By Katie Potzick

“The Show with you as a Star” was the slogan for last Wednesday night’s hypnotist show in the Student Activities Center multipurpose room, and the performance definitely lived up to its catchphrase.
On Sept. 16, audience members were invited onto the stage to experience hypnotism. The stage was surrounded by tables, instead of rows of chairs like last year, making it a more welcoming environment and giving it a nightclub vibe. Most of the students had heard about the performance through a Student Government Association e-mail, and were eager to see if the action would be real or staged.
“I’ve always wanted to see someone hypnotized,” said Rose Marshall, a freshman psychology and English major. “I was at home when I read the e-mail, and I knew I had to come.”
The hypnotist, C.J. Johnson, came on stage to a prerecorded introduction that stated he was voted Hypnotist of the Year by college-aged students. He started the show by dispelling myths about hypnotism.
“You can’t be made to do anything against your moral or ethical beliefs,” said Johnson. “Also, everyone but three types of people can be hypnotized. Those three are: drunks, people with a clinical IQ of less than 70 and the person that offends the audience the most–the smart guy.”
After this statement, he invited whoever wanted to be hypnotized to come on stage. There was a rush toward the front and 20 people made the final cut.
“[Hypnosis] is not a zombie-like state,” said Johnson. “You will be aware of what’s going on around you, but you just won’t care.”
He then started to hypnotize them by having them relax and listen to him speak. With soothing music in the background, Johnson told the participants that they would be filled with warm liquid relaxation and start to feel sleepy. After this exercise, the participants were under his sway and did what he told them to do.
Johnson did temperature exercises, in which he told the students they were hot or cold and they responded by fanning themselves and wiping their foreheads, or shivering uncontrollably and covering their arms.
Next, he told them they were vying for a movie role and were at an audition. For this supposed audition, they acted like vacuum cleaners, washing machines and bacon frying in a skillet. The apex of the show was when he had them try out for the musical “Grease.” They danced and sang along to a track of “Greased Lightning,” all the while thinking they were the character Danny Zuko.
Courtney Browne, a freshman undecided major, was one of the participants.
“It’s like he said, it’s not quite like being asleep or under a spell,” said Browne. “It’s more like you’re just so relaxed and at ease that you don’t really care about anything that’s going on. It was a lot of fun.”
“It was an interesting hour and a half, which felt closer to 2-3 minutes,” said Jenna Lichtenberger, a freshman anthropology major. “I felt as if I could go through another full day of classes and still have energy for homework, house chores and hanging out with friends, even though it was already 9 p.m.”
After the show was over, students tried to figure out if the show was real or fake.  “I did think it was real, because it’s all based on suggestion,” said Marshall. “After the show I was trying to convince one of the girls of something that she did, and she really didn’t remember until the guy told her. Overall, I thought it was a fantastic show. I’d love to see another hypnotist, and maybe go up on stage myself.”