BDSM origins

[gagged_Louise]

There were heretic cults in the Middle ages that seem to have used sex as a means to reach a feeling of unity with the Divine, a feeling of ecstatic, pumping bliss (the Beguines, and the so called Free Spirit movement). It's not easy to say anything precise about what they were doing - they were totally underground, and hunted down by the Church, and their adherents were sometimes tortured and executed, burnt alive - but there are some interrogation protocols and notes on them from people who were writing at the time, and there is a great deal to suggest they did aim for a kind of "psychedelic" free-flow experience, debauchery and freedom from authorities, even any moral authority.
We can only surmise whether they used flogging. dripping with wax etc to get there, but those methods were well known at the time as means of purifying yourself, and some people probably noted the erotic impact, so it's absolutely niot unlikely that the Free Spirit and others sometimes did engage in bdsm rituals to achieve erotic and personal liberation.

Self-torture and ascetic practices go back to ancient times for sure - even the Life of St.Antony, the founder of Christian monasticsim, shows how he put himself into suffering, thirst and sensory deprivation to avoid the temptations of the world - but with those traditions, it's seen more as a way to kill sexual impulse.