Event
Colorado Danse of Life Flesh Hook Pull
A hook or energy pull is a fusion of body piercing and spiritual practice. Using flesh hooks and/or objects suspended from body piercings participants attempt to attain an altered state of consciousness.
Flesh hooks are inserted into the skin and then attached to pulling points such as eye bolts mounted in the wall, chains hung from the ceiling, or other pullers.
Ball Dancers have bells, fruit, or other weighted objects attached to the body via piercings. These piercings are often placed at or near the fourth (heart) chakra. The objects create percussion on the body as the dancer moves to their own rhythms, sometimes in trance, to achieve an altered state.
Besides participants in the actual hook pull and ball dancers, witnesses are encouraged to attend to lend their energy, dancing, support or designated driver skills to the pullers and dancers. Witnesses attend the event at a reduced fee.
Lineage of the Danse:
Ancient precedents for this practice can be found in a variety of North American Indian tribes, and such diverse traditions as Hinduism and Sufi. In India, the practice goes back approximately five thousand years in major Hindu festivals dedicated to using the body to transcend the body for attaining higher spiritual states. The practice is often tied to shamanism and inducing altered states. Hook/energy pulls are common across a wide variety of communities and alternative lifestyles and are engaged in for reasons as diverse as each participant's individuality.
Hook/energy pulls were introduced in the United States largely through the work and exploration of Fakir Musafar http://www.fakir.org/aboutfakir/index.html. Fakir is credited with organizing the first hook/energy pulls in the United States. These types of events then migrated via the body modification and BDSM communities. The next organization to stage hook pulls was the Arizona Power Exchange, an educational non-profit organization dedicated to BDSM and leather lifestyles. Next to incorporate hook/energy pulls was another educational organization known as Butchmann's SM Academy. The next step in the lineage was the adoption of the Dance of Souls by the Southwest Leather Conference. Finally, the first Colorado Danse of Life was held in 2006 in Denver, Colorado. It is sponsored by the Denver Sanctuary, a non-profit private membership organization dedicated to the BDSM and Leather lifestyles. The Denver Sanctuary has a very active educational program as well.
While our tradition does not have the same consistency of focus for this type of activity as Native American Culture and South Indian and Malaysian cultures, our flesh and spirits respond in a similar way. The hooks teach those who receive them, whether the participant approaches the experience as instructive or not. Culturally, we do not use this as a rite of passage as many others do. However, that does not mean that rites of passage do not occur on an individual basis. The sheer diversity of the individuals within the body modification and BDSM communities who engage in hook pulls produces experiences that range the full spectrum of altered consciousness. All of humanity has a collective spiritual heritage. A hook/energy pull is one of a myriad of ways this heritage gains expression.
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LocationThe Denver Sanctuary
2620 W. 2nd Ave. #1
Denver, CO 80219
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 18 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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Contact
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