It was 2017, and the call went out to a bunch of us erotic hypnosis friends to check out a stage hypnosis show in Salem.
Khatsha was only a couple of weeks off the plane from Switzerland to live with me for good, and I loved showing them off. We had Thai food at a long table, with lots of laughs, then went to the little theatre nearby. We were there to see one of the most ubiquitous hypnotists in New England, popular at high school lock-ins and union fundraisers among many other appearances a year. For many people in our area he would be their first, maybe only, experience with hypnosis.
We sat in a big block a few rows back, with the scattering of other people in front of us, about 30 in the whole place. We were full of anticipation and nervous snickering. Many of us, including me, had never been to a stage hypnosis show - in my case because I fetishize it too much. Until recently it would have been like going to see a strip show, that people around me were mysteriously treating like it was Oklahoma. I needed the bravery of being in a group.
He came out in a suit and a powerful vibe of let's-get-through-this show business. In a Tony Soprano accent, he asked the audience, "Who's been hypnotized before?"
There was a lot of giggling from our area as we all put up our hands. He squinted out at us: "Was it at one of my shows?" We shook our heads. "Someone else's show?" Nope. Then, making a joke, "So do you people all sit around and hypnotize each other?" We looked at each other and cracked up!
He called for volunteers, and two from our group went up, along with eight other volunteers, all sitting in a line on the stage. He did the steepled-forefinger convincer. He sent down a bunch of people, including one of ours who's great at being hypnotized. If that's your first experience with hypnosis, I bet that experience of being rejected could mess it for you for life.
He was smooth and confident (and he had a DJ!), but not very engaged. He did an super rushed countdown induction, and attempted to make people's shoes stick to the floor. It didn't work for our remaining friend, let's call her Acher, but he kept her up there.
I whispered to khatsha that we could be giving him more targetted heckling than he's ever had before: "You call that an Ericksonian double bind?? My grandma does a better Cerbone Butterfly!" There was definitely a lot of whispering in our area, but, in our defense, it was super awkward. Sure we goof around with hypnosis all the time, not to mention use it for sex, but oddly I feel the community has a lot of reverence underneath that - a respect for the mystery. This felt cheapening.
The act was full of cheesy jokes and well-worn hypnosis routines that were mostly based on humiliation. At one point he suggested the people onstage would smell that he'd made a huge stinky fart. People got bumped from the stage whenever he judged they weren't responding well enough. The exception was when he suggested to Acher that her shoes would feel like they were on the wrong foot, and then asked her, "Now how do they feel??" She shrugged, "They're comfy. They're Docs."
Still he would not send her off! Maybe because she's femme and glamorous. But it was getting painful. It was down to two college freshman-age women and her, and eventually one of us did a rescue, walking right up to the stage with open arms and welcoming Acher off. He smoothed over the moment like it was his idea.
He made it to his big finale, with the remaining two uninhibitedly lipsyncing to Ke$ha. Maybe they were really hypnotized after all. I'm sure it wasn't even close to his worst show - just one with some puzzling reactions from the peanut gallery.
He left the young women with the suggestion that a) as soon as they left the theatre, they'd forget everything that happened during the show, and b) if they ever attended one of his shows again, they'd want to volunteer. This is pretty fucked up, consent-wise, and we wished we could tell them that, and that hypnosis doesn't have to be this thing. Can be more wonderful, more creative, more collaborative, and a lot less problematic.
Still we were in high spirits as we poured out onto the street, and then into the Honey Dew donuts, picking apart what we'd seen, each bit of NLP and social influence. It was good to be all together.
Acher said she had been looking forward to the induction, she wanted to go with it, but it was so quick and uncommitted. Someone said, "You know, the funny thing is I'm not sure he believes in hypnosis himself." And that stuck with me.
What a sad thing! Developing a hypnosis act and hustling every day to book gigs, making it work in the least respected tiers of entertainment. And thinking all he had to sell was a lump of lead covered in shiny gold paint. I wished I could tell him there was gold, precious gold, in there all along.
Thank to friends who were there helped me fill in details, self identify if you would like!
