what I found fascinating straight away with hypnosis is is that certain people are less hypnotizable than others right why do you think that is uh Hypno hypnotizability turns out to be a very stable trait it's a stable as IQ in adult life right and there are reason there are physiological reasons there are developmental Reas reasons uh the developmental ones uh include um the fact that most 8-year-olds are in transes most of the time most kids are very hypnotizable yeah that's why you know I don't know why we make them grow up you know work and play are all the same thing for kids they play about everything they they enjoy experience over reasoning they just love life yeah and when we go through adolescence and learn what we call formal operations learn how to Value reason more uh over just experience some people lose that ability yeah and it becomes very stable in in the 20s M and there are two types of reasons one is that children who have had experiences of imaginative involvements whose parents read them stories every night and all that tend to remain more hypnotizable as adults unfortunately also children who have been mistreated or abused tend to be very hypnotizable because they have to detach themselves from their physical reality which can be terrible yeah um there are also biological reasons there are certain genes that modulate the the metabolism of dopamine which is one of the major transmitters in the brain uh and people with it with who just metabolize it fast enough that they keep a high level all the time it isn't too fast or too slow also are more hypnotizable we've developed actually a genetic test that we can do to test how hypnotizable people are wow so it's a very stable trait and on Ry you can take our hypnotic induction profile test yeah and within six minutes you'll know how hypnotizable you are amazing great um so you have the um i s the Spiegel IR roll test yes there is the iroll T yeah yeah which is um uh I've tried to do and tried to look at my and I lose myself in the mirror so I don't know all right well I can do it for you you want to see all right so yeah take off your ey glasses okay so look at me it look straight ahead now keep your head still but look up past your eyebrows all the way up oh boy as you look up slowly close your eyes close close close all right breath out eyes relaxed body float So based on this part of the test you're very hypnotizable you're four out of four and if you'd like I could go through the whole hypnotizability test with I mean I'd love to all right yeah let's do it I okay let's do it all right this is exci I didn't expect this get as comfortable as you can so again please look up high as you can close your eyes slowly take a deep breath let the breath out let your eyes relax keep them closed and let your body float just imagine you're floating somewhere safe and comfortable like a bath a lake a hot tub or floating in space and while you feel your body floating I want you to take your right hand and touch the tip of the back of your left middle finger and do that now please so touch the back of your left hand that's good and now stroke back past your wrist all the way to your left elbow and feel a sense of tingling and numbness and lightness and let your left hand float up in the air like a balloon put your right hand back that's good it's floating up in the air that's good and let it rest in this comfortable upright position and I'm going to 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 later when I ask you to pull your left hand back down it will float right back up to the upright position you'll find something pleasant and amusing about this sensation after that when I ask you to touch your left elbow your usual sensation and control will return right now we come out of the state of concentration by counting backwards from three to run on three you'll get ready on two with your eyelids closed roll up your eyes one let your eyes open ready three two one good now stay in this position please and describe what physical Sensations you are of now in your left hand and arm my left arm feels almost like it's meant to be here M like it feels light mhm feels um like slightly comfortable comfortable good yeah any tingling sensation yeah there's tingling on my fingers does your left hand feel as if it's it's not as much a part of your body as your right that's exactly how it feels but I'm suddenly looking at it strangely like it feels like I've never seen my hand before so it's you're surprised huh yeah very surprised all right good now please take your right hand push your left hand down and then let go [Laughter] what does that feel like that feels really strange it feels that is dude that's crazy that's making me feel a bit emotional yeah that's crazy what's happening like I can't I I I tried to keep I didn't even do anything it just floated back up so your hand had a mind of its own my my hand had a complete mind of its own have you ever had an experience like that never in my life that is the strangest thing okay good I'm still looking at my hand weird yeah like it just feels very I've got Goose pimples all over my arm so you're you're reprogramming your relationship to your left hand and arm right now your brain is very good at that all right now please take your right hand touch your left elbow and then let go well what just happened let's put my hands straight down yeah and now it feels and now it feels completely normal right so I mean that is that is unbelievable I I've never experienced anything like that in my life really yeah good that was incredible good like and I and I was worried cuz when you were talking I was like I forgotten everything you said yeah you are Matt extremely hypnotizable your score is nine out of 10 really that's amazing news yep that's great I can't wait to get stuck in with the app yeah yeah that's was so exciting you would learn that on the app absolutely fantastic and anyone can take that test on on the app anyone can that's right 6 minutes dude I feel a bit overwhelmed that was so huge like that's so crazy like I didn't expect that to happen that's really bizarre and I was I was aware I wasn't like in a a trance or anything like um like well I was I was he was but I wasn't like um I didn't feel like out of control exactly you know I felt completely in control of everything exactly you were yeah and that's I'm glad you're saying that because that's what people misunderstand the most about hypnosis think they're out of control you were changing your control system so you were controlling your body in a more complex way right where your left hand and arm felt different from your right that was amazing you know absolutely amazing I'm so excited you know when you think about all the stuff it can treat you know what um there's obviously a few things that excite me you know when it comes to addiction I think um this is something which you have looked into quite a lot right I have and um and especially at Stanford you know there's there's nothing wrong with wanting to change your mental state and you just did it here but you didn't need to use a substance to do it yeah we find that using hypnosis can be very helpful in helping people deal with with habits with addictions with smoking for example yeah you've had really big success with smoking since we have we get one out of four people stop just like that and that's as good as you get with Verena clean or buproprion absolutely um and sometimes in one session I had one terrific woman in in one of our studies who'd smoked for 25 years and uh she said I don't even want to quit I don't know why I'm here but I you you have a study I'll do it so we taught her three things to focus on not it's not on don't smoke that's like telling yourself don't think about purple elephants you know what do you think about instead you focus on something you can feel good about immediately for my body smoking is a poison I need my body to to live I owe my body respect and protection think of your body as if it were your baby would you ever put heated Taran nicotine smoke in your baby's lungs absolutely no hell no but your body is as dependent on you as your baby is so be a good parent to your own body focus on respecting and protecting your body yeah so I had her do that the first time she thought I don't I don't like this stuff anyway but she went home that night she lit up a cigarette she looked at it and she said f who needs this she put it out she hasn't had a cigarette since she said her friends can't believe it because she was you know a determined smoker and she's now helping her friends stop smoking and she she she said to me you know Spiegel this is some kind of crazy ass Voodoo [ __ ] and I mean she said and I mean that in a good way and and so what I love about it is people surprise themselves just the way you were surprised about your arm yeah you can surprise yourself about how you can change your point of view about a problem and find a way to solve it and that's what hypnosis is great for absolutely