bdsm & spiritual, psychic or psychological growth

It appears that a woman did a study and wrote a dissertation. She asked people if they had had spiritual, psychic or psychologically transformative experiences during bdsm scenes and wrote about common elements in their answers, if the answer was yes.

***

The key constituents discovered in this research were (1) ordeal, (2) surrender, (3) visionary experience, (4) embodied sense of an energetic force, (5) sense of spiritual presence (Other), (6) self-surrendered/transcended state of consciousness, and (7) deeply personal and lasting transformation.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14681994.2016.1205185

I wonder if that was what Keith Raniere told his disciples

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/michaelblackmon/nxivm-slave-testimony-keith-raniere

well, I am not leading a cult or attempting to seduce anyone . . .

the guy in charge of the cult or group was probably in fact saying some things that were true, together with errors and falsehoods!