Human Suspension, in whatever cultural manifestation is carried out in a similar setup: Using hooks pierced through a person's skin and is being suspended via ropes attached to these hooks.
Other than Native American tribes cited by Fakir Musafar and several "groups"(for the want of a better word) of people in South Asia, human suspension techniques seem to be a rather recent trend in the western world, developed in America by Allen Falkner (A student of Musafar) who started the practice in 1992- although previously Fakir Musafar had been known to hang from hooks for ritualistic practice before that.
'Ritualistic', 'indigenous' practice of suspension
Today,although the concept of human suspension is well known throughout the 'modified' community, it does not seem to be a widespread phenomenon for some reason or the other. Nevertheless this blogpost aims to explore the concept of 'identity' amongst those who practice suspension.
I suppose outwardly it is difficult to identify someone who ‘practices suspension’ simply because there isn’t a particular ‘style’ or ‘dress’ that distinguishes one as so. Granted, the people who are into suspension tend to also be into body modifications, but the two don’t necessarily go hand in hand. For most people, being suspended is seen as being more of a personal experience, with close knit people coming together to help each other achieve whatever it is they want to feel. According to an interview with Allen Falkner though, there are some other types of suspension which exist, and they can be ritualistic and theatrical as well, other than the personal factor. These, again, aren’t independent of each other, as he claims. It can be theatrical as well as personal at the same time, for example.
Criss Angel's suspension stunt
Lets take the case study from a set of videos from ‘the modified world’.The people in their suspension ‘team’ or ‘group’ are made up of piercers in the Michigan area, although they belong to a bigger suspension interest organisation called A.G.R.O, who have several teams throughout the US. These are people who can be considered as doing it out of ‘personal interest’, and fulfilling something they want to do for themselves; take for exam ‘Evil Dave’ who considered it an achievement to be able to hoist himself up (episode 29), or even Anna in episode 30, where even though her suspension experience was not as successful, it was more of the ‘spiritual’ or personal emotion experience which she gained from it. Furthermore they do it within a rather exclusive community; in an enclosed area and videos are shown in a very straightforward, matter of fact manner that does not overly dramatify this seemingly extreme practice. Another example of suspension would be Criss Angel’s suspension from helicopter stunt, which can be considered rather a theatrical, commercial show of suspension, to show more of the ‘fear factor’ side of suspension.
Episode 28
Episode 29
Episode 30
Because suspension itself is a physical act and has to be carried out (as opposed to, for example punk, which can exist as an ideology outside of style and music) in this case I think Cressy’s objectivist model of status hierarchy of ‘insider strata’ and ‘outsiders’ can be applicable to the suspension community. For example, people in the inner strata could be the ‘pioneers’ of it such as Musafar, Falkner, and maybe even these A.G.R.O heads, such as Kenny, who are so called the ‘experts’ on suspension and practice it and develop, contribute actively to the methods and types of suspension. Outside the ‘inner strata’ could be people who engage in suspension, and this group can be further divided into those who do it on a ‘regular’ basis, and those who want to just try it out, or do it for the experience, for whatever reason appropriate to them. (See for example, “Suspension!!!-*lots of pics*” an experience of someone who did suspension to mark her 21st birthday) The outer strata would then consist of interested observers and people who have a strong interest in it but have yet to try it for themselves for whatever reason (fear, resource unavailability).
Link to article: 42610-Suspension!!!-*lots-of-pics*
The Widdicombe and Bovone articles seem to approach subcultural style from an ‘outside looking in’ point of view and try to reconcile these people’s subcultural lives with the general ‘normal society’ that they have to function in. Widdicombe was interested in how the youths developed their subcultural identity from wanting to be ‘different’ from people which then grew into associating with a certain group of people. In this case, I think that the people who are into suspension, mostly already feel like they’re ‘different’ from the rest of society, perhaps stemming from the fact that they are already into body modifications in the first place. But (to me at least) I do not think they do this because they want to BE different, but because they are seeking an alternative experience which can only be got through suspension. Say for example someone has little interest in other form of body modification but is passionate about suspension; this seeking of a different experience from mainstream society (since I am assuming that suspension is not a widespread cultural practice by the rest of the ‘western’ or even ‘asia’ population) would still be their driving motif. But it is difficult to be an independent since one would obviously need even a small team of people (professional piercer, someone who understands rigging) to carry out the suspension setup. In the case of Bovone and her idea of ‘image’, since one could ‘look’ like a perfectly normal person and still be into suspension, there really isnt a need to ‘adopt’ a different sort of mindset or image of oneself, other than how you might handle people who do not ‘understand’ suspension .
At the end of the day, when it comes to identity and suspension, from what I can tell at least, that suspension is more of a personal act and their identification with it has little to do with having to ‘make a statement’ or a big issue about it (unless they were just doing it show off from the start) . The personal satisfaction that comes out from being suspended can stem purely out of a desire to be suspended and does not necessarily equate to them wanting to be different from society in the first place, since technically no-one has to know. But a subculture for suspension has to exist because suspension is quite a community based activity in the sense that you need people who are in the know of how to do it, and a moral support group to overcome the perceived mind-over-matter initial apprehension of ‘going up’. It just so happens that people who practice it today tend to be outwardly modified as well, so perhaps that ‘image’ that suspension has currently is that its ‘something modified people do’ when really it doesn’t take a ‘want’ to be so different from everyone else to be suspended because its more of a personal journey.
Other Links:
Interview with Allen Falkner
By way of interest, Thaipusam in Kerala taken in 2012, showing that 'hook hanging' is still a ritualistic practice in South Asia today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq5I55ma464
No comments:
Post a Comment