The Forked Tongue Revisited

Heya!

I took some notes here, but TLDR, this book has a decent amount of misinformation in it, and isn’t worth your time. Don’t even bother with these notes.

Leave the cage door open, and they never want to go.

Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (p. 37). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition.

Remember that the more excited someone is, the more they will consent to. These agreements are worth little or nothing. Be clear. Omit discussions of love, flowers, or forever – those are different conversations, which have nothing to do with the topic at hand. Remember that “I love you, so I’ll do anything for you” has a flip side: “If you loved me, how could you treat me this way?”

Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (p. 64). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition.

Chapter 1: Structure - Protocol, Ritual, and Rules

Insecurity is no motivation to do anything, much less structure an essential part of your life around.

Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (p. 68). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition.

Flagg suggests using the following strategies when making a protocol:

1. Less is more. Whatever addressed should be ‘enforceable, clear, and well defined.’
2. What’s love got to do with it? This is abstract and unenforceable. Lean towards sexual availability, not excitement.
3. Protocol. What to do in a situation. Only positive actions.
4. Rules. If a protocol is always, rules are never.
5. Rituals. Don’t overcomplicate these - if the ritual is devalued, so is the rest of the relationship. You must be willing to fight for these. If a ritual isn’t working for you, remove or modify it. Layered protocols can be designed as such:

Protocol	Action	Speech	Priority
1st (High)	Kneel if I stand still; stand to my right if I sit	Begin and end all sentences with “Sir”	Designated guests first, then attend me
2nd (Middle)	Stand / walk behind me and to my right	Address me as “Sir”	My needs first
3rd (Low)	Location is irrelevant	Address me as “Sir” unless in vanilla company	As situation demands

Chapter 2: Hypnofetish

According to the author, while people only do what they want to do, the breadth of what people are willing to do unconsciously is broad. The author presents deeply held beliefs, fears, and desires as tools to be used, and your options are less limited than you may initially perceive. (There’s some stale information here about some individuals not being being ‘good subjects.’ The misinformation continues on for a bit, but, I’ve taken a few concepts that may be useful in some circumstances. I would not want this book to be someone’s first exposure to hypnosis.) The idea to suggest exploiting their fetishes and interests to give suggestions is pretty solid, but common. They provide the example of surgically implanting suggestions via a surgical procedure for a medical fetishist, so that was kind of novel. In addition, they suggest using deep rooted feelings (love, ownership, feeling small) to other kinks, or utilizing them. 🤷 The author goes on to overview ideas for hypnosis, which are better covered in The Mind Play Study Guide and Hypnotic Amnesia. And the chapter ends abruptly. 💩

Chapter 3: Mindfucks

🦈 This guy is starting to sound up his own ass and I’m waiting for him to get back to either useful or novel information. So far, the only thing I like about this chapter is the suggestion to work backwards from your intention, so you don’t haphazardly apply these techniques for the sake of applying them. Flagg’s up his own ass definitions:

Illusion	Creating the environment for a misconception
Suggestion	Leading to conclusions, true or untrue. This is different than the usual hypnotic suggestion where it’s a request to do or experience something.
Dread	Trepidation and anxiety of the unknown, suspected and inferred
Fear	Trepidation and anxiety of the known, the immediate and/or Potential
Trick	A mindfuck outside of the ‘rules.’ Like an abduction scene.

Fetishes are not your only positive motivator; approval, attention, and affection are all powerful when applied to the right people in the right way. Use them sparingly, as they become all the more desirable in their scarcity.

Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (p. 91). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition.

They suggest the following maxims:

• Emphatically, the author says, never bluff in a few more words, saying it disempowers you. Moreover, never lie, which can dissolve into roleplaying, or broken trust.
• Avoid lying, allow misconception. They apply gaslighting to abuse inferences.
• Never compromise your structure. Mostly, don’t breach trust, or break boundaries. The author suggests getting as close to possible to them though (using dread to infer a false truth, like leaving hints there are cockroaches nearby with someone that dislikes cockroaches.)
• Conspire with those you trust - get another sub to help a bro out.
• Improvise (Wow. How original.)

To create an illusion is to provide misleading evidence. The example they provide is to allude you’re purchasing a kennel for a fearful sub by leaving that evidence around - ordering catalogs with circled kennels, a torn out page. When they question it, deny that you ordered anything. Evidence is more influential, notably when it suggests something is already underway. They suggest using the strategy of information being withheld from them, rather than presented, is more effective. Okay, this account is legit wholesome, but I’m not sure how useful this information is…

You are having a surprise party for your slave… but you want to convince her that she is being delivered into the hands of brutal, uncaring “professionals” for “retraining.” A faked website is good – a phone conversation she can eavesdrop on is better. Talk to a few friends about the idea; take notes on possible “locations.” If you build a website, give her that one and a list of similar sites to research for you. Refuse to discuss it – you “have not made up your mind,” you are “waiting to see if she improves.” When you finally load her terrified carcass into the car, make her pack a suitcase with a few (very few) regimented things. Blindfold her, and off you go, to drive around for two hours while your friends arrange the party back home. Better yet, blindfold her, toss her shackled ass into a strange car, and have a friend (who will not speak to her) drive her around while you set up the surprise.

Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (p. 98). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition.

According to Flagg, suggestion is more direct, and has components of repetition and insinuation. You can find the repetition suspicion breaking point for an unrelated topic by repeating something until they ask about it. Then pull back a few attempts. Insinuation is there in the way that you’d mention Chinese food in a few different ways, then ask them what they’d like to eat. Your request is insinuated - the same way that you could insinuate some more nefarious treat.

There’s a few accounts of putting these components together, but I’ll toss one in here for reference:

Boy terrified of cockroaches

Denial: he never sees any roaches. (There are none.) he is never told you did obtain roaches for certain. (You didn’t).

Insinuation: You mention that it’s possible to order huge roaches online … more than once.

Illusion: An empty package, a stiff feather across the skin, and the hissing sound from a small spray can of compressed air.

Payload: Simple enough – after you’ve had enough, just remove the blindfold, showing him the feather and the spray can. he’ll get it.

Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (pp. 102-103). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition.

And finally… something I agree with:

Just a note – if it seems like it’s going wrong, if their panic has the wrong taste or seems violent or beyond what you wanted from the experience – don’t be proud. Call it off, let them in on it, and calm them down. Find out what went wrong.

Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (p. 105). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition.
And a final example… for a cattle prod.

1. Buy catalog, leave available (Illusion – prop)
2. Talk about cattle prod in conversation (Suggestion/insinuation/innuendo)
3. Remove catalog (Dread – denial of information)
4. Determine that the prod is within structure (Dread – insinuation, Suggestion)
5. Make wrapper or unmarked box visible (Dread, Illusion – props, denial of information, leading to conclusion)
6. Create deciding moment, moment of conflict. Sensory deprivation is VERY useful in many cases.
7. Push the envelope (“Stick out your tongue.”)
8. Joy buzzer, alarm clock, kiss, or shock – (Resolution)
9. Be certain to create the goal state with commentary, criticism, or praise. (Payoff)
10. Follow up – one of these days, get the prod. Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (pp. 108-109). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition.

Chapter 4: Humiliation

The author covers a pile of reasonably obvious information on how to figure out what someone’s buttons are, humiliating or not.

Humiliation	To lower pride, dignity, or self-respect	“Touch you? You must be joking. I don’t even want to look at you.”
Objectification	To present as an object (or, since we’ve objectified animals, to present as an animal)	Animals don’t sleep on the bed, they sleep on the floor. So, as long as you are my animal, you will to.
Degradation	To reduce in grade, rank, status, demote, dishonor, disgrace, debase, reduce in value	If you were any kind of man, you’d stand up for yourself. But you like this, don’t you?

While all of these are directions insults can go, the outcomes are all contextual…

I knew a lovely redhead who loved being called a “stupid cow.” She was very smart and very attractive; thus these words were bloodless, safe, hot – intimacies.

Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (p. 116). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition. (I didn’t find anything else useful or interesting in the rest of this chapter.)

Chapter 5: Conditioning

Conditioning	The process that encourages a subject to associate a subject to a stimulus
Reflex	An involuntary response to a stimulus
Response	The reaction - emotional, or physical, does not imply it is automatic
Training	To condition (or accustom)
Discipline	Training expected to produce a pattern
Environmental acclimation	A constant reinforcement of a stimulus, without constant direct management

Pain conditioning occurs outside of SM, often in endurance or athletic training. Gradually increase the pain to reach the goal. Allegedly, the most straightforward to train. They suggest that you’ll be able to condition touchless orgasms with very little touch initially, then no touch - but it is not universal. Continuing, sexual association should ideally be done subtly, so it’s automatic, and cannot be consciously rejected. Drive is stronger than just obedience, it’s where the subject will strive to do their best. To create this, only provide rewards sparingly - suggesting it’s the minimum they can do to hit the response you’d like out of them. Making the reward the satisfaction of the label (EG: Their Master’s dog/servant/pet) rather than emotional reaffirmation. To create a reflex, in anything aside from orgasms, use negative conditioning. The provided example suggests pulling down the subject’s hair in tandem with a “Sit!” instruction. The hair pulling should come less than a moment after the word is said - later, you can remove the hair-pulling. This will take a few weeks with regular reinforcement. Avoid giving too much positive reinforcement - it removes the drive, which is what you want.

If the rewards are inconsistent, they will be sought after. In animals, the performance of the action becomes associated with the enthusiasm for the possibility, not the reward itself.  So it is with humans; thus inconsistency in these matters avoids the added, very human complications of deserve, due, and supposed to.
Flagg. The Forked Tongue Revisited: A handbook for treating people badly (p. 132). Imposing Content. Kindle Edition.

Create a new and unique definition for your subject to avoid previous associations. Pet can mean anything between “lap dog” or “tool.” Use this for the center of your expectations, with starved positive reinforcement. Disassemble and remove previous conditioning in components. Reintroduce a new context. Avoid removing previous conditioning head-on. Be careful - the more you condition your subject, the more likely you are to accidentally imprint on to them.

Notes from the book club:
Positive conditioning - applying conditioning.
Negative conditioning - removing conditioning.
** Positive reinforcement** - that’s the treat, or shock the dog when they do something you don’t want, that’s positive reinforcement.
** Negative reinforcement** - that’s when you remove something the dog likes to reinforce something.

(This better covered in [[The Brainwashing Book]])

Chapter 6: Interrogation

(The author hams up the intensity of doing an interrogation scene - and indeed, if I did interrogation scenes like this, that’d be worth listening to. However, I don’t intend to take this beyond playful fun and button-pushing, so I’m skipping over their warnings.)

Debility	The state of weakness during interrogation that can begin to stem from just the environment alone
Dependency	Yup.
Dread	To fear something in the future. (Your subject’s imagination is likely more active than what you’re willing or capable of inflicting, and you can use this to your advantage by modifying the environment.)
Doubt	You’ll want doubt that this is all just fun and games, according to Flagg.
Source	Wow boy you sure are a smart guy reading CIA books for your horny kink time and calling your playmate temporarily a source, aren’t you Flagg? /s

Their interrogation formula includes…

1. Arrest. Ideally, unexpected during a safe time.
2. Detention. They reinforce that the space you create for this should be unfamiliar as possible. This is where you’d strip things away - makeup, clothing, anything unnecessary. (Save them for later when you gradually give them back to the poor abused playmate.)
3. Threats and Fear. There is nothing more disempowering than an empty threat. Avoid menacing them (finally, some decency from the author) as this can push the situation out of your control. Create dread in your environment. Avoid using pain, it can create drive and resolve, and can be overcome.
4. Questioning.
   1. Choose a relevant fact. There’s nothing you really want to know, but this is something to work around, a minor, incidental detail. Do not ask about it.
      1. Ask where, who, have you been there, what did you do, when was that, all surrounding that fact. Take notes, ask a question a few times, and lead on that you know more than them.
      2. Ask questions in a non-linear fashion, and blame it on their unwillingness to be forthcoming. Repeat details, muddle, and if necessary, willfully misinterpret the information.
      3. Use word traps, like syllogisms.
   2. After cycling for a few questions, abuse it by accusing them of withholding information or not being forthcoming. “What does that have to do with / that does not [answer, address] / why are you not saying / What I wanted to know is (something you didn’t ask) / you are not being straight with me.
   3. Occasionally, reward random facts or answers.
   4. Go over your information.
   5. Finally, ask about the central fact that you ‘wanted to know.’
5. Slowly return them back to the real world piece by piece. After abusing them this much, they’ll be a wreck. Taking them right out to dinner after fucking them up this much would be shellshock. Variations:

• Good Cop / Bad Cop. Bounce back and forth, share ‘information,’ suggest it doesn’t add up, use it to give and take hope.
• Alice in Wonderland. Gaslight them in to doubting themselves. Use props.
  • Air force pilots would be forced to stand rigid for hours, and were asked questions they could not answer. Eventually, they’d ask what they could answer. You can use this to provide catharsis. Err on the side of safety.

Notes from the book club:
Give then a drink with niacin and vitamin b3 - it’ll feel like something is going on.

Yeet

(This book is trash.)