Original subtitles

[Music]

thank you so much it's really really

interesting to me that for every single

speaker that you've seen today including

me as soon as we walked out of stage

without anyone ever explicitly telling

you to you started applauding and then

it's also really interesting to me that

every single speaker including me today

walking out on stage after you applauded

said thank you again without anyone

explicitly telling us to it's almost

like that's a conditioned response now

conditioned response means that a

certain trigger or certain stimulus in

this case me walking out on stage

elicits a certain cue or a certain

response in you we meet these responses

everywhere in life all the time I think

one of the best examples that I could

think of is when you walk down the

streets and a certain smell comes in -

you know it takes you right back to

childhood did you ever experience that

is that something you know about I think

it is right

it's a cue response system today I'll

talk about where we find these cue

response systems how they work and more

importantly how we can make these cue

response systems work for ourselves now

before we get to that I think it might

be interesting and fun to actually do a

quick demonstration concerning cue

response systems so let's take a quick

look I think we're gonna have to have

somebody join us up on stage and that

we're with the puck so fair enough

somebody like in the very very back is

that right who's that oh he's too needy

what is fine let's get him up on stage

give a round of applause it's gonna be a

long way it'll be a long way get him up

on stage long long way fantastic

it'll take a little while until he's

okay he's coming from all the way in the

back

at some point during the talk I will be

teaching you how to elicit cue response

systems yourself at will we will get to

that in a moment I will also talk about

how they work and the neurological

processes behind cue response systems so

let's see if that dude is already

walking out I think he's coming yes we

have an ice rink in the backstage and as

soon as he comes to give around the

floss fantastic

how are you I'm team on it's a pleasure

to meet you are you good

fantastic Tony you're good amazing did

you enjoy the talk so far yes and if you

really inspiring and did you have a good

date way amazing Tony can you do me a

favor and maybe think back to a moment

from last week or the last few days that

made you happy something that made you

feel really good fantastic that is

already good enough it's good enough for

me now Tony being a marketer come up to

the front being a marketer you already

obviously know about conditioning don't

you you might I'll explain it to you I'm

not sure if you realize but every time

since you've been on stage and you

smiled or said yes I touched your arm

that you notice this

yeah it's ranged isn't it put your hand

out Tony put your hand out just realize

what happens in your minds that your

mind go blank when we go back up there

and you memory might be linked to the

spot in your minds it's realized what

happens when we go up your arm and we

touch that arm can you feel that

happiness coming back in you does it

feel good it's a conditioned response

it's a neurological response the cool

thing Tony is that you can do this

yourself as well would you like me to

show you extend your hands perfect move

your own hand up there go ahead and move

it slowly up there and just realized it

when you touch that arm it comes right

back to you doesn't it

just touch that arm how does that feel

it feels weird but good enough yeah I

think that's good enough

give me a round of applause get you

seated thank you Tony fantastic I think

that was good for a quick demonstration

thank you Tony now I'm seeing some of

you thinking what the heck did we just

see what just happens what we just did

was a very very quick and very brief

demonstration of conditioned response in

action the first time I got into

investigating Commission response was

when I was 12 years old and I saw

Hypno's to show being played at a

holiday park and to me seeing that

hypnosis show was the most magical thing

I had ever seen and it was the moment

that I decide

that I wanted to become a hypnotist or

Mentalist or a magician I went on that

path I went to write some people to

learn about hypnosis or mentalism or

mind-reading and everybody thought that

at 12 years old I was too young to do

that so I did what any twelve-year-old

would do I started teaching myself and I

copied exactly what I saw on stage and

took it from there I think there was

more luck involved than actual skill but

I made it through at 16 years old I went

to New Zealand I found a mentor he

helped me write my very first book on

hypnosis which got me in touch with

people all around the world I then got

to be awarded the title of best European

Mentalist last year and finally got to

fulfil my dream to play in Las Vegas for

the very first time last year as well

and I was amazing was really cool now

I'm not gonna talk to you about the

drive for the inspiration or the love

that I have for that and it is a love

it's in fact so much of a life that I

have my logo which stands for the love

for magic tattooed onto my wrist because

it's the one thing I love most in life

because I think there's people that will

talk about inspiration way better than I

but I will talk to you about one tool

that I have used that has done me well

over the last 11 years time and time

again which is anchoring or conditioned

response I think the best definition I

think if you have anchoring or

conditioned response would be an anchor

refers to any specific hue that elicits

a predictable response a predictable

response means that it repeats itself

now if it were to ask some of you if you

feel like having a coffee right now some

of you might say yes some of you might

say no 10 minutes from now this might be

different it's not a predictable

response it's not conditioned but a

person that's maybe hugely afraid of

spiders as soon as they sees the cue the

stimulus of a spider

they're pretty response will predictably

be fear that's what it means for it to

be a predictable or a conditioned

response when I first encountered this

concept I thought great it's good for me

to know that there's specific cues that

trigger specific responses but what good

does it if I can't control those cues I

will let you in on two secrets about

conditioning the first one is that if

you know

the correct trigger you can elicit any

response in yourself or others that you

wish and some of you already know this

I'm sure there must be people in the

audience right now maybe wearing a

special piece of clothing that makes you

feel sexy and it makes you therefore

feel confidence or maybe some of you put

on a piece of jewelry that you consider

to be a lucky charm I put on my lucky

socks they've pucks on them because I

love pucks and they make me feel really

happy and all these things really are

are certain cues that trigger a specific

response in you doesn't make sense so

you already know that you can trigger

these responses the second secret and

this is where it gets really cool is

that you can set up create new trigger

response systems at will again are you

thinking that's great but how do we do

that now before we get into the how that

works let's talk real quickly about why

that works and it works due to to mental

slides if you want two slides of minds

that your brain is capable of doing the

first one of which being pattern

recognition pattern recognition will get

to the Damone pattern recognition means

that your brain is able to learn from

past experiences and then to apply this

learn behavior to new similar situations

basically what this means is that

pattern recognition helps us not make

the same mistakes twice

there's a reason for this it's an

evolutionary reason when you think about

maybe your caveman ancestors running

into a ferocious cat and they're barely

escaping with the lives it would now be

good for the brain to make the leap that

when next time they enter a similar

situation they meet a similar cats they

don't want to go cuddle it but they

apply the learned knowledge and realize

that it's not a good idea to go near

that's what pattern recognition is it's

also how anchoring or conditioning works

in anchoring and conditioning we enter a

situation we get a specific Q and this Q

will elicit a specific response q could

be anything me saying something it could

be a smell it could be a jewelry you put

on the list the response and depending

on if that situation plays out well for

you positive effect next time round you

get a strengthened positive response to

the same or a similar view or if it

plays out negatively next time you get a

reduced or

weakened negative response to the clue

effectively driving you away from

similar situations doesn't make sense

I think it does yes it's also the reason

that at some point only imagining an

anchor is enough and we'll get to that

the second slide of mind that our brain

is capable of doing is called action

energy it's research and I think that's

one of the most fascinating pieces of

research ever done by dr. David Hamilton

dr. David Hamilton had a group of people

over the course of several weeks

practice a very simple piano song once

he was sure that these people had really

hammered that song in there he took them

into his laboratory and he took a brain

scan while these people were playing

their simple set of nuts that's a boring

part fascinating part happened right

after because he took another brain scan

this time however asking the people to

only imagine that they were playing the

same thing the really cool thing is that

if you held up both brain scans next to

each other just from looking at them

there was no way to distinguish which

brain scan was taken when they actually

played the song and which brain scan was

taken when the male imagined playing the

song what this tells us is that now our

brain there's no essential difference

between having an actual experience or

vividly imagining it and that's exactly

what will enable us to create anchors

for ourselves let's get to that again

how do we do that there's a simple plan

I devised for you a five-step anchoring

plan to doing this yourself the first

step that we will always want to take

when we set up a new Q response system

for ourselves is to decide on the

stimulus and the state the state could

be the emotion that you want to anchor

maybe happiness or confidence or focus

or concentration for the sake of

demonstration we will do this together

in a moment let's say that the cue the

trigger that we will use is going to be

this placing your pump and your

forefinger together like this do it with

me place your thumb and forefinger

together fantastic like you did it

before amazing technique love it very

well done this the response to this

state are the response to this trigger

will be I think happiness is a good one

that's generally accepted to be

a good state of mind to be in isn't it I

think that will be good happiness will

be the response the next step you will

want to take is to vividly imagine this

state and the simplest way I found of

doing that is to found two or three

better three memories where that's where

that state is prominent we just did that

when we had our volunteer on stage with

one single memory two or three memories

are going to be better so if you're not

already thinking about it please start

finding two or three memories where you

felt happy that could be really

prominent that could be fresh that could

be spectacular or it could be something

as simple as that you really liked your

sandwich this morning it could be

something very straightforward but

wherever the emotion of happiness is

prominent that's gonna be good for this

step number three is going to be to step

inside this daydream this is where

you're going to utilize your brain's

ability to imitate a real experience

I'll walk you through the script in a

moment once you're there and once by

stepping inside your daydream you pump

that emotion up to as height as high as

you possibly can in that very moments

you will apply your stimulus essentially

training yourself to respond to this

stimulus with the state that you want to

respond that way all that's left

afterwards us to test use and enjoy your

anchor will do the together so if you're

ready if you found two or three memories

to do this with let's go close your eyes

for me I'm not gonna punch you just

close your eyes for a moan trust me on

this okay fantastic take your first

memory and this could be the stronger

memory or it could be the first one that

comes up in your mind and when you have

that then focus on the visual aspect of

that memory what do you see

where are you who's with you and try and

go into the details a little bit in your

mind and from there shift your focus to

the auditive aspect of that memory

listen to what you heard words

environmental sounds your own heartbeat

breathing and from there shifted again

to what you smell the might have been

good smells or bad smells prominent

smells subtle smells and when you're

already added go to what you could taste

and maybe there was no specific taste in

your mind right now and if that's the

case then be aware of that as well and

from there one more time shift your

focus

which you could feel just the physical

feeling position of your body exhaustion

energy touch temperature clothing any of

those things will do and from their

shift your focus to what you could feel

inside that emotion notice where in your

body it starts and allow it to grow

stronger with every breath you take give

it a color if you can and make the color

brighter make it move through your body

quicker and quicker allow it to grow

into your hands your fingers your legs

into your toes up into the tips of your

hairs into your face if you want to

smile you can smile it's absolutely fine

and in a moment I'm going to count from

three to zero and each number that I

counted like you to let that emotion

grow stronger and stronger as strongly

as you possibly can and once we are at

zero do your anchor movement thumbs and

forefingers for three seconds then

release and keep your eyes closed we

will do one more memory afterwards there

will be three allow that memory to go

stronger and stronger allowed to curse

through your body leavitt smile to

spread onto your face there will be two

making it grow warmer and warmer heart

and heart throughout your body that'll

be one get ready to press and zerah

press your anchor together for three

seconds two one release close your eyes

and let go fantastic you're doing

amazingly well I can see so many of you

smiling right now it looks really good

we'll go to the second memory we'll go

through this one a little more quickly

because you already know what's about to

happen

second memory take a look at the visual

aspect of your memory what did you see

where are you day or night

details people around your location then

go to what you heard may be words being

spoken heartbeat breathing and what you

smells good smells bad smells subtle

smells intrusive smells and from there

once again shift to what you could taste

and if there's no specific taste and be

aware of that as well and once you've

done all those things and you

reconstructed your memory bit by bit

once you've done all those things go to

what you felt in your body just a

physical feeling physical sensation of

temperature movement position and once

you've got that once again notice where

in your body that emotion of happiness

is located notice where it starts and

allowed to grow stronger with each

moment that you're listening to me

with each breath that you take and

allowing it to curse through your body

more and more get ready in a moment I'm

again going to count from 3 to 0 and

again with each number that you hear me

count aloud that emotion to grow higher

and higher once we arrive at 0 press

your thumbs and your forefinger together

once more to condition yourself to that

stimulus and that response that'll be 3

allow that memory to grow stronger and

stronger through your body into every

aspect of your body and being that'll be

to allowed to grow more and more and 1

and 0 put your hands together fantastic

that's looking good 3 2 1 and release

and let go and you open your eyes and

shake it off fantastic it was already

worth it to me to just do this for

seeing so many of you smile really cool

very well done we're missing one last

step and by the way if you want to do

this at home for any other emotion than

happiness focus or concentration on the

TAT X website or TEDx free slant website

we have provided this very script for

you to use and enjoy you can do this

with other people you can do this with

yourself you can set more than one

single anchor the last thing we need to

do is to test and use the anchor so

let's do a quick test for the anchor

maybe all of you let your minds go blank

and give yourself a scaling from 1 to 10

as where you would hurry rate your

happiness right now maybe one means I'm

just about to leave and 10 means I'm

really really very happy let your mind

go blank it might be 3 or 4 might be

somewhere in the neutral I'm I'm happy

everyday kind of vibe so give yourselves

rating for that how happy I right now

and then in a moment we're going to use

the anchor together from 3 to 0 in a

moment we'll use this together and at 0

you will press your anchor together

you'll do this for 10 seconds and you

will do your very best to bring that

emotion of happiness up again and we

will test it against where you are right

now so if you have a rating in mind

close your eyes get ready to do your

anchor this is the test I will count

from 3 to 0 on the kind of zero put your

anchor together you get 10 seconds to

bring that emotion up as highly as you

can that'll be 3 2 1 press your anchor

together and 10 seconds 9 allow that

emotion to growl growl growl growl 7 6 5

allowed to grow more and more throughout

your body 4 3 2 1 let

release fantastically done the more

often you do this the stronger it will

actually get and just test yourself

against that check again on a scale from

one to ten how happy are you and if you

are after doing your hanker even only

one or two or three points happier raise

your hand for me I want to see this who

feels happier and that's quite a lot of

you and that's for you is how you create

an emotion or happiness literally at the

push of a button thank you very much

glad to be with you thank you

[Applause]

[Music]