Merlin's Pub, Melville

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Service: N/A
Food: N/A
Ambience: * * 1/2
Babe Count: * * * * *

One thing about the BDSM scene is that it's populated with serious babes. Ayeeeeee. And some of them are specialists in causing groin strain. You know... with a whip or something.

I'm sitting in the upstairs part of Merlin's Pub in Main Rd Melville with an assorted bunch of people. They all share one thing... they're interested or involved in Bondage and Discipline, or S&M, or BDSM, or Domination & submission, or D/s. These terms are, as you'll be aware by now, interchangeable. But maybe you've joined my journey into the dark side a little late.

Every fourth Wednesday of the month, this nondescript pub becomes the venue for what's called a "Pub Moot", a session at which Joburg's kinky people get together and learn about a particular topic. Now unfortunately, I can't give any details about the people, cos participation is understood to be confidential. But I can tell you about what goes on. Just know that I'm not mentioning names or talking about identifiable details. The world is not HUGELY understanding about this stuff.

Tonight's topic is "The use of Hypnosis in BDSM". One of the kinksters is a master at the art of hypnosis, and he's doing a practical demonstration on his slave. (Yes. You read right. Slave. The relationship this particular couple have opted to adopt is the Master/slave relationship. And yes. He owns her. She obeys his every command. Hypnotised or not. And yes, it's ENTIRELY consensual. This is something that WORKS for both of them.)

He tells us about how hypnosis works, about it NOT being dangerous, cos hypnotised people aren't in anyone's power... they're simply in an altered state where their subconscious is dissociated from the consciousness. They're not going to do anything that they wouldn't do if they were fairly drunk.

And he gives us some examples of how to use post-hypnotic suggestion in playing D/s games or scenes. For instance, instead of using actual chains to tie your babe up and immobilise her, you can hypnotise her to believe that on command, she will believe that she's been chained up. She can't move her feet, and she can't move her hands. She'll stay upright. And you can proceed to lay into her with your common or garden flogger, or just tickle her. As you see fit.

Or, for instance, if orgasm on command is more your thing, you can program that for her.

Unfortunately, Karen isn't with me here tonight. She's at her regular dancing lesson, getting instruction in the fine art of the Argentinian tango. And I'm getting ideas about her in a shopping mall and me saying a post hypnotic suggestion and seeing her drop the cans of tuna as she comes. Hmmmmmmmm. Yummy.

Then the demonstration gets amusing. Our resident Svengali gets his slave onto her feet and uses a post hypnotic anchor to get her rapidly into a deep trance. He then tells her that when he claps his hands, she will bark like a dog. He does a few other things, then wakes her up. She's alert and refreshed. He tells us a few things, then claps his hands. "Woof!" she says. And is bewildered. Then she realises what he's done. But he claps again. "Woof," she says, and can't stop herself.

"Think of all the fun you can have in restaurants!" he says, clapping.

"Woof!" she says. "No! Stop doing this to me!!!" she says.

Clap.

"Woof." Black looks.

At the end of the demo, most of the people go downstairs to make use of the pub's bar facility. I'm left upstairs with a female submissive and a dominant dude. They've noticed some of the little knots I've been making on some sample rope that was handed out earlier. Back when I was a Boy Scout for three months, I learned quite a lot about knotting, and it's stayed with me ever since.

One of my favourite knots is The Turk's Head. It's an extremely ornate knot that looks like a woven ball. A bit like a ball gag, actually. (A ball gag is a ball attached to some straps that you force into the mouth of your submissive and tie around her head so she's forced to mumble and drool helplessly while you do unspeakable things to her. Hmmmm.) So I've been idly making Turk's Heads.

I show the dude and the babe how it's done, and they both make some with me.

And then I mention that I've come up with a very safe wrist tie, one that a sub can't wriggle out of, and which doesn't cut off circulation to the wrists. "Do you have a piece of rope?" I ask.

The dom gets this huge gleam in his eyes, and runs downstairs. He comes back up with 30 metres of red cotton rope. "Only eighty bucks!" he says.

"I'll be the dressmaker's dummy!" says that sub woman. "I LOVE being tied up!" she says.

We measure out some rope, and I do the tie, which is fairly intricate, and extremely elegant. "Here," I say to the dom. "Pull on this end." We both pull as hard as we can, and the sub is blissfully uninjured.

"Wow," she says. "Impressive. A thinking dom."

"How did you work this out?" asks the dom.

"It just arrived in my brain fully formed," I say. And that's how my mind works. I've got this incredible structural sense.

Now all I've gotta do is get Karen to agree to being hypnotised. Making her come on command will be deeply satisfying for me. Not to mention how much I'll save on rope.

If you're a kinkster, and want to come to the Pub Moots once a month in Joburg, go to this web address and ask to join the mailing list informing you of the topics and dates for the meetings: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pub_Moots_ZA.