What we'll do first is do the hypnotic induction profile, a formal test of how hypnotizable you are, and we'll take it from there, okay? Any questions before we go on? Okay. So get as comfortable as you can. Look straight ahead. Now look up to the top of your head, all the way up high as you can.

Keep your chin down. That's it. Look up past your eyebrows, all the way up. And as you keep looking up, slowly close your eyes. Good. Take a deep breath. Hold. Ready. Exhale. Let the breath out. Let your eyes relax, but keep them closed and let your body float. Imagine you're floating somewhere safe and comfortable, like a bath, a lake, a hot tub, or just floating in space.

And while you concentrate on your body floating into the chair, I'm going to concentrate on your left hand and arm. In a moment, I'm going to stroke the middle finger of your left hand. When I do, you'll develop a sense of tingling and numbness and lightness, and you'll let it float upwards.

Ready. That's good. First, you may notice some restless movement sensations in your fingers, which will spread to your hand and arm. You may get the sense of a magnetic pull as your elbow bends and your forearm floats into an upright position, all the way up higher and higher, as the rest of your body feels heavy and relaxed.

Each breath deeper and easier. Breath in, and then slowly exhale. Higher and higher. Already exhale. That's good. The higher it goes, the lighter it'll feel. Each breath deeper and easier. Now I'm going to position your arm like so, and give you this instruction. Your hand will remain light and in this upright position, even after I give you the signal for your eyes to open.

If I pull your hand back down to the table, it will float right back up to the upright position. You'll find something pleasant and amusing about this sensation. Later, when I touch your left elbow, your usual sensation and control will return. Each time you go into this state of concentration, you'll find it easier and easier to use, and you can use it to help you concentrate on what's important to you.

Right now, we'll come out of this state of concentration together by counting backwards from three to one. On three, you'll get ready. On two, with your eyelids closed, roll up your eyes, and on one, let your eyes open. Ready? Three, two, one. Good. Now, stay in this position, please, and describe what physical sensations you're aware of now in your left hand and arm.

I'm feeling some tingling in my left hand. Tingling? Just gentle tingling. Is it comfortable? Yes, very. My body feels very, very relaxed, and I feel like my shoulders are straight across for the first time. Great. Does your left hand feel as if it's not as much a part of your body as your right hand?

Yes. I only remembered I had my left hand when you asked that question. Okay. Good. Now, please note this. Yeah, I don't know how to describe what just happened. I feel like I've got a hinge in my elbow. A hinge. All right. Well, look at your left hand and watch what's going to happen.

My left hand doesn't really look like it belongs to me. Really? I mean, it does, but I don't know why I can do this. Can you describe what it feels like as it's going up? Yeah, it feels very relaxed. I think it would be hard to hold it like this, but it feels easy to hold it like this.

Good. I feel the middle finger more than the others. I don't know why. Interesting. Wow. Is that surprising at all? Yeah, it's very unusual. Yes, I know it's wild, but I'm surprised by my own hand, which has not happened before. Yeah. All right. Good. Now, by way of comparison, please raise your right hand.

Put your right arm down. Are you aware of a relative difference in sensation in your left hand going up compared to your right? Yeah, the right hand feels more apart. This one's more part of this part of me. Yeah. It's like I feel like at my left elbow, everything changes.

Is one arm lighter or heavier than the other? This, my right, is definitely heavier. Are you aware of a relative difference in your sense of control over one hand going up compared to the other? Yeah, the left hand is, yeah, that's going to take some work to work with the left hand.

All right. So, more control on the right? Yes. All right. Now, make a fist with this hand. Tight fist. Okay. Ready? Open. Open it? Yeah, open it. Okay. Are you aware of a sense of sensation and control now in your left hand and arm compared to a moment before?

Yeah, but it still feels kind of not of me. Not of you? Yeah. A little bit. It's coming back. Okay. Well, I don't think I've ever paid that much attention in my left hand before. Is the control equal now in the two hands, or do you still feel? Yeah, it's about, you know, maybe 10% less over here.

Okay. So before you had less control in the left, now it's getting to the same again. Yeah. Did I do or say anything that would indicate there'd be a change in sensation of control in your left hand and arm? Only the fist? No, I don't. Backing your fist. Yeah.

Did I say anything to you about your elbow or touching your elbow? Oh yeah, that when you touch my elbow that it would return control, but I don't remember. I remember what I don't remember, but only now that you've told me, but clearly something about my perception of time is off because I feel like this is, that was a long time ago.

A long time ago. Yeah. How long? Oh goodness. I don't know, but it feels really good to squeeze my fist. It does. Yeah. It feels amazing. Yeah. Did you have any sense of floating lightness or buoyancy in your left hand and arm during the test? Yeah. Yes. Almost like there was a, um, like a tether.

Tether pulling up. Yeah. Did you have that sense in any other part of your body, head, neck, thighs, abdomen, chest, all over or just your left hand and arm? Just my left, um, hand and arm, but the rest of my body is really relaxed. Relaxed. I always have a little bit of right side pain, lower back pain always, and it's, um, that feels good now.

It does? Yeah. It does. It does. And I can feel my feet too. Okay. So are you feeling any pain in your back? No. No. No pain. Good. Okay. So the hand is okay now? Yeah. It's about 98%. Okay. It's kind of like that. All right. Well, that's the end of the test and your score is nine and a half out of 10.

So you are very hypnotizable. Okay. Yeah. Um, as gauged by, am I out of hypnosis yet? Uh, I hope so. Yes. Okay. You are. I don't know. The eye roll that we did initially, you, you had the up gaze as you kept your eye up was two out of four, but you were converging your eyes and you can't keep looking up and squint at the same time.

So your eye roll score was a four. Which is the maximum. That's the maximum. Yeah. Yeah. Which is consistent with the last time we, we did hypnosis. I think it was about three years ago. Yeah. Was it that long ago? Yeah. I guess so. Wow. But then I hear your voice in the Reverie app.

Yeah. So when we, when we interviewed today, there was, um, when you start talking and even in our lab meetings, occasionally I have to remember that I'm not going to go under. And our, our colleague, Dr. Malice Yilmaz says the same thing. She's done a lot of hypnosis. Yeah.

Oh really? I don't think she'd mind me saying that. Yeah. That, um, and that, yeah, that the voice is a strong trigger. So interesting. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't know that. I think my hands back. You think it's back now? Good. Well, we want you to leave the room with it.

So that's, that's good. What happened there? Um, I mean, at, at, uh, what was that about? Well, it's, you're affiliating with a metaphor, with an image that it will feel light and buoyant and, uh, you're dissociating it. So I think it's in part that DLPFC inverse, um, connectivity with the PCC that you're, you're sort of inner, your interoception of your arm is sort of separated from the task, the hypnotic task of making this feel different.

And so the implication is sort of that it's not you in a sense that the hand is sort of doing what it wants to do is kind of what it feels like. And so you're complying with the instruction, but also showing that you can really reorganize your interoception of your left hand and arm and also what it does physically.

So I felt like from here forward was a completely different experience. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it is that sort of, it's the connection to the insula and the disconnection from the PCC that I think is, is doing it. Yeah. Is there anything that I should pay attention for today?

No. No, I, I don't think so unless you stay, does it still feel strange or is it? I feel cohesive. Oh, good. Okay. So you can turn it on, you can turn it off and that's the messages you get. That's internal, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's internal. You can do it.

And the fact that your back feels better now is a side effect. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. There's something I can't, yeah. I remember saying something about my shoulders, but the. You said your shoulders for the first time felt level. Yeah. I've always got a little bit of a tilt this way and yeah, it felt like it felt level.

Good. Good. Thank you. You're welcome. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)