Masters and slaves

There seems to be many interpretations of the word 'slave'. We prefer to use the literal definition, ie the dictionary definition. The Oxford English Dictionary describes the word "slave" as:

"One who is the property of, and entirely subject to another person, whether by capture, purchase or birth; a servant completely divested of freedom and personal rights."

I thought about discussing the many interpretations and misinterpretations of 'literal' slave. In the end I decided that it may be more useful if I simply described what it means to me to be a slave.

I believe that submissives have a deep need to be found pleasing. By this I don't just mean pleasing in their work or pleasing in their appearance or even pleasing in their service. I mean they need to be found pleasing, themselves, all of who they are.

I believe that a submissive woman has a deep empathetic nature which gives her the ability to know, almost at an instinctual level, what is needed to be pleasing in most situations. This coupled with the need to be pleasing (and the fear of not being found pleasing) gives a submissive the almost unique ability to use aspects of her personality to appear 'ideal' whilst reserving great portions of herself deep inside, hidden. She builds up barriers to protect this inner self, because it is this inner self which is most sensitive to displeasure and is most damaged by rejection.

I know that for most of my adult life I have done exactly this. Used aspects of my own personality to project pleasing characters. My mothers ideal daughter, my boss' ideal worker, my ex-husbands ideal wife and my childrens ideal mother. I have lived most of my life as two dimentional characters. Always my inner self, the one I protect, remained wholly unseen.

I have seen the concept of 'inner self' described by others. Some call it the 'little girl' or the 'inner child'. Indeed she is child-like. She is vulnerable and scared. She needs to feel safe, cared for, loved. There is no easy way to let this child out. I know that I have not got the ability to let her out by myself. I have spent most of my life protecting her and the first time someone gets behind those barriers and sees her, even for a second, feels terrifying. It terrifies me.

Tanos has been the only man I have ever known who made me feel safe enough to show myself in this way. To do this he had to make me feel safe, but more importantly he had to make me know that I would not be rejected. That it didn't matter what I did, bad or good, he would not reject me, I would always be his slave and that he would still love me. There was no way I was leaving. It takes a great deal of understanding and work to know whether the time is right to push or comfort. To recognise my emotional state even when I am feeling scared but acting fine. To know me better than I know myself.

Some may argue that a Master shouldn't have to coax a slave, he does not coax a slave, he coaxes me in order to take posession of all of me, in order to make me a slave. After all how can you own someone you have never fully met? And yes, I have felt like running, I have, on occasions, wished with all my heart that he only did the physical possession. The possession of my body is hard sometimes, but it is bearable, more often, nowadays, even pleasurable, but it never terrifies me. I also understand that physical possession alone would not be enough to enslave me. I would simply become his 'ideal' slave, another two dimensional character.

Tanos is the only man I have met who recognises me, he recognises what I need and is able to take posession of me. I am enslaved, not because I am submissive, not even because I want to be a slave, but because I need to be made to be me and he knows me.

So I smile when people ask if I don't have money because he doesn't trust me, it is like asking if he doesn't trust himself. I smile when people tell me the only way to own someone is to take posession of them physically, they have no idea how well a submissive has learned to hide her self. I smile when people say a slave does not need to feel loved, what happens to a 'child' who knows she is unloved? When people say it is dangerous, yes it is, I know, if he rejects my inner self, how could I begin to reconcile myself? What choice do I have?

I have had moments when he has seen the person I am (my inner child) and he embraced and loved her. I know what it feels like to be whole. I know what it feels like to be wholly possessed. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful that feels.
When he talks of internal enslavement this is what he means, he takes possession of my soul because he has the ability to find it and take possession of it.

What choice do I have? I can no more walk away from him than I can walk away from myself. If that makes me his slave then yes, I am his slave, and I am eternally grateful to him for it.

Tanos believes that enslaving a woman involves the Master being far more sympathetic to her emotional needs and of encouraging any naturally submissive tendencies and useful abilities that she might have. It should be centered on the reality of her character, and driven by it - although obviously the Master controls the process of her development and nurtures the traits that best serve his purpose.

Thankfully, I have not experienced the purely negative re-enforcement style of 'taming' a submissive. I do know, however, that if Tanos has made the decision that I will do something, then it will be done (perhaps not immediately as he may decide that he needs to work with me more on a subject before enforcing it, but nevertheless it will be done).

I am, by and large, subject to positive re-enforcement methods in the process of my own enslavement. This is not to say that Tanos never uses negative re-enforcement methods. Negative actions do, sometimes, have negative consequences. If Tanos decides that punishment is required to correct my (negative) behaviour then I am punished, but punishment is always exacted in the light of understanding (why the negative behaviour occured). It is never exacted in anger or retribution. Punishment, for me, is always something I don't like, don't want and will do almost anything to avoid.

It has been said that the only way to truely enslave a woman is to enslave her heart. If, in theory, we agree on the definition of a slave, then perhaps it is more relevant to ask when is a submissive truely enslaved? If a submissive woman is psychologically enslaved in that she actually becomes the property of, and completely subject to, the Master then she is a slave in the true sense of the word. She is removed of the choice to leave.

The FAQ section of the Internal Enslavement website introduces some of the fundemental concepts of Internal Enslavement.

The Master

If we can agree on the definition, or even existence, in this society, of a slave, then what makes a Dominant man a Master?

Master:"A man having control or authority: the owner of a living creature, as a dog, horse, slave; also the man whom an animal is accustomed to obey; the male head of a house or household." .(Oxford English Dictionary).

Masterful: "domineering, wanting to dictate to others, showing the qualities appropriate to a Master, eg. the ability to command".

Quite something to live up to, but it doesn't really answer the question of what makes a Dominant man a Master? I guess that this question is, in many ways, as unanswerable as what makes some submissives slaves? Many people have attempted to describe the qualities which make a Dominant. In many ways what a submissive looks for in a Dominant is a very personal thing. There are some qualities, however, which seem to be consistant in Dominant men. Some have described it as 'the authoritative voice'.

Jon Jacobs stated: 'The authoritative voice is a gestalt. It sometimes includes literal tones of voice, but it can also be projected over a computer screen. It involves psychological awareness and acumen, emotional subtlety, a clear but never trumpeted self-condfidence, a certainty that if a decision is made by the voice, it will be carried out, and an enormous and obvious ability and desire to contain and to accept all of the elements of the submissive's personality that she thinks are the most awful,the least desirable, that ought to send any sane man running. He obviously wants all the stuff that she either is ashamed of or believes would overpower anyone with her need. As a gestalt, it is more than the sum of its parts. The more adds up to a general tone of intellect and emotion and voice and personality that brings a submissive girl down to her knees almost instantly, sometimes even if the authoritative one does not consciously mean for it to. In the final analysis, the voice adds up to undenaible power'.

A slaves description tends to be more vague: 'It includes a sort of confident (and generally rather calm/unflappable) persuasiveness (or is it a persuasive confidence?). A quickness to settle or decide things, again with that confidence/persuasiveness. Also, a quality that you can "hear" in the way they listen, that they are constantly seeking out what lies beneath your words or reactions, and able to see and understand it accurately. A probingness that, oddly, doesn't feel intrusive. The feeling that they are filing all this information away someplace you can't quite see. I just feel it when I feel it (which means both feeling it in him, and feeling a submissive response rise)'.

It is this response which many submissives describe feeling when in the presence of a Master.

Sartan describes this "dominant presence" as 'an energy common to every dominant and many who aren't, a term more apt and less open to a literal interpretation different than the intended meaning (as with authoritative voice). Authoritative voice has been cited as going well beyond any normal implication of its second word, it certainly generates a response in a submissive, but it's a matter of pressing urges not helplessly uncontrollable obedience. To say that you're compelled to obey simply by the impact of one with authoritative voice is an avoidance of personal responsibility for your actions. What I do not believe is that any aura or presence can cause someone to instantly and uncontrollable snap to this mode, assuming they are not actively or passively cooperating (which actually indicates that they aren't in that mode anyway). I find it quite possible to enslave someone to this level, and in fact see it as the primary mark of success in the attempt. If a slave can walk (ie leave) of their own accord, they aren't a surrendered slave'.

Conclusion. So it would seem that the 'authoritative voice' may be something a Dominant man posesses, something which illicits an uncontrollable response in a submissive, but it is not unique to a Master. What is unique to a Master is the ability to enslave the submissive, to make her a slave.

It would seem that those Dominant men who have the ability to enslave also have the ability to empathise, the intelligence to understand and the strength to rule their slaves, along with their natural Dominant nature, their 'Authoritative voice'.

lili (July 2000)