The art of Hypnotism

Some time ago (in the mth of September), I attended a hypnotism seminar/show & it was indeed an eye opener. The experience was fun, exciting and yet scary. Imagine to have someone that capable of manipulating others with such persuasive ability. However, not everyone can be hypnotized. It's all in the mind. If you allow yourself to be vulnarable enough to be controlled, then you'll be one of the first to doze off. It's an imaginary world. According to the hypnotist, those who are hypnotized are actually conscious and aware of their surrounding but they just don't bother to wake up because they're too comfy in their imaginary world. They rarely remember what they did during the process.

It was interesting to watch. I was afraid that I could be hypnotized below stage that I had to keep myself aware n awake all the time. The hypnotizer started out by recruiting volunteers upstage - about 12-15 students went up n sat on the chairs arranged in a semicircular form. Then there was this blinking white light in the middle facing the volunteers. The hypnotizer started talking, telling the students to imagine themselves in a relaxing and comfortable situation. Let their guards down. Relaxed was the key word. Slowly (about 5 minutes), one by one, the students starting dozing off. Some were limp-ish that they couldn't even sit straight. It was obvious that 1 or 2 were still quite consious, not entirely allowing themselves to be hypnotized. The hypnotizer 'woke' the un-hypnotized and went down stage to recruit those who were hypnotized unknowingly down stage. It was funny and amazing that there were quite a number of people who were hypnotized down stage even without the blinking lights n proper atmosphere. There was this guy near to us and he was hell hypnotized cos he was doing wateva the people on stage were doing. The hypnotizer had them clasp their hands together n hold them tight, as if the hands were glued n there was no way to separate them. N this guy did exactly as what he was told...

The hypnotizer did a number of things. He just had to count 1,2,3 n pat them n they'd be snoring like pigs. Immediate dozing.... I was extremely awed! He told the hypnotized students to imagine that they were in a cold place n they were all shivering like mad. He told them to imagine themselves sunbathing which of cos they did. They even imagined an ice-cream at hand. One was licking his hands cos of the imaginary melting ice-cream. They were asked the flavors of the ice-cream n 1 guy said "beer"!!! hahahaha... They did many things. E.g. imagine the crowd naked, imagine themselves naked (1 guy din bother about the fact that he was naked on stage n just sat on his chair with the 'don care' look while others tried their best to hide). They imagined they had pet birds - 1 girl had a pet turkey hahahaha... n the hypnotizer made them imagine that the pet bird was crawling into their clothes n it was uncomfortable that they had to try everyway to remove the 'pet'. Some girls were on the verge of taking off their clothes already.

Extra funny scenes.
1 girl was hypnotized n was told that she will not know the existence of the number '7'. So, wheneva she counts, number 7 will never appear in her head. So, she was tested, counting her fingers n she did skip 7, going from 6 to 8. She ended up having 11 fingers. That was hillarious! Even after she was seated, she kept looking at her fingers n toes, counting again n again, not understanding y she had 11 fingers n toes. At 1 point she hid 1 of her fingers n managed to have 10 fingers. Hahahha...

1 guy was told that he would realize himself wearing his shirt inside out wheneva the word 'car key' was said. Wheneva the hypnotizer mentioned car keys, the guy would look awkward n rather embarrassed n he would ultimately change his shirt inside out, doesn't matter whether the shirt was inside out in the 1st place. He did it repeatedly thanks for the hypnotizer. Hahaha...

1 girl was told that she will not remember her name but she will remember the names of everyone else that she knows. When the hypnotizer asked her name, she looked completely blur n had no idea what her name was. When asked wat was 1 of her friend's names, she said right away but not her own name though. Funny expression...

1 guy was told that he was a big fat liar, trying to convince every1 that he was a celebrity. N wheneva he lied, his underwear would get tighter. When he was asked who he was, the guy said "Bill Clinton" Hahaha... n he started twisting n turning on his chair, unable to sit right thanks to his tightened underwear. The hypnotizer asked for his pics n autograph n the guy agreed, which added to the uncomfortableness of the tight underwear. The guy actually said that he did not have sex with Monica (I think thats what he said) Hahaha... Just so funny to see him moving about n fidgeting on his chair. Can't just sit right....

There were other funny stuffs like a few guys were told to imagine themselves as ballerinas which they did dance ballet in a horrifying manner. Hahaha.. 2 girls were told that they were seat belts n wheneva the word safety was said, they would fling themselves to people next to them (as many as possible, right on their lap) to keep them safe. Well, they are safety belts after all. Hahaha... Wat else? Oh ya, they were told to imagine themselves at an MTV dance competition n only that few guys could come down stage to earn extra points to win that competition n get paid as well, if the audience as willing to. The extent that they go to with their dances just to win... My... N another 1 was a guy who was told to imagine he was in elementary school n he brought his pet monkey to school, shouting out "who wants to pet my monkey" wheneva the word BSU is said. After shouting that line, the guy would feel that he's no more an elementary student n that he would feel embarrassed for doing wateva he did... Haha...

The whole show was comedic because the hypnotizer was comedic. COme to think about it, it made me wonder - to trust my eyes or to trust reason. How true is the power of hypnotism? If it is genuine, how much of power that it exerts? Although i saw hypnotism with my own bare eyes, i could still hardly convince myself that everything was true... Empiricism (experience/senses) vs rationalism (reason/facts)? What do you think?