This is a pro-endo build-a-headmate blog that specializes in RAMCOA-related topics, namely programming. However, it also selectively answers questions about programming, from the standpoint of personal experience or survivors' knowledge. Here is the about. Please see this page before asking questions. Pending: 0/10
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* Welcome to Programmed Headmate Ideas! *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
This blog is run by @headmate-ideas. It does BAH requests that mention programming/RAMCOA, as well as answers SOME questions about the topic for a pro-endo audience.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ: * :･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
Rules and policies are largely the same as headmate-ideas, but please check the about before submitting a request, and check this page before asking questions related to RAMCOA or programming. This page has our pending requests.
Hello! Could we get a pack for a former internal handler turned protector? They're human but in a alterhuman way if that makes any sense, and they are feminine in terms of gender. I'd like to add on role performance. Thank you in advance!
< Mod Twyla > I think our interpretation of the alterhuman part may have been inaccurate, but I hope the post helps!
Alexia is a former internal handler in xir system (presumably subject to delta programming due to this former role) who is now a protector. Xi wears long flowing dresses in many shades of purple and with chunky bracelets. Xir species of origin is a robot or other kind of non-human (especially any the system may have epsilon (non-human) programming related to), but xi identifies as human as a kintype.
Alexia is meticulous, precise, and logical, and sie can sometimes come off as cold to others in that sie is very good at discussing unpleasant or even triggering facts in a completely neutral and unemotional way. However, sie is brave and protective of hir system, especially individual headmates sie is close to, and good at facing upsetting tasks and realities in a head-on way.
✦ Role performance:
Alexia is now a protector to xir system, which includes maintaining the system's physical safety. This includes assessing risks as they arise, deciding when to stay at or leave places, and (if applicable) managing physical disabilities. Xi also takes on miscellaneous roles that involve doing tasks, fulfilling responsibilities, fronting at work and/or classes, and generally doing things that nobody ever especially wants to do but that need to get done.
< Mod Twyla > This blog had a notice on it saying it was under construction and requests were not open yet. This has been removed; requests can be made now.
[This post has the following adult themes: sex, alcohol.]
[Headmates may not turn out exactly as written, and that's okay.]
✦ Name(s): Albrecht, Bertholdt, Emmerich
✦ Emoji proxy: 🎼🎹
✦ Pronouns: he/him, vi/vir/virs/virself, e/em/eir/eirs/emself, co/cos/coself, dae/daem/daer/daers/daemself, song/songs/songself, joy/joys/joyself, ♫/♫s/♫self
✦ Species: human
✦ Age: 59
✦ Role(s): internal deprogrammer, musicnaut, sexual headmate
✦ Labels: veldian, man, xenine
✦ Likes: fine arts, the color red, scientific papers
✦ Dislikes: bigotry
✦ Xenos: music, wine, writing
✦ Music taste: classical music, classical synth, Neue Deutsche Haerte
✦ Aesthetic(s): baroque aesthetic, classical aesthetic, rivethead
✦ Kins: red eagles, ash trees, deer
✦ Description:
Albrecht exists to help the system deprogram themselves. In particular, he helps them deconstruct their dysfunctional views about sex, as well as the idea that parts of their system exist to be abused. Sometimes, he helps by having sex with parts of the system. Albrecht is partial to alcohol, but not necessarily to the point of being an addict.
Albrecht loves music, especially the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and other classical composers. He is refined, intelligent, and articulate, and he helps the system express complicated ideas in a refined way. He has a less explored, edgier side that expresses itself through industrial music and aesthetics.
< Mod Twyla > The Disney movie I watched was Hercules (1997), BTW.
I find it very notable that Meg is working for the villain, and I can't think of any other Disney heroes' love interest to whom that applies. Her working for him is treated as inevitable (until Hercules breaks the cycle by fulfilling the narrative), too, which I think is relevant to how internal handlers have no choice but obey the external abusers.
I might make a longer post as part of a series of posts about how Disney movies could be used in programming. I might make posts about other movies, too, but the focus will be Disney or other animated movies, because we have parts who want to rewatch them, and it'll be productive to make notes about programming after we watch them.
Tonight, I've been rewatching a Disney movie that I think may have been used in my programming, and I'm mentally making notes of what parts of it could be used in programming.
Since my system is nostalgic for Disney movies and had Disney as a special interest as a kid, we would probably be really good at watching Disney movies and analyzing how they would be used in programming.
Would that be a good idea? If I watched Disney movies and then made posts to help survivors better understand how those movies may have been used in those programming, using my understanding of programming combined with my analysis of the movies?
Hi, anon who sent in the question — thank you so much for the response!! A lot of things make way more sense now (and now I realize I might have a lot more to learn about myself, but I'm definitely going to take that part slowly)
< Mod Twyla > Of course, I'm happy to provide information, clarity, and insight. Sometimes, we need things explained to us in certain words by an outside source before we can properly understand our own experiences, and that's normal. I wish you the best with unpacking everything you may need to process.
< Mod Twyla > I'm also going to be tagging RAMCOA questions, or other informational posts, with "programmedplural", all one word. That tag doesn't appear to be in use, and I think it'd be a decent pro-endo programmed systems tag.
Hi! I read your about and saw that you mentioned that programming usually begins as when one is a minor. My understanding was that programming can only begin when the victim is a young child, and I'd like to know if my understanding was incorrect and/or how likely it is for someone to have programming that started when they were older.
Sorry if my wording is off; I usually struggle with words and speaking.
< Mod Twyla > This is a perfectly okay question to ask, although the answer may be a little lengthier than you may have anticipated. For this reason, I will put it under a cut.
In order to answer this question, I also had to get into some of the details of how I personally define the word "programming", which I normally don't like doing, but I knew it would have to be done at some point, and in order to address what's possible with programming, you have to address what you're using the word to mean. I may link back to this post somewhere if anyone wants to see me come as close to definitively defining "programming" as I ever will on this blog.
Firstly, you should understand that, when I answer questions about programming, I do not necessarily think the same things about the word "programming" as do the people you may have heard these claims from, that programming can *only* start when one is a young child.
I do not believe "programming" is the name of a specific, highly-precise process that was genuinely originally invented by abusers who exploited DID and that is *only* practiced in certain ways. The belief that programming can only begin in early childhood is either connected to the assumption that all programmed people have DID (riding off of the fairly true observation that DID does begin in early childhood, but not all cases of programming involve DID), or is connected to how the word "programming" evolved in the past relative to now.
In the past (i.e. 1960s to approximately 1980s), "programming" referred to any kind of cult indoctrination (including people who only joined the cult as an adult). Older sources about "deprogramming", which don't mention things like the alphabet programs, are talking about recovering from cult abuse.
In the 1990s, the word became more associated with conspiracies, because certain conspiracies (such as Cathy O'Brien's claims about Project Monarch) were published that used the word "programming" to refer to a highly specific process that involved Dissociative Identity Disorder. A lot of people who were programmed with alphabet programs (which, as far as I'm aware, originate from O'Brien's claims, at least in the published record) were programmed by people who were effectively copying the content of conspiracies.
I therefore believe that "programming" is best seen as a community term referring to when someone is manipulated using trauma, drugs, hypnosis, or other mental conditioning techniques in such a way where they are conditioned to respond to commands or cues, usually (but not always) associated with switches in a system. I know I've basically said I dislike having to define "programming", but I also know that wasn't the intent of the question you asked, and it just happened to be that, in order to address your question, I had to address the definition of "programming" as best as I could.
With that consideration in mind, yes, I believe it is absolutely possible for someone to be programmed as an adult or a teenager, especially in an organized abuse context like a cult (which, as previously stated, "programming" originally referred to cult indoctrination at any age with any method). It is most likely that some of the programmers my programmer was in contact with were abusing adults, including ones who may not have been programmed in childhood.
As for the question of how *likely* it is for this to happen, it usually depends on whether it is an organized case and, if not, what the abusers would be getting out of it. In addition to the cult example, it is also possible to be trafficked as an adult and have your traffickers program you while you are under their control, which only started when you were an adult.
Programming cases that start when you are an adult and are *not* a part of organized abuse are probably rarer than cases that *are* connected to organized abuse, but they're not impossible. I can't verify this because the evidence would have been on sites that are lost to time, but from how our programmer talked to our internal handlers about the other programmers he was in contact with, it was seemingly accepted by their community that, if you had an adult in your life who trusted you and displayed signs of plurality, you could manipulate them through the methods of programming and effectively program them yourself.
In considering what is possible with regards to this question, it is important to remember that programming does not always result in the victim developing Dissociative Identity Disorder, or even becoming plural. Sometimes, they're ""just"" (heavily in quotes) a person with PTSD or BPD who also responds to certain cues because they were programmed to.
However, some programming is also done on people who are already plural or already have DID. I am under the impression that some of the programmers my programmer was talking to who were abusing adults, those adults had already displayed signs of plurality in some way.
Some people conceptualize programming as "traumatizing somebody into having DID", but this is an oversimplification and does not apply to all cases. If one believes that programming only happens to people who develop DID, or if one believes certain conspiratorial claims about what programming is, it is easy to come away with the impression that it can only happen if the programming begins in the timeframe that DID normally develops in children, but programming and DID have much less to do with each other in reality than a lot of people may think.
If you think of programming as a process of conditioning where the presence of cues and the use of trauma or abuse is more important than the presence of alters or the use of switches, then it becomes easier to understand how programming, or something worthy of being called under the same name, could happen in adulthood.
Hopefully this gives you the clarity you were seeking!
Hello, and welcome to this blog. This is a new build-a-headmate/informational blog that focuses on programming and RAMCOA.
In addition to taking requests for headmates who are programmed or who relate to programming in some way, this blog also selectively answers questions about the topic of programming, for a pro-endo audience, to the best of our knowledge.
This blog is run by the same system who runs @headmate-ideas. The template and policies are largely the same, except where the about page of this blog says otherwise.
Please see this page before asking any questions about programming or RAMCOA. In particular, I can't tell you if you were programmed or not, and I have some beliefs about programming that are not universal (namely that it can be done by one person and that the word "programming" itself is hard to define in the current day).
Because this is a promotional post but programming is a triggering subject that may not be fit for the main build-a-headmate tags, I am tagging this post with some BAH and plural tags for reach, but when I post actual BAH packs, they will be tagged as "build a programmed headmate", "programmed bah", and "programmed headmate ideas". Questions will be tagged as "programming questions", "programmed system questions", and/or "ramcoa questions".
[This post has the following adult themes: sex, kink]
[Headmates may not turn out exactly as written, and that's okay.]
✦ Name(s): Gill, Marvin, Lukas
✦ Emoji proxy: 🔪🌑
✦ Pronouns: they/them, it/its, xie/xier/xiers/xierself, ze/hir/hirs/hirself
✦ Species: human
✦ Age: 42
✦ Role(s): internal handler, sexual headmate, appellisian, kink headmate, night fronter, spiritual headmate (optional)
✦ Labels: veldian, androgyne, daroric, moone
✦ Likes: history, classic literature, research papers
✦ Dislikes: waking up early
✦ Xenos: the moon, kink, shadows
✦ Music taste: hyperpop, industrial rock, grunge rock
✦ Aesthetic(s): grunge, devilcore, cyberpunk
✦ Kins: computers, demons, cats
✦ Programs: delta/violence, beta/sexual
✦ Description:
Gill is a former internal handler in their system. In the past, they were subject to violence and sexual programming that made them aggressive towards other members of the system, as well as sexually violent. These tendencies are reduced in xier the further the deprogramming process goes.
Gill is still very sexual as an individual but expresses it through consensual kink in the current day. Xie also relates to and is often fictionkin with a lot of villain characters. Xie likes studying history, classic literature, and film, partly out of a desire to feel more intelligent than others. Xie fronts more at night during the day and is in-tune with the phases of the moon, practicing spirituality around it if the system have any.
Becky is an 8 year old in a programmed system with sexual programming. She is subject to this programming, and she therefore sometimes knows more about sexual topics than most syskids do. She doesn't always understand that this is considered jarring or "inappropriate" by many, because she also has programming that normalizes that kind of thing to her.
However, Becky also has interests that are more associated with her in-space age, like coloring, kids' cartoons, and fairy tales. Xi is aware of the system's programming and has memories of it, but xi doesn't spend too much time dwelling on these things, partly due to having some amnesia surrounding them too. Xi spends most of xir time in the system being a kid and enjoying childhood.
[Headmates may not turn out exactly as written, and that's okay.]
✦ Name(s): Ulysses, Nate, Bruce
✦ Emoji proxy: 👻🏛️
✦ Pronouns: it/its, he/him, e/em/eir/eirs/emself, ix/ixs/ixself, haunt/haunts/hauntself
✦ Species: ghost
✦ Age: 23
✦ Role(s): dissociation holder, information manager, isolator, night fronter, program holder
✦ Labels: agender, bisexual
✦ Likes: architecture, oversized hoodies, mystery literature
✦ Dislikes: being made fun of
✦ Xenos: ghosts, silence, paradoxes
✦ Music taste: hauntology, dream pop, lo-fi
✦ Aesthetic(s): cryptidcore, gloomcore, urbancore
✦ Objectum attraction(s): CD players, MP3 players
✦ Kins: birch trees, white mice, nebulae
✦ Programs: loyalty (gamma), trapped (eta)
✦ Description:
Ulysses is a ghost headmate in a programmed system. in his timeline, he died at the age of 23 and is permanently stuck at that age. He dissociates frequently and feels emotionally numb most of the time, which means he is mostly comfortable discussing the system's programming most of the time.
Ulysses has loyalty (gamma) and trapped (eta) programming. It often misses the system's abusers, and it is often attracted to people who remind it of their abusers, whether or not those people are actually abusive. It tends to expect the worst to happen, but it isn't really bothered when things do go badly.
< Mod Twyla > I have set up the info pages for this blog, and I am going to write a few template examples before opening requests. This post will be tagged, in addition to "modpost", with the tags I intend to use for my template posts.
