Hi folks! So, I have been doing rather well and sometimes even amazing this Spring, and, I feel I am strong enough today to actually write something up regarding my thoughts on being mentally dominated! I see this frequently, so, I hope this Journal ends up helping you, if you're currently struggling! You beautiful person!!!!
First of all, a CW: if you are not currently negatively mentally dominated by a person of some sort, and are not actually looking to engage with the subject, you may very well skip this Journal and just enjoy your day instead: you're not missing out at all, you are beautiful, and I earnestly want to reach your state of being in a complete sense! You can still keep reading if you want to, though, hope you enjoy it! Okay, so... Here we go!!
I personally think this might be very revelant to a lot of folks! It is very common to see people aggressively describing certain individuals that they see as threatening or dangerous: I think those are very valid feelings, and I can relate and emphatize with them! At the same time, if you have had/have those feelings, perhaps you can also relate to the other sides of that state of mind and heart and soul: such as, not being able to stop thinking about these people... Harboring anger, hate towards them, fear of them invading your personal comfort zones, having extended arguments in your head against these people, feeling like the world is unjust for not seeing just how awful those people are... If you can relate to these feelings, then I hope this journal can resonate with you, because those are the kinds of feelings I believe indicate mental domination, which I want to talk about, and try to suggest how to get out of it, and what life feels like when you're not dominated!
Now... Usually, in my experience, there are qualities to people who tend to mentally dominate me that I feel are notable! Here's how I'd describe a person like that in as short of a way that I can, without adding anything negative: "Confidient, strong person with sincere opinions and firmness in themselves"! That is basically the gist of it - these are the types of folks who can dominate you with their aura if their opinion somehow bothers you/clashes with your own! And I believe it is important to try to examine how exactly this domination happens: I think a large part of it is percieving their opinion as truth in some way, a fact that goes beyond their personal thinking!
For example (CW for a potentially triggering sentence relating to generative AI coming!!!! I would breathe evenly before continuing reading this paragraph), here is a "dominate your mind" type of opinion sprinkled with 'truth': "Generative AI is not that different from artists, as people are in some sense just living machines: there is little difference between an artist having been influenced by other artists, and generative AI being an amalgamation of pics"! Typing this out actually upset me a little bit, which I believe, from my perspective, makes it a good, honest example of a phrase that a person can say and immediately trigger a strong reaction from you! You might start thinking, "what a horrible thing to say", but if they then suggest that your discomfort is an indication of inability to let go of your closeted thinking and see things openly, I think it might very well end up being a phrase that will then proceed to hurt you over a long period of time, as you might think "W-well, humans ARE just living machines in some sense... b-biologically... Ssoo, umm... Uhhhh...", and it's like, well, now you have to argue against it, you have to look up stuff, maybe... You might start doubting your own connection to art! I have experienced something like that myself: I believe that having a strong reaction to a phrase like that is very normal! At lowest points, it can feel like mental violation, which brings out anger (why would they SAY that!!), which breeds fear (am I ruined?? did they ruin my mind... Omygoshh what if they're right), which brings out hate (These tech people are all scumbags, trash jerks!!), and, I think the feeling of "what if they're right" is really the core feeling here - you percieve their opinion as truth in some way, so you kind of let their own personal thinking seep into you... If you can relate to this, you probably can relate to the fact that it's a very unpleasant thing!
I believe that having OCD is like cranking up those feelings to 11, and this is certainly my experience: it might not even be enough to hear counterarguments that are not entirely satisfying in every aspect! I don't think at all you need to have OCD to be mentally dominated: but, I strongly think that having it actually helps with seeing just how deep the effects of it may run in a mind and a soul, so, I hope that my following words can connect with you, even if your own kind of mental domination does not usually come so intensely... Possible courses of action, from my experience, may include:
- Looking up the person who said it to try and find if they have 'obviously idiotic' opinions, seeing if they have some kind of underhanded motivation such as having academic investment in holding onto certain kinds of opinions, seeing if they're into crypto or something, looking up to see if they base their thoughts on the thoughts of someone "bigger" than them, like the Twitter owner person... I think this step can work sometimes! I have certainly been able to stop a mental domination from happening by simply connecting with an opinion of this kind of person that to me comes from some kind of obvious ignorance! However, I think it is not entirely uncommon that this step simply does not satisfy you: if it feels the issue of the domination might feel like it has less to do with the person, and more to do with the opinion of theirs that fell into your head, this step overall might end up only helping a bit! After it, you might well move on to the next step, which I would say iiis...
- Trying to connect to the person on unrelated things: do they like playing videogames? Do they like reading? Do they have pets? Do they have a significant other they love? I feel this usually comes as a next step, if the first step is not enough for you to reclaim your mind from their presense in it: seeing if this is a person who is not actually scary, who lives a regular person's life just like you do! In my experience, this step can work very well: it has helped me process mental dominations I've been experiencing in one way or another for multiple years! Finally seeing that this is just a regular person with their own experiences: feeling empathy towards them... Some kind of compassion... It can be great!
However, sometimes, this step does not actually work either! I think that the reasons it might not work too well are... Well, firstly, this person might not actually share their personal experiences in the way that feels sating to you! They may present them as "processed and uninfluencing their conclusions", avoid saying things like "My favorite", have a public image that they present in a controlled "intellectual" way... Those things are actually entirely possible, which would make it tricky to have this step stop the mental thrall of them over you!
- The next step (and this could very well be the first or second step, depending on what particular feelings emerge out of you to begin with regarding what you've read) is to try and look up counterarguments to their opinion! Get a different perspective! I think this is a valid and healthy step, and it can work really well and even help you learn new things both about yourself and about others... However, it is also a very dangerous step, as it puts your entire focus on the issue you're being bothered by, and it is incredibly easy to end up picking up more triggering opinions that then will end up dominating you all on their own! In fact, picture this: you are all doe-eyed listening to this person who criticizes the bothersome opinion, who is all, "This here clearly does not represent things", and you're all pleased... And then this critic just suddenly goes and puts forth their own opinion - and THEIR opinion is not satisfying to you either!!!! And now it feels like you're betrayed and even more lonely in your thoughts than before! This can very easily end up happening and add onto the pile, and, I feel I want to mention that I strongly believe "adding onto the pile" is a significant danger in this situation, and it does not actually make the initial first domination go away! It can obscure it, as now you're focusing on this other thought, but, the first thought can very well emerge back once you're done with the other one... In fact, it likely will, as you did not actually process it!
I believe these three steps CAN help... But if you do not find yourself undominated by the presense after completing these steps, you might actually end up feeling worse, as now you have so much information on the person/entity who feels harmful to you! Some people really do have a lot of information available about them that is rather "clean": imagine you are entirely dominated in a negative way by a famous writer who put forth a "no compromises" opinion about the way people should look at the world! You read all this stuff about them doing charities and smiling and shaking hands with your actual favorite writers... It can easily be very upsetting, in fact! "Wow... am I the dumb one?.." - I think it's easy to end up thinking that!
Now... You've done all of that... Regardless of how you end up feeling about yourself and the domination you're left with, you ended up with a lot of varying information, and, you could actually say, you are rather knowledgeable on the topic yourself at this point... I believe this here is a very crucial moment that decides a lot about the further long-term mental domination you might end up living with for a while! And, I would like to note which things work, and which do not, in my opinion! So! I think that the initial possible natural paths are two!
First one: you might end up thinking, "Wow, well now I know that person is a total clown and idiot! What a stupid opinion - can't believe I fell for it!! It doesn't actually have a good basis to it, nor is it objective in any way... Gosh! This person sucks!" - a common, very common path you see people take, and that you might very well take yourself! Whenever I see someone popping off about how the newest Disney movie is a total cashgrab trashfire that sucks very much and is stupid, I believe that it is this kind of path that they're taking, the path of disdain... "Those darn execs..." I can emphatize with this strongly: I believe it is likely the first path you try to walk... Mm... And, well... I'd just like to say - I do not think this path actually works well for the purposes of having peace in your heart!
Being reactionary to entities that you think are taking this world in a bad direction... Dunking on them in your head... Continuing to feel strong emotions regarding their acts, their thoughts and opinions... Strong negative emotions that could very well make your life worse! In a way, I think that taking this path means you are still guided by the entity you hate, in a reactionary way; I have a lot of experience both with seeing people come into my server and starting to pop off about something I haven't even thought of as a devastating issue with the world, and, with also doing the same thing, expressing my aggressive frustration with something that other people don't really have any strong feelings about! I believe these are reasonable and honest and valid feelings, but, I do not think the healthy way to process them is this aggressive way!
Second one: this will likely come after you realize the path of hateful stagnation does not work very well for you, and you want to actually be truly free to think your own thoughts... This is likely not a path that you will emerge onto by your own strong desire to walk it! But, you might very well end up on it anyway... The path is... Embracing this person's opinions in some way, trying to see their side and their perspective, trying to explore agreeing with them on certain aspects of things!
Sounds healthy, right? It sounds like the thing you're actually Supposed To Do, even, if you truly value stuff like "freedom of expression and thought" - of course, don't just disregard the individual entirely, try to see where they're coming from! However... This is a scary, dangerous path too, as what will likely happen is... To put it sexually, instead of feeling like you're forcibly being violated and mounted, you instead put your hands behind your head and ride the person yourself, bouncing on them via "meeting them halfway"... The power dynamics do not actually change in this instance!!!! You are still seeing this person as some kind of authority, they still occupy this space in your head, you still put down your own earnest thoughts that come from YOUR heart and YOUR experiences in order to make a compromise with that person's opinion... This is where you can picture yourself talking to this person kindly, perhaps saying things like "I understand your point there... This makes sense... However, this is a bit wrong", and you can picture them being like "Okay, I agree - I do not think so either... I am glad we can agree on this", and you might even start picturing yourself being friends with this person... This cool, misunderstood person... Wait a second, they're still your dominator, this time you're just being submissive instead of rejectful and angry!! This is something I saw when reading some of the comments to my previous Journal regarding my own mental domination: people sharing their own journeys where they ended up shutting themselves and their own heart down because they have been "convinced" (mentally entralled) by another, more powerful person/group of people...
There is a good quote to describe this kind of domination that I saw...
""Meet me halfway," says the unjust creature. So you take a step towards them, and they take a step back. "Meet me halfway," says the unjust creature."
The key here is that generally, this kind of domination involves one person probably not even being aware of your existence, your thoughts and feelings; it is quite likely that by trying to walk towards them, you end up willingly walking right into their Strawman which they constructed for the folks whom they're 'trying to convince'! They will never give you a breather or respect your heart and experiences: I believe that in worst cases, you might end up blocking up your very own memories, considering life before your domination to be full of confusion and silliness on your end! "I really never actually believed in all this stuff, have I?.." - you say, as you shake your hips for these kinds of people submissively, willingly letting them violate your vulnerabilities while they get to keep all of their own ones hidden, or presented as part of their "honest character" rather than "confused emotions getting the better of them"! I advise you strongly against taking that path!
Now, all of this stuff is, in some way, "bikeshedding": defining this kind of domination and sharing your own domination experiences is, no doubt at the very least for me, much easier than actually trying to find a path OUT of it, so, this is why I think it's rare to have these kinds of descriptions end up providing a satisfying way through! And, this is also why I strongly believe in sharing my thoughts on it here, because I actually think I can help someone with them!! So, here we go, here are my thoughts on how to hopefully walk out of that kind of domination!!
What kind of path would I say is a path towards a healthy life? What does this healthy, domination-free life even feel like?
I think the difference between a healthy, domination-free life and the life of mental entrallment is the key! The difference is... When you are free from mental domination, you are able to see the opinions of other people as just OPINIONS, just something they THINK, and that they do not actually OVERWHELM your own opinions: rather, your own opinions have the same exact validity as theirs, you are free to think what you think and feel what you feel without having to accept OR reject their own opinion!! You do not rely on interacting with their opinion in ANY WAY to continue living! I believe that is the key difference: it is how you restore access to your most vulnerable places, it is how you restore access to your memories, it is how you find your creativity flourishing, it is how you are able to love and be loved! A true kind of freedom!! Dancing to your favorite songs that carry deep meaning to you, exploring new feelings and experiences earnestly and wholeheartedly... Being self-assured and self-contained in an inner-world sense, without having to picture anyone's thoughts on your most sacred acts, or arguing with them about the nature of your most dearest experience... Not feeling angry at a tech person when you see someone get into a Tesla car with a McDonalds meal, their kid following them! Seeing a tree and connecting to it so strongly, hugging it and feeling like your life is complete... This kind of true happiness... I think that this is the goal! The goal is not to "be right", but to "feel valid", to gain a meaningful understanding of everyone just being a person, and that no matter how much "scientific knowledge" they have, they still don't get to put a collar onto your soul! It's just their opinion! You can have your own, no matter what! Genuinely, no matter what! Like, actually, in the truest sense - no matter what! This is very important, I feel - outside of domination, you truly have no conditions that your beliefs and feelings must rely on to continue to be allowed to exist! Where you can dance and play, and create unrestrained...
If you can relate to this feeling, then I am happy, perhaps this is the way! Perhaps by attuning to this idea, you can really genuinely find a way through and be yourself at last!! Now... How to reach that?.. Hmm... I am still struggling with the particulars - however, I have been able to reach this just a couple of days ago, and this is... It's an in-cre-dib-le feeling!!!! So, here are my thoughts that are connected to that feeling, and what could possibly be a good thing to keep in mind, especially when you're dealing with a very common "my opinion has truth to it, and yours is just a belief that you're clinging onto", or "you need to change your stagnant old-ways ideas into my fresh new techy ones"!!
I strongly think that science itself is just an opinion! "Humans are made out of atoms" is just an opinion - an opinion in a sense that it carries a certain emotional weight to it, that it is different from "beings are made out of atoms", or "Humans are just atoms", or "Humans are made out of particles", or "Humans are made out of cells", or "Humans may be made out of atoms", or "I think humans are made out of atoms"... Try feeling out each of these sentences - do you feel a positive pull, or a negative pull when reading each of them? I think this is extremely crucial to getting out of domination, as it is VERY common that the harshest mental domination involves some kind of "science truth" that you just kind of nod to without acknowledging that any kind of "scientific" statement is in some way an opinion that you do not have to share! To return to the triggering sentence at the very top: "Generative AI is not that different from artists, as people are in some sense just living machines: there is little difference between an artist having been influenced by other artists, and generative AI being an amalgamation of pics"... "People are in some sense just living machines" - "People are in some sense living machines" - "People are organisms" - "People can be understood as living machines" - "People are incredible and amazing living machines" - "I think that people may be living machines in some sense" - I think that there is a massive level of difference between each and every single one of these sentences that, in my opinion, significantly affects the conclusion of "there is little difference between artists and AI" that is so easy to miss out on when you're too busy feeling upset that this kind of jerk can walk the world and not fall through the earth when saying stuff like that! "Hmm, I guess what they're saying is true in SOME sense" - what you're thinking is true in SOME sense as well, right? I think that, if you bypass acknowledging that and end up trying to meet the unjust creature halfway, you're basically already mentally willing to become their bouncy toy if it turns out that they really do not have space for people with thoughts like yours!!
Understanding that you, as a person, operate on a level that is not worse at all to even the most genius scientist who understands the brain the best that they can (note that the word 'brain' has a lot of it's own emotional context that I feel is deeply meaningful to any statement this word is in), knowing that you can meaningfully contribute to a conversation between the cleverest people with 20 doctorates each by simply being yourself... I believe this is an important aspect of being domination-free! "Your feelings are just an illusion", yet, a tech person still operates with feelings of deep interest in the tech stuff that they're doing, believing earnestly that it is a good pursuit... But, would they meet you halfway on it? What if they won't?
Here is a bit of an exersise: try to picture yourself as the spearhead of the world, someone who will lead everyone into the New Age of Compassion/Truth/Understanding/Blessed Beauty!! I strongly believe that a domination-free person can do so easily, if they're asked to try it! "My feelings are mighty, I matter so much - I will be the one to share this magic and love with the others" - I think it is a powerful, strong state of mind! Where YOU'RE THE ONE TALKING, and the other people LISTEN, and it is not a discussion where you keep conceding points: where they instead end up conceding theirs, because your words and feelings resonate with them!! Where it is up to YOU to be compassionate and catch the other person from being dominated by you: notice how I keep saying "In my opinion", "I think that..." "I believe that..." - it is my earnest hope that I do not actually end up having you bounce on me!! I am a goofus, just like I believe each and every person is, in some way - does that sound fair to you? I think it is amazing that we all can help each other and lift each other up to incredible heights, yet also we can stay on firm ground and even get on all fours and have our face be in grass - that is the beauty of the world!! I love it very much! And I hope you are loving it too, and, if you resonate with this Journal at all... Well...
I am really curious what you think of it, and my thoughts!! Do they make sense to you? Do you have experiences/feelings you'd like to share, strongly, that connect to them? Perhaps you are entirely domination-free at the moment, and just want to share what it feels like for you to be entirely free and lacking mental blocks? I am deeply curious! Now, what about...
Are you feeling the tingle of wanting to dominate me in the comments by stating your own feelings and opinions on how things should be, and how my own feelings and opinions are goofy? This has actually happened in my previous Journals with multiple comments telling me to "embrace it" (aka follow the Second Path), and, for this one, if you're feeling like doing that, I'd like to give you an exercise: try to figure out why you have that little tingle to do it! I personally think it could well be coming from a "cycle of domination" place, where you have previously been deeply dominated by a thought and are now following the Second Path by bouncing on it flashing v-signs telling me "Riding it is the only way to find truth/feel okay, Roksim" - it strongly feels to me that this might very well be the case with at least some comments I've gotten! I have certainly felt this kind of way too, and, I am sharing my emotions here to hopefully form a connection point for you to relate to: does that imagery make sense to you, or do you feel strongly negative towards it, and it's not the case at all? I am really just one silly person, so you are welcome to comment on my feelings, as long as you are willing to give them thought!
Most of all, I hope this Journal can help you if you are close-to-being-free-but-not-quite-there-yet - you can do it!!!!! I believe in you, and I think you should keep trying hard: do not let opinions entirely supplant your heart and soul, and don't fall for mental traps that people present as the "objective truth" - I personally think there is hardly such thing at all in a sense that can be communicated from one person to the other, there's always context that matters! If you've read this all - thank you very much, and I hope you have a blessed day today!!!! Yeas!!!!!!
