So here’s an interesting fact about myself: I have been hypnotized three separate times. At least, I am pretty sure it was three, but maybe I was hypnotized to believe that. I’ve been watching a lot of TV shows that involve mental manipulation lately. Honestly, mind control is one of my favourite literary tropes, just because it’s so wonderfully creepy. The idea that someone could make you do anything he or she wanted you to, and being forced to be trapped in your own mind as someone else pulls the strings is just a concept with so many possibilities, all of them pretty terrifying.
Some people may be freaking out, believing that what I experienced was just like what’s seen in horror movies. Maybe I’m just one snap of the fingers away from turning on everyone and robbing a bank or something. Fortunately, that’s not at all what it’s like.
In my experience, hypnotism is more of a relaxation technique than anything else. When a hypnotist puts someone under, it’s impossible to make the hypnotized person do something he or she doesn’t want to do. Nor can it be used to change memories around. It can create temporary amnesia, or get hypnotized people to react to illusions and hallucinations. It all depends on how deep into hypnosis a person can go.
From what I can tell, what I experienced was a pretty weak hypnosis. I’m not entirely sure why, but maybe I wasn’t relaxed enough. It has a lot to do with trusting the hypnotist as far as I can tell, so maybe I’m just a less trusting person. Either way, I never actually believed I had transformed into a baby, or that the Beatles were sitting in the back of the room and I was being allowed to meet them.
A lot of what I experienced was just like a dream. I was totally conscious. I could recall everything that was happening to me, and everything I was being asked to do. I knew exactly what I was doing in every scenario but… I just didn’t care! It was ridiculous. Usually, I’m a shy person, and if someone told me to run up and down an auditorium clucking like a chicken and ‘pecking’ at people’s hands, I’d flat-out refuse. When I’m hypnotized, I just think, “Yeah! Let’s go run around like a chicken!” It’s like I’m an actor. I’m putting on a performance I never even knew I was going to be a part of, and honestly, I find it fun.
Now, as much as hypnotism never affected my memory, time has made those moments fade, so I can only recall some highlights of my various performances. I remember being told a friend of mine, who was not hypnotized and was just sitting in the audience, was the lead singer of Matchbox Twenty. In my resulting excitement, I practically leapt off the stage, and made a beeline for my friend’s lap. It took a bit of prompting from the hypnotist before I actually got off of him. I’m still disappointed I didn’t even get an autograph for my trouble.
I recall that during one show, a pair of guys were singled out by the hypnotist. According to him, they were madly in love with each other… at least whenever the hypnotist was looking away from him. The moment he’d turn back to them, they would be repulsed by each other. I remember watching them back gooey, sappy faces at each other, holding hands and cuddling, until the hypnotist turned around, and which point they looked like the world had just ended. As far as I can tell, though, I kept insisting the hypnotist let them stay together. It was a case of true love, definitely.
The most interesting thing I ever did was go through a hypnotism show’s intermission… still hypnotized. Before the break started, the hypnotist got us all to believe we were different famous people. We could be whoever we wanted, so long as we didn’t choose the same person someone else did. I must have had Maroon 5 on the brain, because in that moment, I told myself, “Yes. I am Adam Levine. Now I’m going to serenade some ladies.”
I flirted aggressively with about half the girls in the room, as far as I can remember. I definitely signed a few autographs. At one point, I asked a girl if she wanted a smooch from the most attractive singer on the planet, but she said she had a boyfriend.
At that point, I’m pretty sure I threatened to beat up the girl’s significant other. I may be a little shorter than average for a woman, and I may have weak little arms that could barely tap a guy’s shoulder, but I was fierce. Thankfully, the intermission ended before I tried to drag a guy out into the alleyway to fight me.
After shows, the hypnotism doesn’t exactly end. Hypnotism has a lot of benefits to one’s mental state, encouraging relaxation and health. Most of the time, a hypnotist ends his show by telling the hypnotized people how they’re going to have a great sleep that evening, and wake up refreshed and energized. I am pleased to admit that actually works. In fact, one hypnotist gave me a CD that was supposed to use hypnotism to promote relaxation and meditation. I put it on during a bath, and within five minutes, I had to stop for fear of sleeping in the bathtub.
I haven’t gone to a hypnotist performance in quite a while, but I still find it very intriguing. Definitely worth looking in to, at least so I can get a good night’s sleep.
