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Awareness -> RE: How much can a Master actually change a slave? (12/6/2011 10:09:34 AM)
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I'm afraid 'core' is a nebulous term. The most equivalent idea is that of identity.
And what can be changed? Practically everything.
Human minds are essentially a construct of beliefs, routines and responses. It's not quite that simple of course, but it's a lot simpler than most people would like to believe. Given the proper technique, practically everything is amenable to change. It depends entirely upon the skill, ethics and knowledge of the master in question.
Human beings have far less free will than they would like to think. For the most part, our responses are dictated by routines we've established, some of which originated so long ago, we've forgotten we ever did without them. Our minds are essentially constructed by interaction with the world of our senses. As we interact, we create higher and higher level representational constructs which escalate from simple representations of the reality which our senses provide, to abstract concepts and ideas which are founded upon beliefs which are drawn from experience and inference.
We do this automatically, and as we do, it lays down memories which provide us with ready responses to the wide variety of decision-making which confronts us in our life. Most of us don't think about the complexity of walking because the established muscle routines which make it possible to balance and walk are laid down so long ago and with such continuous reinforcement, that it requires no effort to revive and initiate them.
Higher level aspects include our social responses and belief structures about ourselves, others and the physical and social universe in which we reside. That cocktail of beliefs comprises our model of the world and through synthesis, allows us to predict the outcome of an anticipated event - with varying degrees of success.
Manipulating beliefs is one high-level way of changing behaviour. A step down from that is using operant conditioning. Fundamentally, people share the same basic drives. Fear and greed. The avoidance of pain, the pursuit of pleasure. It's the varying differences in what constitutes pleasure, pain, fear and greed for people which gives rise to such huge variance. And by understanding that representation and working with it, quite interesting things are possible.
It's possible, for example, for simple conversation to change a woman in her 20's brought up in a matriarchal home who associates guilt with sex into a sub with slave tendencies who craves her master's attention and pleasure.
The question of how much a Master should change his slave is ultimately up to him. I question anyone who thinks they're genuinely in an M/s relationship but feels there's some aspect of themselves which is off-limits. Either you're a slave, or you're playing at being one. If you're a slave, then you have no choices other than what your Master allows. If you're not, then this conversation simply isn't for you.
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