Sophomore Nate Malock was on the auditorium stage last week, in front of dozens of friends and peers – and he could not remember his name.
Malock was one of eight volunteers in a presentation by hypnotist Jason Christopher for psychology class students. Christopher hypnotized them in various ways, such as making them sleep, laugh, or in Malock’s case, not remember his own name.
While Malock was in a state of hypnosis, Christopher told him that his name was Mary – and that he would not remember his actual name unless Christopher told him otherwise. Christopher then asked Malock several times what his name was, and he replied with “Mary” each time.
“Some things I can see in my mind, but I can’t put a picture to it — like when they called me Mary,” Malock said.
Malock said that he could not believe or remember certain parts of being onstage until his friends showed him their videos of it.
Junior Zachary Czapko was told that his arm was a beam of steel in the air. Sophomore Dominic Emiliani was brought on stage for a moment to try to push down Czapko’s arm, but he could not.
“I felt that I was very conscious the entire time. However, I could not control my body movements. It was like I was just there,” Czapko said.
Everyone on stage was told they were watching a funny movie, which caused them all to start laughing. Abruptly, Christopher told them that the film had become sad, and they began to cry.
At another point, volunteers were also told that they were at the beach in the Bahamas, and then they were told that the temperature dropped. This made them believe they had become very cold.
The volunteers at other times believed they had bugs stuck on them, that there was a foul smell nearby, or that they were sweating.
Despite popular assumption, hypnosis is not a state of sleep or complete control. An article in Psychology Today describes hypnosis instead as a state of intense focus and heightened suggestibility.
Though hypnosis is often seen as being used in comedy or entertainment, it can have medical benefits.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, many of the benefits that come from hypnotherapy are anecdotal. This means that it cannot be proven if or how the hypnosis worked, but patients still reported improvement. Hypnotherapy is being continually studied by experts.
Hypnotherapy can be used to help people reduce unwanted habits or improve healthy behavior. In this state, people may use their subconscious to address their issues and concentrate on changing.
Jerad Smith, an educator with Allegheny Health Network’s Chill Room at Baldwin, said people need to begin hypnotherapy with the willingness to change.
“Like a lot of things within psychology and mental health, you need to be able to want to do whatever you set out to do,” Smith said. “A lot of it has to do with having willpower to begin with, and then hypnotherapy can be another tool to get you to where you need to be.”
Some people have heightened suggestibility, although it is possible for anyone to be hypnotized, Christopher said. To determine which students to bring on stage during his presentation, Christopher did two tests on the audience to determine who was most easily suggestible.
Psychology teacher David Dunaway brought Christopher to Baldwin so his students could learn more about hypnotherapy. He wanted to not only show the entertaining elements of the topic but also how hypnosis can be used to reach goals and achieve success.
“I loved the program that he had with the goal setting,” Dunaway said. “It was tied not only to my course, but to everyone in general as they make their way through school.”
Though the second half of the presentation was more comedic, allowing the crowd to see volunteers in a state of hypnosis, the first half was focused on personal inspiration and motivation. One of Christopher’s main points was that students need the determination to complete their goals.
“Your unconscious mind is a powerful resource for you if you use it correctly, and most people don’t,” Christopher said. “If you sit back and continually tell yourself something that’s vividly imagined is what it is going to be like for you in the future, your unconscious mind will start to program itself to get that for you.”
He also explained the power of mental conditioning, citing the famous Pavlov’s dog experiment as an example. In that case, a bell was rung every time before a dog was given food. Because the dog associated the bell with food, just hearing it ring eventually made the dog salivate.
Christopher compared this scenario to students thinking about their goals constantly and using rewards and punishments to reach those goals.
“The first thing when you wake up from bed in the morning, I want you to put that (goal) back in your mind,” Christopher said to the audience. “It’s training your unconscious mind. You can go into a repetition just like that.”
The key is to focus, he said.
“Simply put your mind to it,” Christopher said. “And now all of a sudden, you can achieve it.”
