Weird Things Start To Happen When You Stare Into Someone's Eyes

For 10 Minutes

The British Psychological Society, an august institution, reports at its Research Digest that you can enter an
altered state of consciousness by staring into someones
eyes for ten minutes:

A psychologist based in Italy says he has found a simple way to induce in healthy people an altered state of
consciousness simply get two individuals to look into each other s eyes for 10 minutes while they are sitting in a
dimly lit room. The sensations that ensue resemble mild dissociation a rather vague psychological term for when
people lose their normal connection with reality. It can include feeling like the world is unreal, memory loss and
odd perceptual experiences, such as seeing the world in black and white.
Giovanni Caputo recruited 20 young adults (15 women) to form pairs. Each pair sat in chairs opposite each
other, one metre apart, in a large, dimly lit room. Specifically, the lighting level was 0.8 lx, which Caputo
says allowed detailed perception of the fine face traits but attenuated colour perception. The participants
task was simply to stare into each other s eyes for 10 minutes, all the while maintaining a neutral facial
expression. A control group of a further 20 participants also sat in a dimly lit room in pairs, but their chairs
faced the wall and they stared at the wall. Beforehand both groups were told that the study was going to
involve a meditative experience with eyes open.
When the 10 minutes were over the participants filled out three questionnaires: the first was an 18-item test of
dissociative states; the other asked questions about their experience of the other persons face (or their own
face if they were in the control group).
The participants in the eye-staring group said theyd had a compelling experience unlike anything theyd felt
before