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!