On Wednesday, March 30, the world-renowned hypnotist Sailesh put on a show in the Student Union Theatre. In an event sponsored by the Campus Activities Board, the Student Union Theatre was overflowing with audience anticipation. Every chair in the room was taken, with some eager students standing along the back wall and entrances as well as sitting on the ground before the front row of seating. Sailesh’s show incorporated hypnosis, music and audience participation.

Sailesh described hypnotism as “the power of suggestion.” He stated that the average person goes into a hypnotic state about 60 times a day, usually while doing routine things like driving home. He also mentioned that the average college student goes into a hypnotic state about 100 times each day. The difference between those routine hypnotic states and when he actually hypnotizes someone is that they give the power of suggestion to him.

No one was hypnotized unwillingly. Instead of asking for a show of hands for volunteers, Sailesh invited anyone who wanted to experience hypnotism and the power of suggestion to come up to the stage and take one of the seats on stage.

Sophomore art major Lucienne Christman was hypnotized, and unimpressed with the performance.

“It felt really intimidating at first and I felt obligated mentally to do whatever the man said. It seemed to actually be working.,” said Christman. “However as the time progressed, I felt more aware of my surroundings and felt obligated to act the ridiculous antics for the sake of a good show.”

Sailesh began by lulling everyone on stage into a deep sleep with the sound of his voice. Afterwards, while the participants still had their eyes closed, he made them believe the room was getting colder, suggesting they cuddle with the person next to them for warmth. Next, he made them believe they were on a spaceship going on the first manned mission to Mars, where the participants encountered and interacted with extraterrestrial life-forms, Sailesh convinced a participant to remove his belt, and proceeded to convince the hypnotized that it turned into a snake.

Sailesh also convinced the participants that they each rescued people from a sinking cruise ship and had them tell a story of what happened. The participants came up with everything from gunshots fired, to icebergs, to pirates being responsible for the accident.

Sailesh ended the show by giving the participants a post hypnotic suggestion. This suggestion was his way of thanking them for participating. He suggested that they would be more self-confident and motivated and that the suggestion would be reapplied every time they looked into the mirror.