Holly was twenty-six and lived in London. Having grown up in a small town in the North of England, she had applied and been successful for a scholarship at the famous Kings College London. After three years study she graduated with a 2.1 degree in sports physiotherapy. She had grown accustomed to city life and the idea of moving back home to a small town with her parents and younger siblings, all in the same house did not appeal, so she had found a reasonably priced one-bedroom flat that she was able to afford. Her job working at a physio clinic was interesting and allowed her to help people who were injured playing sports and she hoped that in time she would start to meet higher profile clients which would lead to better paying opportunities.
Holly had been out of university and working for three years when things started to spiral. The pandemic meant her work decreased and she got by with her meagre savings and government furlough schemes, but once the world started to open back up, she was struggling for cash.
Living alone with her available cash running out, she came across an advert in the university free newspaper from a company performing a paid clinical research trial into behavioural conditioning.
These were the kind of things where they got you to stop biting your nails or craving chocolate bars, plus when she got there, if it was anything weird she could just walk away.
Holly called the number and after speaking with what sounded like an excitable young intern, she had an appointment the next day along with several other applicants to discuss the trial at an orientation meeting and see if it was for them.
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The building was one of many identical looking modern buildings with several floors. These seemed to be popular right now where lots of businesses could share the building. As she entered the building it seemed pretty sterile, all white and glass with a central reception desk, a few seats, pretty much what you'd expect from one of the new stylish office buildings.
Holly walked over and greeted the receptionist, "Hi, I'm Holly, I'm here for the 2pm orientation group."
"Hi, the other applicants are all through in our meeting room over there, feel free to head on in." the reception said whilst gesturing towards a plain white door.
The room had a round table and five other girls sitting around it. Standing at the far side of the table was an older guy in a suit who was smiling and clearly making small talk with the other applicants.
"Ah, this is our final applicant for this session," he said, "so we can begin."
"My name is Doctor Rick Turner and I'm going to go through our investor presentation on what we're trying to do and why, I'll explain what this trial will include and the stages linked to successful candidate payments. At the end we'll have a brief one-to-one private discussion where you can ask any questions. If there is anything you aren't comfortable with or have changed your mind, you will be welcome to leave at that point. If you are still interested in participating, we'll ask you to complete a pretty detailed survey about your lifestyle, habits, routines, hobbies and the like, then give you some paperwork to sign, non-disclosure agreements, waivers, renumeration contracts, that kind of thing."
He pressed a few buttons on a clicker and the lights dimmed and a projector began displaying a presentation on the wall behind him. The presentation was typical corporate logos and some scientific images that the host spoke along with.
"As I'm sure you're all aware we have a number of both, issues and frustrations within our society that only affect some people and can be managed usually by willpower alone, but sometimes can be helped with hypnotherapy. The kind of issues we would like to help are wide ranging from simple things like breaking bad habits as simple as nail biting and diet management, to more complex issues like low confidence, managing phobias and social anxiety. We here at Drontech are looking at an alternative approach. An example of what we're trying to achieve is when mothers of new-born babies can become conditioned to start lactating purely from the sound of their baby crying. Those mothers form a kind of response to the audio stimulus that makes the body ready to start providing milk for their baby. We are investigating which stimuli can become the triggers and which behaviours can be elicited."
"If you can imagine, instead of needing to rely on your own self will, or instead of needing to see a hypnotherapist, our goal is be able to send you a custom headset, which looks pretty similar to a standard pair of music headphones so no one else needs know what you are listening to or what goal you are trying to achieve, which you could listen to during your daily commute or whilst you're at the gym or even whilst you sleep. We could deliver the messages directly to your mind without interrupting your day."
The screen had been showing images in line with each example. When he mentioned the headset, a picture of a sleek modern pair of headphones appeared on screen. If he hadn't said these were his company's technology, they would have been ignored as looking like any other pair of headphones you see being worn out and about.
Dr Turner pressed the clicker again and lights came back up and the presentation switched off before he continued.
"For those who participate, we operate a blind study so as not to influence the results, for example if we told you we would aim to put you off coffee, you might choose to just not drink coffee so knowing what our goal was can affect the results. Instead, we review your survey and determine the best fit against your responses. Then we perform the initial treatment here and over the next two weeks we ask you to complete a weekly targeted survey to see if you've noticed any changes. After the third week you come back in and we discuss your final survey in person. A number of our participants will be part of the control group where do nothing."
"I appreciate not knowing if you're in the control group or what was attempted to be conditioned can be disconcerting, but that's why this is voluntary on your part and that the payment for successfully completing the months trial and providing feedback will see you rewarded with a thousand pounds in cash. That is a lot, but when rather than if, this technology hits the market we will make that back and you will know your contribution helped countless others."
"Right ladies, that's my sales pitch. We'll move on to the one-to-one discussion part of this process and for those who are happy to participate we'll get you started on the survey and book in your sessions."
Dr Turner called out a name and a dark-haired girl stood up and followed him out. Whilst he was gone, two more of the girls that looked uncertain gathered their things and left. After thirty minutes and two other girls following Dr Turner out, he came back in and sat down to chat.
"Since it's just you and I," he said, "we can chat in here."
"Have you any questions?" he asked
"Can you give me some examples of the kind of things you can try to condition for in the study, even if you can't tell me my specific one?" Holly asked.
