooks. That was about all. The scars are minimal and will probably fade to nothing within the next few months. However, healing took weeks. I was sore much longer than just the day or two that you read about everywhere. Where my skin was stretched it hurt when strained and wearing a seatbelt was really uncomfortable for several weeks.
I felt 'high' from the experience for about three days. All my sensory
perceptions were highly sensitive, and it felt like my feet
didn`t touch the ground when
walking. Coming down from this was very quick - from one minute to the
next, without warning - and not altogether pleasant at all, as I felt
drained,
worn and exhausted then. I was very fortunate that this happened at a
moment where I was with caring people who could relate and so this
transition back to "normality" went smoothly.
Looking back now, after all this has sunk in and settled: What did I gain from it?
Although I did not have a "spiritual experience" and
suspending might not have changed my life, it has given me more than I
dared to ask for and developed into something truly unique I surely
will cherish and
treasure for the rest of my life.
Suspending has given me clarity; it answered many of the questions I
wanted to have answers to; it has changed my perception of myself, it
has opened a
whole new way to look at me and my life, it has given me back the
ability to put total trust in people, it has once
and for all cleared any doubt in who has control over my body and it
definitely has served its purpose in teaching my mind a lesson or two
regarding perception and valuation of pain.
The pain, well....suspension is NOT about pain; its really a mind
'thing' more than anything and its
physical
aspects are quickly tuned out. Not that there was no pain - oh no,
there was a lot of that and it never abated completely,
even floating up there after the
endorphins kicked in. But it stayed well in the background and somehow,
it just didn
t matter any more at all. I remember asking everyone
before how to transcend the pain - now that I have done it myself and
should know how, I have to admit that I still dont know.
Maybe there
s
things that want to stay unexplained.....
But suspending also has left questions unanswered and opened a
pandoras box of new ones I didn
t even know I had before doing it.
With suspension, being able
to 'let go' should be a core part of the experience. I failed miserably
at that twice and then circumvented the whole issue by pulling myself
up running on sheer willpower, strength and determination to get up
there no matter what. I had no idea I possessed these 'virtues' in such
abundance and, looking back, I am amazed at how I could pull that off
(pun intended).
Apparently
it
seems that when they say "suspension tends to give you not what you
want but what you
need" they are right. So suspension has given me strength and
power
where I
asked for and expected surrender and release.
So, it seems like Id have to do it again if I want to find an answer
to this question. And I will do it again. So we
ll see where I
go from
here and where this will lead me to.
And finally, I`d like to say "Thank you": - to the German Federal Government for making me aware of this - censorship never worked and never will. - to everyone in here - those who run things as well as those who made their experiences available here. It is because you sent me on this intense journey as well prepared as possible - because you put up with all my questions, took your time answering and patiently explaining ever so many things to me -, I was able to conquer this. I owe this community a lot. Please regard this as an attempt to pay some of that back, so it may serve to inspire others just the same way as your experiences here have inspired me.
- And a big 'Thank You' to everyone out at Ascension Suspension. You all are simply AWESOME. It was an honor suspending with you. I could not have done this without you.
Details
submitted by: MrNoModifications
on: 22 Nov. 2006
in
Ritual
Artist: Ascension+Suspension+%2F+Steve+Truitt
Studio: a+tree+behind+Steve%60s+house
Location: Albuquerque%2C+NM%2C+USA