And with good reason. It is NOT a "practice" which is well-known--at least not within the boundaries of what we "normal" (whatever that is) people indulge in.
Let me see if I can explain it with a degree of decorum and good taste.
The reason I am familiar with this, is that while in the Air Force, I was for a period of several years, a Special Investigator and we conducted (in addition to counter-intelligence and background security investigations) criminal investigations and that is where I first became aware of this kind of deviant behavior.
"Breath play" or auto-erotic asphyxiation, is a practice whereby a person (usually a male, although it might be engaged by some women as well) attempts to "enhance" his orgasm by bringing himself to a point of near asphyxiation while engaging in "self-pleasuring."
The one case I saw of this (thus my knowledge) was where we were called to investigate a man having hanged himself and after a careful review of the facts, it was ruled an "accidental death."
This person had tied one end of a scarf around his neck and the other end to his bed post and apparently, had passed out from a lack of oxygen in the process of what he was trying to accomplish and his body weight sagged and he ended up choking to death.
Hope this explanation is not more than you wanted to know? LOL
Yeah, I googled it later and found out all of the sickening details.
>>"Breath play" or auto-erotic asphyxiation, is a practice whereby a person (usually a male, although it might be engaged by some women as well) attempts to "enhance" his orgasm by bringing himself to a point of near asphyxiation while engaging in "self-pleasuring."<<
Breath play is actually a broader category that includes auto erotic breath play. Autoerotic aspyxiation is then a subset auto erotic breath play.
But basically breath play is anything erotic involving control of breathing.... for example having a partner wear a gas mask.
http://public.diversity.org.uk/deviant/bfbreath.htm#Safety