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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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The Sacklers woulda gotten away with it if it wasn't for those darned meddling feds

The saga of the Sacklers, a multigenerational billionaire crime family of mass-murdering dope-peddlers, is an enraging parable about how the wealthy, the courts, and sadistic high-powered lawyers collude to destroy the lives of millions, profit handsomely, and evade justice.

But there's an unexpected twist to this tale. After the Sacklers procured a sham bankruptcy that denied their victims the right to sue while leaving their fortune largely intact, the Supreme Court – yes, this Supreme Court – saw through the scam and froze the process, pending a full hearing:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/supreme-court-purdue-pharma-opioid-settlement.html

The Sacklers basically invented modern, legal dope peddling. Arthur Sackler, the family's original crime-boss, revived the practice of direct-to-consumer drug marketing, dormant since the death of the medicine show, to peddle Valium. An aggressive and shrewd lobbyist, Arthur built the family fortune and, more importantly, its connections:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-the-sackler-family-built-a-pharma-dynasty-and-fueled-an-american-calamity/

A generation later, the family's business company created Oxycontin, and procured misleading and false research about the drug's safety kickstarting the opioid epidemic, whose American body-count is closing in on a million dead. Armed with inflated claims about opioid safety, the Sacklers' pharma reps bribed, cajoled and tricked doctors into writing millions of prescriptions for oxy.

This scam had a natural best-before date. As ODs flooded America's ERs and bodies piled up in America's morgues, it became increasingly clear that something was rotten. The Sacklers pursued a multipronged campaign to keep the truth from coming to light, and to keep the billions flowing.

On the one hand, they hired McKinsey to find novel ways to encourage doctors to keep writing prescriptions and to convince pharmacists to turn a blind eye to abuse. McKinsey had all kinds of great ideas here, including paying pharma distributors cash bonuses for every overdose death in their territory:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/business/mckinsey-opioids-settlement.html

When the issue of these deaths came up in public, the Sacklers blamed "criminal addicts" for their own misery, stigmatizing both people who desperately needed pain relief and the people who'd been deliberately hooked on the Sacklers' products. The legacy of this smear campaign is still with us, both in the contempt for people struggling with addiction and in the cruel barriers placed between people in unbearable agony and medical relief.

But mostly, the Sacklers kept their names out of it. They laundered their reputations by donating a homeopathic fraction of their vast drug fortune to art galleries and museums in a bid to make their names synonymous with good deeds.

The Sacklers didn't invent this trick. Think of the way that history's great monsters – Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller, Ford – are remembered today for the foundations and charities that bear their names, not for the untold misery they inflicted on their workers, their crimes against their customers, and the corruption of governments.

But the Sacklers made those Gilded Age barons seem like amateurs. They invented a modern elite philanthropy playbook that Anand Giridharadas documents in his must-read Winners Take All, about the charity-industrial complex that washes away an ocean of blood with a trickle of money:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/11/10/winners-take-all-modern-philanthropy-means-that-giving-some-away-is-more-important-than-how-you-got-it/

As part of this PR exercise, the individual Sacklers kept their names and images out of the public eye. For years, there were virtually no news-service photos of individual Sacklers. When journalists dared to criticize the family, they used vicious attack-lawyers to intimidate them into retractions and silence (I was threatened by the Sacklers' lawyers).

They also worked their media mogul pals, like Mike Bloomberg, who added their names to the "Friends of Mike" list that Bloomberg reporters were required to consult before writing negative coverage:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/29/friends-of-mike-enemies-of-the-people/#sacklerbergs

But Stein's Law says that "anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop." As lawsuits mounted, the Sacklers found themselves increasingly synonymous with death, not charitable works. But like any canny criminal, the Sacklers had a getaway plan.

First, they extracted vast sums from Purdue and shifted it into offshore financial secrecy havens:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-purduepharma-bankruptcy/sacklers-reaped-up-to-13-billion-from-oxycontin-maker-u-s-states-say-idUSKBN1WJ19V

Even as this money was disappearing into legal black holes, the Sacklers demanded – and received – extraordinary protection from the courts, who aggressively sealed testimony and materials presented through discovery:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-courts-secrecy-judges/

When this gambit finally failed, the Sacklers insisted that were down to their last $4 billion, and, with trillions in claims pending against them, they declared bankruptcy.

When a normal person declares bankruptcy, they are required to divest themselves of nearly everything of value they possess, and then still find themselves hounded by cruel arm-breakers who deluge them with threatening calls and letters:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/19/zombie-debt/#damnation

But for the richest people in America, bankruptcy is merely a way to cleanse one's balance sheet of liabilities for any atrocity you may have committed on the way, without giving up your fortune.

The Sacklers are a case-study in how a corrupt bankruptcy can be conducted.

Purdue Pharma presents a maddening case-study in the corrupt benefits of bankruptcy. When it was announced in March, many were outraged to learn that the Sacklers were going to walk away with billions, while their victims got stiffed.

First, they converted their victims' right to compensation into "property" that the Sacklers themselves owned. This transferred jurisdiction over these claims from the regular court system to the bankruptcy court. A bankruptcy judge – not a jury – would decide how much each of these claims was worth, and then what how much of that worth these victims (now recast as creditors) would be entitled to through the bankruptcy.

Thus tens of thousands of claims were nonconsensually settled without a trial, by an administrative judge with no criminal jurisdiction, not a federal judge who'd undergone Senate confirmation:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/31/vaccine-for-the-global-south/#claims-extinguished

These "coercive restructuring techniques" are not available to everyday people who are drowning in student debt or credit-card bills – these are the exclusive purview of the wealthiest Americans, who enjoy a completely different bankruptcy system that is rigged in their favor.

Three judges – David Jones and Marvin Isgur of Houston and Bob Drain of New York – hear 96% of the country's large corporate bankruptcies:

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2021/05/judge-shopping-in-bankruptcy.html

These judges are unbelievably horny for corporations, embracing a legal theory "that casts the invention of the limited liability corporation alongside that of the steam engine as a paradigmatic development in the pursuit of prosperity":

https://prospect.org/justice/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-the-sacklers-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy/

Now there are more than three bankruptcy judges in America, so how do the nation's biggest companies get their cases heard by these three enthusiastic Renfields for corporate vampirism?

They cheat.

For example: when GM was facing bankruptcy, it argued that it was a New York company on the basis that it owned a single Chevy dealership in Harlem, and got in front of Judge Drain.

The Sacklers were – characteristically – even more brazen. They really wanted to get their case in front of Judge Drain, the nation's most enthusiastic supporter of "third party releases," through which bankrupt billionaires can wipe the slate clean, securing dismissals of all claims by the people they wronged.

Drain is also uniquely hostile to independent examiners, "an independent third-party appointed by the court to investigate 'fraud, dishonesty, incompetence, misconduct, mismanagement, or irregularity…by current or former management of the debtor."

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3851339

If you're the Sacklers, hoping to keep two thirds of your billions and extinguish all claims by your victims, there is no better helpmeet than Judge Robert Drain of the Southern District of New York.

So, 192 days before filing for bankruptcy, the Sacklers opened an office in White Plains, New York (a company may claim jurisdiction in a specific court once they've operated a business there for 180 days).

Then they filed a bankruptcy in which they altered the metadata on their casefile, inserting the code for a Westchester county hearing into the machine-readable, human-invisible parts of the documents they uploaded to the federal Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system (they also captioned the case with "RDD, for "Robert D Drain").

They chose their judge, and the judge obliged. UCLA Law's Lynn LoPucki is one of the leading scholars of these bankruptcy "megacases," and has written extensively on why these three judges are so deferential to corporate criminals seeking to flense themselves of culpability. She sees judges like Drain motivated by "personal aggrandizement and celebrity and ability to indirectly channel to the local bankruptcy bar. The judge is the star and the ringmaster of a megacase – very appealing to certain personalities."

Thus, these judges are "willing and eager to cater to debtors to attract business…[an] assurance to debtors that…these judges will not transfer out cases with improper venue or rule against the debtor…"

https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/02870w66d

This kind of judge-shopping goes beyond the Sacklers; the cases that Drain and co preside over make a mockery of the idea of America as a land of equal justice. "Prepack" and "drive-through" bankruptcies are reliable get-out-of-jail-free cards for capitalism's worst monsters: private equity firms.

Whether PE murdered your grandmother by buying her care-home and putting each worker in charge of 30 seniors:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/portopiccolo-nursing-homes-maryland/2020/12/21/a1ffb2a6-292b-11eb-9b14-ad872157ebc9_story.html

or poisoned your kids by filling your neighborhood with carcinogens:

https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/ethylene-oxide/20190719/residents-unaware-of-cancer-causing-toxin-in-air

limited liability wipes the slate clean.

30% of America's bankruptcies are private equity companies using the bankruptcy system to wipe away claims for their misdeeds, while keeping a fortune, thanks to the shield of limited liability.

Take Millennium Health, JamesS lattery's fake drug-testing company, which promised to help nursing homes figure out whether seniors were abusing (or selling) their meds by testing their piss for angel dust and other drugs. Slattery defrauded Medicare and Medicaid for millions, borrowed $1.8 billion (Slattery got $1.3 billion of that). He eventually walked away from this fraud after paying a mere $256m to settle all claims, and kept a fortune in assets, including the 40 vintage planes his private company ("Pissed Away LLC" – I am not making this up) owned:

https://prospect.org/justice/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-the-sacklers-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy/

For the wealthy, bankruptcy is the sport of kings, a way to skip out on consequences. For the poor, bankruptcy is an anchor – or a noose. This is by design: judges who preside over elite bankruptcies speak of their protagonists as heroic "risk takers" and tiptoe around any consequences, lest these titans be chained to a mortal's fate, costing us all the benefits of their entrepreneurial genius.

PE companies helped the Sacklers design their own bankruptcy strategy, and it was a standout, even by the standards of Bob Drain and his kangaroo bankruptcy court. But now, the Supreme Court has pumped the brakes on the whole enterprise.

The judges ruled that the exceptions the Sacklers took advantage of were intended for bankrupts in "financial distress" – not billionaires with vast fortunes hidden overseas. In so doing, the court threatens all manner of corrupt arrangements, from "the Boy Scouts, wildfires and allegations of sexual abuse in the church diocese — where third parties get a benefit from a bankruptcy they themselves aren’t going through.”

The case was brought by the DoJ's US Trustee Program, which lost in the Second Circuit when it tried to halt the Purdue bankruptcy and argued that the Sacklers themselves had to declare bankruptcy to discharge the claims against them.

Now the Supremes have hit pause on the bankruptcy the Second Circuit approved, and will hear the case themselves. It's only one step on a long road, but it's an unprecedented one. Some of the country's filthiest fortunes are riding on the outcome.

Going to Defcon this weekend? I’m giving a keynote, “An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse,” tomorrow (Aug 12) at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

Image: Edwardx (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Serpentine_Sackler_Gallery,_June_2016_05.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

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mahikamihan · 6 months

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dream and george pair programming together real and true 💚💙

#for anyone who doesnt knows #pair programming is basically like a software devlpt technique #one person writed the code and the other person reviews it on the same computer #yumi does grad stuff

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iobartach · 2 months

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#muse #important #and here's a rendition of what i like to call;#“panels that make me go 'hmm' the longer that i look at them”#bc can you see what this implies? about what miguel has done in the course of developing alchema.x's c.orporate raider program #all to perfect the very gene altering technique that'll transform his body shortly after this #hmmmm #also aaron i see u lurkin'#the foreshadowing on this page was great #also given how long mig spent with alchema.x #i'm prettyyyy sure that he was involved in ... other... questionable research / projects #or at the very least dearest /dad/ (derogative) would've encouraged it #oooof #don't even get me started on mr. simms either #got some new thinkings about that as well

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pruning-the-minds-garden · 2 years

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Hypnokink Basics: Special Techniques (pt 3)

Special Techniques

Introduction

This final section focuses not on inductions, but on the other stuff that hypnotists do or use as part of their hypnokinky scenes to make them go. Like the prior two sections this list is by no means inclusive, but just covers four of the more common and popular "adjunct" or "secondary" techniques that are often seen alongside hypnosis itself in the hypnokink community. That's not to say they are less important or less effective - many will tell you that these can be even more profound than traditional hypnosis itself, when properly and assiduously applied - but they do push the boundaries of what is hypnosis in some cases, or in others are simply techniques that are used alongside hypnosis to make it more effective.

Like the more modern inductions, many of these techniques can be traced to the work of Milton Erickson, or to his students, or to other modern hypnosis innovators. Although you might not know it to walk into to offices of some hypnotherapists (though that is changing), the field is growing and changing as neuropsychological research advances farther and farther. These techniques reflect that. They use more modern language that is at times more accessible, but is also more expedient, and is sometimes as informed by the needs of stage hypnotists or hypnokinksters as it is by needs of hypnotherapists.

Since a lot of the same caveats as covered the modern inductions covered these, I won't belabor this introduction any more, and instead move on to the four techniques covered today -

(by the by, sorry for the lack of direct examples on the last two. They are somewhat disperse techniques that don't lend themselves to discrete examples, and so I reasoned that the best way to give an easy example might be to link a reliable source who talked about them. It's paid, so I understand that reduces its utility for many, but she's in the community so that's something)

Fractionation

Example

If you have ever gone through a trance where your hypnotist brought you rapidly and repeatedly into, and out of, trance and felt absolutely wasted afterward then you have experienced fractionation. It is that process of dropping down into and then coming back up toward wakefulness and then dropping down and then coming back up (and down and up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down and... you get the idea), and each time you do it feels like you drop a little bit farther and come up a little bit less far. This works on a couple of different principles all at the same time.

First, it works on the principle of exhaustion. Every time you change state, every time you more from one mental 'place' to another, that takes some amount of mental focus or energy. That means that doing so repeatedly will quickly drain your mental reserves, and make you more sluggish, more prone to just going along and giving in, getting more and more relaxed. That will cause your mental defenses, such as they are, to drop that much more.

Second, it works on the principle of acclimation. It is kind of like walking down a footpath in the woods. The more you walk it, the smoother and better, more well-trodden, it becomes. The more you go into and out of trance, the more you get used to going into and out of trance, and the better at it you become. The more natural it becomes, the more able you are to do it more quickly. And, the more often you do it at the suggestion of that hypnotist specifically, the more comfortable you are doing so in the future. It is a quick way to build up a level of familiarity with a partner, provided that they are comfortable ceding that level of control - or become comfortable (see last paragraph) after they grow exhausted following multiple prior rounds of fractionation - to you.

Third, it works through controlled pattern breaks. Fractionation and Confusion (see last part of this series) are kind of like peanut butter and chocolate - they go very well together - and if you establish a pattern of up down up down up down up down up down and then down down down... well your partner might just find themselves very deep indeed. The one constant in their experience up to that point, the thing that has stayed the same, has been your voice and your suggestions and so they have followed them... and they have grown very accustomed to doing so without thinking. Going from "down up down" to "down down down" might seem a small change, but to them subjectively it probably just took them into somewhere within the Earth's mantle, if you have a solid rapport with them.

Put all of those factor together, and Fractionation can be a very powerful tool to introduce after the induction is complete. It's not much use when there is no trance state or rapport whatsoever to build on, but provided there is that foundation it can be very helpful. That's why it is commonly called a "Deepener" although the concept of trance depth could merit a series of articles unto itself.

Rapid/Instant Induction

Example (video - for the record I'd call this "rapid" not "instant" but the distinction is pretty vague and pointless)

For when you want to "get to the 'good' stuff" (unless you're like me, and the trance is the good stuff) as soon as possible or walk up to someone and have them as putty in your hands within five seconds flat, there is nothing quite like a Rapid or Instant Induction. There are a number of different techniques for these, and there are people who are particular experts in those techniques, but the general basis comes down to three factors: 1) Establish yourself as a confident and trustworthy, or credentialed, person as quickly as possible 2) Assert that the person will drop into trance in a manner that does not allow them to question that 'fact' 3) Interrupt the process of their questioning it through some sort of physical or verbal process in order to get them to give up the fight and just give in

What that often looks like is walking up to a person with a confident sparkle in your eyes, looking them in the eyes, assertively saying "Sleep!" and then pushing their head over backwards while catching them by the small of their back. They are so caught off-guard by the physical disruption that they don't have time to question whether they should "sleep" (i.e. trance) or not and so they just... do. That is obviously situational and depends on the person being placed in trance, the relationship they have with the person doing the trancing, how that person delivers the line and the touch, the place that everything happens and a dozen other nuances, but it works often enough that it gets its own entry here and is plenty fun to do for people who enjoy it. Also, you have examples like the handshake induction shown at the link, where the hypnotist tells their partner what is going to happen and essentially allows them to hypnotize themselves. If you watch, between the second and third handshake, when the hypnotist says "and you will stay standing..." and other verbiage like that... that's not an induction, that's a suggestion. She's already in enough of a trance that she's responding to suggestions for him.

All of that may well seem like magic, and that is why instant inductions are so often the province of stage magicians and stage hypnotists, but they are really a blend of three things - confidence, trust, and a pattern interrupt. You can use any number of different manifestation of those three things to get it done, but that's what it all boils down to.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

I don't have an example for this one and will instead link to "Kinky NLP" by sleepingirl

NLP is a bit of an odd creature, because it has such a woolly definition. In the broadest possible terms, it is a suite of techniques that use the way we talk about things to reframe the way we think about things, as a kind of in-language extension of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. It also overlaps with conditioning/brainwashing to some extent.

One common technique of NLP is called an "Incantation," though hypnokinksters might better know it as a "mantra." Repeatedly saying something that you want to be true or to make true about yourself - "obedience is pleasure," "I am a good doll," "I am my Master's perfect fucktoy" or whatever you might want as part of your kinky dynamic - can gradually, over time, make it more and more true and transform your mind. It can reprogram your brain, bit by bit. This has limits, of course, in that there are certain things that are hard-wired into your brain that are unlikely to change, but there are many more than you think that are not. Using something like this does not require a hypnotic induction to work. It might benefit from one, or from being in some other altered state (heightened arousal or the edge of orgasm, for example), but it doesn't require any of that in order to work. All it needs is motivation, and to be used with regularity over time.

A second technique which is often poached from the NLP playbook by many hypnotists, and many (pardon me I feel a bit ill) "pick-up artists" is "mirroring." This technique is, essentially, to help build rapport with someone more quickly by mirroring their body language, word choice, and so on - taking a drink whenever they take a drink, using the same words they do when describing things, etc. I bring it up because this is an example of a technique that, when used carefully, thoughtfully, and in moderation can be very helpful... but when used thoughtlessly and carelessly, can be less than useless.

For example, if you start mimicking every action of a person to whom you are speaking, leaning in altogether too close for comfort, using their exact body language, their precise word choice... that's incredibly creepy. Don't do that. The way I employ mirroring is more targeted. If I notice that a partner consistently uses a certain word to describe something in trance - they see a "scarlet" ball of light, for instance - then I make sure to use that word, not some similar word like "red" or "crimson" when I describe that same thing. However they tell me they experience trance, that is how I describe the experience back to them. If they make it clear that they want [x], [y] and [z] in trance, then that is not only what I want, that is what I am enthusiastic to provide (though that's because of my own personal proclivities as much as it is any mirroring on my part, but it does serve the purpose).

Conditioning/Brainwashing

I don't have an example for this one and will instead link to "The Brainwashing Book" by sleepingirl

Another topic on which a whole book could (and has! See above) be written. Conditioning is the process of gradually altering the mind into a form that differs from wherever it began, according to some agreed-upon plan. That sounds really broad and like it could mean a million different things, because it is and it could. You could condition someone to be totally submissive to you and unable to not do what you tell them to do. You could also condition someone to be totally unable to orgasm except under certain conditions. You could condition them to be a perfect housemaid and derive sexual pleasure from their daily chores. You could condition them to do, be, and think almost anything you can imagine - the sky's the limit (but remember consent!).

The process is gradual and always takes some time, and it always needs to be highly tailored to your specific goals and your specific partner, but generally conditioning is split into two branches - "operant conditioning" and "classical conditioning."

Classical conditioning involves associating involuntary responses (the 'classic' example being salivating from Pavlov's dogs) with an external stimulus. Essentially, you link that neutral stimulus (say, a finger snap) with an involuntary response (say, an orgasm), through a conditioned response. This is done through repeated association. Pavlov made his dogs salivate by giving them food and then ringing the bell, until it got to the point that he could simply ring a bell and they would start salivating. In the other example, after enough times masturbating and needing to ask permission, only being allowed to cum when you snapped your fingers... well, you get the idea. This might not result in a spontaneous orgasm from snapping your fingers, and the effect may (will) extinguish with time if not regularly reinforced, but depending upon the subject and the exact means of conditioning the results may vary dramatically.

Operant conditioning, on the other hand, involves associating voluntary behaviors (the classical example being pressing a lever) with external stimuli. In this case you might give a partner a trigger that causes them to feel a pleasurable sensation all over their body, or to feel a deep sense of happiness or satisfaction when you utter the words "Good Boy/Girl/Toy" - and then, utter those words whenever they obey you. That will cause them to feel good whenever they obey you, which will lead them to obey you more and more, which will lead them to feel better, and then even if the trigger does extinguish at some point obeying you might have at that point become second nature to them. That is a fairly simple and straightforward example, and it goes much farther than that - being as there are four distinct types of operant conditioning and various ways in which it can be done - but that gives you an idea of what can be accomplished with it.

Conclusions

With this series I've really only scratched the surface of the techniques that are out there in the hypnosis and hypnokink space, that are available for one partner to take mental control and wrap mental bonds around another. Like any other form of bondage, though, the foundation of hypnotic bondage is and must be one of consent, rapport, and safety. If it is not that then you are risking the safety and health - mental and physical - of your partner. Don't do that. It is not worth it. Just like it is not worth rushing into shibari only to get nerve damage, it's not worth it to rush here only to wind up with other forms of it. If I've emphasized nothing else, let me emphasize that.

This is a wonderful kink and community and it can bring people incredibly close to one another, in ways that few others things can. It can feel sometimes like hypnosis and hypnotic bondage creates a real mind-to-mind bond, a kind of rapport that is almost impossible to replicate by other means... but that special bond must be treated with the respect, concern and ultimately responsibility that it deserves. It's a powerful thing, being able to snap your fingers and give someone a mind-bending orgasm or to control their body like a puppeteer. Don't forget that, and while you are having those fucking fantastic experiences, take the time to do it safely.

This article is part of my Index of Writings on Safety & Consent (in the other writing section at the end)! Click the link for the rest of my articles on the topic.

This will take you to Part 1 on Classic Inductions

This will take you to Part 2 on Modern Inductions

#hypnokink #hypnokink basics #consent #safety #techniques #hypnokink community #special techniques #fractionaction #rapid induction #instant induction #no-induction trance #NLP #neurolinguistic programming #conditioning #brainwashing #operant conditioning #classical conditioning

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licollisa · 1 year

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How long did you practice getting your artstyle? I just would like to know so I can try experiencing different methods of drawing.

Honestly I didn't practice as much as analyzing every good art I stumble upon. Practice is a surefire way to develop your art style for sure, but I also noticed myself improving even if I draw like. Three times a year.

Pretty simple, it goes like this; I see an eye catching art, and then I try to think how they did it. What parts made it look 'good' to me? Sometimes I noticed the art was overlayed with texture, I noticed the lineart is colored with something saturated when it hits a light source, I noticed they added gradient to the base color, I noticed it's easier to render by multiplying the whole base color with something desaturated and then overlaying it with desired light source color, and so on, I just noticed a lot of things. It's just a habit to stop and stare when I see something cool now.

(Sometimes the art looks so good I got too intimidated to even think of analyzing it, but I try anyway.)

This is also true for drawing fanarts by the way! Do you know a lot of times Sans' socket's bottom ridge (that protruding thing near his nose hole) points in the general direction of the end of his mouth? This basis is pretty useful when you want to draw his skull from different angles.

My art style is just an amalgamation of other art styles, basically! I didn't set a goal in getting my art style or anything, it just sorta happens.

#pro tip if you understood how overlay and multiply layer type works you'd be able to render right about everything #oh ALSO doing the color balance or color correction to your finished art works wonders #and focus on the general shapes of your art. the silhouette. work on your drawing as a whole instead of seperate parts.#you'll notice most good art out there has a very defined silhouette #fuck it we must ball -- utilize every tool your art program gives you. learn it slowly if you must. you WILL found something that fits you.#if ur not able to tell i am FROTHING rn. I don't think im the best at this or anything but I have a lot of techniques to share ragghhhh

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shadowlinktheshadow · 3 days

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gonna make me hate me more (studying zelda backgrounds and others styles when it comes to backgrounds so j can draw them)

#if anyone has any tips pls let me know #for example i draw with brush but the lines look too childish?#pls simplify the big brush strokes into tiny details technique #i see it everywhere but i can never do it #also how to make perfect square woth rope tool #(art program is ibis)#drawing practice #background practice #art practice #background study

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school56df · 14 days

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Students' mental health in school Practical Wellness Tips for Everyday Life

Students Mental Health In School are fundamental aspects of every scholar's lifestyles. In the pursuit of instructional success, college students often face good sized pressures that may affect their emotional, mental, and bodily well-being. Balancing the demands of schoolwork, social life, extracurricular activities, and future career aspirations may be overwhelming, leading to pressure, tension, and other intellectual fitness demanding situations. With mental fitness turning into a growing subject globally, it's miles important to cope with the health of college students and equip them with strategies to navigate those challenges.

This article aims to provide a thorough expertise of intellectual health and wellness in college students, the commonplace troubles they face, and practical techniques for retaining a healthy attitude during their instructional journey.

Understanding Mental Health and Wellness in Students

Best Mindfullness Techniques For Mental Wellness health refers to the emotional, psychological, and social properly-being of an man or woman. It influences how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. Wellness, however, is a holistic concept that encompasses not most effective intellectual fitness however additionally physical, emotional, and social well-being. For students, mental health and health play a essential function of their capacity to study, grow, and achieve academic and personal success.

College and high school students face numerous stressors that can impact their mental fitness. These consist of academic pressures, social expectations, economic challenges, homesickness, and worries approximately the destiny. Without proper guide and coping mechanisms, these stressors can cause mental fitness issues together with anxiety, melancholy, burnout, and loneliness.

Common Mental Health Issues Faced with the aid of Students

Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the maximum commonplace intellectual health troubles amongst students. The strain to carry out well academically, manage more than one obligations, and meet cut-off dates can trigger emotions of fear, fear, and anxiety. While occasional pressure is everyday, chronic anxiety can interfere with each day functioning, causing students to war with awareness, choice-making, and sleep.

Depression

Depression is every other prevalent intellectual health condition in college students, characterised with the aid of continual emotions of unhappiness, hopelessness, and a lack of interest in activities. It may be due to different factors, which includes instructional stress, social isolation, relationship troubles, or maybe genetic predispositions. Depression can affect a scholar's capacity to stay inspired, awareness on schoolwork, and maintain healthful relationships.

Burnout

Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion resulting from extended strain. Students who push themselves too difficult with out right rest or stability are susceptible to burnout. This can result in fatigue, irritability, decreased productiveness, and a sense of detachment from academic or private pursuits. Burnout is mainly not unusual throughout exam durations or whilst students feel beaten via their workload.

Loneliness and Social Isolation

Many college students, specifically those transitioning to college or college, experience feelings of loneliness and isolation. Being far from domestic, adjusting to a brand new surroundings, and finding new social circles may be difficult. While some students easily make new friends, others may additionally struggle to shape significant connections, leading to feelings of loneliness and isolation, that may exacerbate mental fitness problems.

Sleep Disorders

Sleep performs a crucial function in retaining appropriate intellectual fitness, but many students suffer from sleep disorders due to abnormal schedules, instructional pressures, or terrible time management. Sleep deprivation can lead to issue concentrating, reminiscence issues, and increased emotions of strain and tension. Over time, chronic sleep deprivation can considerably effect a student's mental and bodily fitness.

The Importance of Mental Health and Wellness for Students

Maintaining right intellectual fitness and wellness is critical for college students to thrive academically, socially, and in my opinion. Here are some key reasons why mental fitness must be prioritized:

Improved Academic

Performance: Students who take care of their mental health are better capable of awareness, assume seriously, and carry out nicely in their research. Stress, tension, and different intellectual health challenges can negatively effect cognitive characteristic and preclude academic achievement.

Enhanced Social Relationships

Positive intellectual health contributes to the improvement of healthy relationships with peers, teachers, and circle of relatives participants. Social connections are crucial for emotional aid and may assist college students deal with the pressures of educational existence.

Personal Growth and Resilience

Students who put money into their intellectual wellbeing broaden resilience, self-cognizance, and emotional intelligence. These traits aren't handiest useful in educational settings however also are vital for long-term non-public and expert growth.

Prevention of Mental Health Disorders

Addressing mental fitness issues early on can prevent the development of more severe conditions. Regular self-care and in search of guide while needed can help students avoid lengthy-time period intellectual fitness demanding situations.

Strategies for Maintaining Mental Health and Wellness

Maintaining intellectual fitness and wellbeing calls for a proactive method. Here are a few powerful techniques that scholars can undertake to beautify their well-being:

Develop Time Management Skills

One of the primary sources of strain for college kids is the sensation of being crushed by using educational and extracurricular obligations. Learning how to manipulate time successfully can substantially reduce stress. Breaking responsibilities into smaller, potential steps, setting realistic dreams, and developing a have a look at schedule can help students live organized and reduce last-minute strain.

Prioritize Sleep

Adequate sleep is crucial for mental and bodily fitness. Students must purpose for 7-nine hours of sleep each night time to make sure their our bodies and minds are nicely-rested. Establishing a steady sleep habitual, averting caffeine and display screen time earlier than mattress, and developing a chilled sleep surroundings can sell higher sleep quality.

Practice Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques

Mindfulness and rest strategies, such as meditation, deep respiratory, and yoga, can assist college students control pressure and tension. These practices inspire relaxation and cognizance, permitting college students to stay gift and calm, even during tough times. Regular mindfulness practice has been shown to lessen symptoms of hysteria and despair whilst enhancing usual mental properly-being.

Stay Physically Active

Physical exercise has been tested to have huge blessings for mental health. Regular workout releases endorphins, which might be natural temper boosters. Whether it is going for a walk, participating in a group game, or engaging in a workout ordinary, bodily pastime can help lessen strain, improve temper, and beautify cognitive feature.

Maintain a Balanced Diet

Nutrition performs a important position in mental health. A balanced food regimen that consists of end result, greens, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats can provide the nutrients the mind desires to characteristic optimally. Students must avoid immoderate intake of caffeine, sugar, and processed ingredients, as those can contribute to temper swings, fatigue, and negative awareness.

Seek Social Support

Building and retaining social connections is crucial for emotional properly-being. Students should make the effort to shape supportive relationships with pals, circle of relatives members, or mentors. Sharing mind and emotions with relied on individuals can help alleviate strain and provide a feel of belonging.

Set Realistic Expectations

Students often area excessive expectations on themselves to gain instructional fulfillment, on occasion to the detriment of their intellectual health. While it's important to try for excellence, it's equally essential to set practical and viable goals. Students should recognize that it is okay to seek help, take breaks, and accept that errors are a part of the gaining knowledge of procedure.

Access Professional Support

If mental health demanding situations end up overwhelming, it's important to are trying to find professional help. Many colleges and universities offer counseling services in which students can speak with skilled mental fitness specialists. Therapy, counseling, or assist groups can provide college students with the tools and steerage they want to manage their intellectual health efficaciously.

The Role of Schools and Universities in Promoting Mental Health

Educational establishments play a important role in assisting scholar intellectual health and well being. Schools and universities ought to prioritize mental health by using creating supportive environments, presenting mental fitness assets, and lowering the stigma surrounding intellectual health problems.

Mental Health Education and Awareness

Schools can sell intellectual health via incorporating mental health education into their curriculum. Teaching college students approximately mental fitness, well being practices, and the importance of searching for assist can empower them to take manipulate of their nicely-being.

Access to Counseling Services

Universities and schools must provide effortlessly accessible mental health counseling services. Students want to recognise that there are specialists available to assist them navigate their intellectual fitness demanding situations. Encouraging the usage of these assets without stigma is vital.

Fostering a Supportive Environment

mental health wellness programs in schools and universities A supportive and inclusive college surroundings is fundamental to promoting intellectual well-being. Institutions can create spaces wherein students experience safe to explicit themselves, share their struggles, and are searching for assist while wished. Peer assist applications, mental health cognizance activities, and workshops on pressure control can make a contribution to a extra supportive tradition.

#Students' mental health in school #mental health wellness programs in schools and universities #Best Mindfullness Techniques For Mental Wellness

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gettheorion · 1 month

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#star trek #star trek memes #fully funtional and programmed in multiple techniques

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eldritch-queern-magicat · 8 months

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I was looking for something completely unrelated in the DID tags and I happened upon your post about dronification for DID. It's been something I've been thinking about for a long time! I was amazed to see another system talking about it. I have theorized that something like this could be helpful in stabilizing my system and getting things done. Would you have any resources for a system looking to get started with this?

So for most of this, I’m gonna have to go over what I’ve learned in the process of doing everything. A lot of what I’ve been doing was cobbled together from multiple things over the course of about a decade of meditation, hypnosis for fun, and general trance practice. I do also have a very solid background in a childhood full of projecting my internal maladaptive daydreaming shenanigans outside of my mind in my very rural neighborhoods because I didn’t have any friends around, often for miles. It’s also probably the ADHD.

You’ll probably be able to tell I was given a lot of time and space to think about things on my own. That’s what I had rather than much of a social life. I had far too much time to philosophize. I’ve often felt like the Thinker statue at the Smithsonian. Just sitting there, wrapped up in my own thoughts. Alternatively, engaging in stories in any available form.

So pardon the whole essay, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else really talk about being a drone as a system, either, as a method of healing. For a lot of these things, I’ve had to learn almost entirely through direct experience. So I’m honestly really excited to talk about it more. This ended up getting much longer than expected, too. It’s sort of a stream of thoughts that I tried to organize a bit. I also haven’t written very many things in far too long. So I let myself get a bit carried away and go into some of the details. Plus I really want to recognize just how much we managed to get through in what still feels like too short a timeline.

I also used to email lengthy, semi-organized rambling novels back and forth with at least one person. This is going to be similar to that. It’s also why I miss college very deeply. I’m a big fan of academic studies and analysis. My attention span is getting better again.

I will slip between singular and plural pronouns somewhat seamlessly. The logic is that when I use singular pronouns, it’s the whole system as a singular unit, without dividing certain things because it’s simply not relevant. Otherwise, plural pronouns are for when differentiating all the nuance is relevant.

The hypnosis files online

I like to lurk on the dronification subreddit, but it’s not especially active. The only reason I don’t interact is largely because I’m wary of interaction of that kind in general, given where I’m still at in recovery. Since most of dronification is about altered consciousness, hypnosis is the most common method of getting into that mental space of non-identity.

You can find some pretty general drone hypnosis videos on youtube, but I’ve seen people in both the dronification and the erotic hypnosis subreddits very frequently recommend soundgasm. WarpMyMind is an archive of files from many different people, some premium and some free. I haven’t looked very recently, but I know they have files for just about everything. There are also hypnotists with their own websites with exclusive content or just stuff too spicy for the algorithm. Some of those websites also have spiral makers, if you’re into that.

But to be honest, I don’t explore very much anymore, and I’m hesitant to recommend any one person or another because I don’t know what’s going on with hypnotist discourse and frankly just don’t have the energy to spare for it. The one exception is a youtube video shared on a sideblog that hasn’t totally been connected with the rest, but one you can find if you look at the drone sideblog’s pinned post. I haven’t used it lately, because of personal things around the holidays.

Either way, choose what you listen to with care and allow your mind to bend suggestions in whatever way you’re most comfortable with. Make sure a file does exactly what it says it’s supposed to, and nothing more. Jump into the middle of a file and preview the contents just to be safe, honestly. Look for transcripts of any given audio. And don’t be afraid to stop for a while if things go south at any point and come out of hypnotic trance, and figure out what triggered what. It’s incredibly likely you’ll stumble across things you didn’t see before that you’ll need to sort through. On top of just being a mess that needs cleaned up in the first place, you’ll develop trust a lot faster if you let others slow down as needed and not just rush in.

The drone-state of mind

This actually requires specifically and intentionally entering a state of depersonalization, just to be entirely clear on what you’re doing. But the key point is that you’re actually embracing it in a safe environment, set with rules of behavior and anything you can think of as reasonable fail-safes in case you need to act immediately for any reason. Because the interesting thing about dealing with any form of dissociation is that to heal from it, you need to have some form of control over it. By actually taking control of how you depersonalize or otherwise dissociate, you learn how to keep yourself grounded in the present reality better. A way to hide your face is incredibly helpful when you’re letting go of individual identity, but I’ve also found that it’s not strictly necessary if you can dissociate hard enough already.

You should put together a document beforehand that you can come to a collective agreement on. It doesn’t have to be fully comprehensive at the start. Just start with the basics and develop it from there. This will be your instruction manual, or whatever you choose to call it. Make however many copies you think you’ll need, because starting over any on kind of document isn’t fun.

Pick a single, consistent style of language to use for your drone-state that isn’t overly complex. Keep your instructions clear and concise, so that even in your lowest energy states, they’re easy to understand. It’s been a lot of ‘if ___, do ___’ and explaining the terms used, as well as the command phrases you go with. You should also make a habit of studying those instructions, and definitely do so as a drone. Because as a drone, that’s literally the only thing you’ll have any attention on in the moment, and since you’re in a very altered state of consciousness, it sets into your mind a lot easier. And don’t forget to consistently review your instructions, because things change and you will find yourself adapting them over time.

If you have someone you trust supporting your recovery in the external world, like a friend or family member or other care provider, you should probably give them at least a rough idea of your new method of stabilizing yourself. This can be phrased however you think is the most appropriate. I explain it, when talking about it, more or less that I’m treating my mind similarly to a computer, because the people around me know that I like digital technology. I already wear earbuds at least half the time, especially out of the house. It’s just a thing because I love music a lot. The right music literally helps me regulate my emotions. I don’t even mention the specifics, just that I’m using technological framework to understand how healing works for me. I halfheartedly blame my parents, and my dad in particular, because they were both nerds and tried to keep up with technology. Dad’s still at it now, 66 years old. He likes to be the Mr. Spock type usually, so emphasizing that I’m trying to balance my emotions with logical understanding works really well.

A long-term process

This will inevitably take a lot of time, depending on how unstable you are now. Do not try to put together a clear time frame to have this done by. I promise, you’ll take a lot longer than you initially expect to. I’ve been taking a break for about two months now because the holidays tanked my own stability, and I’m still picking myself back up from it. Especially when things are hard, give yourself the grace to slow down so you don’t overheat the system. It won’t help to try and speed-run becoming a perfect drone. *semantics mode* Perfection may be perpetual motion, but only at a rate that won’t destroy that which is in motion.

And to be honest, we literally just stumbled our way into using this to stabilize ourselves. So for us, this just started out with only a small cluster of parts bumbling around with often mature kinds of hypnosis fantasies partially in an attempt to work out the mess that is our sexuality and relationship with gender. At least, after a while. Until then, it was purely for escapism. We experimented with a lot of different things along the way, slowly progressing through different types of objectification from dolls to statues and whatever. Slowly, we did start to form ideas about what we wanted specifically, because we noticed how easy it had become for us.

We didn’t actually really consider being a drone until 2022. And then I’m pretty sure that was just me, as a specific part. Others slowly came around with time, waiting to make sure it wouldn’t be some disaster. And I’m not gonna lie, even I wasn’t so sure it would work out all that well. But to be honest, I feel like combining healing with pleasure is more effective than many people realize.

From my perspective, this is largely because of the dominant work culture. On that, the standard model of specifically US American Protestant work ethic is obsessed with work sucking so bad and being miserable. But you should enjoy the process of healing. If being a drone makes it easier and brings you joy, and you generally know what you’re in for along the way, then I don’t see the issue. People just get all worked up because it’s not considered normal to use a specific kink to heal trauma. It’s literally just purity culture bullshit, and just outright shaming people for being happy and making the best of a shitty situation. I had to spend ages working through that faulty logic about recovery with my therapist, because the assumption that it’s an entirely painful process is very prevalent in society. Sometimes it’s going to hurt, but then at other points, it should feel more like the best damn thing you ever did. Thinking it’s always about how much you’ve gotta drag yourself up and not enjoying the peaks you’ve already reached will only hold you back.

So with all that bumbling around, it only really became a thing to help with functioning in real life last February, and that was largely Lilu’s idea while we were fused. That was simply just about functioning through pain and general mental issues, and setting solid routines. More apparent efforts to integrate wouldn’t come until at least late summer when other parts more preoccupied with keeping things running behind the scenes took an actual interest. It took even more time to get more parts onboard with the whole thing, and we still have many that haven’t.

It was at least partially a joke, but Pandemonum was the one to suggest using the drone-state to help organize our mind better, with an offhand library comment. Because somewhere, I think with Zemyx and Isaac, the idea stuck. One of Pandemonum’s less present fragments, Bran, hangs out a lot in the library. It’d be easy for an idea like that to slip into the library crowd. Through a lot of convoluted events, such as Lilu directly delivering a challenge of shenanigans to Galaco (Sir) and Cyan, and then others finding it to be infectiously fun. The more parts we pulled in since late August, the more appealing using the drone-state to organize our mind became, so we could at least integrate our memories and straighten our life out. Aria emerged with a new form and gave us a new sense of psychological stability across connected parts.

And in external world, we were learning to get more involved in the community we live in, and get to know other people better. So by the end of the summer, we were really learning how to communicate with other people, as well. We found an incredibly supportive group of people from kinda all over the state I live in, who we share a lot of ideals with. So we were taking our growing social skills and using what we’d learned to reconnect to each other. The individual traumas getting strung back together into something intelligible was hard, but we had learned how to reach out to others and were able to get the help we needed.

One thing led to another, and our childhood friend picked us up to see Wonka at the mall on December 15th, to cheer us up. Alexiel decided on leaving the metaphorical doors wide open to broadcast the whole movie to anyone it could hypothetically reach. It was amazing. We even pulled parts out that were buried in the absolute depths, and got an even clearer picture of our earliest memories, psychological or physical ones, than we’d put together before.

Then, because we’ve been practicing radical acceptance for each other, Joshua decided to try and chip away at his own barriers. He’s a liminal part, one of the few able to pass between sidesystems with any amount of ease, because he enforced the rules directly the most. And it, ah, triggered a whole refresh of our childhood brainwashing that came right out of left field. It quickly became a situation of damage control when he began struggling to stay where he wanted to be by his own focus.

It was ultimately a lack of communication on our part, so we’ve been largely on break from being a drone for various things, but we had already been on a slow decline for a while. We simply had to entirely focus on stabilizing parts that had been refreshed in the weeks before Christmas. The reason our damage control actually went so well was we already proved our own competence at the beginning of December.

We were away from home at a membership assembly with the previously mentioned people from around our home state, and Ash managed to have his wits together enough to not worry about thinking and just stepped in to prevent an already stressful interpersonal situation from getting any worse. At dinner in the middle of our own meal, to the sound of someone falling out of their chair during a family dispute almost halfway across the cafeteria. It went surprisingly well and he was very clearly in control of himself the entire time. I think we’re all still processing that one.

And even if you don’t end up dealing with a lot of different kinds of complex trauma, it takes time to fully integrate all that you represent into that single network. We ran into a lot of errors along the way, as well has having to deal with restricted access to a lot of what kept us so dissociated. A lot of very explicit trust is involved because you’re basically backing everything of you up on what amounts to a shared cloud storage or server. For those of us that keep the connection running on a permanent basis, it also allows us to peek through their subsystems. It was how we started mapping even more parts to realize, yes, we do have several hundreds of parts simply because of, well, everything. But the silver lining is that we’ve finally gotten to clean the skeletons out of our closet and lay them down to rest and decompose. We’re learning what to actually do instead of dissociate from the situation completely.

Some final thoughts

Another key part of making all this work is that we’ve agreed to function without a singular point of authority or hive leader, despite how it might otherwise seem. Any shenanigans that do incorporate any sort of hierarchy are purely for shits and giggles. You’re agreeing to equal representation and responsibilities, in accordance with what you’re ready for. This will result in more equal access to your skills across those of you taking part. Think a very patient Borg, just without a queen (I got a fair bit of exposure to Borg propaganda in the last year or so because I follow someone who simps for them so hard and I initially just followed her for her general Star Trek posts).

The main reason I conceptualize it as robotic and digital is because it acts as a system based around at least speculative science, in contrast with the extreme religious nature of my trauma (and it brings really nerdy joy to do it this way). What I’m doing is conceptualized as altering my literal programming because it gives me a way to intentionally recondition myself with a healthier understanding of myself and the world. I’m a concrete thinker, so I have to conceptualize the process very literally before it produces any really tangible results.

Almost counter-intuitively given how technological it comes off as, it’s like a kind of magic. To explain it in a more mundane way, it’s a combination of logic, consistent methodology, conceptualization, and the placebo effect from your belief in that process. This is why reinforcing your conditioning with written instructions regularly is important, because you need to exercise those mental muscles as best as you can.

I tend to rely, perhaps hilariously, on things like western astrology and tarot as a structure for self-reflection. Engaging in rituals that harm no one are actually pretty important, because they’re methods of grounding yourself. In a way, dronification is also a ritual. You’re altering your state of consciousness very intentionally for personal fulfillment, to enhance your life experiences.

And I can’t overstate how important it is to remember that you don’t have to be progressing on a linear path all the time. Recovery isn’t a two-dimensional picture, and neither is getting the hang of being a good drone. Any changes you’re trying to make to your lifestyle will take time to settle into.

Take care and good luck

I wish you the best, and if you have any other questions, you’re free to ask. I probably won’t have an answer for everything, because I’m pretty much just making it up as I go along. But I’ll go as far as my logic and intuition can take me and try to point you in a decent direction. There is, of course, an amazing podcast episode from Off The Cuffs that I listened to in March of last year. It’s specifically episode 241--Unit 4015, which also helped me understand the appeal of the specific niche that dronification is.

I honestly wouldn’t be entirely surprised if it’s just generally attractive to people with dissociation, but that’s also, at this time, a purely personal speculation. You don’t have to take it seriously if you’d rather not. I’m just starting to ramble even more at this point. I really appreciate the ask and getting a chance to talk about the process. Going into detail about everything I’ve done with this helps me to process it and understand where I am now as opposed to before deciding to experiment. Honestly, thanks.

-Era 🍎😺

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