I don't think we're far apart. My claim isn't that Level 1 is "mere reflex". It's that language can produce effects at a level that operates independently of (and sometimes in opposition to) conscious evaluation. The hypnosis example is just a clean demonstration of that separation.

Whether LLMs are useful models for studying that level is an empirical question. They're not conscious, but they do learn statistical regularities in language structure, which may be exactly what Level 1 is optimized for.

> language can produce effects at a level that operates independently of (and sometimes in opposition to) conscious evaluation

I don't think this is a particularly interesting claim if "conscious evaluation" is understood so strictly that it excludes an ordinary motormouth.