As part of my research into perceptual illusions, I looked into The ‘Rubber Hand Experiment’. This is a classic low tech experiment that can help us “understand how sight, touch and “proprioception” the sense of body position, combine to create a convincing feeling of body ownership, one of the foundations of self-consciousness  (Nature 1998, vol 391, p 756 )”. Recent studies have gone on to experimentally induct of out of body experiences or create body swap illusions. See the work of Henrik Ehrsson and Olaf Blanke. [see link http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/ucl-foe081407.php ] I invited some psychologists to the studio [including Lizzi Lewis of BEAM Lab and Paul Sermon] who I have expertise in this area, they brought presentations and some kit to do the rubber-hand experiment, most importantly a realistic rubber-hand [which I since discovered is not really needed] with Head Mounted Displays, and a DV camera we had everything we needed to experimentally induct an out of body experience!

I was amazed at how well the rubber hand illusion worked. In this experiment, the fingers of the rubber hand are stroked synchronously with the real hand [hidden from view]. You see the rubber hand in place of your own.  It took a long time for me but as the illusion kicked in I began to feel a strong connection with the fake rubber-hand. I felt the unnerving sensation that the rubber hand was in fact, my own hand, and always had been. It felt that at any moment I could start to move the hand. It started to feel heavy, and this made my arm start to ache.

To be honest, before I tried this I was slightly sceptical of this experiment, I was not convinced that the effect could be strong, total, or convincing’. For me there were several stages; a weirdness at the beginning, where I thought nothing more was going to happen; this then increases as your real hand starts to feel very odd. Then there is a drifting and an odd numbness as you begin to connect with the rubber-hand, this connection then becomes strong, and even remains if visual contact is broken with the hand briefly.

I had an idea to try a wooden hand, and this worked surprisingly well. It made me feel as if my hand was shiny hard and smooth. This left me wanting to push this experiment further; What happened if you swapped the hand for a modified hand during the experiment, used fewer fingers or increasingly abstracted the hand progressively? Or used a hand with just 3 fingers or a beast hand with hair and claws? Lizzi Lewis brought a set of other hands made with rubber gloves and with different textures which she uses as part of her research.