Note: This post is made, in two parts, of a Tumblr post written early 2024/a reblog written early 2026! I'm putting it here for posterity, and because I think it's an interesting piece on my view of IQ play. None of this is gospel; take it as what it is, a reflection, and a sharing of my own experience that I hope can help you too. ✌️
Jan 2024: In some conversations with the other day, I finally managed to put a specific idea into words that had been crystallising for a long time. Nothing earth-shattering or even transformative, because I'd been exploring this same understanding with different wording for quite a while now, but it felt significant to me and sparked me to make this post.
The realisation was simple: Dumbing Down is not something you can "Do" as a standalone action. It's perhaps more accurate to say Dumbing Down is itself the perspective shift and realisation that "Smart" is something you can choose to "Not Do."
Clunky wording, I know, but pretend it's smooth for me.
(And as a necessary fyi, this post assumes familiarity with Dumbing Down as a hypnotic concept, which is nowadays most often written and spoken about as a general simplification of thought and cognition versus turning you into some drooling doofus. Maybe the latter is your thing, maybe it isn't - either way, I'm talking here about the more "realistic"/AKA sustainable model where the word dumb is synonymous with "so laid back, you don't want to think or care if people perceive you as dumb because of it".)
Too many subjects (myself included) work at hypnotic personality and cognition changes with a straining effort, in an energetically desperate approach. This is understandable - we tend to push hard for things we really want - and anyone can fall victim to it. It's very similar contextually to the trap many anxiety sufferers fall into when they begin therapy. In an earnest attempt to recover, many sufferers approach recovery with the exact same mindset they do life; that of a "fixer", a "do-er", someone who problem-solves and overthinks themselves into knots and runs loops around the same well-worn mental tracks over and over again to the point of exhaustion.
Don't worry, I'm not here to give some big-brain solution to mental health issues. I suffer myself and am on my own journey of recovery, so I'm in no place to play armchair psychologist.
But I will speak about this topic as it relates to hypnosis and dumbing down because the overlap of people who are into Dumbing Down/IQ Reduction/Simplification/Bimbofication/Himbofication hypnosis and who suffer with anxiety (and overthinking) is quite high, so chances are that many who struggle with Dumbing Down suggestions are making the same mistakes. Please see my peer-reviewed Paint Diagram below which provides unequivocal, non-anecdotal proof of this.
IMO, there's nothing wrong with this overlap. Kink is an outlet for many people to deal with emotional issues, and often a very helpful coping mechanism. Dumbing Down is no different conceptually. But I'm talking about this because, just like approaching anti-anxiety work with an anxious energy and effort is doomed to failure, the exact same is true for Dumbing Down. Approaching it with an Intellectualist mindset OR in other words, the anxious energy of a fix-er and do-er and try-er is antithetical to the very state you wish to experience.
Does that make sense?
Successful Dumbing Down (beyond the very enjoyable, shorter-term effects of deep trance which feel like intoxication) is effectively the act of stepping back from mental action/the habit of overthinking. To give another clumsy metaphor, if your default mind works like a toy train constantly running around its track, sometimes gaining speed and sometimes slowing down... Dumbing Down comes from realising "hey, I can actually plug this thing out." No, it's not as simple as turning off an appliance, and it takes time for everyone. Overthought (in all its forms, whether anxious or just from over-intellectualising your life) is effectively a habit, and habits take time to make or break.
Therefore, Perspective Shift #1 that you need to make: recognise that thinking patterns and their frequency are ultimately behavioural and habitual, and can therefore be rewired and lessened with time and specific action. It's not an immediate thing - but it is possible, and this is effectively what dumbing in hypnosis is about.
That perspective raises some questions, I know. But I don't want to write about the answers just yet. Reread and consider that last paragraph a few times to make sure you've really processed it. Think about the questions it leaves you with, and come up with a few answers of your own if you can. You can post your thoughts in the comments or reblogs of this post, as I will be taking the time to read through them, and I'll continue this topic in future as I think more on it myself.
Later.
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March 2026:
Been a while since I reposted this. I'd probably write it better if I did it now, and might even hit it again someday.
Since I wrote it, my perspective on dumbing down/IQ play in hypnosis hasn't changed, but has developed. Part of this has been my own journey in grappling with OCD, which is far from over but I am at least better equipped to handle now. And, strangely, has affirmed many of my old beliefs about our relationship to cognition... and, especially meta-cognition, but that's too big a topic for me x3
I've made several dedicated files on the theme now... and for completion's sake, I'm going to append them here for those interested in my POV and approach to dumbing.
FOR STARTERS... (foundational & short-term play):
1. For a deliberately educational trance on dumbing down/self-defining what this kink means for you, listen to P.S: Dumb Definition.
2. Following that, for a short-term practice of having your intelligence more intensely reduced, try tweaking your Dumbing Dial.
Then, to craft a sustainable, longer-term headspace:
3. For exploration of what it could be like to really live the unexamined life 🩷💚, consider the idea that Surface is Depth... or at least, it's depth enough for you, dummy.
4. ...Which leads very neatly onto the next idea: that you can find lots of evidence for just how much of a dumbfuck, dumbass, dummy you are if you look for it, and remember: The Dumbing's in the Details.
And as a bonus...
5. While lots of my work features light themes of IQ reduction or dumbing down... simplification, let's call it... my Mindlessness Retreat is the best example of reinforcement for these headspaces, and itself can offer a paradigm shifting engagement with how you think. (Proud to say that I've gotten more than a few comments citing this file as a breakthrough in understanding the relationship between mindfulness practices/"dumb" as an endgoal/taking your thoughts less seriously.)