Last Tuesday, the Associated Students Inc. (ASI) hosted “Get Hypnotized with the Board” with Dr. Dave Hill hypnotizing volunteers.

The event started with a few volunteers from the audience participating in being hypnotized.

ASI President Brandon Demers (senior, Political Science/Economics) was one of the people who chose to volunteer.

“I wasn’t going to do it because I was going to let everyone else do it, but they really wanted me to do it so I was like ‘okay yeah fine’,” Demers said.

Some of the participants being hypnotized were asked to smell their own shoe and their partner’s, laugh hysterically, sing “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey and much more.

“Every show is different. The people, the makeup of the audience, where the venue is, because we don’t do the same skits every show,” Dr. Hill said. “There’s always a few fun, memorable moments in every show. There’s not one specific [participant]; it’d be unfair to everyone else who has been on my show”.

In his website, Dr. Hill states some benefits of being hypnotized, such as discovering how powerful a mind is and how to create impactful relationships. 

Demers recalls a few things when he was hypnotized.

“I remember waking up a few times, and I remember switching my shoes, but I don’t remember switching them backwards,” Demers said. “I remember most of the stuff; I remember dancing, leading the group to dance, and I remember a lot of sleeping.”

Dr. Hill has two favorite hypnotist tricks that he enjoys to use on the volunteers.

“We used to teach people how to eat fire who are under hypnosis,” Dr. Hill said. “We don’t do that anymore because, especially here, we have to get fire marshal involved so they’ll let me do that.”

He also added that “We used to do something we called the ‘Human Bridge’ where we would suspend someone between two chairs and someone would stand on top of them.”

Alicia Torres (sophomore, Child Development) was in the audience and said she enjoyed the show.

“I thought it was very interesting,” Torres said. “At first, I was kind of skeptical, even throughout it, but once I talked to [the participants], I was like ‘oh maybe it is real.'”

The show ended with the participants performing a cover of “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, something that Dr. Hill rarely does, and by him answering questions that audience members had.