- Today, we're gonna blow your mind with tactile illusions
you can do at home.
- Let's talk about that.
(groovy theme music)
Good mythical summer.
- It's time that you faced the fact that the world
is a dark and chaotic place and your body can't be trusted.
- Oh my goodness.
You're talking about illusions, right?
- Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
- You're trying to make it scary.
And here's the thing, illusions need not be limited
to the auditory and visual variety,
because nowadays they can get tactile.
- Nowadays - Nowadays, well it's
the hip new thing to have a tactile illusion
where your brain is psyched out
with what you're feeling, what you're feeling.
- Now you're creeping me out.
- I'm sorry.
The point is we're gonna - And them.
- We're gonna do some tactile illusions, y'all,
it's time for Feel The Illusion 2017.
- That didn't make it any better,
now I feel like I'm going to some kind
of conference for illusions.
- Exactly, and it's just two guys.
- Two guys, uh, weird.
- That's right, we're gonna be feeling
each other's illusion.
- So we're gonna be submitting each other
to different tactile illusions, and seeing if they work,
and you can play along at home, because you can feel.
(horn music)
- Okay Rhett, I'm gonna go first, I'm gonna walk you through
a tactile illusion, it's gonna be so haptical,
it's gonna be happening.
Move your thingamajig over there.
- Could you not be that voice though,
because it's scaring me a little a bit.
- I will not be that voice.
- I don't like the idea of you touching me
and talking like that.
- Alright, take three fingers, hold 'em up, close your eyes.
Move this hand off the table, and,
- Scout's honor?
- I don't think that's how scout's honor works.
- I think it is, but I don't know.
I wasn't a scout, did one day in Cub Scouts,
too hard, you had to do stuff to get the badges.
- Okay Rhett, open your eyes.
Now you see before you there are three quarters,
it's a US standard quarter.
- One of 'em's wet, is that part of it?
- No, and then, so what you're gonna do
is take those three fingers and put one on each quarter,
go for it, just relax, you're not gonna get hurt.
Alright, tell me what you feel.
- I feel coldness.
- Yeah, how cold?
- Well, I actually feel my middle, my ring finger's
really cold, and the other two I think
are just normal temperature, but at first,
- You're trying to figure it out,
see, don't think, just, is it cold or is it not cold?
- When I set them down, my first instinct
was that they were all cold.
But now that I really think about it,
it feels like it's just one.
- So now take your fingers off, and put your thumb
on the two that you think aren't cold.
- It is cold. - It is cold.
What about that one?
- That one's not cold at all.
- [Link] And then what about that one?
- And that one's cold.
- That one's cold?
- That middle one's not cold.
- Okay, so you kind of fell for it.
What is the - Halfway.
- What the typical response is,
maybe you experienced this is that because the two
outer ones are cold, and the middle one's not cold,
or really any combination, your body knows that, okay,
there's an extreme temperature here, this could be a threat.
- So it gives cold to all of them.
- It gives cold to all of them, assuming that, you know,
a normal temperatured coin is not gonna be a problem.
You know those normal temperatured coins.
- Anytime I see three coins together, I'm like look out!
- The same goes for really hot coins, close your eyes again.
So now, one of, open your eyes,
and put all three on there, and one of these is boiling,
just kidding, don't touch it.
I'm just kidding about the whole thing, it's not hotter.
These are my monies.
- I know, you did nothing.
You literally did nothing.
- I didn't move around.
- I was waiting for the joke, it was like
nothing could get hot that quickly.
- I was supposed to make it seem like I had other ones.
- But you didn't go over there, you just went like,
- Well your eyes were closed, come on man.
- But I'm not an idiot.
- This is not a talent show, this is a magic show.
(horn music)
- Okay Link, now we're gonna touch each other.
And if you're playing along at home,
this is when you have an opportunity to touch
the person that you're with,
but you shouldn't do that without permission.
- That's a good point.
- Okay, so square up and face each other.
- Square up and face each other.
- This is called the Pinocchio, the Pinocchio illusion.
- The Pinocchio. - What I want you to do
is you're going to grasp my nose like this
and then you're, let's take your glasses off
this will be easier, you're gonna grasp my nose like this
and you're gonna grasp your own nose like this,
and you're gonna close your eyes,
and you're gonna move your fingers up and down,
rubbing the nose, you're gonna have to rub my nose,
and you're gonna have to be okay with it.
- I'm not, it's weird.
- And then just let it,
- I don't even like to rub my own nose.
- Well you're gonna have to do that as well,
you're gonna be rubbing your own nose,
and my nose at the same time. - I understand.
- With your eyes closed, and then do that for a while,
- At least my eyes will be closed.
- Until you begin to experience
some sort of sensation possibly, go for it.
- Okay, so I should close my eyes
and then try to grab your nose, poke your eyes out.
- No, you should grab first.
- I'm grabbing your nose.
- And it's not really about grabbing,
it's just about stroking it in exactly the same way
as you're gonna stroke your own nose.
- And then close my eyes.
This isn't weird at all.
You got a soft nose.
- Give yourself over to it.
- Give myself over to it.
- I'm not enjoying this any more than you are.
Why do your fingers stink so bad?
- You don't wanna know.
- Your fingers smell like you stuck 'em
into a garden of garlic.
Like you just like stuck 'em into some garlic
and rubbed 'em all around like what happened?
- I'm smelling it too.
- What in the world?
- This hand stinks, too. - It's all I'm thinking about.
That's not part of the illusion.
- I don't know what's - Where's it coming from?
- It's horrible
- Did you experience anything?
Let me do it to you, because I haven't done this yet.
- I experienced smelling garlic.
- Okay, be still.
- Nothing happened to my nose.
- Oh okay, there it is. - What?
- I begin to, one of the things that could
potentially happen is you begin to think that your nose
is far away from your face.
Some people can think, Pinocchio illusion,
that it's a long nose.
- Let me try it. - But I began to think,
oh those garlic fingers.
- It's so bad.
I honestly don't know why.
- Where's the garlic, man, where do you find the garlic?
- In my pockets, I got garlic pockets.
- Just trust me, it works.
I don't want to put myself through that again.
- Make your nose feel like it's floating or getting bigger.
- Yeah.
(horn music)
- Alright, now I'm gonna present to you
two tactile finger illusions, and you don't have
to have garlic fingers, but it does help.
- Ol' garlic fingers.
- Alright, this first one is called
the imaginary string illusion, so what I want you to do
is I want you to clasp your fingers,
but then keep your index fingers apart,
not touching one another, and then point 'em
straight out there, and just relax, okay,
don't overthink it, you're safe, don't fall asleep, though.
I have a string, right here I have a string.
And then of course, I'm just gonna start wrapping
the string around your fingers,
wrapping the string around your fingers,
and making it tighter, tighter,
oh, gotta pull even more because they're not moving yet,
but I bet they will starting moving closer togeth-,
relax, relax and let the string pull your fingers together.
The more you think about it, the more you wanna fight it,
but you know it's gonna happen,
and there it goes.
Now I just think you're an overthinker, but I did see
the fingers coming in, and if you were able to fully
give yourself over to the garlic,
maybe, that's what it was, there wasn't any garlic on there,
then the fingers would come together.
- I should've stuck my fingers right into a bunch of garlic.
- Because what I, I didn't actually have a string.
Here's another one. - Oh really?
- Let's act like we're giving each other a high five.
Let's not actually give each other a high five, but let's
act like it. - Act like it.
Hey. - But then still hit.
- Oh, - It's just,
- That's actually giving it,
that's actually, this is a five.
- Yeah but we're holding it here.
- Oh okay, - And no one
in their right mind, would do that.
- Yeah, nobody would do that, this is weird.
- Alright, so what I'm gonna ask you to do
is what I'm gonna demonstrate right now,
which is to take your index finger and your thumb,
and then you're going to,
rub up and down our two fingers.
- Don't look at me like that.
- Yeah, let's not look at each other.
- Just keep, - Oh yeah,
I remember this one, this is a grade school thing.
- [Link] Keep rubbing up and down.
- [Rhett] It feels like you're dead,
I'm touching a dead person
- Which finger feels dead to you?
- My feels dead. - Yes.
- My feel dead.
- Your finger feels dead, but my finger feels,
- Yeah I feel like I'm touching, like,
oh, my finger's asleep.
- Yep, your finger fell asleep, but what happened
is my finger is very much awake.
Well so is yours.
It's got garlic on it. - Yeah, we've been
sticking it right in some garlic.
- So what's happening is your brain starts to think
that this is just one finger,
so there's no reason for it to feel two fingers,
so then it starts to make,
- You spread it to me man.
- The finger on your own hand - You spread
your freaking garlic to me.
- Feel dead, so it gives you a dead finger sensation,
doesn't get rid of the garlic, though.
(horn music)
- Okay Link welcome to the couch.
- Thank you for having me couch.
- What I want you to do is to sit all the way up
against the back, like put your butt all the way
against the back of the seat,
feet fully flat on the ground, and I want you
to cross your arms like this.
- Okay, this is how I normally relax in a chair.
- Okay, now, stand up.
- Come on man.
Let daddy, let daddy out of his chair.
- Oh, here comes daddy, there it goes.
Now stand up.
- Oh, I did it.
- Okay, but daddy had some trouble.
- Daddy had trouble getting out of his chair.
- Daddy had some trouble, okay.
- How hard are you pushing?
- It's just my finger. - It's just your finger.
- Just my finger, stand up daddy.
Daddy looks weird, daddy looks weird when he stands.
- What's happening?
- Daddy stands up like this.
- Well you told daddy to go like this.
- Well the reason daddy's having so much trouble,
- Usually I get up like this.
- First of all, do you wanna be daddy or garlic fingers,
because you gotta make a choice.
- I wanna be Daddy Garlic Fingers.
- The reason Daddy Garlic Fingers is having trouble
standing up is because we use momentum to stand up.
You kind of throw your arms forward,
and throw your head forward and that kind of thing,
but by locking you into this position and crossing your arms
you don't feel like you have the opportunity
to get momentum, and now I'm only using my finger,
which is not a lot of resistance, but your brain
actually perceives, oh I'm not gonna be able
to get the momentum that I typically get
in order to stand up.
- So I just give up.
- You kind of just give up, the brain says, don't try
to stand up right now Daddy, because Daddy
might run into trouble if he tries to stand up right now.
- Daddy might run into a finger.
- Yes he might. - On the forehead.
- Okay, so hopefully these work for you at home,
and we will see you on Wednesday.
- Thank you for liking, commenting, and subscribing.
- You know what time it is.
- Hi, I'm Katie.
- And I'm Emily.
- And we're UNC students here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- [Together] And it's time to spin The Wheel of Mythicality.
- We release a new episode of our podcast, Ear Biscuits,
every week, you can enjoy it wherever podcasts are enjoyed.
- And click through to Good Mythical More,
where you can enjoy Rhett tricking my brain
with a number of additional illusions, brain tricks.
- Take and Make
- Take and Make, that's when you take a still
from this episode and make it into something.
- We want you guys to make us into guys who have
custom tats from head to toe, tat us up, full body tats,
hashtag TakeAndMake, we'll repost our favorites.
- [Link] Click on the left to watch our show
after the show, Good Mythical More.
- [Rhett] Click on the right to watch
another episode of Good Mythical Morning.
- [Link] And make sure to check out our new channel,
This Is Mythical, by clicking the video at the bottom.
- [Rhett] Thanks for being your mythical best.