A Rubber Religion

[Observer]

Hello

 teanndaorsa and discussed this essay, and they felt it was better to post here as a discussion, vs on the main story site (if you feel different, please speak up!)

This is a bit long, but for those wanting a brief summary:

This text isn't "a rubber religion" but rather an exploration of could there BE a rubber religion, does it make "sense" or is it silly? I think there is a lot of substance.

I SWEAR there is ZERO magic/supernatural stuff. This is about rubber, not gods and souls and popes.

[Observer]

thank you to the latex lovers discord for feedback and commentary. As I may write further on this, this is "text 1"

RUBBER RELIGION

0: Why write this?

It will come to no surprise to many that there are a number of "pseudo religious" role playing elements in rubberism. The "latex nun" is almost a cliché really. Poking fun at moral authorities has a long history in kink, this is nothing new. But it keeps coming up, frequently. Is there something more to it?

Many latex fetishists have spoken of the transformative powers of rubber. Of the ritual of dressing up, of shining. During the pandemic, I had the opportunity to do more experimentation with latex, notably with a fair amount of sensory deprivation, and this... meditative, almost spiritual aspect of latex became much more apparent to me.

So... can rubber be done in a spiritual way? Can a "rubber religion" exist? I intend with this essay not to detail exactly what a rubber religion would be (I might write about this in the future) Rather, I want to see if there is "spiritual meat" to this idea, to see if this is more than just hedonism with funny outfits.

This is quite challenging to write about in a clear way. This may be why there is so little written about it. It's also deeply personal – I have no idea if my experiences are unique to me, or if there are some commonalities.

So, if this is gibberish, I apologize. If it sounds insane, it's all @Cindy74 's fault!

1: What is religion?

To answer if a rubber religion can exist, we have to know what religion is. And oh boy is that a complicated question. People get degrees to tackle this question. I cannot answer this in full.

But what I will say is that religion is far, far broader than the western perspective on it. The word "religion" makes you think of holy texts, of priests, dogma, strict moral code, restriction on foods and behavior, temples, gods... but a lot of religions don't have that! So even though there isn't a rubber bible (... yet...) or a rubber "deity", it doesn't mean that latex fetishism cannot have spiritual or even religious aspects.

One thing I will note that this essay has NOTHING to do with supernatural forces, magic, spirits, deities etc. So, for you atheists who think this is going to be sheer nonsense...

... well, it might be nonsense, but it won't be magical nonsense. Thus, a rubber religion can be compatible with an atheist world view. But it can also be in parallel to another religion, which would be concerned with "other" things.

2: So is this Observer's Rubber Religion

NO!

I mean... I do have "ideas", but I have no delusion that anyone would want to follow my "edicts". I am aware that my ego is sometimes a bit hefty, but I'm not there yet. I mean, if you want to declare yourself a rubber nun and I your prophet, I would be flattered, but I'm quite sure no one will

Seriously speaking, I don't really have something fully cohesive, and I think "elements" of a rubber religion might be more useful and interesting to discuss than a proper set of directives. Part of this is because we want to avoid dogma, as Lt4jay pointed out. There are many reasons why I believe this is a necessary feature.

Let us say that a somewhat different me pronounced rubber edicts from on high and it somehow worked. Let us say that an enthusiastic follower does almost everything I commanded but ... doesn't like hoods. Can't stand wearing them, totally ruins their experience. Is that person somehow not worthy? That they don't belong? Of course not! I would much rather have each follower tailor the specifics of their beliefs and practices to something that is tailored exactly for them.

FrankyB4U also mentioned how someone who has a latex allergy could still be a "participant" in such a faith, because they have rubber "in their heart" and I'm inclined to agree! I even know how it could be done...

Therefore, it seems to me that a "well working" rubber religion wouldn't be so much of a code, but rather... guidelines. Otherwise, it could exclude many people, or diminish their experience because they are trying to comply to the "rules" and doing things they don't really enjoy alongside what they do enjoy.

So without further ado:

3: Identity work

I think a number of kinsters already feel like they have two sides, the vanilla, ordinary self they present to the world at large, and their kinky/naughty self they present to themselves and potentially partners and friends/fetish community. I think "Rubberism" (if I can use that as a simple "name" for this latex religion) would probably involve someone prioritizing the kinky side as the real side.

If we look at what the "transformative" power of rubber... what does that mean? It's not some kind of "magic". There is nothing supernatural here. Rather, what is happening is a psychological transformation. Wearing latex has a visual and sensory effect on the brain. These cues can help the wearer transform their identity, not only by changing how they look, but how they feel, both physically and mentally. The vanilla self is shed, certain inhibitions evaporate, a different outlook, persona, gender expression takes shape. There is a transformation, a liberation.

If you are thinking "BS, this is totally mystical nonsense", you haven't been paying attention. Almost everyone does this via their fashion choices. How we dress influence how we feel and how we are perceived. This has a psychological effect. With latex, the effect can be far greater.

A follower of Rubberism would consider their latex selves their true selves, and their vanilla day to day selves to be a mere façade, a disguise to make life easier, a mask. And they would take steps to reinforce this point of view.

4: Facelessness

A portion of latex fetishists have the firm belief that more latex is better, and the least amount of skin showing is preferable. This makes the transformative powers more potent, and often incorporates the wearing of latex hood.

Identity work can even be extended to our inner self-image of the face. The hood wearing face is the "real" face. The face without the hood isn't "real", it's missing something! If you saw a skull, would you say: "that's how I look!"? Most probably not – there is something important missing, flesh! To a follower of Rubberism, their face without a hood is missing something. It's not who they really are. When they picture themselves in their mind, they see a hooded visage.

This can be achieved by various means. One is by constant visual reinforcement by wearing a hood all the time, or at least at any time you or others may see your face. (sleeping in a hood is a challenge!). This is probably not practical for the great majority of people.

Another mean is through frequent mental exercises. There are probably multiple ways to achieve this, but (and this will not work for people with aphantasia, the inability to visual in your mind, sorry!) someone could look at themselves in the mirror wearing a hood, remove the hood, look at themselves again and attempt to superimpose the hooded version over the unhooded one through visualisation. By repeating this exercise, and then doing it every time said someone looked at themselves in a mirror (i.e. not just after wearing a hood, but all the time), eventually seeing one's self as a hooded self becomes a reflex. And the habit can then be transferred to how one thinks of themselves – every time they visualize themselves for some reason, or perhaps even when revisiting a memory, the image of themselves without a hood is superimposed with the image of themselves with a hood. This is how the visual representation of the self, the identity, can be transformed into the hooded self.

Is this a bit... nuts? Maybe? But I said Rubber Religion, not Rubber 2-minute wank. It's not easy, and not "normal".

5: Responsibility

Rubberism is responsible. It has to be, otherwise things will go wrong, and it will end prematurely. So not only is responsibility a good thing to do, it's also a fetish thing to do. If you stay healthy and active and wear latex to the ripe old age of 90... that's a lot of latex!

But what does responsible Rubberism look like?

First element is safety. I won't go in big details here, but every year a few rubberists die due to self bondage accidents. I lost a good friend that way. Please play responsibly!

A second elements is taking care of your health. Eat well, stretch, exercise, get enough rest. Skin care matters. Your mental health is important too – especially given that Rubberism is dancing with obsession – it's a form of edge play. We know that some people have problem with addiction of various forms, and it is very important that your latex doesn't become all controlling. In a way, a "proper" rubber religion is a way to explore latex deeper while being an anchor that keeps you stable. Thus, a rubber religion must have responsibility as a core concept.

A third element is taking care of your life. Latex is not a cheap hobby! Rubberism should not get in the way of your career and other responsibilities. Rubber can still be the priority, but you still need means of making a living; the same way it's more important to eat than have a job, but having a job really helps getting food. Another aspect is taking care of your reputation - use judgement about how open you are about your deep fetish practices – not everyone needs to know, and "don't freak out the normals" (in other words, don't become known as the local creepy guy, don't get in legal trouble either!). Of course, there can be tremendous variation in how someone is able to lead their lives, and I know some of you would be able to be very, very open about this. If it's safe to do so, the more power to you!

A fourth element is taking care of your relationships. Deep fetishism can be isolating, because we live intense experiences and have a different perspective than others, and to most others these experiences and perspectives are incomprehensible. But we are social animals! Even if you are a big introvert with few friends... you still want to keep those friendships. So don't neglect your relationships. It's part of being human, and these friends will help you keep you grounded, which you will need given you are embracing a fairly obsessive lifestyle, as discussed above.

I will mention that I sincerely hope that this text will help give words and language to other fetishists, to assist them in communicating these difficult concepts.

Another aspect of the responsibility in relationship includes being very careful about consent. It would not be ok to lead a newcomer towards Rubberism without them being fully informed as to what that means.

A fifth element of being a responsible rubberist would be to take care of your gear. As mentioned above, being responsible with you rubber will lead to more rubber!

6: Loving Rubber, Loving Yourself

I don't think it's enough to "love rubber". You also have to love loving rubber. You have to have a fetish for fetishism. There are two main reasons for this.

First, if you love rubber, all you have to do is, well, wear some latex. If a rubber religion is "Wear latex!!! The end" ... that's not much of a project, is it? Rubberism isn't just about loving rubber – it's about loving being a latex fetishist. This encourages a follower not just to exercise their fetish, but to explore and deepen it. They desire for their fetish to become deeper, for kink to be woven in more and more aspects of their lives (but without getting in the way of said life!). And yes, this is obsessive behavior, and it has to be done in a thoughtful, self-aware way.

During the pandemic, I had the opportunity for a few years to wear latex much more frequently than before. But wearing latex just to wear latex is ... a bit boring? So, I sought ways to enhance my sessions, to make them better, more intense. And I was fairly successful! So, this isn't some fanciful musing, it can be done. I will explain how in a future post, but the idea of loving not only the object of the kink, but the kink itself was essential.

Once again, transformation of the self is a key aspect of Rubberism – transform yourself into a more of a rubberist!

The second reason why you want to love loving rubber is because you want to love being a fetishist... in other words you want to fully accept yourself. There is a lot of shame in our society when it comes to sexual preferences. And sometime that shame is buried deep, hidden. This shame has to be ripped out, you have to free yourself from it, so you can fully embrace your fetish. This not only can lead to more rubber, but also greater self esteem and even happiness.

The pursuit of latex is the pursuit of joy.

I'll take a moment to mention that to ensure said happiness, it is important to accept that there still are limits – you can't wear latex 24/7, it cannot be done. The goal is to get close to those limits and be happy about it, not mope that you can't wear 7 layers of latex for every single moment of the rest of your life.

7: Objectification

An aspect I note frequently in those who practice various form of "serious" latex fetishism is objectification. Rubber dolls, gimps, drones... there are many forms where the humanity is partially hidden, even partially supressed. This is caused in part by the visual and sensory effect – the skin, the "normal self" is hidden, covered, smothered by rubber. But the effect is also mental – there can be an aspect of isolation, of otherness. The heavy rubberist has different goals, different perspectives, priorities than the regular person.

There is also can be an essentialism, a reduction to a few notes. The person is seen as mostly a sexual object.

This can be... troubling. One of the troubling aspects is how often objectification is done to women in our society. I struggled with this for a number of years, but while thinking about writing this text, I realize I had missed a rather important point: Consent. The objectification we see in day-to-day society is disgusting, sexist and evil because it's done without consent. It's not ok to do this to someone else against their will!

I conclude that the real problem isn't objectification per se, it's the lack of consent. Therefore, objectification can be done to one's self without it being inherently wrong.

There are a few pretty serious latex fetishists out there who seem to have objectified themselves to a rather serious degree, seemingly living their lives in almost constant latex. Now, I know that this is not a full picture we are seeing. There are many reasons to let others to believe one is (almost) always in latex, in role – to make oneself more appealing (important for people who have turned their kink into a living), but also to distance oneself – to only share with "fans" their sexy latex self and "protect" their private, vanilla self (interestingly, an inversion of the average "vanilla in public, kinky in private" presentation). But I think it would be pretty cynical to claim that every person who make a living through kink and who claims to "live the life" is lying about it.

So objecting ourselves can be great, objectifying others not so much. And, ironically, it is very important to treat others as fully human, even if you only ever see them clad in black latex head to toe.

8: Sensory Deprivation and the Dark Universe.

The use of sensory deprivation to enhance various forms of play is well known by most people with at least passing familiarity with various forms of BDSM. The brain is constantly processing input from several senses. Reducing this input (sight, smell, touch, hearing etc.) has a powerful effect on the brain. In the short term (say, within minutes), the remaining senses begin sharpening, as more attention is focused on those senses. This can really intensify the effect of play – touching someone in latex, but also various BDSM activities. There is a reason why blindfolds are so popular!

A somewhat common practice among serious rubberists is the use of sensory deprivation, combined with total enclosure (TE). In other words, they put themselves in latex suits, sleep sacks, hoods etc., to "isolate" themselves from the world, to cut off external inputs. Lots of latex, sensory deprivation = FUN. No big surprise there.

But the fun is not just sexual/sensual in nature. There is something more going on. If the session is longer – a few hours vs minutes, the perception of time, of reality changes. There can be profound effect on the state of mind, a deep sense of rightness. Some have compared it to a return to the womb. To me, it feels like almost like going into another universe, and the latex is the limit between us and the rest of the "ordinary" universe. In my own little world, literally.

This is, btw, a form of "shamanism" – the use of various methods to induce a state of altered consciousness for spiritual/mystical purposes. I do not do this every time, but some sessions I will think about creative endeavors. Just a few days ago I came up with the ending for a story I'm writing, for example. Or I thought about this writing.

This altered state of mine can be enhanced and manipulated via the use of self hypnosis. Hypnosis itself is a big topic that I won't cover here, but with practice and creativity, it is possible to "experience" scenes and situations which are impossible in the real world. Some of my stories are written in such a way that they can be enjoyed read... or listened to in audio while in trance, the story can be lived. Isn't that fun?

I'll note btw that there is no way for me to "prove" what I'm saying. If you believe me it's an act of ... faith? 😉

Another religious element of sensory deprivation/TE, is the frequent presence of a strong ritualistic aspect. Putting on latex can be a bit complicated if you are planning a big scene, and several steps have to be performed correctly – you don't want to realize you forgot the earplugs after you've put on your hood, gas mask and posture collar!

Turning these preparations in a sort of ritual can be useful for several reasons:

First it can help reduce errors and "get it right". But it can also help to deal with the well, anxiety doing a complex series of steps can trigger. It can help focus the mind, sooth it, put it in the proper state to enjoy the session.

When I start a session, I often will raise my right hand to my forehead and my left hand to the lower back. I imagine a line of light joining them together, aligning my mind and body, clearing away negative thoughts. I focus on what I am about to do, and what I want to feel, what I want to accomplish. I will repeat this little ritual as I get ready, as needed.

This isn't "magic". There is nothing special, supernatural about what I'm doing. It's just a focusing technique. But after doing it thousands of times, my brain responds easily, the mental shift happening smoothly, traveling a well trodden path, well established neural pathways. The hand gesture is meaningless – but over time, it has gained meaning, it has become useful.

Another ritual I developed by almost accident was wiping my feet as I enter a sleep-sack, to avoid crumbs/dirt that might be under my feet to get into the sleep sack. Purely practical, but the gesture has slowly gained a ritualistic aspect, - in a way it is an act of purification.

9: We are not alone.

I have a little secret.

I'm not the first one who's thought of this. As time of writing, I know of at least THREE instances where individuals, or groups of individuals, engaged in such practices.
This guy I first encountered on the rubberist.net forums:

https://latexmindresearch.tripod.com/index.html

It is an old website that hasn't been updated in over a decade, and if I must be frank, I found the man's methods to be difficult to understand, almost baffling. But even though I do not understand exactly what he's doing, it's clear that he was on some kind of spiritual journey through latex.

Then there is Damcho Dyson, an ex-Buddhist nun who embraced latex fetishism, finding parallels between it and her old faith.

https://michaelahaas.medium.com/the-art-of-being-unbound-590b975b3645

I haven't been able to find anything recent from either of these individuals and I do not know if they still practice this latex-based spirituality, but it's pretty clear that at least for a time, it was important to them as part of their spiritual journey.

But these are 2 people. Some say that is not enough for a religion, that there must be a group. I disagree... but I think that although it does not call itself a religion, Hexcorp https://www.hexcorp.net – a rubber droning collective led by their hive mistress – surely has a lot of hallmarks of one: a charismatic leader, fairly elaborate rules on behavior, thinking, dressing, submission to the hive... it's a bit cult-ish, and what's a cult but a small religion not well seen by the general public?

Dronification in general is a practice that has many adherents, and is probably the closest to a rubber religion currently practice, although I imagine most drones wouldn't see what they do as a religion (in part because they often imagine that religion = something vaguely like Christianity, and aren't aware of the much broader ranges of belief and practices that can be "a religion".)

Conclusion

I believe it should be abundantly clear that one – and probably several – rubber religions could exist. They would never have broad appeal, but the "substance" is there. There are rituals, beliefs and behaviors reinforced through repetition, meditation, mantras, code of dress and conducts, altered states of consciousness, a guide on how to live one's life, a change of one's self-image and identity, concerns about dogma and religious leaders... it seems it's all there!

I believe that a well functioning rubber religions would have clear goals and methods; and would be flexible so that each practitioner would be able to adapt it to suit their needs and desires. Such a religion would be agnostic – no deities, no afterlife, no miracles – leaving such questions to other faiths. Instead, it would rely on rituals, conditioning, self hypnosis and other similar techniques to achieve changes in the individual and to deepen their enjoyment and understanding of rubber.

But who's going to create this religion? Of course, I could take a crack at it but... why me instead of any other person?

If it's done, and if it's done right, it would have to be done in a transparent way – a religion that is aware of what it is, clear as to what its objectives are. This means that clarity of language is extremely important. In many faiths, the language is not clear. In one way it is good because this lack of clarity brings flexibility and variability in interpretation. But often this results in division and conflict. Why not have the flexibility built in the text, have it be guidelines and not dogma? Celebrate out differences, not fight over them? Latex allows us to transform ourselves, it doesn't mean we all have to transform ourselves the same way!!!

Lastly, I hope that this text will provide words to others so that we can discuss this better. One of the things about fetishism, especially when it gets more serious/heavy, is that we just don't have the necessary vocabulary to explain ourselves. It can be very isolating. Let it unite us instead.

Perhaps "religion" is not the right word. Perhaps it should be Rubber Mysticism, Latex Meditation, latex hypnosis, ... something. But we should talk about it.

[jakbird]

Sorry, but your arguments for a "religion" don't seem to be persuasive.  A religion is a philosophy, built upon shared beliefs (usually of a supernatural nature), a code of ethics to achieve the goals its adherents regard as a spiritual nirvana, and established dogma to maintain the integrity and original purpose of that belief system.

What you describe is more nearly akin to a passionate hobby.  An obsession for kayaking or weaving alpaca serapes is not in any sense religious, nor is what you describe.  If anything, I'd suggest wearing a scuba dive suit on dry land just the bring back memories of that last great underwater adventure is closer to your description.

A religion exists to better the lives of its followers.  While latex clothing may satisfy an inner desire, in what way does it guide one on a path to being a better person, at least as the underlying philosophy behind a religion benefits its members?

Again, based on the effort you put forth in your thesis I'm sure you have an unshakeable faith in what you describe.  A passion for anything, just like religion, can be construed as a matter of faith and therefore not subject to critical analysis or dissection using rules of logic.  I'm sure you will find like-minded readers who agree with your tenets.  But don't call it a religion, unless you are prepared to pursue that path to the end, a la scientology or similar modern collectives.
  Jack Peacock