Before the Internet, how did boys learn about auto-erotic hanging?

Factual Questions
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The urge to breathe is driven by CO2 concentration in the lungs, and not by O2 concentration. There are a couple of simple ways to demonstrate this:

  1. get a 2-liter bottle of soda. Open it, empty the soda (or at least part of it). The remaining space in the bottle will have a very high concentration of CO2. Exhale, put your seal your lips around the bottle opening, and squeeze the bottle as you inhale that gas. As that CO2 enters your lungs, you will immediately feel a very strong urge to breathe. You will not pass out right away though, since your blood O2 level is still adequate. If you can resist that incredible urge to breathe for a very long time (as free divers do), you may use up enough O2 in your lungs so that your blood O2 level falls and induces dizziness/euphoria.

  2. get a helium balloon. Exhale deeply, inhale the balloon’s contents, and hold your breath for twenty seconds or so. You will not feel an urge to breathe during this time, since lung CO2 concentration is not yet high. But in a fairly short time (possibly less than 20 secs), you will start to feel dizzy/buzzy/euphoric, as your blood O2 levels rapidly plummet. Theoretically if you continue holding your breath you’ll pass out, start breathing again, and regain consciousness, but there may be complications; if you decide to try this, it’s probably smart to start breathing again before you pass out.

So what’s the deal with autoerotic asphyxiation? Two things.

  1. Practitioners of extreme BD/SM may be familiar with “breath control,” in which the top deliberately limits the ability of the bottom to breathe (google “breath control” for more info). Since BDSM activities are all about control and/or inflicting pain/suffering, pleasure may be derived from such absolute control over the bottom, and also from the discomfort/panic associated with not breathing for an extended period (see soda bottle demo above). If taken to the (dangerous) extreme, pleasure may also be derived from hypoxic euphoria if the bottom is not permitted to breathe for several minutes. Note that strangulation is not required to restrict breathing; simple obstruction of the mouth/nose may suffice for this purpose.

  2. Hypoxia (and the accompanying euphoria which reportedly enhances pleasure) may be induced far more rapidly by simply restricting blood flow to the head. Strangulation with a ligature can accomplish this, although this also tends to restrict breathing, which may or may not be desirable, and may temporarily collapse the jugular veins, resulting in a painful rise in cranial blood pressure. Instead, the blood flow to the brain may be blocked (without restricting breathing) most directly by pressing on the carotid arteries on either side of the wind pipe. This is what the “sleeper hold” does with the forearm and bicep when someone is restraining an unwilling subject; the same affect can be achieved on a compliant subject (or on oneself) with the use of thumb tips. Hypoxic euphoria can be achieved in seconds this way; keep it up, and unconsciousness follows very soon after, much faster than can be achieved by simply restricting breathing.

42

At a church youth group we (both boys and girls) practiced hypoxia by pressing on each other’s carotid arteries. This was passed on from young teenager to young teenager, the same way that many children’s’ games are pass on. Sometimes we did it in conjunction with snogging, and sometimes not.