Experiments in power.

[richard ford]

Experiments in power. Copyright Richard Ford.


If we agree that women have more power in our society than men we must look to how they attained it so that we may also have our share.

We find that women are obsessed with the indirect use of power in a way that few men ever understand. Women's magazines seem at first sight to be obsessed with shopping and emotional self indulgence but this turns out to be nothing more than aspects of the real obsession- power.

Beauty is a road to power, not only over heterosexual men but other women. Women are resentful of other beautiful women but admire them too. They desire admission to friendships and circles they basically despise- they resent women who have more sexual power than themselves but are drawn to the power itself. This is what gives so much female friendship its treacherous character. Women are drawn to wealthy and powerful men not merely for the wealth and power, but to prove their own sexual power to their friends and rivals. The cost the woman pays for this tactic is that she is forced to pursue men purely for their trophy value to other women- in other words she engages in a strange game of double bluff by which she tries to guess the men that her friends and rivals would want. Yet her friends are playing the same game- they are putting on a front as well. A woman who wishes to succeed in this game must obtain the man her friends would admit they wanted- a choice partly determined by their efforts to play the same game! In this way women become enmeshed in a hall of mirrors and may lose sight of their own sexuality altogether. This is not the disaster it would seem to be from a man's point of view because she is not seeking sexual or emotional fulfilment from a man but power. She will have more power the more easily she can walk away from a relationship.

This is one reason a woman will sometimes stop you if she is enjoying herself too much in bed- she does not wish to open that aching void of need that would end her power over you but offers some chance to be an authentic human being.

Power is not therefore a cost free pursuit for the woman. It occupies most of her waking thoughts and many of her dreams at night- it is not even necessarily always a bad thing. Many criminal men have been saved by the love of a woman- one of the better power games around. The chief cost to the woman is a lack of spontaneity and authenticity- she is never truly herself because she is always engaged in a power play whether she knows it or not. This is why woman's magazines are always engaged with two contradictory notions. Firstly they are engaged with a search for the self- many magazines are even called names such as 'Self' 'Me' 'Woman' and 'She'. The pictures consist almost entirely of other women and approximately half the articles relate to the woman discovering her needs and wants or true nature. The other half consist of efforts to avoid the self that she discovers. Her body is regarded as a problem to be solved as is every imaginable personality fault. In other words the magazines offer the destruction of everything she is as a solution to her imperfect life. In this way a woman can be persuaded to enter upon a continual seek and destroy mission by which she discovers new needs (emotional, sexual, financial) whenever she looks within herself. She is then encouraged to look for problems to remove in order to obtain this ideal life or identity. There is always a boyfriend to be changed or disposed of , or some girlfriend to be shafted. The underlying solution is always the same- more power and the woman is willing to overcome her true nature in order to obtain it.

Sooner or later the woman will become aware that she has lost herself. She is running a programme in every department of her life- yet she no longer feels 'real'. This will set her off once again on the search for herself but will find only another illusory ideal of herself and another set of things to change. The basic error in all of this is to place ones self upon an alter and worship it. This will (paradoxically) result in the loss of the self as it is displaced by the ideal that is worshiped and must be worshiped by all others.

So far I have simply tried to explain women's worship of herself and her obsessive search for power. Women now have the power but have lost their souls. They have become empty shells, machines bent upon the acquisition of more power but with no idea what to do with it.

Men can learn from this process. We must obtain power without losing our humanity. Here is a list of ways in which women gain power.

1) Special pleading. Women will always claim the need for special help. Men should not be so proud to do the same.
2) Looking after ourselves. Women look after themselves and value their health far more than men- this may be why they live longer.

3) Magic. Many, many women engage in magic. It is an egotistical system concerned only with the woman's wants unlike male religion which has concerned itself with the overcoming of the ego.

I have had some strange experiences by which woman have used magic against me- the experiences are not conclusive and do not quite make sense when told but seem to indicate something is going on. I will carry out some tests and report back. It is important not to let the tail wag the dog however.

[CaptDMO]

Power, a concept(over simplified,with too much metaphor)
First -Define it. It's a fairly ambigious concept.
Does it mean-
Dominion
Enslavement
Superiority
Influence
Extortion
Control by proxy
What?


The basis of ALL power is the willingness of a  subordinate to be subordinate.
Women do NOT have more power then men in my world.
There are those that are appeased just to shut them up or they will "make a scene"
There are those that threaten punishment via proxy of the police/courts on their mere whim
There are those that will cut off sex unless otherwise unreasonable demands are met
There are those that claim arbitrary rights of definition-"A REAL man would...."
There are those that will assault
There are those that  will outright lie/slander/perjure/conspire. (I reserve a special name for them)

My point is that this is no different from what men do, and is to be treated with parity.

Compromise-what are you willing to give in exchange?

If someone tries to extort your merited assets, and offers to take only half as "A compromise-or else" simply deny them(I did say oversimplified at the top)
If "or else" appears to come to fruition-show NO quarter. This serves to scar the offender and their allies.Do NOT let any allies involved with "OR ELSE" escape unscathed! It also earns collateral for any future  conflicts, both in self confidence and in warnings to other preditors looking for easy prey.

BUT ONE MUST BELIEVE ABSOLUTLY IN THEMSELVES TO DO THIS!

Magic
Whichcraft
Gris-gris
Voodoo
The "dark" arts
Blacklisting
Black dot
Excommunication
All of these rely on "allies",superstition, and acceptance(by the target) of their value.
Generally, I (literally)piss on these things with great confidence. Remember, If someone ascribes to any of these things they are also vulnerable to them.

It's usually quite a simple matter to hold up a mirror to all these threats and the offender will do all the work to destroy themselves with projection. Another alternative is to simply step out of their way.

IMPORTANT!  DO NOT FORGET TO GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY AS WELL.

Generally,I find it reasonable to give benifit of the doubt until proven otherwise. Faced with a conflict my first line of defense is to laugh and say "NO! Unacceptable" in no uncertain terms. Of course I'm willing to back that up by walking away, and taking my bat and ball with me.

It's truly astounding how much personal,social and financial currency other folks will waste on their own ego in search of revenge. And THAT is where I get "power".

Did I forget to mention "oversimplified"?

[richard ford]

I am writing a series of articles called 'experiments in power' and I knew the point at which most people would lose me would be the subject of magic. Most people who discuss magic on the internet are lunatics but I will press on anyway because I have had some strange experiences and would like some intelligent views on what it may all mean.

Whether we decide there is a subject for study among all the nonsense or not we should understand what practitioners of magic think they are doing as the majority of them are female and feminist oriented. The most violent and mentally unstable people of both sexes tend to be attracted to magic (which tends to destabilise them further) but it is overwhelmingly a female trait.

I think one reason for this is that magic aims to influence people and events by indirect means- and women are the great masters of the indirect approach. Wicca also offers a new level of victim hood and female comradeship on top of the great quantities issued as combat rations by the feminist movement. This would seem an unattractive area within which to compete with women- irrational, emotion based, covert and secretive and often quite mad. Yet we should at least have a look at what they are doing on a 'know your enemy' basis- magic seeks to find the hidden levers of the world and control it by covert means.  This is just what feminism has succeeded in doing.

I have come across magic and strange occurrences on a number of occasions. I will list them here in chronological order and see what you make of them.

1. Travailing home from London by moped I had a strong mental image of pills lying on the carpet of my mothers bedroom.  Upon arrival I found that she had been taken to hospital following a drug overdose. I had no forewarning of this as I had been away for a while and it had been many years since her last attempt.

2. On a number of occasions I have known people who have suffered from persistent but quite minor illnesses. On each occasion I have laid my hands upon them and a mild tingling sensation developed in my fingers. The subject either became groggy or passed out altogether and reported the end of their symptoms.
3. I bought a deck of Tarot cards to chat up women (they love anything that is about them). These proved to be so accurate that I ceased to use them and became afraid of them in a way- they foresaw all of my subsequent problems but also told me I had a limited capacity to deal with truth. I naturally ignored this!

4. I became a full time rescuer of a very violent and abusive woman who was burning candles that she bought (with my money!) from a voodoo practitioner. She took about £27,000 from me, broke many bones including my skull on many occasions. She would set the flat alight and destroyed everything within it. During this period I became so emotionally crushed that I did nothing to prevent this. Our time together consisted of intense emotional abuse coupled with sleep deprivation. For two years I supported her until she stabbed me in the neck and was at last arrested. During this time I did everything I could- down to the last atom of my strength to help her and it was the emotional exhaustion that damaged me more than anything else. The question arises- why did I put up with it? I have read the psychological explanations (my life had set me up to accept abuse from self destructive women) but keep on thinking of the candles. When I was finally taken from the flat with a knife wound in the neck I sincerely hoped that I would die so that I would not have to accept further abuse from her. Yet I continued to try to help her even then!

5. When one is involved with someone who is mentally ill one starts to feel ill oneself. Part of the pride that was keeping me there was the idea that I had infinite reserves of strength to draw upon and I now realise this was not true. I became afraid to returning home after work and was also suicidal. I was also not dealing with any aspect of my life other than her. She would open my mail and delete telephone messages intended for me. Problems were closing in and I was finding them harder to deal with. My wife enjoyed presenting herself as victim so I would be justifying myself to everyone all of the time. On occasion men would arrive to threaten me. I then did something rather strange...

Without knowing quite why I did I drew a circle in my living room with my middle finger and then swung around with my palms faced outwards. I could feel a definite jolt flow through my body and the atmosphere of the flat cleared almost completely (it was tense and very stagnant prior to this- almost like a blanket smothering the face). That night when she returned she stabbed me for the last time and was removed by the police. All hell broke lose in my life in every other way too. Everything that I had not been dealing with presented itself at my door demanding solution.

6.Once I began divorce proceedings I became aware of how stacked things were against me. If a dog is burnt or stabbed then the owner is generally punished. If the victim is only a man and the abuser is a woman then the woman will be rewarded financially. I became depressed because I had been operating in a state of constant emergency until that point and had no time to feel anything. I felt an iron claw drag me down each morning. This began to lift and I removed my mattress because it had been stabbed and slashed by my wife. Underneath the bed I found a collection of used tampons and inscriptions written in blood. Menstrual blood is a staple of feminist 'woman's magic' once these were cleared away I recovered quite quickly.

7. I was denied legal aid while my former wife was given it is vast quantities. The divorce dragged on for two years until I bought a book on magic (aimed at women like all such books) and adapted a process within it. My wife dropped her financial claims against me on the very same day.

All of these phenomena have alternative explanations. In particular points 4, 5, 6 and 7 rely upon a link between private events and larger public events that cannot be proven objectively. Nevertheless I find it odd.

The techniques I intend to use are very gentle. It is easy to generate a vast amount of emotional energy and send it off (BANG!) to carry out some task. This is rather like detonating a bomb in your own home. Incident 5 changed everything around me without discrimination and destroyed as much as it created. I need a gentle process right now and will let you know how I do.

[richard ford]

My current interest in magical experimentation began only about ten days ago as a by product of cleaning out a cupboard in my kitchen. I could no longer live in a disordered home that had been alternatively burnt, wrecked and furnished by a woman with increasing mental problems. Have you ever been in the company of an unhealthy person for a length of time? Mental ill health is infectious. This is not to say that a healthy person will become mad by infection but he may be dragged down in life by them. He will lose something of the pleasure of life and become bogged down with petty issues, thoughts or feeling s that he would otherwise overcome with ease.

This is rather similar to the sensation of living in a home in which a sick person has imprinted their personality. All the time he continues to live in this environment he will continue to be affected by it. A mans thoughts influence his immediate environment and his wider life in equal quantity- and his success in the wider world will influence his mental state. In this way we can see that a triangle is formed between a man's private emotional state, his living conditions and his role within wider society. This is the basis of  many magical practices that aim to find a man a new girlfriend by moving a houseplant six inches to the left or right. This makes a good filling for Sunday newspapers and woman's magazines but is largely simplistic nonsense. Despite this, I think the basic idea behind Feng Shui is correct (that there are energies that move around a house). These may be directed to a degree in order to do whatever is required of them. No demons or angels appear in clouds of sulphur when we do this- we simply find ourselves in a place that feels like home and our life begins to somehow 'go right'.

What is the exact opposite of the destructive forced ranged against us? Is it anger? Defiance? Revenge? Do we really want these things in our home at all even if they are justified? Erin Pezzy talks of a 'will to health' which is the greatest determinant of who gets over trauma and who does not. The greatest problem my wife had was not her mental illness but the fact that when unhappiness came calling she would invite it into her life. She had no 'will to health'. In my own case I had every excuse to give up on life and humanity in general. Suicide was attractive for a long time but I never invited misery into my life. Even when it had me on the floor with its foot upon my neck it never became my friend.

I therefore resolved to use this elusive thing the 'will to health' as a basis of my repair programme. I started to build order in my kitchen. For days I would beaver away with no visible result. It is quite easy to organize a flat where everything has a proper home. All that is needed it to return things to their proper place. My own flat was different- there was no order, it was (and still is) a mad environment full of wreckage, stagnation and unhappiness. I would pick something up and have no home for it at all (many cupboards have been pulled from their walls and so on). I would then notice that it would only work when paired with another component that was missing. Half a day would be spent in search of that other piece until it could be finally be placed proudly upon the shelf. This was the speed of my work but slowly a single point of order emerged.

While I was engaged in this endless task I was fighting my way through various emotions. Everything I touched seemed to speak of some misery I had allowed to be visited upon myself. I was filled with a rage- not at my wife- but at myself for allowing it all. How was it that I had come to value myself so little? I still do not fully understand this even now but I found it was suddenly easier to deal with the external problems she had created for me. The Inland Revenue were demanding money and documents that she had long destroyed. Suddenly they were willing to accept estimated figures.

Just out of curiosity I bought a compass and walked around the flat measuring the area out into exotic sounding Feng Shui zones such as five killings and helpful people. I used these as guides to moving things about and found the results generally feel 'better' than the old arrangement. This process continues.

I have not proved anything particularly conclusive but my life is moving forward in leaps and bounds. It could, of course be coincidence but I will test it by finding out how far I can take the process.

Any scientific test requires a set criterion for success. Here are my criteria.

By October 15th I will have done the following.

1) Achieved a 40% wage rise.

2) Resolved all of my marriage related conflicts. (Tax, mortgage arrears, lack of credit ext).

3) Be in some form of healthy relationship with a woman which may or may not be sexual. Simply being able to deal with a woman as an equal without accepting things I would not accept from a man would be a step forward. Working with a woman and receiving the same respect she gives her female friends would do.

There is no real information on the internet as to how to do this. I will have to find my own way forward and this is my start.

a) I have today visited the Natural History Museum and Fortnum and Mason in London. From the museum I bought some crystal eggs (one of quartz and one of rose quartz) they are quite beautiful and intend to use them to mop up some of the bad atmosphere in the flat. Quartz is supposed to have the ability to store and transmit mental energies in much the way it does for radio waves. I bought some tea from Fortnum and Mason (the same brand as used by Prince Charles they tell me). This comes in a beautiful wooden box that I will use to protect my quartz from ultraviolet radiation. This is alleged to prevent the crystals being wiped clean.

I will keep the crystals by my bed as I cannot close my door between the bedroom and the rest of the flat. The aim is better sleep.

b) I like the 'feel' that comes from the Thames on one side of my flat. The other side I am less keen on even though it faces countryside- there is something slightly disturbing about it all although I have no idea why. Possibly I do not like the fact that some windows face me even if it is from some distance. It is not a strong sensation but it has always been present. I will find out if there is an easy cure.

[TestSubject]

Power, a concept(over simplified,with too much metaphor)
First -Define it. It's a fairly ambigious concept.
Does it mean-
Dominion
Enslavement
Superiority
Influence
Extortion
Control by proxy
What?


The basis of ALL power is the willingness of a  subordinate to be subordinate.
Women do NOT have more power then men in my world.
There are those that are appeased just to shut them up or they will "make a scene"
There are those that threaten punishment via proxy of the police/courts on their mere whim
There are those that will cut off sex unless otherwise unreasonable demands are met
There are those that claim arbitrary rights of definition-"A REAL man would...."
There are those that will assault
There are those that  will outright lie/slander/perjure/conspire. (I reserve a special name for them)

My point is that this is no different from what men do, and is to be treated with parity.

Compromise-what are you willing to give in exchange?

If someone tries to extort your merited assets, and offers to take only half as "A compromise-or else" simply deny them(I did say oversimplified at the top)
If "or else" appears to come to fruition-show NO quarter. This serves to scar the offender and their allies.Do NOT let any allies involved with "OR ELSE" escape unscathed! It also earns collateral for any future  conflicts, both in self confidence and in warnings to other preditors looking for easy prey.

BUT ONE MUST BELIEVE ABSOLUTLY IN THEMSELVES TO DO THIS!

Magic
Whichcraft
Gris-gris
Voodoo
The "dark" arts
Blacklisting
Black dot
Excommunication
All of these rely on "allies",superstition, and acceptance(by the target) of their value.
Generally, I (literally)piss on these things with great confidence. Remember, If someone ascribes to any of these things they are also vulnerable to them.

It's usually quite a simple matter to hold up a mirror to all these threats and the offender will do all the work to destroy themselves with projection. Another alternative is to simply step out of their way.

IMPORTANT!  DO NOT FORGET TO GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY AS WELL.

Generally,I find it reasonable to give benifit of the doubt until proven otherwise. Faced with a conflict my first line of defense is to laugh and say "NO! Unacceptable" in no uncertain terms. Of course I'm willing to back that up by walking away, and taking my bat and ball with me.

It's truly astounding how much personal,social and financial currency other folks will waste on their own ego in search of revenge. And THAT is where I get "power".

Did I forget to mention "oversimplified"?

Please define how many shades of color are considered "blue" before saying the sky is blue.

[Julian]

Richard you must go and see your Doctor and explain to them using your writings on this site what's happening.


I feel the same way.

[angryharry]

Hello Richard

From your recent posts, I get the feeling that you are suffering from some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder - which is not surprising given your experiences.

I have seen many posts from men hither and thither on the internet over the years similar to your recent post, and many seem also to follow on from similar **long-term** serious negative emotional situations involving a 'crazy' woman.

Furthermore, it is clear to me that such terrible situations can easily debilitate and disturb men for 5+ years following the dissolution of their relationships with such women - 10+ years in some smaller percentage of cases.

I agree with Julian that it might be a good idea to seek some professional help so that you do not have to deal with this all alone.

The only real advice that I can offer is this. The less that you allow yourself to think about that horrible past, the sooner will it stop affecting you.

Thousands upon thousands of men have been through this sort of thing.

And, in the end, it goes away - pretty much.

Harry