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Electrical engineers and physicists know a lot about electricity (or as much as they can know in their particular subspecialty), but often they don’t know squat about physiology, the study of the processes that occur within living matter such as the human body. Those who study biology in high school get some of this, but not much. In understanding basic electrical play you need to be familiar with some simple concepts of physiology.
Understand that I’m not trying to teach you enough physiology to be a paramedic, nurse, or doctor. The physiology will be limited to the very simple models needed to understand electrical play. If you’re interested in studying this subject further, please consult other books (some good ones are listed in the Bibliography).
In biology you study a lot about cells: cytoplasm, nuclei, energy processes, cell membranes, and the like. To understand electrical play you only need to know the following about cells:
1) A convenient and useful model for our purposes is to think of cells in the human body as a cell membrane containing a fluid that is very much like salt water. Furthermore, all of these cells for the most part are swimming in fluid that again is very much like salt water.
2) Cells are definitely living things. They take in nourishment, they breathe, they exude waste products, they grow, and they die.
and
3) Cells in the body serve specific purposes and are specially designed to serve those purposes.
The types of cells that well take a look at in this book are
A cell is essentially a tiny bag of salt water, swimming in more salt water.In the next chapter we’ll also take a look at a specific body organ system, the heart. That system is comprised of muscle cells and nerve cells working together.
As mentioned before, skin is a critical safety system in electrical play. It is basically an insulator, with atypical resistance of anywhere from 10,000 to 1,000,000 ohms. If you recall from Chapter 3, when current is applied to the body, it is limited mostly by the resistance of the skin. So skin is very important, and understanding it is an important part of understanding electrical play.
Figure 24: Human skin
Take a look at figure 24. This shows atypical cross section of human skin. You’ll notice that there are two major components: the epidermis and the dermis.
The epidermis is the important outer layer. It is often called the horny layer. (Most of you reading this book probably have other horny parts as well) The cells of the epidermis are still skin cells, but they have lost most of their fluid both inside and outside, so they Ye very dry and thick. They’re manufactured just beneath the epidermis and slowly rise to the outer surface. A person continually loses the outermost layer of skin cells; as these cells rise to the outer surface of the skin, they die and get sloughed off. But they’re quickly replaced by the new ones coming up.
The thickness of the epidermis varies tremendously, ranging up to a couple of millimeters. It’s also an important defense for the body for other things besides electrical play. It keeps out dirt and bacteria, and keeps in the body’s organs and fluids. So skin is important for more than one thing.
The next layer is the dermis. This usually has fat and other cells. The important consideration here is that it has less resistance than epidermis cells, anywhere from 50 to 2,000 ohms depending on the cell’s function.
Therefore it is important to remember for electrical play that
epidermis skirt cells = high resistance (10,000 to 1,000,000 ohms)
dermis skin cells = low resistance (50 to 2,000 ohms).
“OK,” you ask, “what about all those things shown in figure 24 like the hair shafts and sweat pores? Aren’t these things electrical paths that make the epidermis useless?”
Epidermis, the top layer of unbroken skin, has a very High resistance. The dermis that lies underneath it has a much lower resistance.Well, yes and no. If all the current from, say, a TENS unit could go through a single sweat gland and out another, then you could have a potentially dangerous current inside the body But in electrical play – unless you’re using very narrow needles and sticking them directly into the sweat glands – the current is usually spread out over an area of skin. (Remember current density from Chapter 2?) Sometimes some of the electrons (flow of electrons is current, remember) do go down the sweat glands, but most don’t, and the number of electrons going into the body are limited by the epidermis cells which are insulators. Therefore the current going into the body is limited by the epidermis.
Notice the implications. If you are sweating hard, you have a lot of salt water available to conduct more current to the inside of your body. Usually however, the overall resistance of sweaty skin is about 10,000 ohms.
I want to make a note here about “conducting creams.” These are special creams and gels used by medical professionals during procedures such as electrocardiograms. Their function is to help make sure that electricity gets conducted evenly, smoothing out all the little wrinkles and bumps in order to help prevent surface burns and ensure a good recording. Electrical players sometimes use them to even out the surface so that electricity can be conducted smoothly with no annoying sparks or unwanted shocks. The choice of whether or not to use one depends on what sensations you want to accomplish in your play.
What about piercings? What do you think? If I take a needle – a low-resistance conductor – and pass it through the epidermal layer then you have a direct connection to the low-resistance interior of the body. This can lead to dangerous levels of current inside the body. Electrical play on fresh piercings is not recommended. The same applies to open and bleeding cuts. Anything that breaches the epidermis makes electrical play more dangerous.
You mean you can’t play with nipple rings or cock piercing jewelry?
Well, yes and no. If they’re fresh, I’d definitely recommend against it. However, if they are completely healed and there are no nicks or cuts inside the piercing hole, then there may be a qualified yes. The reason I say that is that in a completely healed piercing, the piercing hole grows a layer of epidermis-like cells on the inside of the hole. As time goes on, this layer becomes thicker, but not as much thickness as on regular skin.
You know of course that it usually takes about six months or more to heal a piercing, depending on its location. Also sometimes there are occasional tears on this hole’s “epidermis” that you may not see or be aware of. So because of these risks associated with “complete healing,” the risks of electrical play on healed piercings may not be worth it. Besides, there’s so much other skin to play with.
And what about electrical play with body orifices?
Of course we’re talking about mouth, nose, eyes, ears, urethra, cunt, and ass-hole. Some people do play with these orifices, particularly the last two.
Let me dispose of the first five first. In the mouth the saliva and constantly wet tissues make electrical play there a bad idea. Such play can conduct very dangerous currents to sensitive and important parts of your body such as the throat, tongue and even possibly the brain. So no electrical play in the mouth. (There may also be fillings in the mouth, and an electric current to one of these – even from an aluminum spoon – is exceedingly painful.)
Noses and ears aren’t such a good idea either Current can be hazardous in the important nerves in these organs. Unless you want to chance deafness or loss of smell, no electrical play here.
Eyes are a special no-no. Not only are they coated with salty tears, but eye parts like the cornea, tear ducts, etc, can easily be seriously damaged by current going through them or by the heat generated by nearby currents on the face.
People have played with electricity inside the urethra (usually the male urethra, since the female urethra is extremely short and doesn’t lend itself to such play). In fact, at the turn of the century, special probes were made for the urethra so that violet wand-like machines could cure venereal diseases. Ouch! And considering these probes were made of glass – that could break – double ouch! (This is probably the one time when both men and women cross their legs at such a mention.)
Mucous membranes have lower resistance than regular epidermis. Thus, special caution is required when using electricity on or in areas like the vulva and rectum.A urethra is made of very soft tissue that can be easily damaged by trying to insert something into it. The insertion of a catheter into the urethra is a medical procedure. Electrical play in the urethra is highly risky since urine is a good fluid conductor. It’s also very easy to damage the urethra or the bladder. If you are interested in this kind of play I recommend that you get extensive training in catheterization from a medical professional that you use only sterile toys designed for urethral insertion, and that you follow the manufacturer’s instructions precisely. (I haven’t read all the user’s manuals that come with these toys, so I can’t vouch for the instructions.).
Figure 25
This leaves us with the cunt and the asshole. These are two body orifices that are not infrequently played with. In fact there are special probes sold so that TENS units can be used there. In Larry Townsend’s Leatherman’s Handbook, he mentions electrical play using a metal butt plug and a cock ring. Each is connected to a separate cattle prod terminal. This is really intense.
In both the cunt and the asshole, or more specifically the vagina and the rectum (see fig. 25), the tissues are skin-like, These parts also have a lot of nerve cells there, which is why they’re fun to play with, This tissue is like the epidermis in some ways, but not in others; its main difference is that it contains a coating of mucous membrane.
The mucous membrane has some insulating qualities, but its resistance is much lower than that of skin. There are other mucous membranes throughout the body, and they could all be connected. It’s best not to use heavy current devices like relaxicisors or cattle prods on these parts. If you choose to ignore this advice, for heaven s sake, don’t insert anything into the cervix or beyond the first few inches of the rectum. As a final thought, if the anus or the vagina has tears in the walls – or even small, invisible cuts or nicks – these breaks in the tissue offer a more direct current path for dangerous currents to the inside of the body and the tower organs, Be especially careful of doing electrical play soon after any kind of play that might abrade, nick or tear these tissues, such as enthusiastic penetration with a penis, sex toy or hand.
Muscle cells are found in your muscles. Is that a surprise? They’re found in all sorts of muscle bodies in your body. They’re what you use when you move your arms, legs, whatever.
The heart is a muscle – a extremely important one. There are also muscles in the arteries, the anus, at the base of the bladder, the cunt, and many other places you may have not been aware of. No matter how much evidence you may see to the contrary in some people, there is no such thing, however, as a muscle head.
Figure 26: Muscle Fiber, Extended & Contracted
The kind of muscle cells shown in figure 26 basically do one thing. They contract when a nerve impulse hits them. Nerve impulses are primarily electrical in nature.
We have to thank an Italian, Luigi Galvani, for showing us how muscles work. He found that applying a small electrical current to a dissected frog leg caused the leg to twitch. “Ah-ha!” he said, “Electricity is the key to muscle movement.” The entire course of muscle physiology would be different today if, instead, Galvani was a hungry Frenchman with lunch on his mind and thoughts of frog legs in drawn butter and garlic sauce.
Most muscle cells are designed to contract when an electrical impulse hits them.There are a couple of additional things you need to know about muscles. One is that they can ache, if you repeatedly try to flex a muscle many times, you’ll find that after a few flexures the muscle aches. Since muscle cells are living things, they generate as waste lactic acid. It is lactic acid that causes the burning sensation in hard-working muscles. The body normally takes care of this excess concentration, but it does take a little bit of time to do so.
The final thing about muscle cells is that they can cramp up – contract so tightly that the individual can no longer will them to loosen. This Is a condition known as tetany.
In understanding muscles and their relation to electrical play, be aware that electrical currents from toys can be strong enough to contract muscles. (Well look at the necessary current levels later.) Relaxicisors are designed for this specific purpose. Be aware of the probable current path through the muscle from the electrical play toy you’re using. You’ll also need to check for muscle aches and cramping (tetany).
You may have heard that the body’s nerves are like an electric wiring and signaling system. That’s not too bad a model, but it’s like saying that BDSM is only about whips and chains.
Nerve systems and nerve cells are very complex. Nerve signals have electrical charges, but are really chemical in nature. Nerve cells are the longest in the body, but they really don’t go directly from the cut in your finger to the “ouch” cell in your brain.
Figure 27: Nerve cell & synapse
There are many nerve cells in series carrying the signal, and they are not directly connected. They have gaps, called synapses, between the end of one nerve and the start of the next one. These synapses in fact are the key components of making nerves do their job. The important thing here to remember is that as the chemical/electrical signal travels down an individual nerve cell, when it gets to the synapse, the signal releases a chemical molecule (called a neurotransmitter) so it can be transferred across the synapse to the next nerve cell. The signal then creates the chemical/electrical signal in that nerve cell.
If you want to find out about how nerves and synapses work together in sending and processing signals in the body’s nervous system, refer to textbooks on physiology. What you need to know about nerves in understanding electrical play is much less than the broad field of neurophysiology.
First, let’s take a look at figure 27. This shows a typical nerve cell and synapse.
Nerve cell signals can be started in many ways: electrical, chemical, heat energy, and mechanical pressure. One important thing about nerves is t however, that it takes a minimum amount of sensation (heat, pressure, etc) before a nerve cell will fire. This minimum sensation is called signal threshold. Once started by whatever means r the signal takes the usual chemical/electrical form to travel down the nerve cell.
Nerve cells, although they operate in the same basic way, serve several different purposes. In the skin there are those nerve cells, called sensory nerves, that detect mechanical pressure, heat, cold, and pain. In the muscles, there are nerve cells that send the signals from the brain and/or the spinal cord to fire the muscle cells, and specific nerve cells to tell the brain how much force the muscle is exerting as it moves. These specific uses depend on how the nerve cells and synapses are connected. These connections are not random and h once established, are not changed. If they are damaged and cannot be repaired, the brain can often (but not always) reconfigure the remaining nerves to bypass the damaged area. This is a key mechanism that stroke victims use to retrain themselves.
In electrical play, nerves are our main playthings. The electricity from the toys we use cause various sensory nerves – especially the ones near the epidermis – to fire. These nerve signals are processed and routed along the nerve cells and synapses and interpreted by the brain as the various sensations we feel. The intensity of these sensations depends on the number of nerve endings involved.
Electricity causes the sensory nerves in the skin to set off signals which are routed along the nerve cells and interpreted by the brain as pain, heat, pressure and other sensations.If the current from the toy is physically concentrated on a small skin area, then there is a more intense feeling of sensation (generally interpreted by the brain as pain). The more nerves involved, i.e., t the wider the physical area, for the same current, the milder a sensation we feel. It is possible that if too many nerves are involved, none will fire and no sensation will be felt.
Consider the example of the violet wand. Here you have a spark – and let’s assume just one spark – jumping to some part of the skin. The current from the spark continues through to the ground via the back, buttocks, calves, heels, and the back of the head if the bottom is reclining or spreadeagled to a table. The spark jumps to a small area of the skin. The current is concentrated to a few nerve endings. The current’s return path to ground is spread out over a much wider area of skin and, hence, involves many more nerve endings. By the principle described above you would expect to feel the spark (because of the small number of nerves involved) and not the return current on your backside (because of signal threshold). This should agree with your personal experience.
Toys like relaxidsors release enough current to pass through the epidermis and affect the deeper nerves that transmit firing signals to the muscles. These currents will then cause the muscles to flex. Of course, the current on its way through to the muscle nerves will pass through the sensory nerves near the epidermis, causing sensations along the way. With relaxicisors, however, you generally use conducting pads that have a wide area so that only the muscles are affected, Bottoms’ opinions vary as to the amount of sensation they feel when relaxicisors are used on them.
Now lets take a look at an important body system that combines both nerves and muscles – the heart.