Half of the students in the room suddenly jerked their hands, swatting at flies that only they could see. These students were in a hypnotic trance, courtesy of Rich Jacks, Whitman’s associate dean of student health and wellness. The event was held at the Sigma Chi fraternity house on Tuesday, Jan. 30.
“I’m not going to make anyone look stupid and foolish,” said Jacks, to the disappointment of the crowd. “It’s up to you whether you become hypnotized or not; it depends on your individual cooperation and concentration.”
Jacks then divided the group into two circles: a smaller one in the middle of those who only wanted to observe and a bigger surrounding circle of students eager to be hypnotized. Those on the inner circle were given a Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale scoring sheet and a group of four students on the outer circle to evaluate.
In a soothing voice, Jacks told the crowd just relax and listen to his voice. He then asked them to merely think about their heads falling forward, explaining that thinking an action is closely related to doing it.
“Your head is feeling heavy, it’s falling more and more forward,” Jacks said.
Slowly but surely the heads of most of those sitting in the outer circle began to fall forward. After a moment Jacks told the group to sit up and open their eyes. It had been a quick demonstration of the power of suggestion and now the true hypnosis would begin.
Jacks began by asking everyone to relax their entire body while concentrating hard on a target spot on their hands.
“Hypnosis is simply a state of deep concentration. In a sense you are hypnotized every time you watch a good show and forget that you are part of the audience,” said Jacks.
Once everyone was thoroughly relaxed, Jacks began to count to 20, telling the audience that once he was done counting they would be in a deep sleep and wouldn’t awaken until he asked them to.
The next half hour consisted of Jacks slowly suggesting different body movements that the hypnotized group followed in a cult-like fashion.
“I wonder if you could shake your head. I really don’t think you could shake your head. Your head is so heavy… Perhaps you might try shaking your head… Try shaking your head.”
The group shook their heads, raised their arms, interlocked their hands and then finally swatted at invisible flies. Before Jacks woke the group from their hypnotic trance, he told them they would be unable to remember anything until he told them they could. He also commanded them to touch their left ankle when he tapped a stick against a chair but not to remember that he told them to.
Jacks again counted to 20 and the group woke up, bleary-eyed and drowsy. He tapped the chair and about half of the group instantly touched their left ankles. Many looked surprised at their sudden memory after he told them they were allowed to remember what they had done.
“That was legit,” said junior Andrew Knox. “When he tells you what to do and you have it in your mind, it’s like you cannot go against that.”
“It felt like common sense [to follow Jacks’ instructions],” said first-year Will Falltrick.
Jacks held a brief question-and-answer session. He explained that hypnosis can be used for a number of things including lulling patients awaiting surgery. Jacks personally performs self-hypnosis when visiting the dentist. However, he explained that he doesn’t use hypnosis in his practice as a counselor.
“I don’t do it clinically because I’m not philosophically comfortable with it. As a counselor, I have an unwritten contract with my clients that I will act more as a teacher, helping students gain power over their own lives, not doing it for them.”
Contrary to popular myth, Jacks doesn’t think that anyone can be hypnotized into doing dangerous things.
“If I’d told the students to do something that they really didn’t want to do, they would have just woken up,” said Jacks.
