Idea for a self-bondage release method

[FlyingDoctor]

Here's an idea for how you can keep yourself in self-bondage for any amount of time that you choose yourself, even several days. This method will not really work for self-bondage situations where you're bound with very limited ability to move and use your hands, because getting free requires you to access a computer (or a smartphone at the very least). It will, however, work ideally for bondage of the more long-term variety, such as being locked in wrist and ankle restraints where you can still move around.

Alright, first of all, this is the required equipment (besides whatever you'll use for restraining yourself):

• a combination padlock (4- or 5-digit)
• lockable box or container
• digital camera or smartphone
• computer (or possibly a smartphone)

The general idea here is that you set the code for a padlock to some random combination without looking at it, put whatever is needed to free yourself from your restraints in the box (like padlock keys) and lock it with the combination padlock. Since you don't know the code you won't be able to open the box, and therefore won't be able to free yourself, until you obtain the new code that the combination lock was set to.

So now we come to the interesting part: how will you be able to obtain the code for the padlock if you don't know what you set it to? The answer is not too complicated. With the help of a site that will let you send emails at a chosen point in the future you can email yourself a random passcode that will unlock an encrypted photo of the padlock code.

Here are the specific steps for how this works:

1. Set the code for your padlock to a random combination without looking at it
2. Using a digital camera/phone take several photos of the lock so that the new code is captured (still avoiding to look at what the code is)
   - practice this beforehand so you know that the photos will be good enough, i.e. the code needs to be in focus
3. Generate a random passcode that is long enough so you don't remember it
   - for example, you can use this site: www.browserling.com/tools/random-string
4. Use the site emailfuture.com (or any other site that will let you send emails in the future) to setup an email with the passcode to be sent to yourself at the time you want to be released
   • double check to make sure you choose the correct values for the date and time, for example, if the timezone is not correct you could end up having to wait for several hours more than intended
   • send some test emails so you know that the system works and that emails will actually arrive at the time you specify (it was off by one hour for me)
   • emailfuture.com will require you to click a link to confirm and activate the email, so don't miss to do that
5. Encrypt the photos using the passcode, for example using the program 7-Zip (7-zip.org)
6. Delete the original (unencrypted) photos
   - if they only exist on a memory card you could of course just put the card in the box
   - it's possible to unerase files using special software, but a program that securely deletes files makes unerasing impossible
7. Put the keys, or other items, that you will use to get free in the lockable box and then lock it with the combination padlock and spin the dials to lock the padlock
8. Enjoy your self-bondage while you wait for the email to arrive... and keep waiting... wait a little more... and then still some more... (sigh, when was that email really going to be sent?)
9. When you finally receive the email (phew!) simply unencrypt the photos using the passcode and you can find out what the code for the lock is
10. Open the combination lock and you can begin to free yourself!
11. Optional: Tell us all about your experience

(If you find a site that will let you send emails with attachments then you can of course skip the encryption
part and just have the photos attached to email you'll receive.)

With the right apps this would probably be possible to do on a smartphone, however I haven't researched that possibility at all. On a side note, it should be entirely possible to develop an app that by itself would take care of the entire digital part of process. It would simply have to take the photos and lock them away until a chosen date&time. It could even have the possibility for a slightly random date&time so you don't know exactly when you'll be released.

As always with and type of self-bondage, be sure that you can get out of your predicament in some other way should anything go wrong. One of the first and most obvious ways of getting free is to use brute force to open the combination lock by simply going through all different combinations. This is obviously mostly feasible for 4-digit locks because cracking a 5-digit lock could take up to two days, possibly even longer, all depending on the brute force speed, i.e. how many combinations per minute you can try. (It might be a good idea to test this out beforehand.) A 4-digit lock with one tenth of the amount of combinations compared to a 5-digit lock will naturally require much less time to crack. If you can test the combinations by simply spinning through one dial without stopping for every individual number (while increasing the other dials one step at a time) you will most likely crack the lock in less than two hours assuming the code is somewhere in the middle (probably even faster than that). And since 3-digit locks are pretty much cracked in less than 20 minutes it's obvious that for this purpose they are quite unusable. So choose a 5-digit lock if you want to make brute forcing the lock open a rather distant possibility.

However, in case of truly long lasting bondage there's of course the possibility that you could eventually get even a 5-digit lock open by brute force well ahead of the planned release by just spending time each day to go through all the combinations. So to get around that you could try to lock the box with several combination locks (perhaps using a chain), or if the situation allows for it you could place the box somewhere not so private (like outside), where people would see you trying to get the box open, which might prevent yourself from going to the box, at least during the day. The latter option is also applies for when you only have a 4-digit lock.

Other possible ways of freeing yourself:

• destroy the box (obviously choose an indestructible box to prevent this)
• use a hacksaw to cut through the shackle of the combination lock
• send the random passcode or the photos to a friend who can email it/them back to you if needed

Example of things that could possibly go wrong (specifically with this release method):

• you choose the wrong date, time or timezone for the email to be sent (do double check these)
• the email does not get to your inbox (for example, you entered the wrong address, due to spam filtering or your inbox being full)
• the email does not get sent at all (for example, server problems or other technical problems with the site)
• you did not correctly enter the passcode when encrypting the photos
• the photos are not in focus and it is impossible to figure out the code for the padlock (practice and taking many photos should prevent this)
• the encrypted photos can no longer be accessed due to problems with the computer/device where they are stored (store several copies in different places to avoid this)

I've tried this out twice now and with the exception of a minor hiccup the first time it has worked like a charm. The hiccup was that I managed to forget to change the timezone so I was released a couple of hours later than planned, but that just made the experience more interesting.

I hope this will be useful for someone other than myself, just remember to have a backup plan and that it's better to not rush things if you do decide to try it out. I'll try to answer any questions if you have any.

[harveygasson]

Wow that's a very detailed and simple-ish yet effective way of carrying out some extended self bondage. Thanks for taking the time to come up with and post your idea