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An elementary school teacher from Sonoma, Galipeau began attending hook-pulls every year after he watched a suspension at Saratoga Springs, a retreat center in Lake County. "I thought, 'Wow, this is wild,'" he says. "There was an opportunity to do a pull in a safe, small community."
Eventually, Yossie declared Galipeau fit to try a suspension at another event in Mendocino County. "We did one on our back under a beautiful oak tree for about 45 minutes," Galipeau says. "Some people do triathlons. Others do rock-climbing. I think it speaks to people who like to push extremes."
There are no suspensions today at Alchemy. When the time comes to remove my own hooks, the sensation is barely perceptible, and the initial giddiness had long since mellowed. In the end, I am almost chagrined that the experience has been a junior-grade session compared to some of the advanced workshops, although Yossie assures me this is not the case.
I'm open to the likelihood that my fairly militant atheism might be a hurdle on the path to getting the most out of the hook-pull experience, just as my self-conscious ungainliness keeps me from attaining certain yoga poses. But no one is policing anyone's ideological purity. (Still, I can't help but bike away to the Eagle beer bust to show off the little holes in my chest and evangelize on their behalf.)
Anecdotally, it seems as though extreme sexual practices are roaring back in San Francisco. I've seen T-shirts around town that say, "Fisting is the new oral." I ask Yossie if he thinks piercing is the new fisting. He shakes his head. "It's an outlier. Fisting is a sexual activity," he says. "Historically, piercing and the piercing ritual are much more of a spiritual activity. One could argue that they're not dissimilar," he adds, but quickly points out that those who have practiced the tradition historically "don't claim it as an ecstatic experience — they claim it as a religious experience."
Again, differences in vocabulary will inevitably cloud adequate description. But there's one word that occurred to me during the two hours I was pierced, and which both Fakir and Yossie use as well. That word is "aliveness," and it has connotations to the religion I've long since bid goodbye to. But there's no denying that a hook-pull is a form of communion, and a very fulfilling one at that.
For sure, I'll be doing it again this year.
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