After the fun that happened backstage after the high school stage show, I found myself with a number of new friend requests on Facebook. Some of them I accepted straight away, as in the case of Deric, who was such a phenomenal subject. Others, like a few under aged girls, I opted on declining, if only for the sake of propriety.
Deric and I stayed in touch here and there using our profile status posts, and when I found that Deric was on his spring break, I suggested a bit of hypnosis might be fun for him. He suggested he bring some friends along, which I readily agreed to, and encouraged an adult chaperone. So on Sunday afternoon, April 11th, Deric arrived (wooly hat and all) with friends Trevor, Autumn, Veronica [Ronni] and—blessing of blessings!—Ronni's mom Kathy. We had wonderful time.
What was intended to be a quick tour of hypnosis, and encouragement for these fine young men and women to spread the word to their teachers at school how much they'd like me to come in and give a free classroom demonstration, lasted more than two and a half hours(!). Visiting puppy Cash provided some entertainment before we got started.
Trevor and Autumn were both responsive, at a level I would say is a least if not more so than my own ability to enter trance. Probably more. Ronni was wonderfully receptive at an even higher level than her friends, and Deric...well, Deric is most definitely a somnambulist, the hypnotist's dream subject, with a relish and enthusiasm for the experience that makes it more fun for him than anyone watching him.
Trevor got to lose control of his vocal cords and couldn't speak his own name. Autumn and Ronni were given a pop quiz following some suggested amnesia and were rather challenged by the question of which was their right hand and which was their left. Autumn, her expression very sincere, focused her eyes and said, "Wait! I know this!" I then brought out a cute teddy bear in a sweater--yes, I actually have one, don't judge--and presented him to the girls after they became convinced that he was their ultimate idol and celebrity superstar. I'd never seen two girls so shy around a teddy bear. A few days later, Ronni confided, "I'm still mad at that teddy bear."
But the star of the day was Deric. He exceeded all expectations in his responses and started us off right by believing his name was Chocolate Chip Muffin. Autumn was right on hand to capture everything with her digital camera as Deric was given what he believed were the coolest, most awesome shoes he'd ever seen in his life. After much begging and pleading, I agreed to swap the Awesome Shoes for his own beloved tennis shoes, whereupon Deric discovered all too late he had put himself into bright red and yellow clown shoes. Realizing his comical error, Deric then found he suddenly had no idea how to untie the laces and extricate himself from the clown shoes. After walking around in the magical footwear, he experienced a favorite routine of mine and felt them grow as heavy as concrete and then lighter than giant helium balloons. Seated back on the couch, clown shoes floating off the ground, convulsed in induced laughter, Deric was prompted to simply request the shoes be removed. For some reason, making a plain statement while laughing yourself silly as your clown-shoed feet hover in front of you is no easy task.
Deric eventually got his own shoes back, but along with them came a big straw hillbilly hat he could not remove with any amount of struggling. From within the hat, Deric found his voice became "book-ended" with cartoonish pronouncements. He could only speak by prefacing everything he said with "Duuhhh..." and punctuating it afterward with "Huh-YUKK!" You could recite Einstein's Theory of Relativity with that mannerism and still come across sounding like an absolute bumpkin.
The time went rapidly and as with all things, it had to end eventually. I even got to spend a little one-on-one time with Ronni an her mom toward the end, which was most rewarding. Now Ronni is talking about hosting another at-home hypnosis session at her own abode. I will keep you posted on what happens.
That evening I found Deric's Facebook status post read as follows: "Went in for some more hypno and omg it was awesome absolutly awesome. once again in a EPIC MOOD i am exstatic!!!!!!!!"
I am still working toward making those school appearances happen. I hope that the people whom I meet in those settings will feel the same as Deric.
Sorry we didn't get to do anything with the big bumpkin boots, Deric. Maybe next time. All images are courtesy of Autumn Hagen.
