Episode 1875 Scott Adams: I Literally Just Woke Up. Lower Your Expectations
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 24 minutes
Words per Minute
146.59648
Summary
I woke up this morning and there was something that wasn t supposed to be happening on the other side of the shades. Do you know what that something is? A simultaneous sip. That's right, it's called a simultaneous sip, and it's the thing that makes everything better.
Transcript
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I have to warn you to lower your expectations today.
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I know normally I tell you this is the highlight of civilization, the best thing that ever happened to you.
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But today, honestly, it's still the best thing that's ever going to happen to you.
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Yes, I woke up this morning and I looked at the shades.
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And there was something that wasn't supposed to be happening on the other side of those shades.
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Something that never happens to me when I'm waking up.
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If the sun beats me up, I've done something terribly wrong.
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All you need is a cup or a mug or a glass or a tank or a chalice or a stein, a canteen jug or a flask, a vessel of any kind.
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And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine of the day, the thing that makes everything better.
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I was just asked if I could explain how hypnosis works.
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So, there are two ways to hypnotize people, broadly speaking.
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A lot of what I say about hypnosis will be things that other people would not say.
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I don't know why, but everybody might just have their own take about how to describe this thing that can't be described.
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One kind of hypnosis is one person working with one person, and you tell that person to relax and sit in a comfortable place and maybe even close their eyes.
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Or you might have them close their eyes during the hypnosis.
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The other kind is where you're just talking to somebody, the kind I'm doing right now.
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Do you think I could hypnotize you just by talking to you on this live stream?
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Do you think I could hypnotize you without you knowing you had been hypnotized?
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But of course, there's a definitional thing, right?
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So, as long as I don't say you are getting sleepy and, you know, put a little watch in front of you
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and swing it back and forth, you would say to yourself, that's not hypnosis.
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So you can think of it as a continuum from most persuasive to least.
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But what does it, what's the difference between just talking to somebody
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If I'm trying to influence you verbally, some of the times you're talking, well, that's no good.
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When a hypnotist is working with a subject, the subject doesn't do any talking, typically.
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Typically, you don't want to have, you know, an audience.
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And so what you get when two people are doing it, and that's all they're doing, is the focus.
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And it also feels like it's more important, which turns out to be an important variable to hypnosis.
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If you came to get hypnotized by me, and I said, all right, we're going to do it in the living room here.
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And it was like a proper office, you know, in a big building.
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And you go into a room, and it's obvious that this is the hypnosis facility.
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And then I come in, and I've got like a doctor's outfit on, or maybe a suit.
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Because once I'd set up the situation, you would be hypnotized before you walked in.
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You would basically be pre-hypnotized before you walked in the door.
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You learn to create an environment where the person talks themselves into it.
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In fact, there's something called the pre-talk, where you talk to somebody before you do the
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And by telling them what to expect, it sort of keeps them out of the curiosity mode and
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Otherwise, you're just thinking, what's going to happen now?
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You'll have lots of questions, and those will be distracting.
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The number one question people ask is, can I be hypnotized?
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A lot of people say, I don't think I could be hypnotized.
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And a lot of people say, there was that one person who tried, and it didn't work.
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There's an exception in terms of how deeply and what level you can go to, but there are
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If you're not willing, or let's say you're mentally insane or something, that would be
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But if you're just a normal person who is willing, and you're willing to spend the time
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and just sit there in a relaxed state, yeah, it works every time.
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Now, it doesn't work every time to the maximum amount, so it'd be like going to the gym.
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Some people go twice, they do the arm thing, where they're pedaling with an arm because
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they don't want to stand up, and that's the last time they go.
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So if you say that, does hypnosis work, it's very much like saying, does going to the gym
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Well, sort of yes for everyone who's serious about it, but if you're not so serious about
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actually going to the gym, and you're not so serious about actually trying to experience
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About 20% of people can experience what's called the phenomenon, and I love that that's
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the name for it, so we have to just call it that sometimes, the phenomenon.
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Now, the phenomenon is when you can actually just see and hear things that aren't there.
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For example, the most common type of induction is once I had you completely relaxed, and once
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I convinced you that something was happening, I could get to that later, but there's a point
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where you convince the person that you're hypnotizing that something's happening.
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They have to feel, wait a minute, I think something's happening.
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So you get that something happening thing, and then you build on it.
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So you get the person to talk themselves into it, essentially.
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Let me back up to that and tell you how that works.
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There's a part in formal hypnosis that does not apply to just talking to people that I call
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So there's part that's just purely exactly what you see.
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If I'm talking to you saying, you're relaxed, or whatever, that's exactly what I'm saying,
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And the magic trick is where you are convinced that what is happening is because of the hypnotist.
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For example, I'm going to do it to you right now.
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So if anybody doesn't want to be hypnotized a little bit,
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you should turn off your device right now or go in the other room or something, right?
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I'm going to give you the smallest, smallest little hypnotic suggestion.
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It won't work for everybody, but it will work for some of you.
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Now, typically, typically, with, let's say, hundreds of you watching,
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probably, if hundreds were watching, maybe three or four of you just had to yawn.
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Did anybody have to yawn or fight a yawn just then?
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There's no such thing as everybody acting the same.
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So a big part of why you have to do it in person and why it doesn't work as well,
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If I know it's working, I say, oh, that worked, and then I'll build on it.
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If it doesn't work, then I have to go back and get a magic trick that does.
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It's not one that's used in hypnosis, by the way.
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I could have told you that you're going to blink more.
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I could have told you that you need to lick your lips and swallow.
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I could have told you you need to clear your throat.
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I could have told you that you're thinking about something that it was just a guess.
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But if I got it right, you'd say, oh, something's happening.
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So you see, all of these, they're all different things,
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from the yawn to guessing what you're thinking,
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So the moment you know that I'm causing something to happen in your mind or your body,
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So that's the point where I know, oh, okay, you just handed me the keys.
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If I can't get the magic trick to work, it's because you're resisting.
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Now, not every magic trick, as I call it, is going to work with every person.
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Some of you, I would have told you that your eyelids are getting heavier,
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and you feel like you're going to blink more often.
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and I'll say it now, this will affect some of you at home.
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I'll say, did you know that it actually takes muscles to keep your eyes open?
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And you'll be thinking to yourself, does it really?
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It's so easy, you don't really think about it, do you?
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That it actually takes a muscle to keep your eye open.
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In fact, you blink during the day anyway, right?
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So if you started blinking a little bit more often right now,
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Because once you start thinking about those eyes, they are pretty heavy.
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You blink all day long, you don't really think about it.
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But right now, as you're relaxing, and you're going into a complete, relaxed state,
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you might find that your eyes blink a little bit more often.
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And as they blink, you'll find that you can actually feel their weight for the first time.
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You've never really felt their weight before, have you?
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But when you blink, you feel that when you bring them back up,
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There's a little bit of weight you can feel on your eyes.
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And that weight will start increasing because it's a muscle.
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The more you blink, the more tired it's going to be.
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And as your eyes blink, they might not open up entirely after every blink.
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But with each blink, and as you relax, and as those muscles start to relax,
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you'll notice that you open up your eyes maybe three-quarters of the way.
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And then you'll feel, eventually, and it's starting to happen pretty quickly,
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for some of you very quickly, and for some of you take just a moment longer.
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But you'll feel that you would feel better if the eyes just completely relaxed,
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But you could feel them close as if they're closing on their own.
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You could divorce your consciousness from your eyes.
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And as you feel your eyes blinking more and more,
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You can just allow your eyes to drift close and stay closed.
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And when you do, whether you've done it yet or you're about to do it,
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you'll find that a deep sense of relaxation comes over you.
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Make sure you're sitting upright in a position which you wouldn't fall asleep.
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let's say the arms of the chair, if you have those.
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Just pause for just a moment, as long as you want.
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Just take your consciousness and move it to your right arm.
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And you might notice that the weight of one arm,
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starts to be a little bit heavier than your left arm.
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when you can actually start to feel the difference in the weight
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you might actually eventually feel that left arm so light
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You're going to keep feeling that left arm getting lighter,
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and you see that there's something interesting about these stairs.
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And you feel yourself drawn to the top of the stairs,
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and a quarter of the way deeper than you were before.
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And you see yourself float onto the top of the escalator,
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But if you heard that they were selling fentanyl
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and it killed a quarter of a million Americans knowingly,
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There would be a whistleblower in there somewhere.
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that we're not trusting our institutions anymore,