* Integrated Stripping

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Consciousness is a scarce resource believe it or not. We can all only be conscious of so much at any given time. The process of enlightenment is to expand your consciousness so that you can be aware of more than you were aware of before.

One of the best ways to "map" our consciousness is through Integralism. One of the things Interalism does is it takes a picture of everything that we can possibly be aware of and puts it into graphs and charts. Integralism states that everything is meant to be, yet everything falls into various levels of complexity, going from simplistic to ornate, depending on how much material it encompasses.

Therefore, the more material you are able to be aware of, the higher skill level you will be operating on.

Take a moment to study the chart on the left. Anything you could ever imagine in the whole world can be plotted out on this very chart, including all knowledge related to making money as a stripper. It helps us see what we might other wise miss, and where our knowledge rests.

Stripping is mostly an art that deals with the individuals involved (dancer and customer) therefore most of what we study will take place in the upper (individual) quadrants of the Integralsim graph. However, what we do also has communal implications too, and to be truly an artist in our craft, we must also have perspective as to what our profession MEANS in culture and society to stay on top of our game.

For now, let's concentrate on the individuals: the dancer and the customer. Each obviously has needs that need no get met during their exchange.... to get an idea of the FULL range of these needs, let's look at one of the most famous psychological concepts: Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

As strippers, we are mostly focused on one thing that will take care of many of our needs: money. We must provide for ourselves and anyone that depends on us.

However, to be able to perform our job well, there are other needs that must be met... in fact the more, the better. Obviously esteem is one of the greatest factors as to whether we will have a good night or not, as well as everything below it.

What I propose however is that to be a top earner, you must not only have the four lower needs met (also known as deficiency needs), but also meet the upper level needs as well (known as self actualization needs). Once again, the more, the better. For example, reading this blog helps fulfill cognitive needs that help you to "hustle". Anything that helps you understand your job better works towards that goal. Stripping itself can actually offer a source of fulfillment to your needs as well. For example, the female body is a work of art when used with grace and poise and when you appreciate that you are meeting your aesthetic needs.

As for the higher levels of needs, all i can say is that if your not growing your regressing, but if you can find ways to use your profession to help you gain further understanding of yourself and then leverage that into an understanding spirit, you will go far : ).

The more ways you can find ways to meet your needs with your job, the better you will be at it. A girl who cannot find inspiration in what she does will show her lack of interest towards the customers. The more you are able to find things in your job that make you happy, the more excited you will be about it! Just look at the hierarchy and ask yourself how you can satisfy yourself through being a stripper.

The customer represents the upper left hand corner of the integral chart above and is equally important to have a comprehensive understanding of. They are the corner stone of our work and without them, we would be doing nothing. However, I say that the customer is equally important to the dancer because the dancer is the product and without a solid product there is no customer.

A customer purchases time with a dancer because it fulfills one of his needs. I would say that the percentage of men coming in for one need actually directly corresponds to the hierarchy. For example, there are more men that will come in to meet their biological need for sexual excitement than there are men that come in for the esteem boost that some dancers will provide him. And that there are more men that come in to meet their need for belongingness then there are men that need to satisfy their aesthetic taste.

There are even a smaller amount of men who come in to fulfill their need for personal growth, but I can assure you that there are a few men out there who do. However, you will never understand how they meet that need if you cannot meet that need for yourself.

Let's take a look at each need and how we as strippers are able to capitalize on fulfilling it.

1. Physiological - for the most part we take care of these ourselves. I mean, there are people at the club that help us meet these: the cook, the waitress, the janitor... But, there is one physiological need that we are able to simulate fulfilling: sex. Every man needs sex and those that deny that to themselves are literally fasting in a way and it's usually only to meet needs of self actualization that they will deny themselves of it. Sex is the most important part of our job. If men can't get sex, then what we provide is the next best thing: the idea / simulation of sex.

2. Safety - This is of course the second most important thing that you can provide as a dancer - the first of course simulating desire / sexuality. You must be able to make your customer feel safe around you. If he feels threatened by you, like you are going to demoralize him or belittle him or make him feel uncomfortable, he's not going to spend anything! He needs to feel like he is in a safe place where people aren't going to (both physically and socially) attack him for what he is doing and if they do, that he will have someone on his side to protect him - be on his side.

3. Belongingness - I'd say that at least %70 of the people that walk in the club have a need for belonging that has not been met. The world is a harsh place where it can be hard to find acceptance for who you are. Even those that have reached self actualization still have the need to be accepted by others, even though it may not be as strong of a need as others not so high in consciousness. Make your customers feel at home with you and you will settle this need while they are with you. Never make them feel awkward or out of place and you should be fine.

4. Self Esteem - Meeting this need is THE TICKET to success as a dancer. Make your customer feel good about himself!!!!!! I can't tell you enough how far this will go. People crave acceptance - men in particular need to feel sexually attractive and I'd say that this is probably THE reason strip clubs are so popular. Where else can you have a plethura of naked women at your feet begging for your attention? Stroke their ego. Seriously. That is why they come to strip clubs. Some men need the verbal reinforcement to their esteem, but others will need you to just sit there and act cool to make themselves feel cooler. The more esteem they have, the less verbal you need to be.

- The above four needs were all deficiency needs which means that they are the base of all other needs. We now move into self actualization needs which are like the icing on the cake. -

5. Cognition - There are a few ways to meet this need - humor, encouragement, listening, conversation, anything that stimulates their mind. People need to be mentally stimulated. however, make sure that you do not challenge their ego; let them do the thinking and keep their mind going without putting too much pressure on it. The best way to meet this need is by letting them feel smart. Let them instruct you on something - even if it's something ou already know about. The more they talk about something the better. Challenge them through questions... not through your own thoughts, which, if your reading this blog, could make them feel somewhat inadequate and trample their esteem! Humor is probably the best way to meet this need... you can also play games, or riddles...

6. Aesthetics - Just being a woman is an aesthetic. After all, we are beautiful creatures. However, if you want to take it farther and meet this need to a greater extent, you might want to look into enhancing your skill as a dancer or using novelty to your advantage. Learn pole dancing, acrobatics, get flexible, or dress in beautiful outfits, or costumes. Do your hair in spectacular updos with feathers and bows.... anything that will enhance your beauty, or make you more like a piece of art will satisfy their aesthetic needs.

7. Self actualization - This of course is going to be hard for most of us to provide for men because most of us are still working on figuring out how to provide it for ourselves! However, I'd like to associate self-actualization with peak experiences, and if you provide your customers with all of the above needs at the same time, you are providing a peak experience. If you can get him into a state of bliss where he is thinking to himself "wow, i didn't know life could be this good!" - then I think you have gotten as close to this as a stripper can get.

8. Self-transcendence - Transcendence is meditative so not only will you have to be able to get into that state, but you will have to get your customer in that state as well. You might be able to do this through hypnotism, but I have personally never taken it to this level, so I cannot vouch for how or if it works. If you want to take it into spiritual territory in conversation then by all means give it a shot, but I think most men.... as in %99 will not be ready for that yet. You will only be able to take it as far as your customer is "developed" to handle.

What you need to do is take a good look at each customer and try to asses their level of development so that you can have an understanding of what their unfulfilled needs are. Everyone, even the people who are higher up in development share ALL of these needs. There are just people who are more capable of meeting their own needs and/or are more fulfilled than others. But, just because they are fulfilled, doesn't mean that they couldn't use more of a good thing right?

The chart I have provided above is an invaluable tool that you can use to identify the levels of development of your customers. I find that the easiest way to do this is to start my assessment with Maslow and then fill in the details with the rest.

So, in our integrated approach we have looked at ourselves as dancers, our clients, but what about what we "are" as professionals in society? The way society views us has a major impact on the way our customers see us. I'll have to leave this topic for another blog though because it's getting late and I need to sleep : )

For now just know that everything that has to do with stripping falls somewhere on the first chart that is provided above and everything is relevant!!!!

If you would like to know more about integralism and how it can be applied to other fields than stripping (health, spirituality, business etc...) I suggest The Integral Vision by Ken Wilber - the genius mind behind integralism!!!