This Kinky Sex Act Kills Hundreds Of Men Every Year

Actor David Carradine was found dead in 2009 in a Thai hotel room with a shoelace tied around his neck and genitals. In 1997, INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence was found dead, kneeling on the ground with a belt around his neck.

Nobody can ever know for sure, but it's rumored both men died while performing the kinky self-love sex act called autoerotic asphyxiation.

Now in the latest news on the death of Chris Cornell, lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave, some are wondering if his suicide by hanging may actually have been yet another tragic incidence of auto erotic asphyxiation gone terribly wrong.

While we've never tried autoerotic asphyxiation — and can honestly say we never will — we were curious to learn more about it.

Here are 5 facts we uncovered about this extremely dangerous form of BDSM edge play:

1. It's about your air supply.

Remember the "choking game"? Well, autoerotic asphyxiation is similar to that, but with the sexual element of masturbation thrown in.

In other words, a guy essentially strangles himself while jerking off. The idea, of course, is to free your airway after orgasm ... and remain alive.

Autoerotic asphyxiation is considered by some to be a paraphilia — an "intense and persistent sexual [interest] outside of foreplay and genital stimulation with phenotypically normal, consenting adults."

The colloquial term for those who do enjoy this fetish is a "gasper."

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2. It can intensify orgasms.

Practitioners say it makes for a much more intense orgasm.

Dr. John Sims, Director of the Neurocritical Care Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, stated that "It's like having sex while taking Ecstasy" — explaining that this isn't so much a choking fetish as it is a desire to feel really, really good.

3. It's mostly a guy thing.

It's practiced most by white males between the ages of 12 and 25. Many wear women's undergarments when performing it.

4. It (obviously) can kill you.

"Baggers" or "gaspers" place a plastic bag (to be torn when they desperately need oxygen) over their heads during self-pleasuring. Alternatively, they may tie a rope around their neck. Unfortunately, cutting off oxygen to the brain can cause you to pass out and unable to clear your airway. When that happens, this act of self-pleasure turns tragic.

While less than 160 Americans are thought to die from autoerotic asphyxiation annually, the risk remains notable. Usually, there are clues, like pornography near the body, that indicate what was going on.

Despite such details, these deaths are often classified as deaths by suicide.

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5. Even if doesn't kill you, it can hurt you — permanently.

Cutting off blood supply to the brain can induce cerebral anoxia (oxygen deficiency to the brain) resulting in permanent tissue damage.

Other risky side effects include cutting, bruising, or lacerating the neck, trachea, and esophagus. These are all dependent upon the suffocation or strangulation technique employed.

More than anything else, it's important to know that there is simply NO SAFE WAY to perform autoerotic asphyxiation.