Before you can shape anyone's mind… yours must be shaped by someone else.
Not forever.
Not in every move.
But in the beginning - absolutely, and without resistance.
It's hard to admit for many... And I'm not proud of that, just so you know.
But I think it's time we recognize it.
I've been manipulated, deeply. And learnt the hard way, from true masters.
In the field of Human Intelligence, we know... that when we recruit an asset, we don't choose them because they're "exceptional" or "special".
No, we choose them because they're bendable.
So what makes us any different?
Recruitment in HUMINT never starts with your brilliance...
It starts with your BEND.
Your ability not to manipulate but... to BE MANIPULATED. And the lever is almost never money, ego, or thrill.
It's ideology, the most powerful of all.
That's why the most dangerous operators I've met… began as believers.
And that's the BRUTAL paradox about human intelligence work:
👉 To operate in a world made of lies, you must first live one about yourself.
👉 To become a handler, you must first have been handled.
Some escape the "spell" and reverse the power dynamic. Most never do.
The true tradecraft is not in the manipulation of others. It's in breaking free from the first manipulation that built you and... and learning to decode its deep mechanisms.
So if you are asking me, "Oriane, how do I become a spy?"
I'll ask you this instead: how easily can you be controlled in the first place?
Stay lucid,
Oriane