Hypnotist entrances students

Tessa Nichols sat in the audience in a trance; her head hung down, as did half of the… Tessa Nichols sat in the audience in a trance; her head hung down, as did half of the audience’s in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room. She was lifted by two male audience members and placed on the stage, where she lay on her back, squirming in slumber.

She did not remember how she got there.

“I’m so out of it. I feel like I’m on drugs,” Nichols said later.

By the time internationally known hypnotist Ken Whitener concluded his demonstration Tuesday night, he had already convinced Nichols and three other female Pitt students that they were Madonna.

“You’re so confident,” she said, “because everyone is laughing and you feel like you’re really funny.”

Nichols was not the only student to feel this sensation. After a series of “tests” for aptitude to undergo successful hypnosis, Whitener selected 12 student volunteers to demonstrate the “natural phenomenon” onstage.

Whitener said hypnosis invovles going into a “natural state” — the same sensation everyone feels when they awaken from slumber and during the final moments before they go to sleep. With a degree in clinical hypnosis from the Baylor University College of Medicine, Whitener taught this field at the college level for six years. In addition to appearing as a guest on television shows, he has toured with “Professor of Poolology” Jack White for the past 20 years.

Comparing it to previous years of performances at Pitt, Whitener described Tuesday’s turnout as merely average. But students were eager to undergo the phenomenon and Whitener, a member of Mensa, carried the night with the enthusiasm and the vocal inflections of a game show host.

He described his performance as a comedy/hypnosis show, saying that, “like anything else, some can do this better than others.” For some people, the onset of the hypnotic trance takes a few minutes, while for others, the process is “quick and easy,” he explained.

“Raise your hand if you know somebody who’s quick and easy,” he said to the audience. He then explained the three rules by which one must abide in order to be successfully hypnotized.

“Relax, concentrate, and activate your imagination,” he said.

He uttered phrases such as “all negative thoughts are leaving your mind,” “focus on the music and the sound of my voice,” “let go of your stress,” and “you are going on a journey through time and space.”

The students on the stage began to go limp, as did many members of the audience.

“Hypnotism is based on confidence and trust and allowing yourself to relax,” he said.

Whitener then recruited Nichols and a freshman named Lizzie, whom he later convinced that she had 11 fingers and that her name was Larry.

Another student soon became Elvis Presley, rocking out to “Jailhouse Rock” and “Hound Dog” on an inflatable guitar. Then, another male volunteer became Michael Jackson and danced and lip-synched to “Thriller.” This student was so convinced of his new identity that he refuted all criminal allegations that Whitener suggested in a soft, high-pitched voice and refused to return the single silver glove the demonstrator lent him.

Kyle Harding was one of the students on the stage. He claimed that he remembered “bits and pieces” of the experience, but mostly from the beginning of the hypnosis.

This beginning did not, evidently, include the point at which Harding and four other men, including Presley and Jackson, were manipulated by Whitener to believe that they were male exotic dancers.

At the onset of the show, Whitener explained that, “we don’t try to embarrass anybody. It’s not like those shows where they get you to bark like dogs, cluck like chickens, or,” he laughed, “take your clothes off.”

But shirts were stripped off with as much grace as the men of “The Full Monty” and flung into the audience. Then, the male strippers were hypnotically transformed into drag queens, who introduced themselves with names such as Theresa and Candice. When Whitener ended their trances, the five male Pitt students — the last to be under hypnosis — had the rude awakening of finding themselves giving lap dances to male audience members.