@The De Sade, I think you may have misunderstood the original poster's questions and my answers. The OP posed 2 questions.

1) But I was curious if there might be any correlation between BDSM and specific childhood experiences,
2) I cannot for the life of me understand the idea of giving up complete agency to another person

In answer to the first of course normal childhood experiences influences adulthood but the question was specifically about abuse. The OP said ...

An abnormally high number of bdsm'ers I have met have experienced some form of serious sexual abuse.

The question is therefore:

1) Is the number of victims of abuse in bdsm higher lower or same as national average. This means the abuse is suffered outside of and before the person became involved in bdsm.
2) If it is abnormally higher how do you explain this ie what is the cause of correlation,.

My answer was;

a) There is abnormally high number claiming abuse but many of those are false claims which should be discounted. The number of true victims is therefore much lower.
b) The nature of bdsm makes fibbers invent tales of abuse. If they were on another special interest site the lie would be a different one. Fibbing to gain acceptance and respect is a common human characteristic (backed up by research) and explains the OP observation and the explanation.

Your answer seems to be there is not an "abnornally high number". You are therefore disagreeing with both the OP and my observation. You point to a number of "scholarly research based articles" yet your conclusion is not based on these articles but on your "40 odd years in the lifestyle". Are you suggesting there are no fakers and fibbers in the lifestyle especially if we include the internet?

Regarding the second question, you seem to have missed the question. The OP simply could not understand how a personal could give up completely agency to another person. I do not see how you have address this question. You talk of Ds when the question was about Ms.

My answer was clear. The person does NOT give up agency to another. The use of the concept and term slave is fantasy roleplay or within limited timeframes and boundaries ie the bedroom.

Your reply is about Ds abuse consent trust respect love. This does not address the question ie how does a person given up complete control to another. The question is about consentual slavery. This is an issue that has been through the courts. A person cannot give up human rights to another.

Your answer seemed to be in line with what I meant when I spoke about the fine print. By wrapping up the Ms dynamic in the cotton wool of consent, love etc. it boils down to the master only giving orders about something the slave wants to do anyway.

Again, I disagree with Densark. A 5 minute flogging between two individuals is not a BDSM relationship. It is not even BDSM. It is sensation play. If there is no emotional connection, there can be now relationship.

Are you saying that flogging is not BDSM. Is Bondage BDSM? BDSM has come to be a catchall for anything kinky. You are adding the word "relationship" to BDSM then painting it to be the same as marriage ie "love honor and obey". There can be casual bdsm relationships just as there are casual sex relationships. Look at the personals section on this site. Are you saying the couples formed as a result will not be Ds couples or are you saying there is spontaneous love, trust, respect between two people who have only just met. I think you are romanticising BDSM.

If somebody who likes spanking gets together with somebody who likes being spanked then it is bdsm. They could be strangers or married couple. There need not be love. The relationship could be for an hour or a lifetime.

Ds is when the partners derive pleasure, sexual or otherwise, from a real or simulated relationship where one has power, authority and control over the other. The only requirement for it to be bdsm is sane safe and consensual.