By Aramock Nanucl

      September 2005

 

The human mind is a more significant factor in dominance than the physical. The most powerful and receptive to the BDSM lifestyle is the mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mind

The mind is where the cravings, desires, and emotional limits exist. A slave's intellect, reason and emotions are the playground of any real dominant and the point of maximum submission for all who view themselves as a slave. The brain, therefore, is in effect our most impressive sexual organ or gland. Essentially, to be in control is less about the physical than the mental, for:

• No steel shackle or restraint is stronger than the ones in a person's mind,

• No cell is darker or more foreboding than the ones we make for ourselves,

• No bond is stronger than the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual commitment to serve without regard for impact or personal effect.

 

Dominants take control and wind themselves through the mental and emotional landscape of the slaves, forming invisible threads so resilient that even if the dominant is not present, the connection never breaks. Time and persistence allow a Dominant to challenge the submissive's will and ability to decide. The constant correction and negation of the submissive's decisions contribute to the factor of dominance. Over time, the reaction causes the submissive to question themselves and their choices, surrendering the ability to decide to the dominant, resulting in the evaporation of resistance and independence.  Effectively dominant individuals apply the same factors apparent in the Stockholm syndrome to the full extent in a very intimate and personal setting.  Most slaves, when in "sub"-space, are virtually trained and would deny nothing to their dominant.

 

Trust, Respect, and Love

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An actual dominant needs to build a state of complete trust with a submissive so that they would not even consider alternatives to the guidance, instruction, or activities the dominant leads them through.  Success requires a combination of factors, some of which are highlighted below.  In the end, the intellectual capacity to challenge their dominant ideology evaporates in the submissive.  However, the dominant must always build, reinforce, and continuously build on that trust.

 

For trust can never flourish in a soil barren of the primary nutrients necessary for growth.  Empathy is an expression of faith; understanding another's perspective is one of the most decisive factors. Supporting the emotional connection requires the dominant to place themselves in the submissive's position and view activities from their perspective. A dominant must never deceive or fail to meet the "trust-expectations" of the submissive.  

 

Many dominants are weak or too damn lazy regarding the "empathy quotient," They can quickly lose a submissive to another dominant by being vulnerable if the challenger has a strong empathy link. The genuine difference is in turning a submissive into a slave.  However, it also requires respect and emotional commitment.  Also, with the slave's sense of personal worth tied to the respect and dedication that they have to their dominant, nothing is beyond their reach; no limits honestly exist, for the fulfillment comes in the service, respect, and care (yeah, even love) given by a dominant to the slave.

 

Commitment and Reprogramming

Dehumanization is one aspect of control most people overlook.  It is necessary to form a situation where the individual's value is tied to the respect and attention given by the dominant to the submissive. Referring to others in the group as "IT" and the submissive you are with as a person raises their stature.  The reference, though, always leaves the slave wary of becoming another "IT" in their dominant eyes. Often, we must make a clinical choice about how much attention to give to maintain a close balance between the slave and its humanity. Thence, the idea of mind control has profound parallels to computers, and the obvious question is not "If" but "How" do we reprogram the mind? Reprogramming has two distinct aspects to it, and each must occur to fully integrate the individual into a system (or group into a community); this is especially important in a poly setting:

• Reprogramming a submissive,

• Reprogramming others in the group, and

•  Reprogramming oneself

 

The ultimate goal in the reprogramming of the lifestyle should be:

• Greater happiness,

• Fulfillment in self-actualization and image,

• Realization of role distinctions and position,

• Total domination (TPC, Total Power Control), and ultimately

•  Harmony within the group.

 

Always being very difficult in real life, dominance and submission entail dedication and focus well beyond those who play at this to have "kinky sex."  It is ultimately about building real life (not style) that is fully engaged in the BDSM thought processes and lifestyle.  Mind games are not for the faint of heart or the casual dominant or submissive. Those committed to this lifestyle or aficionados take the time and effort to develop the requisite skills required.

 

Difficulties

Many dominants practicing cognitive control concentrate on the "how" rather than on the core aspects of the "what." They operate on the premise that they do not need to understand how the brain works, but instead apply techniques they have read about or, more likely, skimmed on the web. Many people conceivably operate under the assumption that, with the proper techniques, everything will become straightforward. This insincere approach leads to the misconception that a submissive will act and feel more or less than the dominant wishes. Without understanding the underlying mental process, gender, cultural and racial differences, a formulaic approach never truly works.

 

Worse and more ominously, the roller coaster effect takes over, and the dominant feel is that they control a situation when it is the slave. The submissive will respond to play out of a sense of "fun,"… taking calculated risks and measured challenges in an exhilarating way while deceiving or directing the dominant. "Topping from the Bottom"  is a role reversal, where the "dominant" is NOT in control but provides the illusion (sometimes to themselves) of being so. Would-be mind control freaks face several additional serious obstacles in reality.

 

No Roadmaps

We know that language, visual, physical, and sensual stimuli all combine to form a conditional pattern, forming the basis for mental conditioning. A severe obstacle, but one that can be overcome by bridging the mind's interface to the real world, is largely undocumented. This difficulty is more serious than a computer because (unlike any software) the structure of the mind has evolved along chemical lines and has shades or aspects that affect it, including situations, experience, culture, and society. Therefore, no clear and repeatable roadmap applies equally to all people. Playing with a mind is more of a hack than a programming effort—this complexity in how mental processes are executed forms the basis of the personality. There are several other intractable challenges to programming the mind.

 

The Human-Computer

The human brain lacks a precise analog of software, further complicating modification or the "reprogramming" of behaviour. Managing and actively manipulating the neural responses created during either developmental or crisis periods is essential to maintaining the state of power exchange or control. There is a clear distinction between the hardware of the brain and the nonphysical stuff that it represents. A precise engineering analogy here is between the signal processor and the signal. As an autonomic response to stimuli, even a worm can adapt (be programmed) in its behavioural reactions to the environment. However, it is not learning in an intellectual sense.   Intellectual learning is not the same as programming. Learning is a fundamental aspect of the human mind, but it is not easily programmable, as the intellect interferes with primary instinctual, emotional, and autonomic responses.

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Myth of Multi-Tasking

The human mind's design was never particularly well-suited for multitasking, despite many women challenging this notion.  The people who appear to multitask actually perform high-speed task switching. Context switching is very contrary to programming a person.  If there is a precise and repeatable process, it tends to become embedded in the psyche. Repetition is fundamental to having slaves develop a "sub-space" (a near-trance-like state) when subject to intense, sensual and stimulating activities. Therefore, some behaviour is hardwired, challenging to alter, for example, emotional (i.e., fear) learning in the amygdala (for instance, fight/flight responses, pain sluts and sub-space, nymphomania and masturbation, etc.) etched into the psyche. 

 

Psyche and Safety

The abuse potential of the human psyche is the primary, lowest level, which requires close monitoring to ensure the effective implementation of changes to human thought processes.  Practical domination finds a natural balance between pushing limits and the personal need for safety/security. Self-preservation, encompassing safety and security, remains a fundamental aspect of all individuals, except those who exhibit self-destructive tendencies. Behaviour control is effectively the realization of mental control. Social psychology experiments, such as Milgram's and the Stanford Prison Experiment, demonstrate the surprising ease with which most people can be induced to act outside socially accepted norms by presenting them with appropriate social stimuli.

 

Many of the acts in BDSM are considered revolting by mainstream society and hence shunned. Many of the lifestyle acts are based on these acts because of the selfish response or elemental primal energy derived. Regrettably, to external viewers, these are interpreted as a lack of moral judgment. The replacement of social norms by lifestyle norms is one of the primary reasons for reprogramming by the dominant group of their subordinates.

 

The goal of many dominants is to break down the social constraints and functional limits held by the submissive. Humans function in a social context; changing that context to fit the BDSM lifestyle effectively supplants the desires, needs and emotional responses of the submissive with those aligned to those established by the dominant. Focusing on the willingness to comply with the instruction of the dominant that a submissive does not understand mandates a "trust" relationship. Thereby, the submissive will follow instructions without requiring intellectual or social justification.  The exchange nurtures a submissive to become a slave and do things that in a traditional social context would not.

 

Evolutionary Contingency

Many supplicants resist the reprogramming of their value system; overcoming this is the source of the question. Hence, the apparent acts of reprogramming are unlikely to be effective in most cases, but rather require subtle manipulations over a prolonged period. Even in fiction (Manchurian Candidate), the effort of wholesale reprogramming requires vast energy, focus, and repetition over time.  Most dominants lack the time or focus on carrying this out and tend to be dependent on others to do this on their behalf or find a submissive who has the experience and this motivation. Removing the submissive's desire to choose what they will, consciously be replacing their will with that of their dominant.  Most people do not respond that way, so external conditions, life trauma, extreme poverty, prior abuse, or the overtly submissive tendency have to form the basis of building the transition. 

 

The ideal situation is one in which multiple factors can be evaluated and combined to form a comprehensive stimulus. The dominant factor manipulates responses to ensure control while keeping the submissive aware and conscious of the manipulation.  The illusion of free will remains, but the mere thought of differing with their dominant subsides over time.

 

Replace Reason with Emotion

Evolutionary change requires a complete absence of conscious thought, replacing it with finely tuned emotional responses and mechanisms. This tuning reinforces the submissive's natural tendencies, allowing them to see that the best choice is made for them by a safe and sane dominant. The expectation is that the dominant's only goal is their best interests, not their visceral pleasures.  At that point, the conditioning made no sense and was disregarded intellectually. The changes act at a deeper emotional and spiritual level, replacing both will and free thought while maintaining the subject's intelligence. While dynamic reprogramming can produce remarkable results, it is never long-lasting without the intellectual adoption and reasoning of the slave.

 

Slaves do not automatically submit simply because of a conscious decision, but because of the unconscious imperative that compensates for traditional belief-states. It is instead a conscious adherence, so it merely becomes an extension of the automatic response. Those not in the lifestyle make gut judgments about these relationships, struggling to explain the basis of their fears or conclusions rationally. While the submissive accepts it with the same sense of purpose as a religious fanatic.

 

Free Will

The concept of mind control and conditioning loses its meaning without compromising conscious free will. A submissive must almost feel an intellectual pain when making choices contrary to their dominant, often requiring the not-so-subtle reinforcement of punishment when such challenges happen. The connection is not directly driven by the dominant, but the submissive subconsciously links the events, acts, and decisions with the pain due to temporal proximity. The response must be immediate, proportional and directly relevant to the corrected infraction. Then they feel that the choice is NOT theirs to make.  This results in increasing difficulty for the slave in acting, as they choose without the dominant instruction. The targeted unconscious layers are doing most of the mental processing.

 

How to Dominate a Person

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Direct Approach      

Reprogramming the mind through conversation is like trying to reprogram a mall information kiosk through its touchscreen. Exploiting other human interfaces, such as pain receptors, sexual stimuli, or social deviation, results in many mental collisions. Overloading intellectual processes with more visceral experiences, as seen in the lack of multitasking capability, allows for breaking down many barriers more quickly and effectively when orchestrated.

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Appreciation, emotional, and spiritual stimuli, when combined with the above, help overcome socially "pre-programmed" sensibilities and allow for the fulfillment of deep-seated yearnings to feel fulfilled, challenged, exhilarated, or even loved.

 

Indirect Method       

Meditation, hypnosis, and spiritual counselling fall into this category. Reflection somewhat resembles a Denial-of-service attack, hiding all external stimuli or acting as a noise filter. Meditation also eliminates the need for rapid task-switching or multitasking, allowing time to focus on a single item at a time. The problem, issue, desire, or need, and addressing its fulfillment in isolation from the other things occurring around the subject. Complementing and reinforcing meditation are physical practices like massage, yoga, or Tai Chi, as well as techniques such as sweat lodges and fasting. There is a marked increase in effectiveness when it includes the denial of sexual stimulation. Erratic urges cease to creep into the thought processes, resulting in a rapid change in the person's perspective.

 

Hacks and Wacks

The last primary method is to overload the mind with such intense external stimuli, so the brain has difficulty processing more than one moment at a time, usually in a combination of:

• flogging,

• intense sexual acts,

• humiliation;

 

The result is effectively the runner's high of BDSM, where pain replaces the stimulus for and erases the ability to provide conscious decision making.  This method requires a level of intensity that very few dominants, except sadists, can muster. It effectively strips humanity from the person and reduces them to an object to be exercised on.  The submissive becomes a receptacle for focus and delivery. When combined with the previous states, it moves them into a nonrational zone where suggestion becomes the command and fulfilling the ultimate desire of a submissive. That is, we may need a hardware intervention such as drugs or genetic engineering. Though mainstream psychopharmacology carefully distances itself from such radical views, the goals and the means are the same.

 

Success Driven by Comprehensive Approach

Given the limitations and side effects, a blend of all three is required for a comprehensive effort to reprogram the mind. The Level of Confusion in an assumed mind-body dualism can render results ineffective. Once we concede that the reason arises from the body, it is clear that any intervention to have any meaningful effect must necessarily change the body's physical state. Equally valid is the application of verbal therapy with drugs. The trinity of approaches advocated in "The Happiness Hypothesis" results in fulfillment deriving from submission, making decisions difficult if not downright painful.

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