Pattern interrupt is a method for rapid hypnotic induction. Back before I knew what hypnosis was, I used it accidentally at ecstatic dances. I would leave space on the floor for my partner and then step in to block her way. When she went blank in the face I thought she had lost interest in me, until one day as I danced away I turned around and saw someone pulling her out.

When a friend went to bump elbows with me this afternoon, I realized that the COVID-19 emergency is going to be full of little pattern interrupts. They’ll be different from the rude ones that define much of modern life. They’ll be little pauses in the flow of people – on the street or in the supermarket – punctuated by a glance that says “We share concern for our welfare.”

In those little hypnotic spaces is the opportunity to feel the warmth of mutual concern flowing between us. To anyone conscious of that dynamic, please burnish your aura so that others can bask in it.