An adult-themed hypnotist performed some shockingly lewd mind games on a group of student volunteers in the Brooks Student Center last Thursday. The show, which was attended by a rather large audience, was last week’s installment of the Gorham Events Board’s weekly event series, Thirsty Thursday.
The hypnotist, a very bulky man with a long pony tail, arrived on stage wearing all black clothes and a pair of strikingly white sneakers.
The performance began with the hypnotist casually leading the audience through some simple relaxation exercises before selecting some courageous volunteers to come onto the stage. Gradually, he began to make suggestions to the participants – “Your hands are locked together,” he said. “You are unable to pull them apart.” A careful survey of the volunteers’ hands revealed who was resisting the trance, and who was collapsing into it like putty.
After weeding out all the people who were not able to be hypnotized, the hypnotist suggested that the remaining participants get a “whiff” of something foul. Whenever the hypnotist said the word “drink,” the volunteers would feel that the smell was increasing. The hypnotist then launched into an offhand speech about “drinking” and driving, before suggesting that the participants identify the source of the awful smell, which ensued in a hilarious round of finger-pointing.
Next, the hypnotist blew “magic dust” at the participants, suggesting that they become giggly and feel “high” on the invisible wonder narcotic. With a cough, the hypnotist convinced each of the participants that he or she was the most attractive person on earth. A moment later, he had the participants responding to ridiculous and crude nicknames.
It was around here, still early in the show, that the tricks began to become more sexual, and the light attitude and direct manner of the hypnotist began to become more unsettling. In one particularly obscene act, the hypnotist convinced a female student that a “voodoo” doll was an extension of her body and then proceeded to perform a number of sexual acts on the doll, inspiring graphic reactions in the student.
“It was not at all what I expected,” said one student who attended the show. “I think it was a little much.” “I personally felt violated,” said Becky Simmons, a sophomore criminology and history major. While the audience was mixed between those who found it uncomfortable and those who found it hilarious, the show did not cross any legal lines, and it certainly did get a lot of laughs. It remains to be seen, however, whether or not this particular hypnotist will be invited back to USM in the future.