When I was in college there was this show that would come around every month or so called "Mike Mesmer-Eyes" and his gig was one of mass hypnosis that would be performed on random members of the crowd. You knew it was "real" because some of the people that ended up being part of the show were people that you know. You knew they weren't plants and in on it because why would they do that without telling anyone?
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At the beginning of the show he asks anyone in the audience if they want to be part of the show and if so, to come up on stage and he will select those that will be part of it. Some "hypnotic" music plays and Mike would proceed to talk to you about - I don't remember what - but the end result was that your right arm was meant to involuntarily be raised at the end of it indicating that you were under his control.
I elected to go up there and see what it was all about and at the end of the initial process my arm was down by my side. I was no hypnotized and when he tapped you on the shoulder you were meant to leave the stage. Obviously, I was not selected because I was not hypnotized and I rejoined my group at our table in the crowd.
My girlfriend at the time, who was quite the stunner if I do say so myself, was one of the ones that was selected.
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Mike would proceed to have about a dozen or so people on stage say and do some pretty embarrassing things such as make straight guys talk about how much they love touching penises (this was the 90's, you could do this without Twitter calling for your incarceration because you say something like that) and making the girls, especially the hot girls say very sexual things and do dances in front of the crowd. He didn't have anyone take their clothes off or make out with anyone or anything truly crazy like that but the people on stage always complied with his commands. One of those commands was making me girlfriend "see" his enormous dick and be completely amazed by it. She looked more afraid than amazed but then he would snap his fingers and she would sleep, and have no memory of it ever happening.
Other people upon hearing a word would break out in a dance, and normally these dances were quite humiliating such as having the big buff guys dance like ballerinas.
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It really was an amazing show. He gradually narrowed down the amount of people on stage and would "dehypnotize" everyone before telling them to leave the stage.
In this particular show, my girlfriend at the time was the last person on the stage and he told her that once he "released her from his spell" that she would go to the crowd but not remember who she came there with or where any of us were. She did precisely this and one of the other girls with our crew called out to her and brought her back to the table. We obviously had a bunch of questions for her but she claimed to have no memory of what had happened and acted a bit embarrassed about what she had just done in front of a couple hundred people.
It was a very convincing show and every time Mike came to town the gig would always sell out. I'm quite certain that Mike made a very good living because his shows were one of the more expensive gigs that this college town would see while I was there.
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Since I wasn't selected during the initial stages, I was always kind of curious about what was wrong with me and why it is that I couldn't be hypnotized by what was touted as "the world's most powerful hypnotist."
It might have been months or even years later but I asked my girlfriend about the show and her involvement in it again and she finally told me the truth as long as I promised not to tell anyone else... I kept that promise and since I have not mentioned her name I feel as though I am still not breaking that promise.
She told me that she was very aware of what she was doing on stage and remembers all of it.... she was not hypnotized
I contacted a few of my other friends that had also been a part of the show and most of them admitted that they too were very aware of what was going on and were not in a trance at all. I would imagine that if we were able to get everyone involved in a survey that has ever been a part of a Mike Mesmer-Eyes show we would find that most, if not all of them, also were not actually hypnotized.
So why do people do this? Is there some desire to do outlandish things in public that is a part of human-nature that people are just afraid to do because of the consequences? Do people want so badly to be the center of attention that they are willing to humiliate themselves in public as long as it isn't their fault?
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To this day I do believe there is such a thing as actual hypnosis. I know several people that have had bad habits hypnotized out of their lives such as alcohol and cigarettes. However, I do NOT believe in mass hypnosis and I definitely don't believe in Mike Mesmer-Eyes who is still doing shows and corporate events to this day.
No one has ever called him out mid-show as far as I am aware either. Now that would be something I would pay to see.
Have you ever been hypnotized? Have you ever been to one of these shows? I'd love to discuss it if you have!
!HYPNO
I have never heard of this guy before. That is definitely a very interesting turn of events. I am guessing for the most part (at least back then) it probably would have been more embarrassing to call him out on stage than to actually do the thing. There is probably also that kind of herd mentality that might make you believe you are hypnotized when really you are not. Who knows. I was expecting them to have seen a flyer on campus and signed up ahead of time or something like that.
well maybe he only targeted certain parts of the country or was just an East Coast guy at the time. I just know he would come to our city a few times a year and it was always sold out. I think that most people were afraid to admit that they were not actually under his spell because of how embarrassing the things were that he made people do.
That could definitely be the case!
It must be a complete disappointment to have attended a show that turned out to be a complete sham. I honestly don't believe in hypnosis, I mean, if it really could be done, what if it couldn't be turned into some sort of weapon with lots and lots of money invested in research?
I've never been to a psychologist (I've always found it interesting, but they are really expensive, lol), but maybe if I knew how they work and understood a little bit about what they do, I might give hypnosis a try, but for now, I would refuse to believe in the existence of it.
I think the kind of hypnosis that works is done through repetition.... take for example the book by Alen Carr (I think that was his name) called "Stop smoking the easy way" it is a VERY repetitive book but he is so confident that people who read it will quit smoking after they finish it that he offered your money back if it didn't work. It worked for thousands of people and very few refunds were ever issued. Ironically, Alen Carr died of lung cancer.
I've been to a psychologist twice and yes, they are expensive. Once it was an attempt on my part to get a prescription for Adderall (I failed) and another time it was to get a bad grade removed from my transcript based on a "fear" I had of the subject matter (I totally made up the fear but succeeded in getting the grade removed - the fact of the matter was that the class was an 8am class and it was really stupid of me to take on a course at such an ungodly hour)
I've actually seen this guy as well! It was Loooooong time ago but I remember being a bit suspicious as well. Unlike you though, I never volunteered to be on the stage and also didn't know any of the people on the stage. The people in the crowd clearly did though and there were a lot of laughs.
Do you recall what city you were in where you saw him?
Blacksburg, Virginia. I think. wow, it was a long time ago.
ah, so you were a VT guy?
nah, i was just visiting a friend who lived there but this was a while ago so I am not even 100% that this is where the venue was. Somewhere around there for sure. This was the late 90's
I think there are two possible things going on with people like the girlfriend you described.
1, it is like the thing people do in church where they throw themselves to the floor when the preacher touches their head. They feel compelled to do so because they have a strong instinct to not be the odd one out. Strong sense of conformity. I suspect popular kids would be more prone to this one.
2, hypnosis is a very subtle trance that if you surrender to, you'll be under the limited control of the hypnotist. Ie, you won't do anything you consider immoral. You may even be completely aware of what is happening the whole time, but outwardly are following instructions. Like if they tell you to forget, you don't actually forget, but if asked, your lips say 'I do not remember!'
Option 2 is actually pretty trippy, but is what I have heard people describe it like before. It makes me think of like a fake perception of free will. Like someone hypnotizing you and telling you to spill a drink. Inside you are laughing, saying 'this is dumb. I am just going along with it.' But in reality, are you?
It's a tough question to answer.
are you sure you aren't a psychologist on the side? That was a great breakdown of the possibilities here. The thing about her going along with the very sexual nature of what she was made to do on stage is that she was not like that at all in real life - she was very conservative and came from a very religious family, he father was literally a minister. Maybe this was her chance to act promiscuous when such activity was repressed or punished her entire life. Who knows?