Slavery and Discipline a BDSM Skinhead Lifestyle by Philippe L. De Coster Slavery and Discipline have many meanings. The literal meaning of discipline was taken from the word disciple, meaning, "a follower, one who takes another as a teacher [therefore, if he or she is your disciple, then you will teach him or her (discipline)]." The definition of discipline I use is: "Training intended to produce a specified character or pattern of behaviour." And when training is complete, this third definition of discipline is what you have; "a state of order based on submission to rules and authority, you are now a slave." I have noticed that in chat and webcam performances most people seem to believe that discipline is the same as punishment. In my opinion, the main difference between discipline and punishment is that discipline uses training methods that closely correlate to the misbehaviour and willing or unwilling disobedience, whereas punishment is arbitrary, involves no training methods, and does not have to “fit the crime”, as in contradicting the Master through disobedience. I assume this other view of discipline is based on this fourth definition of discipline: "punishment intended to correct or train." This, I believe, is an acceptable use of the word discipline if one is thinking of having a submissive slave stick his tongue to a bar of soap to curb his bad language. If this is done when the bad language is uttered, this form of punishment could be said to correct or train.
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Slavery and Discipline a BDSM Skinhead Lifestyle
by Philippe L. De Coster
Slavery and Discipline have many meanings. The literal meaning of discipline
was taken from the word disciple, meaning, "a follower, one who takes another
as a teacher [therefore, if he or she is your disciple, then you will teach him or
her (discipline)]."
The definition of discipline I use is: "Training intended to produce a specified
character or pattern of behaviour." And when training is complete, this third
definition of discipline is what you have; "a state of order based on submission
to rules and authority, you are now a slave."
I have noticed that in chat and webcam performances most people seem to
believe that discipline is the same as punishment. In my opinion, the main
difference between discipline and punishment is that discipline uses training
methods that closely correlate to the misbehaviour and willing or unwilling
disobedience, whereas punishment is arbitrary, involves no training methods,
and does not have to “fit the crime”, as in contradicting the Master through
disobedience.
I assume this other view of discipline is based on this fourth definition of
discipline: "punishment intended to correct or train." This, I believe, is an
acceptable use of the word discipline if one is thinking of having a submissive
slave stick his tongue to a bar of soap to curb his bad language. If this is done
when the bad language is uttered, this form of punishment could be said to
correct or train.
2
If, however, the punishment for bad language is a spanking, since there is no
correlation to the misbehaviour and the punishment used to correct it, it is not
training nor correction. If we substitute the word punishment for discipline, then
this makes more sense.
Punishment is a "penalty for wrongdoing." It does not necessarily have to fit the
crime. Punishment can be arbitrary, determined by whim. A Dominant Master
can impose any punishment he chooses for any misbehaviour (although this
needs to be set forth from the beginning so that the submissive knows what she
is risking with misbehaviour). But this is not discipline, it is not used to train the
submissive, it is used to punish him or her.
Let me bring forward an example of discipline and then some of punishment to
illustrate my point, though I am not a Master but a slave, affirming myself from
birth, being born a slave. Suppose you want your submissive or slave to focus
more on your sexual needs than his own. You wouldn't spank him for being
aroused would you? Would you send him to the corner for being horny? Of
course you wouldn't, not if your goal is to train her to focus him sexual energy
into meeting your sexual needs and not her own.
A method I would suggest is positive reinforcement. When the slave is aroused
and thinking of his own sexual needs you would have him pleasure you in some
sexual manner. He is not allowed orgasm; his pleasure will come in the form of
him satisfying his need to please you.
You can tease him a bit, get a little rough with him, and keep him excited by
your comments or expressions of pleasure (this will satisfy his need to be
controlled). After you are satisfied, be affectionate with him as a recompense.
Tell him what a wonderful "slave" he is, and how much he has pleased you, but
that is not enough you want more. Snuggle him close to you and fall asleep this
way (this will meet her needs to feel special and cared for). In this way, he will
eventually feel her sexual arousal as a need to worship your body. This is
discipline (training).
Punishment will make him feel bad about himself, afraid of you, or resentful.
Now that I have made some people angry, let me say that I understand that this
may not be what you intend to use it for, but this is the effect. As such in this
way I need to be punished.
An example of punishment might be spanking your submissive because he used
unacceptable language. Now remember this is punishment, not S/M play in the
first place, this cannot be fun for either of you for it to be real punishment if the
relation between Master and slave is serious and not just a game.
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It must not be something he likes (does he like being spanked? If he does, this is
not punishment, it is play). If this is something either of you likes, you are
reinforcing the bad behaviour rather than curbing it. If he likes being spanked,
he will use this language whenever he wants you to spank him. If he doesn't like
to be spanked, he is now in a position that is teetering on abuse.
We defend our play style and our lifestyle with the Safe, Sane, and Consensual
credo. We do this because we are aware that without consent, the physical
aspects of our play are simply abuse. If the submissive isn't aroused by intense
sensation (sensual pain), then we cannot use it, unless she has consented to it.
Why would someone consent to something he does not like? If he is submissive,
he could very well consent to it to please his dominant Master, but is it safe and
sane? If he is allowing you to do something to him that he does not like at all,
especially something that causes pain, he is creating a confusing conflict in his
own mind. This conflict is perfect for triggering memories of past pain and
abuse. There is nothing safe or sane about this.
You are putting your submissive in emotional danger by requesting that he
accepts physical pain that he does not enjoy. You could easily find yourself
dealing with some serious emotional fallout, possibly so serious, that you will
not be equipped to handle it adequately. Is this risk of emotional pain and
trauma worth it--just because you want to punish him?
Exactly what does punishment do for you or your submissive slave? How does it
benefit you? The allure, I think, is control; ultimate control. For a dominant
master to feel that he has so much control over another human being that he can
even strike this person (and not risk retaliation) to show her disapproval is a
heady feeling.
But people, this is fantasy stuff. This is like the fantasy of having your
submissive slave live in a cage in your basement. It is hot, arousing, and fills
you with a feeling of exquisite power, but it is not realistic. You may put him in
cage for a certain time, even hours, but as a punishment only.
Spanking for mutual pleasure (you can pretend he is actually being punished)
can be wonderfully fulfilling if you have these fantasies of ultimate control.
They work quite well in scene. They cannot, however, be translated into reality.
Punishing an adult simply does not work.
There is too much mental resistance to it in the adult mind. Even if he consents
to it and means for it to be effective, it rarely 'takes.' The same punishment is
needed again and again and as it continues to be administered; your submissive
slave becomes more and more emotionally damaged by it. This is not a loving,
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mutually uplifting relationship in which each partner grows and becomes her
better self.
Mental punishment is no more effective than physical punishment. Using the
'silent treatment,' pouting, avoidance, and withholding sex all create resentment
or the pain of rejection when used as punishment. These feelings eat at the
foundation of your relationship (if there is a relationship); they are silent
destroyers of love. These punishments will not alter your partner's behaviour
because they do not motivate. Adults change themselves because they are
motivated to do so.
Positive reinforcement motivates, negative reinforcement does not. When adults
are confronted with pain or unpleasantness, they simply find ways to avoid this
feeling, even if that means avoiding the person doling out the unpleasantness.
Do you avoid people who nag at you, even if they have your best interests at
heart? If negative reinforcement worked, then firing a person from a job would
motivate him to be a better worker. If negative reinforcement was effective,
when your boss upbraided you in front of your co-workers, you would become a
much more pleasant and productive employee. If it worked, when he gave you
the 'silent treatment' because you were late for a date, you would never be late
again. If it worked, you would only need to spank your submissive once.
"Discipline, like the bridle in the hand of a good rider, should exercise its
influence without appearing to do so; should be ever active, both as a support
and as a restraint, yet seem to lie easily in hand. It must always be ready to
check or to pull up, as occasion may require; and only when the horse is a
runaway should the action of the curb be perceptible".
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Mike (Metal) my Master and Friend, the Rebel
Original skinheads were
rebelling against... society
marriage and families,
managers time clocks and
work, rockers with big noisy
motorbikes and leather jackets,
mods scooters and their music
and fashion statements,
authority and the police, glam
rock music, the football team
at the other end of the ground
and many other things.
Mike (Metal) – Died young March 28, 2009
The original Skin look was shocking and a threat: bovver boots or Doctor
Martens meant thugs and Trouble. Cropped hair or shaved head and tattoos
meant convict or borstal runaway. West Ham football club terraces used to smell
of beer and piss, Chelsea and Arsenal did too. Footie skins boots were practical
even before the after-match fight. Why chuck a plastic of beer when you can
chuck a plastic of piss and not miss the match going to the bogs? Some nutter
might even drink it before you have time to throw it. Oi skin! was a challenge
not a greeting.
Footie went all-seat stadium respectable and piss fights were renamed golden
shower around the time when Skin became a gay style. Maybe the smell and
taint of the rebel has diminished as the moon stomp beat and racist tribal chants
have faded into the urban mix.
Rebel means looser in some people's eyes: the skinhead hooligan being led away
by a British bobbie and giving the press photographer a one finger salute for the
Sunday papers. That skinhead lifestyle leads to corporal punishment from the
birch, the tawse and rape in borstal. A life of submission to prison power and the
same metal gods that skinhead slaves now honour in the SM playroom.
Rebel also means glory: the local hero: the skinhead boxer fighting for the glory
of the East End of London. Glorious even if defeated, the Confederate South
will rise again. The songs and chants of the plantation, the roots of jazz, the
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original black music and now the urban rap beat. Red skins and Communards.
White power music too: Union jack for Great Britain, St Andrews cross for
England and the music beat wars. Music as race riot without the CS gas like
international sport is war without the shooting. A long way from the fifties
movie like "Rebel without a cause" that seems oh so tame viewed in the
following century.
But brown boots and green jacket are still powerful symbols; derived from
military style but not military. Black jacket and black boots isn't Original Skin
and means different and doesn't incite a riot. Black boots and black jackets are
security, the guys sent in with the sticks to stop the riot or the American hero
who saves the planet (again) in another movie.
Skin became a gay style about the second or third time the skinhead style came
round into fashion. MA1 jackets show your bum and 501 jeans with braces
feature your packet even if you're not wearing a cockring. The Skin style's
usefully ambiguous between the rebel and hooligan or the gay and the bi, the
sort of man your Mum wouldn't want you to take to her home but she'd like to
have a secret shag from. Or a soldier, on leave but still marked by his regulation
crew-cut. Those went out years ago when the crew-cuts obviously identified
soldiers travelling on British Rail who were trying to avoid being picked off by
terrorists.
But even as Skin became socially acceptable the public didn't realise just how
much gay skins just want to have fun. Much of the straight world doesn't even
want to start to imagine how and maybe for most of England it's just as well like
that. But luckily it sometimes all hangs out at public events like London's SM
Pride march and in gay pubs and clubs where it's at in the big cities.
Oh and I've known some skinheads who can cook a mean chocolate cake that's
fantastic before a night of hard submission in the playroom... just how did that
develop from the borstal skill of rolling up with one hand?
Faggots Rules
Rules every faggot that knows it's place should follow:
1. The faggot is born to obey, serve and worship Men.
2. To that end, faggots are kept in chastity as well as Male-supervised and
controlled Cock denial. (Faggot is very lusty. therefore, orgasm and Male Cock
access under control equals faggot under control. Simple formula.) This chastity
and denial trains up Respect, Adoration, and Worship for Men in faggot's mind.
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And keeps faggot eager to serve Men nicely. (This normally takes gradual
training and can be done with or without device.)
3. Men are more intelligent than faggots, and the faggot does not ever disagree
with a Man. If it does, discipline is applied to bring faggot to the proper
consciousness.
4. Every faggot has the inborn need to be under the full control of a Male. There
is no other life for the faggot. Faggot is kept under the control of Men in all
respects and is trained up to a consciousness of pleasing Men.
5. Faggot is stripped down at all times in the presence of Males, while Males are
clothed. This communicates the subordinate and degraded position of the faggot
before Males.
6. When any Male enters the room, faggot must bow down naked and offer
obeisance at the feet of the Superior Male and ask how it can serve the Male.
Faggot also bows down each time it renders a service to a Male.
7. Faggot is to provide money and wealth to Males. Faggot does not need
material things.
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Sleep discipline
Complete slavery includes regulation and control including during the hours of
sleep and the duration of sleep. Sleep deprivation leads to poor performance and
can amount to torture. Male chastity control is well-known but less familiar are
routines to ensure sleep discipline. There is a strong tendency is to sleep in the
foetal position but this instinct can be overridden by training:
Prison and Borstal1 sleep positions
Complete slavery includes regulation and control including during the hours of
sleep and the duration of sleep. Sleep deprivation leads to poor performance and
can amount to torture. Male chastity control is well-known but less familiar are
routines to ensure sleep discipline. There is a strong tendency is to sleep in the
foetal position but this instinct can be overridden by training:
1. Slave sleep positions
2. Should a slave sleep naked?: toys?
3. Military sleep positions
4. Borstal sleep positions
5. Hospital sleep positions: straitjacket and humane restraint
6. Drunk cell sleep positions
7. Waking up
Slave sleep positions
Train your slave to sleep spread-eagled face-down on a bed when he is alone;
sometimes called the starfish sleep position. If his willpower alone is
insufficient, he should attach himself to the four corners of his bed. Sleeping in
1 A borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom and the
Commonwealth. In India, it is known as a borstal school. Borstals were run by HM Prison
Service and intended to reform seriously delinquent young people. The word is sometimes
used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institution or reformatory, such as Approved
Schools and Detention Centers. The court sentence was officially called "borstal training".
Borstals were originally for offenders under 21, but in the 1930s the age was increased to
under 23. The Criminal Justice Act 1982 abolished the borstal system in the UK, introducing
youth custody centers instead. In India, borstal schools are used for the imprisonment of
minors. As of 31 December 2011, there were 21 functioning borstal schools in India, with a
combined total capacity for 2,218 inmates.
9
this position trains the slave to sleep in a fully-exposed position with his arse
ready for taking. It also trains him to keep his hands away from his cock and
balls.
A variation is to train your slave to sleep with one finger - maybe the middle
finger of his left hand - in his arsehole. Again he will learn to remind himself of
his slave status. Sleeping wearing a buttplug is another option: my experience is
that this leads to some good wild dreams.
Some Masters train their slave to sleep in chains or other restraints on the floor
at the foot of the Master's bed. Like a dog.
The leather goods manufacturers offer leather sleep sacks for overnight sleep
restraint or other enforced immobility.
Should a slave sleep naked?
Ordering a slave to sleep naked instils that he is not worthy of clothing.
However a slave who regularly sleeps clothed will feel unusually exposed when
he is sleeping with his Master. Sleep clothing also somewhat discourages
unauthorised masturbation. Maybe the ideal is for a slave to sleep when
unsupervised wearing a chastity device; if this is is not tolerable long-term, then
10
sleeping in a jock with the cock folded downwards but the arse exposed between
the straps.
Of course to ensure that slave doesn't sleep right through you simply instruct
him to sleep wearing with a tight cockring. This is a suitable punishment for a
slave who has dropped off to sleep too early when he should be serving and
servicing his Master. Inevitably the slave will wake up with a rampant erection
and be unable to sleep again until satisfied. One method - when the slave is
sleeping with his Master is slap-on handcuffs attached to the cock or balls and
one wrist. The slave wants to jack off but can't without waking his Master.
Some slaves wear a cockring continuously. For particular effect: training,
eroticising a special session or as a punishment, then a spiked cockstrap or cock
and ball strap is indicated. Actually what you want - and maybe your slave
doesn't - is a device that's comfortable enough for him to get off to sleep but
sized so that when his erotic appetite returns, he will become erect and
consequently suffer pain from the toy you have him wear. Maybe you reserve
this for when your slave is sleeping apart from you so that he can't wake you.
Military sleep positions
Institution bunk beds are narrow: two foot (60cm) or so; this restricts the
sleeping positions. Also the mattress and springs are usually well-used. The
result is that sleeping on the side is not comfortable.
Snoring is a primary consideration when sleeping in a dormitory; usually it is
made worse by sleeping on the front. Hence the well-known but unsubstantiated
rumour that USMC soldier recruits are trained to sleep with their hands at their
sides in the position of "Attention" with the night watch empowered to correct or
report those who loose discipline during their sleep. Sleeping on the side usually
entails turning, which is noisy; training recruits to sleep on their backs is a
practical measure to minimise noise for everyone's benefit. Research suggests
that this is the position favoured by a submissive personality, as the military
recommendation predates the sleep psychologist's research, it is unclear whether
ordering a soldier to sleep in the position of "attention" also changes his
personality to be submissive and order-loving.
Readiness for action is a primary consideration. It's perhaps an overstatement to
say that military training is all about sleep deprivation and being cold and wet
but the lack of sleep resulting from long watch hours and irregular opportunities
for sleep produces an ability to sleep anywhere. Combat readiness training also
includes being ready for action within minutes of being woken: sleeping in kit,
11
including boots, is part of the required technique. And sleeping with a loaded
rifle next to you in the bedding produces some interesting dream sequences...
Sleeping in kit also applies to Fire Service personnel when on duty: waterproof
neoprene suits and and rubber boots?
Hot bunking - the practice where the same bedspace is occupied at different
times by a member of a different watch - leads to other customs both designed to
minimise territorial instincts. Please get in touch if you can contribute any of
these of interest.
Sleeping dormitories at Borstal
Prison and Borstal sleep positions
These are quotes from a Borstal group so are uncorroborated
My recollection of this was that you were expected to sleep with your arms
outside of the bedding. The idea was it would keep your hands off your cock. Of
course, it never really worked because through the natural course of sleeping the
process would fall flat as your body would turn around in bed. If sleeping face
down you would often find your hands and arms inside the bedding.
That all said and done. It was funny to witness the lads during the first few days.
They would attempt to sleep as instructed, and often succeed. Only to find
themselves waking with a strong erection tenting the bedding. Unsure if they
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should place their hands under the sheet to conceal it, they would try and pass it
off as unnoticed.
A testimony
In my reformatory it was of course forbidden to wank! It was consider as
disobedience and bad behaviour...
How do they control ?
Just looking at you waking up... at the ring all guys forced to be inspected
standing naked in front of his bed...
They just controlled if you were aroused or not... if yes no problem... just a cold
shower...
If not they presumed you wanked during last night so you were punished...
How do they punish you ?
You just had to wank 3 times one after the other in front of the mates... Then
you received 6 of the cane always in front of the mates... then a cold shower and
1 week nights bound hands up on your back... Being bound for sleeping is a real
hard punishment...
We also had to show our sheets where they were looking for evidence of
wanking... I remember once both of us - and I was in- had such evidence... they
added 2 punishment : first we had to stay naked and just keep the sheet showing
the evidence on us... second : 50 of a belt... Of course we tried not to wank...
I received this punishment let's say 10 or 12 during my time... hard humiliating...
but effective...
Waking up
There are two ways of waking up: nice and nasty.
Nicely :
Natural awakening
Waking up still tired
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Nasty:
Pain from piercing or tattoo whilst healing
Cock, arse tits being fondled to arousal
Pain from spiked cockstrap
Pain from chastity device constraining arousal
Pain from stripes from previous CP
Whistle, bell, electric shock
Smell of body odour or body fluid smells
Enema that started whilst asleep
Being pissed on
These are quotes from a Borstal group so are uncorroborated:
Someone speaking …
My recollection of this was that you were expected to sleep with your
arms outside of the bedding. The idea was it would keep your hands off
your cock. Of course, it never really worked because through the natural
course of sleeping the process would fall flat as your body would turn
around in bed. If sleeping face down you would often find your hands and
arms inside the bedding.
That all said and done. It was funny to witness the lads during the first
few days. They would attempt to sleep as instructed, and often succeed.
Only to find themselves waking with a strong erection tenting the
bedding. Unsure if they should place their hands under the sheet to
conceal it, they would try and pass it off as unnoticed.
In my reformatory it was of course forbidden to wank! It was consider as
disobedience and bad behaviour...
How do they control ?
Just looking at you waking up... at the ring all guys forced to be inspected
standing naked in front of his bed... They just controlled if you were
aroused or not... if yes no problem... just a cold shower... If not they
presumed you wanked during last night so you were punished...
14
How do they punish you ?
You just had to wank 3 times one after the other in front of the mates...
Then you received 6 of the cane always in front of the mates... then a cold
shower and 1 week nights bound hands up on your back... Being bound
for sleeping is a real hard punishment...
We also had to show our sheets where they were looking for evidence of
wanking... I remember once both of us - and I was in- had such
evidence... they added 2 punishment : first we had to stay naked and just
keep the sheet showing the evidence on us... second : 50 of a
belt... Of course we tried not to wank...
I received this punishment let's say 10 or 12 during my time... hard
humiliating... but effective... (Eric)
Hospital sleep positions
Strait jacket
Patients who need to be restrained for their own protection were formerly
restrained using a straitjacket. You'll find your shoulders ache quite soon from
the position and that it's impossible to lie comfortably.
Humane Restraint
More recently, the products of the Humane Restraint company have been used
to restrain a patient's wrists and ankles to the bed. This is similar to the US
prison lockdown position that became notorious in Control Unit jails in the US
in the 1980's.
Drunk cell sleep positions
Drunk cells - isolation cells - tend to have minimum facilities. The prisoner
sleeps in his own filth like an animal but the cell can be cleaned out readily with
a hose. There is an isolation
Isolation cell
Solitary confinement in isolation cells is a form of imprisonment in which an
inmate is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of
members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment
beyond incarceration for a prisoner and has been cited as an additional measure
15
of protection for the inmate. This form of punishment is also given for violations
of prison regulations. It is also used as a form of protective custody and to
prevent in the case of suicide, restriction from items that could disrupt the
prisoners health. Solitary confinement is colloquially referred to in American
English as "the hotbox", "the hole", "lockdown", "punk city", "SCU" (Solitary
Confinement Unit), "AdSeg" (Administrative Segregation), the "SHU"
(pronounced "shoe") – an acronym for "special housing unit" or "security
housing unit", or "the pound"; in British English as "the block" or "the cooler";
and in Canada it is known as the Special Handling Unit.
Waking up
There are two ways of waking up: nice and nasty.
Nice Nasty Depends
Natural awakening Waking up still
tired
Pain from piercing or tattoo
whilst healing
Cock, arse tits being
fondled to arousal
Pain from spiked
cockstrap
Pain from chastity device
constraining arousal
Pain from stripes from
previous CP
Whistle, bell,
electric shock
Smell of body odour or
body fluid smells
Enema that started whilst
asleep
Being pissed on
Submission positions
Stress positions, search and inspection positions, military drill positions;
harassment, hazing and punishment positions. Eye discipline.
Someone having been detained and supervised in many of these positions; they
appear tolerable but become increasingly uncomfortable. "Toughening up" is
currently unfashionable, for me, the time-honoured punishments are interesting
methods to study ways of becoming tougher.
Physical punishments can't be standardised. Individual reactions vary to many
physical punishments like these or CP. Some enjoy them as a challenge, others
are bored or find them unbearable.
16
Unless you've endured a punishment or stress position as part of a discipline
regime it's difficult to appreciate the reaction. Doing it alone in front of a PC is
not the same.
Counter moves are possible for most of these positions as part of unarmed
combat training.
Eye discipline: the direction of subject's eyes may also be specified;
unauthorised observation or challenge to the supervisor is prohibited.
Some old-style prisoner control positions formerly used in Senior
Approved Schools, Borstal (US) and Prisons
SIT legs crossed, with EYES DOWN or HEAD BETWEEN YOUR KNEES.
KNEEL, again with EYES DOWN.
The order HANDS ON HEAD was often added for additional control.
Punishment positions include CROUCH, hands behind the back.
When crouching became intolerable, the detainee was permitted to lean his
forehead against the wall. That's a trick. It makes it easier for a short while bit
but soon becomes worse as not only do the knees hurt but the forehead hurts too.
The worst one was "CROUCH KNEES HEAD WALL AND DON'T MOVE"
which means crouch with your hands behind the back, forehead on the wall,
knees on the wall.
Moving - otherwise known as wriggling or fidgeting - was just asking to stay
there for longer.
TOUCH YOUR TOES or GRAB YOUR ANKLES are a well-known
preliminaries to the free-standing administration of corporal punishment (CP).
Crouching and squatting have the centre of gravity of the body over the heels
and as near to the ground as possible. Squatting has the feet further apart than
crouching with the heels touching, in the squat position the thighs are parallel
and in the crouch position the upper legs are at ninety degrees to each other.
Squatting as a martial arts or gym workout position has the head forward and
level (don't look down) and the back straight; feet parallel, soles flat on the
ground; for a crouch the feet are angled and the heels are off the ground. Duck
walk - that the French call marche canard - is the version where you walk in this
17
position. Like the static positions, it quickly becomes tiring - or duck walk can
be viewed as an excellent, but punishing, workout for the legs.
Crouching is ready to spring into action: the crouch position is recommended to
hikers or soldiers when resting outdoors to avoid getting a damp bum from
sitting on the ground. The dictionary has this as the original meaning, the
connotation has gradually changed so that crouching now describes a submissive
posture derived from crouching before the crucifix, which has in turn become
kneeling before the crucifix.
Squatting is routinely used in Asian jails as a prisoner holding position. The
dictionary associates the word squat with animals defecating. For humans it's
akin to squatting over a hole-in-the-ground WC or "Mandy" toilet: The French
Traditional W.C. It seems particularly uncomfortable to Westerners accustomed
to sitting in chairs.
"Tug" adds
The punishment wall, used in old Senior Approved/Borstal regimes for 18-21
year olds. You were standing for hours on a four inch wide wall, about three feet
off the ground. The advantage is you can have several on the wall at once. One
Governor at Feltham had them in boots only. Kerrison Senior
Approved/Reformatory had them bare feet. More about punishments in Borstal.2
2 Borstal Punishment Block CP
"Borstal" remains the slang for punishment centres for 18-21 year olds although the
institutions previously named HMB (Her Majesty's Borstal) similarly to HMP (Her Majesty's
Prison) have been subsequently renamed YoC (Young offenders Centres) and and YoI
(Young offenders Institutions). Corporal Punishment has long since been illegal in these
institutions.
First experience
Corporeal punishment was widely used in Borstal up until I was there in 1982. It was
unofficial and it was quite common to see other lads with striped on their arses. We didn't
have punishment blocks at YoC Leicester but we had a punishment set of cells that where
"away" from the main area.....this is also where the canings and strappings took place...
Caning was more of a sadistic/sexual thing with the screws although at the time I hated it and
never wanted it we had no choice in most cases. It was either a beating or report.... AR
Second experience
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Alan adds
On a similar note of punishment, at Borstal we were made to hold a large book
(usually the Yellow Pages) and forced to hold it out at arm’s length in front of
your body. Might sound easy but after 5 minutes your arms where in agony. If
we let go within the 5 minutes is meant a hard whack over the arse with a strap...
Jeffrey adds
In the movie Chatahoochie, based on a true story that takes place in an
American mental hospital in the 1950s, there is a scene where a patient is being
punished by sitting motionless on a backless bench. The guard sits there
watching him with his feet sprawled out comfortably eating and smoking and
reading. It is implied that the prisoner had to sit there a long time.
Military Corporal Punishment: gaining your stripes
Sore-assed squaddies
Historically, flogging across the shoulders was used to impose military
discipline on an unwilling soldiery. Flogging as a sentence from a Court Martial
in the British army was abolished in 1868 by Act of Parliament (US army 1861)
army but corporal punishment has persisted unofficially at least into the 1990's -
three squaddies reportedly received 12 strokes of the birch in Shrewsbury in
1993 for taking cocaine on camp.
The "short sharp shock" of Guard Room CP has the advantages that the
punishment is immediate, the soldier does not have the infraction entered on his
Yes, we had a punishment block at Ever Thorpe HMB. I spent a couple of nights in there for
fighting with the Daddies of my Wing! All the furniture was actually made out of corrugated
cardboard was removed from the cell in the day time and brought back in at supper time. Life
in the block as they called it, was pretty boring actually with lockup for 23 hours a day and
just a Bible to read.
Third experience
In the early 1990s I met a solicitor in a bar. He told me that he had been to Feltham YOC that
day to see a client. In the visiting room the client spontaneously dropped his trousers to reveal
stripes across his buttocks which he claimed had been caused by a Prison Officer's caning.
Remember this was the early 1990s, long after this sort of thing was supposedly outlawed
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record and the CO doesn't need to know about it so promotion prospects are
unaffected by a local lapse of discipline.
Traditional authoritarian methods of correction have also persisted for those
unable to achieve perfection at drill. This provides a particularly fertile starting
point for CP in military discipline fantasy re-enactments. Bunker TQB 6/47 had
slatted benches in the mess cabin which were memorably uncomfortable to
recently striped sore-assed squaddies...
Taking corporal punishment "like a man" is also part of the process of
toughening up: including circuit training where one station includes presenting
for CP as well as callisthenic exercises such as pushups and sit-ups. The
resulting stripes and reddening can be worn with pride.
The toughening up process on soldiers is like hardening in horticulture: tender
young seedlings and buds are protected in the nursery but when older are
hardened outdoors so the plants can grow strong and thicken their skin.
Ritual plays a large part in corporal punishment: the sentence is declared but
administered some time later. Anticipation of the unknown breeds fear. In the
military context, a particular uniform is required - the infamous KD khaki drill
shorts were a favourite, more recently rugby/rugger shorts or other sports kit for
doses of CP administered in the gym by the physical training instructor (PTI).
For sentences administered in the guard room, additional stress was imposed by
requiring the defaulter to present for a kit inspection prior to punishment, with
the high likelihood that additional CP would be awarded for faults.
British army olive green (OG) lightweight trousers are particularly effective at
increasing the pain from CP when stretched tight across the buttocks. Wetting
the material immediately prior to CP further increases the effectiveness of the
punishment. These "tricks" can make CP received in uniform more painful than
CP received bare.
As these have been unofficial punishments regulations do not exist so there is
much local variation.
Search and Inspection positions
These positions aim to expose the prisoner to allow full body searches; sudden
moves or resistance are exposed and thus discouraged. Maintaining the hands
above the head or shoulders soon leads to fatigue.
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SPREADEAGLE. The classic "X" spread-eagle search position standing
vertical against a wall can be aggravated by
o requiring the detainee to maintain contact with the wall by nose,
knees and toes
o ordering the prisoner to step back from the wall, leaning against the
wall at an angle of 60 or so degrees and deliberately denying
contact with the wall except by the hands - or, worse, fingertips -
which now must support some body weight.
TOES, i.e. stand on tiptoe; the stretch is difficult to maintain.
ALL-FOURS. Hands and feet on the ground, bum in the air.
DOGGIE. Hands, knees and feet on the ground. Also known as ADOPT
THE POSITION.
These positions become stress positions if they are maintained for extended
periods. My personal experience is limited to being detained for an hour or so in
the spread-eagle position. Spread-eagle and tiptoe are frequently recommended
as prisoner holding positions prior to interrogation; with the addition of a
blindfold or hood, the prisoner can become confused and disorientated. This
may be contrary to the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners
of War.
Military Drill positions
British Army: ATTENTION, AT EASE, STAND EASY
US Army: ATTENTION, PARADE REST, AT EASE
Armée du terre (F): GARDE à VOUS, REPOS
Bundeswehr (D): ACHTUNG, RUHE
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At Borstal (UK)
British Army Drill positions
A paean could be uttered on the joys of drill. Endured by all servicemen, loved
by few, detested by most, equally admired and misunderstood by civilians... the
routines of military drill underpin the discipline of service life since drill was
first foisted on an unwilling soldiery by the Prussians.
The following basic definitions are classics of British Army prose. A
punishment of the National Service era was to be detained until the defaulter
was able to recite these definitions word-perfect. The descriptions begin with the
word of caution followed by the word of command.
1. Attention
SQUAD—ATTENTION
Spring up to the following position : Heels together and in line. Feet turned out
at an angle of about 30 degrees. Knees straight. Body erect, and carried evenly
over the thighs, with the shoulders (which should be level and square to the
front) down and moderately back; this should bring the chest to its natural
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forward position without any straining or stiffening. Arms hanging down from
the shoulders as straight as the natural bend of the arm will allow. Wrists
straight. Hands closed but not clenched. Backs of the fingers touching the thigh
lightly, thumb to the front and close to the forefinger, thumb immediately behind
the seam of the trousers. Neck erect. Head balanced evenly on the neck and not
poked forward, eyes looking their own height and straight into the front.
The weight of the body should be balanced on both feet and evenly balanced
between the forepart of the feet and the heels.
The breathing must not in any way be restricted, and no part of the body should
be either drawn in or pushed out.
The position is one of readiness or expectation of the word of command and is
that adopted when addressing, or being addressed by, a superior officer.
2. Standing at Ease
STAND AT—EASE
Keeping the legs straight, carry the left foot about twelve inches to the left so
that the weight of the body rests equally on both feet. At the same time carry the
hands behind the back and place the back of the right hand in the palm of the
left, grasping it lightly with the finger and thumb, and allowing the arms to hang
at their full extent.
(i) In marching order without the rifle the arms will be retained as in the position
of attention.
(ii) When a recruit falls in he will stand at ease after he has got his dressing.
3. Standing Easy.
STAND—EASY
The limbs, head and body may be moved, but the man will not move his feet, so
that on coming to attention there is no loss of dressing. Slouching attitudes are
not to be permitted. If either foot is moved men are inclined to lose their
dressing. On the caution Squad, etc. the correct position of Stand at Ease will be
assumed.
Note that AT EASE and PARADE REST are positions which require the body
to be tensed, i.e. held taut, stressed.
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Recruit Hazing and Harassment positions
Institutional bullying of military recruits has long been formally outlawed in the
UK, EU and US, however the long-standing traditions continue. These are
positions with no purpose except the harassment of recruits by their seniors.
FRONT LEANING REST, the starting position for a set of press-ups, is another
position that is not restful if demanded and held for an extended period of time.
The position of SIT-OUT requires the junior recruit to sit against a wall with his
body trunk vertical, thighs horizontal and lower legs vertical. The arms may be
required to be held out horizontal to the front carrying a rifle. As fatigue sets in,
movement is an opportunity for shouting verbal abuse at the recruit or
humiliating him such as requiring him to sing the wash list. This position was
known as plebe's rest in the US military academies at Annapolis and West Point.
Hazing in the US military academies went much further than fagging, which
meant the allocation to the plebe class - juniors - of necessary menial duties such
as fetching food, collecting washing, opening windows and winding clocks.
Hazing was forbidden by law of the US Congress in 1901. Nonetheless black
eyes and bruises persisted among the highly-strung recruits in the military
academies. There were US Congress hearings on hazing 1901, West Point
Military Academy and 1906, Hazing at Annapolis Naval Academy.
Medical Examination Positions
Doctors and nursing staff often require access to a patient's body for an
examination or treatment. Anything from OPEN WIDE to PUT YOUR LEGS
IN THE STIRRUPS and HOP UP ON THE COUCH ON YOUR HANDS AND
KNEES for a rectal examination. Sometimes rectal examinations are carried out
with the patient lying on his left side, and crouched in the foetal position.
Anthropological slave positions
Historical slavery in Africa under colonial rule produced many subtleties of
behaviour in inhuman conditions. Illustrations in anthropological texts include
examples of slave posture with standing with head always bowed, the eyes
always downwards, through to permitted positions of sitting.
Among Soninke in Sudan only the chief was allowed to sit cross-legged, other
noblemen had to sit with at least one leg extended. Slaves were not permitted to
sit cross-legged; if permitted to sit on the ground, both the slave's legs must be
folded rearwards. Saves of lower grade were never allowed to sit but only
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allowed to kneel with one knee on the ground, the other folded rearwards, the
head and eyes always lowered submissively.
SM slave positions
1. INSPECTION. Slave stands naked with legs wide apart, back straight,
stomach pulled in, chest pushed out, head bowed, hands clasped behind
the neck.
2. ATTENTION. Slave stands naked, rigid and straight, belly in, chest out,
legs together, feet turned out at an angle of 30 degrees, arms at sides,
hands held with palms pressed to sides and fingers extended and pressed
together, head held high.
3. AT EASE. As for "Attention", but with legs apart, body relaxed and
hands clasped behind back.
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4. OFFER. Slave kneels naked with forehead pressed to the ground, legs
wide apart, backside raised high in the air, back straight and hands (if
free) reaching back to clasp and open the buttocks and expose the anus
and genitals to the Master.
5. LOO. Slave kneels naked, legs well apart and sits back on the ankles with
head tilted back and hands clasped behind the neck, mouth open, ready to
receive the stream.
6. WANK. Slave kneels naked before the Master, legs wide apart, hips
thrust forward, head up, with left hand behind the back and left forefinger
rammed up the anus and right hand used to masturbate; mouth open and
eyes fixed on the Master's face.
Punitive Medicine
Qualified modern clinicians would probably either deny the concept of punitive
medicine as being contrary to the basic professional creed as embodied in the
Hippocratic Oath or else decry it as non-existent in modern Western medical
clinical practice. However there are still substantial remnants of the concept
which have either passed to areas not generally thought of as medical or else
continue but are unrecognised by the medical profession a punitive medicine or
are justified by overriding concepts such as public health or the best interests of
the patient.
Punitive medicine is where the impact on the patient of the generally accepted
treatment has significant aspects of punishment or retribution. Some
investigations and many medical treatments are at best unpleasant or humiliating
and many are downright painful.
The context of the procedure is also important: a procedure that may be
pleasurable in a recreational sexual context can become intensely humiliating in
a medical situation with the attendant concerns about the patient's health. There
are also associations of guilt.
The expectation of the patient by clinicians is a degree of subjugation and
contrition by the patient. Medics are not generally expecting a sexual response,
for the patient to "get off" on the humiliation aspects of the procedures and
treatments they prescribe any more than in more brutal times the award of a
sentence of corporal punishment would have been expected to arouse a sexual
response in the prisoner. But a sexual response to the clinical situation is
unlikely to change the medical outcome so I see no moral or practical inhibition
to enjoying treatments if we can. There's no difference between getting off on
sore buttocks from a jab or sore buttocks from a caning.
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The following table lists some medical procedures with their interpretations in a
punishment context. This is for information only and not recommendations for
treatments; for real ailments, see a real doctor.
Procedure Comment
Intimate examination How many people do you drop your trousers for?
Fasting cholesterol
blood test
Doctor is checking you for fat so you have to not eat for
12 hours before blood test
Enema Punishment/treatment and control: removal of ability to
control bowels i.e. forcible regression to
infancy/childhood or geriatric.
Dental repair work:
tooth drilling and
filling
Punishment/treatment for not brushing teeth and eating
too many sweets.
Intimate shaving Shaved genital or perianal hair prior to an examination
or as part of treatment for lice etc.
Blocked ear, especially
when caused by
attempting to remove
ear wax using a swab
Rather than syringe blocked ears immediately of
cerumen (ear wax) clinicians order a lengthy period of
treatment intended to soften the ear wax but the effect is
to worsen temporary deafness
Plaster cast Control because you have broken a bone
Sports injuries
especially repetitive
strain type injuries
Limited sympathy from clinicians when they classify
sportsmen who overstrain as "obsessive"
Haemorrhoids Punishment/treatment for physical inactivity.
Anal penetration including sigmoidoscopy and inflation
of the rectum and lower colon
Gonorrhoea, chlamydia
and other sexually
transmitted diseases
Instructed to abstain from alcohol whilst on course of
antibiotics.
You are still infections until the course is completed;
the antibiotics work pretty much as well if you drink
alcohol but the medics assume you are more likely to
have sexual activity if your inhibitions are reduced with
alcohol so on this count they instruct you to abstain.
Syphilis treatment:
deep muscle injection
to buttocks
Punishment/treatment for sexual depravity.
Treatment requires patient to expose buttocks for
painful injection.
Discomfort and humiliation effect are similar to caning..
Tetanus injection Punishment/treatment for playing in dirty mud.
Sedation – “chemical
cosh”
Punitive psychiatry and Soviet psycho-prisons e.g. the
USSR’s Gulag as portrayed by Solzhenitsyn and
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Podrabinek, etc.
Pharmacological
"highs"
Some prescription drugs have side effects which can be
pleasurable, e.g. hallucinatory or psychotropic
experiences or sexual arousal.
Youth at Borstal
Century Slave Training through Cyber Technology
(Webcam: Skype – philippe_de_coster)
Face to face control continuing as control at a distance
Technologies are content-neutral but perverted human minds are everywhere...
The techniques of carrot and stick, reward and punishment can be included in
current hi-tech lifestyles so the BDSM beds lifestyle isn’t necessarily limited to
the weekends and the playroom or bar backroom.
Prison technology has moved on since ball and chain. The ties that bind extend
reality into cyberspace. Who wants to become a plantation slave when you can
aspire to become in sci-fi reality a drone or droid?
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Full-time visual monitoring as shown on reality television is beyond the scope of
individuals to implement but it's demonstrated a widespread fascination with
24/7 monitoring and also, that ordinary human sexuality is stimulated in such a
environment, at least for the duration of the TV show/experiment.
"Big Brother is my Master" and "Big Brother is my friend" are underlying but
unwritten themes of authoritarian control in Orwell's futuristic novel 1984.
Orwell's Big Brother was too uptight to admit he was into into cum control too,
and none of the UK reality TV shows have gone that explicit yet, but if total
control is erotic in one technology then it is in another.
There are a whole number of systems which are coming on stream now which
record our actions and which can be used to track and report. The interest in in
repurposing these for erotic control purposes and to arrange for slaves (or should
that be droids?) to actually live the fantasy.
Legacy SM technology is derived from the fetters and locks of prisons and chain
gangs so it is no surprise that modern deviant control techniques are also readily
adaptable for BDSM. And a surprising number of modern employee
management tools also need only slight adaptation: many of the software tools
required for erotic slave control are already installed on your desktops. Just do
it...
Prisoner control hardware is also available but imperfect in these applications:
skin contact is erratic, portable equipment requires waterproofing and battery
recharging. In this application, software control is actually more reliable, highly
developed and better adapted for the purpose.
Working from home - teleworking - enables some of these BDSM activities to
continue through the working day. Some designers and authors do their best
work fully-naked. It's a small step to a full-time leather slave harness or a four-
way hands and feet steel chain set.
It may well be that the tekkie responding to your online technical support
request is naked, chastity-controlled and in physical restraint; or maybe he's just
in economic slavery and has some strong fantasies. As always with tech support
- please be nice to him!
Or a telephone call centre call handler, working from home. These outfits are
run on fear: call monitoring, snooping, attitude and demeanour reports,
adherence, performance metrics and success statistics. Punishment duty is being
assigned the shift when the rude stroppy callers call in most...
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Control by screen is one aspect, withdrawal of human warmth and actual
touching warm body to warm body is a disadvantage. Distillation of fetish turn-
on to its screen representation distances the humanity. The yearning initially
enhances but gradually diminishes the human sexuality. Use it for real or loose
it. Cybersex is not a long term substitute for real boot-in-face man-to-man
master to slave encounters.
Roman Emperors threw their worthless slaves to the lions as entertainment. 21st
century slaves have rights too and should be treated with love and respect. Any
one of the following methods used singly is a powerful technique. Use in
combination may cause potentially dangerous psychological disturbance. Use at
your own risk. Keep a grasp on reality.
Texting: slave carries mobile and receives orders by text message; slave
texts his acceptance of the order and returns evidence to his Master that he
has complied. Picture phones make this control even closer and make
"cheating" more difficult. Widespread adoption of photo messaging (like
texting is now) will be another step closer to Total Control.
Web instant messaging: in-depth interrogation and by screen and
keyboard. The impersonal communication mode encourages opening up
and probes deeper.
Using personal organiser and desktop productivity tools to aggressively
manage slaves: assign targets and track tasks; computer usage tracked and
time accounted by automatic online journal: forced blogging and
accounting for every minute of every day.
Tagging and tracking by GPS or mobile-phone cell technology
Punishment self-applied and monitored by webcam, digital stills camera
etc.
Food supplements issued to maintain balanced diet without gastronomic
pleasure
Food consumption recorded, analysed and monitored for calorie and
nutrition content
Caffeine-induced performance enhancement and mood control
Fitness training: heart rate monitor, download exercise profile as proof of
completion
Muscle workout by electro-stimulation. To exhaustion.
Masturbation and cum control: chastity devices for control and electro-
genito-stimulation for cum milking and ball-emptying.
Slave prohibited or prevented from genital self-touch
Skin touch denial: barrier contact only through latex inspection gloves
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The Rules of an Intelligent Master
1. Family and job commitments come first.
2. No drugs, tricks, or force are used to obtain its full
co-operation!
3. When practical, it is nude especially when on the web.
4. The SEED produced by its body is MY PROPERTY! it will
NOT beg for relief. I will decide how and when it will
ejaculate. Deliberate ejaculation is punishable.
5. Communicate daily by web.
6. it will never question or resist a Chastity Device.
7. I will never put My slave in mortal danger.
8. it has the right to ask questions.
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9. I consider it to be MY valuable PROPERTY for MY
pleasure and enjoyment!
Brainwashing, attitude adjustment
Many organisations now run induction programmes that attempt to instil a new
set of values in recruits. These are mostly following the authoritarian basic
training routines established by the military boot camps, taken up by the
religious sects (or the other way around!) and now established as part of
corporate human resources policy. Skinhead camp programs are also being used
to attempt to correct deviant and criminal behaviour.
The skinhead principle is to take a group of people away from normal life and to
return them to productive life with specific values and culture. Brainwashing
was an extreme version notorious in the twentieth century Cold War, clearly a
human rights violation. Religious movements also uses brainwashing as many
the Scientology Church and Opus Dei, Jehovah Witness, the Evangelical
fundamentalists, and many others as India guru communities.
Six creepy everyday brainwashing techniques
The world is full of shady self-help gurus and workplace seminars telling us
how we can turn our lives around just by using the right words ("Don't say the
cheese is 'spoiled' -- say it's 'aged'!"), as if language is a form of magic that can
alter reality.
But here's the thing: The human brain is an odd, glitchy machine that is
influenced in all sorts of weird ways you never thought of. This is why
politicians and salespeople can trick you into going along with them, just by
toying with the words they use. Science is just now catching up to them, and has
found that ...
1. Repeating Your Opinion Makes People Believe It, No
Matter How Stupid It Is
This is one that, sadly, you could have guessed if you follow politics or talk
radio: Say it enough, and people will believe it. For example, how many of you
think Al Gore claims to have invented the Internet? He said no such thing -- but
pundits and comedians repeated it enough that it became truth. It's the same
reason anti-vaccination zealots stick to their guns, even while they cause
diseases to spread like wildfire. They "heard" vaccines were dangerous, and
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that's literally all it takes -- hearing it over and over. Even if the source is a total
stranger and/or an idiot.
Why It Works:
It's just the way human social behaviour works -- if a message is repeated
enough times, others will begin to accept it as a commonly held belief in the
group. In fact, studies have found that if just one person repeats the same
opinion three times, it has a whopping 90 percent chance of converting three
different people in the group to have the same opinion. Holy shit, that's how
both politics and conspiracy theories work, isn't it?
Researchers at the University of Michigan have come to call the phenomenon
memory distortion, and it's basically a brain glitch where the interplay of
repetition and assumption makes us from our beliefs around whatever opinion is
the most familiar to us.
But what makes it so treacherous is the fact that all it takes to sway people's
beliefs is one crazy person. Hell, it doesn't even work all that well with multiple
people: A study on the phenomenon exposed one group to an opinion repeated
by three different people, another to that same opinion repeated by one person
multiple times. Incredibly, the group subjected to one single guy repeating the
opinion was three times more susceptible to changing their own opinions than
the others. Even when we actively register that it's just one person spouting
bullshit, we're still likely to believe it.
In other words, people who are obsessive or dickish enough to keep repeating a
wrong idea have a natural advantage in human society, and probably always
have. Yeah, that whole "Hitler" thing is starting to make a lot more sense, right?
2. Imitating People Makes Them Give You Things
If you work in a profession where tips make up a significant portion of your
income, it's crucial that your customers see you as a pleasant enough person to,
well, tip. It's good luck, then, that it's entirely possible to use a simple "repeated
words" trick to sway people in your favour, to the point where they're way more
likely to give you money.
All you need to do is repeat the last few words they said (well, that, and
generally behave in a not-kicking-them-in-the-junk-because-they-asked-for-
more-bread-sticks manner, but we're hoping that kind of goes without saying).
And it's actually part of a broader set of techniques that every politician and con
33
artist knows: You can bring people to your side -- and get them to do things for
you -- just by imitating them.
Why It Works:
It comes up in study after study -- the power of mimicry in social situations.
Humans are social animals, and we all have a switch that flips in our brain that
says, "This person is like me, therefore I should help them." In one study, they
found that customers were more likely to buy from salespeople who repeated
phrases they used, or their mannerisms. That's right, it doesn't even have to be
verbal -- in another experiment cited in the link above, if the researcher
mimicked the posture and body language of the subject, the subject was three
times as likely to help him pick up a box of pens he'd dropped.
So in the Dutch study mentioned above that explored the relationship between
mimicry and generous tips, they first went into a restaurant and calculated an
average tip, then told the server to repeat what half of her customers said after
ordering, exactly as they said it. With the other half, she would simply say what
servers normally say ("We'll get that right out!" or something to that effect). The
tips from mimicked customers were a whopping 68 percent more generous than
those from the non-mimicked ones. Regardless of factors like the accuracy of
the order and wait time, just hearing their words repeated back to them put them
in a more positive, giving state of mind.
Of course, there's presumably a limit to how much you should mimic a person.
You can test it by following people around the office, parroting their every
sentence, and log how much time passes before they finally turn around and stab
you.
3. Resist Temptation by Saying "Don't" Instead of
"Can't"
One reason why successful dieting is borderline impossible is because there is a
complicated psychology behind cravings that science barely understands. For
example, one study found that, bizarrely, you can screw up somebody's diet just
by telling them obesity is a disease.
So for example, when you have a friend who's dieting, you can usually judge
how successful they'll be based on a single word. When shown a doughnut or a
deep-fried stick of butter, do they say, "I can't eat that?"
If so, they're probably screwed. What they should have said was "I don't eat
that."
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Two letters, but all the difference in the world.
Why It Works:
Researchers did a study where participants were asked to respond with either
statement when asked to consider whether they would like an unhealthy snack.
They then reported how empowered they felt after and, in the true test, were
offered a chocolate bar or a granola bar on the way out the door. Sure enough,
64 percent of the I-don'ts went with the granola bar, while only 39 percent of the
I-can'ts took it.
It makes sense -- "don't" suggests that the desired item being spoken of is simply
never part of the speaker's life; it's something they have actively eliminated
themselves, a decision they arrived at personally. "I can't" means there's some
external reason barring the speaker from what they truly want, and if this
condition (i.e., a temporary diet) didn't exist, they'd be neck deep in chocolate-
coated fried chicken. In other words, one phrase is empowering, while the other
"inherently signifies deprivation."
These results were repeated in experiments dealing with exercise, too -- it's just
easier to resist impulses when you frame it in your mind as "I'm choosing to do
this" versus "My Nazi of a doctor is making me." Unless said doctor has a gun
to your head, you're eventually going to rebel and do what you "really" want.
4. Performing a Ritual Before Eating Makes Food Taste
Better
A human being is a creature of ritual and habit, even and especially when it
comes to food. When it's your birthday, the cake tends to come to the tune of a
discordant, unenthusiastic "Happy Birthday." If you're the religious type,
chances are you precede your meals with a little prayer you give to your deity of
choice before chowing down. Sure, there are all sorts of cultural reasons for that
stuff, but there's a very neat magic trick these chants are able to pull off: They
make whatever you're about to ingest taste better.
If you're not into saying grace before mealtime and/or the very first bars of
"Happy Birthday" send you into a murderous frenzy, pretty much any quirky
ritual will do. Mutter "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" three times
under your breath while grinning widely and eyeballing the couple at the next
table. Stand on your head and loudly scream, "I dedicate this meal to A'grasokh,
god of turmoil and madness." It doesn't seem to matter, as long as you do it.
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Why It Works:
You already kind of knew this on some level, based on your experience at
restaurants. The steak served to you by a waiter in a tuxedo who offers it on a
polished silver platter under soft violin music might be no different from the
hunk of meat served in a plastic basket at Billy's Beef Bonanza down the street
(hell, they probably use the same supplier), but there is a ritual to the former that
makes that food seem more ... important, somehow. Kind of like if you see a
scruffy guy pull up in a limousine with five bodyguards, you assume he must be
a rock star or something. "They wouldn't go through all that hassle for some
random asshole!"
So the food we perceive as important tends to taste better, and the easiest,
cheapest way to make it important is to give it a little "Abracadabra" just before
eating it. Several different experiments involving food ranging from carrots to
chocolate have verified that this is a very real thing, and it changed the taste of
the food so much that the test subjects not only enjoyed the food more and
savoured it longer, but were actually willing to pay more for it.
In the case of the carrots, the ritual (completely non-religious in nature, by the
way) was even able to increase the subjects' anticipation of eating the next
carrot, despite knowing full well that it would clearly be just another carrot. Yes,
they managed to make fucking carrots desirable. If that's not magic, we don't
know what is.
5. Saying "I'm Excited" Reduces Stress
We want to apologize in advance, because this one really does sound like the
kind of rah-rah "Think positive!" bullshit you've heard at some HR seminar at
the office. But it turns out they might be kind of right.
We all have temporary spells of work bullshit -- maybe you're facing a
seemingly impossible deadline, or a spine-crushing triple shift, or a huge test
that your whole semester hinges on, and holy shit, it's tomorrow, you could have
sworn it's not until next Thursday. That crap happens to everybody, and your
biggest enemy is the panic itself. You're rarely at your best when you're shitting
your pants in terror.
And here's where your disgustingly positive life coach will make you stop and
say you're "excited" about the upcoming challenge, instead of "terrified," as if
merely telling that to yourself can actually change your stress level (and thus
performance) during the task.
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But the science suggests they're right.
Why It Works:
According to Alison Wood Brooks of Harvard, saying "I'm excited!" prior to a
stressful circumstance (yes, you have to say it out loud) helps to change the
pants-shitting perspective into something more positive inside your head. Once
you have the positivity thing down, it greatly reduces your stress and makes you
perform better at just about everything, from oratory skills to general work
performance.
You know what doesn't work? Trying to calm yourself down, or telling yourself
it's no big deal. That apparently is the secret -- Brooks' research discovered that
the whole "I'm excited" thing works because it doesn't deny the ball of anxiety in
your gut is there or try to make it go away. It just tricks your brain into thinking
it's a positive.
6. Adding a Reason to Your Request Is a Jedi Mind Trick
You're standing in line at a Starbucks. A busy-looking suit taps on your shoulder
and asks, "Do you mind if I cut in front of you?" A week later, an identical-
looking dude does the same thing, only this one says, "Do you mind if I cut in
front of you, because I need to get my coffee?" Which one are you more likely
to tell to fuck off?
Of course, your answer is "Both, and if he tries anything, so help me, I will
initiate a slap-fight." Ours was, too. However, should this scenario actually
happen, a whopping 93 percent of people would let the latter guy get his coffee
before them just because he gave a reason ... even if the reason adds nothing to
the situation. It's not like they dressed him in bloody surgeon's garb and had him
yell something about being late for an open-heart surgery. Just giving a reason --
even if it's stating the obvious -- works wonders.
Why It Works:
The key is that it really only works on requests that don't require a lot of time or
effort on the other person's end -- once they have a moment to think about what
was said, they usually build up some resistance. But in our day-to-day lives, our
resistance is pretty low. For instance, think about how you travelled to wherever
you're reading this article now (school/office/company bathroom). Chances are
you probably didn't have to think very hard about getting there. It was a familiar
route, so your brain operated your body on automatic, leaving you to daydream