On Oct. 2, Dr. Jim Wand returned to the West Allis campus to put on his annual show as well as host a private group session for more serious inquiries into hypnotism. He’s been performing at West Allis Campus for more than 20 years and has become a campus favorite.
The morning started with a brief interaction with one of Wand’s promoters at the entrance to the cafeteria, who cheerfully explained that the show would be starting soon and was looking for volunteers to be hypnotized.
“One hour of hypnosis is like six hours of sleep,” Wand claimed. “I never sleep more than four hours a night, I use self-hypnosis.”
Wand went on to explain that hypnotism cannot make a person do anything that they are not comfortable with.
He then performed a brief demonstration of illusion using a spinning black and white disc, which after several seconds of gazing caused Wand’s head to appear to be cartoonishly inflated.
Around 12 volunteers were called up to the performance area, and Wand proceeded to use an “eye fixation point” – in this case a small spinning light – to begin the process of hypnotizing the group. Wand advised audience members who did not wish to also be hypnotized not to look at the spinning light; he alleged that many audience members who do direct their attention to the light during the process frequently end up hypnotized.
Wand continued to hypnotize the volunteers while explaining the process to the audience, at one point dismissing several volunteers who he felt just were not able to get into the right mindset on that particular day.
Once Wand had the remaining volunteers adequately hypnotized, the fun began. A variety of humorous demonstrations took place, such as having volunteers vigorously play a nonexistent instrument, volunteers using their shoes as binoculars at the Kentucky Derby, and having one volunteer act out the role of a Martian crash-landed on Earth with another volunteer interpreting for the “Martian.”
After the performance, Wand offered a private group session where he would hypnotize the group, give them the tools to hypnotize themselves, and help them to improve one thing in their lives that was bothering them. All in all, Wand continues to put on quite a show for the West Allis Campus.