One question that is often asked by people who've read the Internal Enslavement website and Frequently Asked Questions, is about the practicalities of Enslavement. What does it actually involve doing? I believe the answer to that question is simple to state, although it involves a lot of work.

To possess a slave psychologically - the only way that we can realistically possess someone in this society, thankfully - the Master needs to take away the barriers that she still has protecting her Self from him, so that she becomes utterly vulnerable, and dependent on him.

This means stopping the slave from keeping things back from him (I'm not talking about keeping important things back - I'm not talking about deceit here) but it means that over time she is forced to become totally open about her thoughts, wants and needs. In practical terms, this involves the Master observing her closely, and rooting out things that are going on in her mind that she isn't talking about. Having her keep a diary that he will read, or having her make posts to mailing lists about her thoughts helps with this. Some knowledge of counselling techniques or "being a good listener" (ie asking the right questions to draw the slave out) is helpful here.

This means that she stops having emotional privacy, and that she is unable to manipulate him even in the most harmless ways (I'm sure a lot of us can think of situations when we've done something for a partner in a relationship in the hope of getting them in a good mood to do something for us.) She can reach the point where, as his slave, she can obtain things only by openly stating what she needs, and asking - or begging - for what she wants.

These changes promote dependency, and this should also be enforced more explicitly (perhaps by controlling her access to money, making her keep receipts and account for every penny of her spending; perhaps by requiring her to ask for permission to eat, leave the room, sit on furniture etc when he's present; SM and bondage can also be useful for this, since they can forcefully induce very dependent states of mind in some submissives, eg trancelike states like "sub space".)

A slave lives in the shadow of her Master, subject to his decisions and dependent on his whims. If she needs ownership, then by confronting her with the tangible internal and external reality of this, it will become real for her, just as if she had a collar hammered round her neck in a country where the police returned runaways. And I should stress that the internal work is essential in forcing her to confront her new found situation: it's not sufficient that she acts in a slavelike manner, since that may allow her to keep the walls up that her Self hides behind.

It's also been asked if it matters that the slave realises what Enslavement techniques are being used on her. For the time spent in the Counsellor / client role, it's very clear to the slave what is happening and why her Master is talking to her that way (although if he steers a normal conversation in that direction, she might not realise what he's up to for a couple of minutes ...)

For the less obvious things, I personally don't make of point of explaining to lili what I'm doing at the time, although it often comes out afterwards. A good example of this is when I've put her in bondage: sometimes it's just for my own enjoyment, but sometimes it's because I want her in a floaty, bondage induced state of submission for some other reason (eg that she is having a hard time at work or with family, and that the security she feels in being helpless at my hands will both help her at that time, and also strengthen her feelings that being my slave is the safest place in the world for her.)

I wouldn't tell her beforehand why I was going to bind her (that would to some extent spoil the effect, either by making her resist those feelings or try too hard to achieve them), but I don't have a problem with explaining why afterwards.

Last updated 12 October 2000.