A Random Fact: I Have Been Hypnotized.

True story.

I attended one of those county fair demonstrations with a handful of friends.

We mostly went to make fun of the posers on stage.

This was a fun idea until my friends thought it would be a good idea to get an insider's perspective on hypno-poser-dom, and lucky me - I chose the short straw.





Next thing you know, I was sitting in my designated sceptic's chair on stage.

My plan was to prove hypnosis was a scam once and for all, and to return to my friends in as short amount of time as possible.





Interestingly, my plan failed.





I sat in my chair like a good little subject, and listened to all the crazy stuff the hypno-man was saying and kept my eyes closed like he asked.

He talked of tying imaginary balloons to our wrists and other nonsense.

When he asked us to open our eyes, my left arm was high above my head, and my wrist was dangling up in the air.





This was actually not part of my plan.

Remember: My plan was for nothing to happen, and for me to return to my seat in the audience. (Stick to the plan, girl, stick to the plan!)




Suddenly a thought occurred to me - Oh No! I have totally turned into one of those lame people on stage who plays along, since I am clearly not hypnotized...

(Never mind the arm.)


Hypno-man then excused several people from stage, but I was not one of them.


Hypno-man suggested we engage in some pretty silly behavior. Pure ridiculousness - all of it, but it just happened to sound like a good idea.
Pretty much everything he asked us to do just sounded like a good idea.


(You can just forget the notion that I was hypnotized - I certainly was not.)

(Never mind the audience laughing hysterically at my expense.)



Hypno-man then excused several more people from the stage to return to their seats in the audience.


In fact, he excused everyone but me.

He had a special plan in mind for me.

He announced his weight -210 lbs.

He then asked my weight -

125 lbs. at the time.

(P.S. - This is not the fun game called "Try To Figure Out How Long Ago This Was")


Hypno-man then announced his plan to place a stool beneath my neck and another stool beneath my ankles and then stand on my abdomen. He played really loud music. He whispered then told me intently, over and over again in my ears, for several minutes how strong I was - like steel - unbendable.




I did, oddly, suddenly believe I was quite strong and allowed his assistants to lift me and place me onto the chairs all stiff-like, like a plank of wood - and then, yes, he stood on my abdomen and I did not flinch or bend one little bit under his weight.

(Not that I was in fact, not only hypnotized - but THE MOST hypnotized of all!)
It seems this was some sort of a grand finale, as the crowd went wild with ooohs and aahhs and applause instead of the usual laughter.




I have been recounting this story, perhaps randomly, for about 15 years.




The name of hypno-man : David Silverman.
( I always think I will forget it, but it always comes right back.)





You see, after the show - when we were all "set right again" as I choose to call it, hypnoman also suggested that anytime hypnotism is brought up in our presence we will feel compelled to recount our experience in its entirety, and tell about him.



And, well, tonight it was brought up again.

Seriously, I do not feel at all compelled to share this with you. I just thought it was a good idea.

Don't worry - that hypnotism stuff is a bunch of baloney!
(Clearing throat. Yeah... nonsense.)