210.09 - Building Expectancy and Interoception

Okay we’re at the intersection of two concepts. Response expectancy (which I’m bastardizing for the purposes of this writeup) and interoception (paying attention to the body’s internal state.) It’s also worth noting that interoception is a much bigger concept but I’ll save that for later.

The Plan

Okay - the idea’s simple.

• Suggest that at some point, their arm will become so light that it’ll start rising on it’s own.
• Interoception is easy to fuck with - as it’s mostly internally generated, so we use that to introduce enough ‘feeling of lightness’ that we’ll make their arm raise.
• (Optional) now that we’ve raised general expectancy of ‘something’ happening, we can guide that towards something else.

Fucking With Interoception

• Ask them if they’d like to feel their arm becoming lighter and raising. Assuming yes, mention a few ideas on how to do this (balloons, pooltoy arm, whatever) and see if they have something they prefer, or an idea of their own.
• Ask them to close their eyes. (This suggests both internal focus and makes it easier to notice interoception, as well as prevents checking for feedback on ‘did the arm actually raise.‘)
• Suggest that their arm will feel lighter and lighter, and eventually their arm will rise all on it’s own.
• Feed them back the suggestions you got in the beginning.
• Profit.
• Ask them to open their eyes when it’s raised. Or, if you want to be sneaky after their arm didn’t raise, ask them to lower their arms, open their eyes, and ask about how it felt.