Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialized implements for this act include rods, switches, the cat o’ nine tails, and the sjambok. Flogging is typically imposed on an unwilling subject as a punishment; however, it can also be submitted to willingly, or performed on oneself, We’ll dispense with the unwilling subjects and religious connotations and move directly to the sadomasochistic characteristics of those who decide to willingly punish oneself not only at great financial burden, but hellish conditions and damn near impossible physical demand as well that will surely expose the smallest of breaches in ones physical and mental armor.

The conundrum is that this person is not being punished for crimes against church and state. This journey of insanity is not for Godly favor, or to embellish humanity. This person is nothing more than a thrill seeking modern day Lacedaemonian citizen seeking pain and suffering as reward, and recognition from his brethren for enduring brutality of epic proportion devised by men without a soul.

One must ponder the sanity of a man who finds interest in participating in an event designed to break him physically and emotionally for nothing more than a pat on the back and a chaffed scrotum so painful one must walk as if recently dismounting from a 300 miles jaunt on a horse. Pain is not just weakness leaving the body; it’s a reminder that we are very much alive because without pain there is no comfort, and without death there is not life……or roast beef popsicles for that matter.