Dr. David Spiegel

So it helps me guide the nature of my treatment with these people.

Now, the eye roll is my father used to use an eye fixation induction.

He used to say, look up.

at the ceiling.

You see sclera, the white part.

You're asking the brain to do something difficult, to keep the eyes up while closing the eyelid.

And eye movements have a lot to do with levels of consciousness.

You know, the periaqueductal gray surrounds these cranial nerve nuclei and

When we close our eyes when we sleep, we have rapid eye movement when we dream.

Most drugs that affect level of consciousness can affect eyes and eye movements, either the dilation or contraction of the pupils, depending on whether it's a stimulant or an opioid.

And there's an old Zen practice called looking at the third eye, where you're looking up inside.

It's like there's a third eye between the other two in your forehead.

And I think it's because...

we're visual creatures you know we're we're pretty pathetic from a physical point of view you know many animals can outrun us you know um and or outsmell us or see you know eagles can read could read the newsprint at a hundred yards and we can't you know it's

So our major defensive sensory input is vision.

But the key issue is this, that normally when we close our eyes also, we're going to sleep.

You're not worried about what's going on in the world anymore.

Here, you're maintaining resting alertness.

So you're focusing, but you're turning inward.

That's an unusual state.