“You go into a deep sleep and don’t really remember too much of it…it was really relaxing and calm, and I slept really well afterwards like they said.”
No, junior Grant Dean isn’t talking about any type of drug.
Last month at the Relay for Life event at the Libertyville Sports Complex, he and a few other students volunteered to be hypnotized in front of a crowd of a couple hundred high schoolers by professional hypnotist Ari Silver. Many students were skeptical of the process, including junior Alex Yoor, who also volunteered, but about 20 minutes into the performance, they had fallen into deep hypnosis.
“It felt like (I was) in a dream,” said Yoor. “Your subconscious was aware but physically it felt like you were sleeping.”
While the students felt like they were out cold, Silver was putting on the show of a lifetime. His volunteers readily agreed to forget their own names, get up and sing, and huddle close to one another while under the spell of hypnosis.
“My favorite part (of the show) is when I watch the audience’s reaction to what the volunteers are doing on stage. It validates for the volunteers and for myself how amazing the power of the mind is, and how much you can make real and vivid,” Silver said.
While Silver and other hypnotists find the humor in hypnotism to put on shows, it has actually become a commonly accepted form of therapy for personality issues that people see in themselves. In addition to performing, Silver runs his own private practice from his home in Glencoe. Clients have come to him about things like biting their nails, self-esteem issues, and sleeping habits. The mentally malleable condition that people fall into when they’re hypnotized allows Silver to improve their thought patterns into more positive and relaxed states.
“Some people use hypnosis just to relax,” said Silver. “Like a massage, meditation, or yoga, it can be a great tool to help people unwind and just relax.”
Silver first became infatuated with hypnotism when he was only 10 years old. After seeing an awe-inspiring performance, Silver read extensively on the topic to learn how to use it. When he began to battle insomnia in high school, he tried using the techniques on himself.
“Within two weeks I started to feel results,” he said. “We all program ourselves, and if you learn how to use hypnosis you can reprogram your mind.”
Feeling the positive effects almost instantly, he continued to pursue hypnotism through college, until he eventually received certification from the state as a hypnotist. Silver now hypnotizes patients for therapy, as well as performs at shows every once in a while. His passion for hypnotism and his work is clear — who wouldn’t like the ability to exert mind control? It’s like a superpower — and he is continuing to expand his business in hypnotherapy and performance.
While hypnotherapy has proven effective for those who try it, (Silver said he’s never known anyone to have a negative hypnotism experience), it’s still “new and unexplored” in the world of psychiatry, according to silver. Hypnotism has been around for thousands of years, but it is just now getting thoroughly investigated as a legitimate form of therapy.
In the mean time, however, Silver’s shows are extremely entertaining. Yoor can personally vouch for the obscurity that they bring on.
“I didn’t think I was going to do anything embarrassing because I didn’t think it was going to work. Unfortunately I was wrong when I got up and sang in front of a crowd of people,” she admitted after her rendition of “Country Girl” by Luke Bryan last month.
In addition to cracking up the audience, hypnotism, even for comedic purposes, is beneficial for the volunteers as well. One hour of hypnosis is equivalent to eight hours of deep sleep, according to Silver.
Yoor agrees about the positive effects of hypnotism: “I would definitely do it again because it made me feel really relaxed and rested afterwards. It’s also a fun experience,” she said.
Silver will be performing comedy hypnosis shows tomorrow night at Niles West High School, this Saturday at Elk Grove High School and Saturday, June 13th at Stevenson High School. You can visit his Facebook page, “Hypnotist Ari Silver”, or email him at [email protected] for more information.
