On Wednesday, hypnotist Kerry Sharp brought several students on stage to be a part of his show. According to Charlsie Fowler, Union Program Council arts committee member and sophomore in apparel textiles, approximately 440 students attended the show but only a few were able to come on stage to be hypnotized.
The students were put to sleep and convinced they were secret agents, their shoes were their favorite animals and that pieces of paper were $100 bills that turned to ice. All of this happened as one student slept on the stage floor for half the show.
“I can’t remember a good portion of (the show),” Monica Diaz-Serrano, junior in psychology, said.
As one of the volunteers, Diaz-Serrano, said she didn’t remember many of the things she had done under Sharp’s hypnotism, like using magic goggles that showed her what she wanted to see, receiving a phone call from her shoe and doing an interpretative dance whenever music came on. She said she did remember believing Sharp had fire in his palm.
“(Hypnotism) just enhances the personality,” Sharp said.
When asked what they were seeing, students had a variety of answers. Some, when asked what animal their shoe turned into, said a cow or a puppy; however, for Niki Mewhirter, freshmen in animal sciences and industry, the experience was not as pleasant. When asked, Mewhirter said there was a rabbit stuck to her foot, when in reality, she just could not get her shoe off while under hypnosis.
“I couldn’t get it off,” Mewhirter said. “I couldn’t pick it up or shake it off.”
At the beginning of the show, Sharp told the volunteers they would feel well-rested as well as feeling ready to accomplish a goal for the fall semester. Diaz-Serrano said that after the show, she was ready to be on time to all of her classes this semester, while Mewhirter said she also felt well-rested.
“It feels like a renewed everything; mind and body,” Jayne Bannister, freshman in animal sciences and industry, said after being hypnotized.
Throughout the show, students were sent back to their seats for either not being hypnotized or only being mildly under Sharp’s influence, though Sharp said this is normal and that not everyone is ready to be hypnotized.
“The person who doesn’t get hypnotized doesn’t want to be hypnotized,” Sharp said.
Though the Union Program Council has done hypnotist shows in past years, this is Sharp’s first year performing at K-State. He has been doing shows for 14 years after studying psychology and training to become a hypnotist.
Breanne Lombard, UPC arts committee co-chair and junior in marketing, and Fowler chose Sharp to perform after viewing videos of Sharp’s performances and based off of past reviews.
“It’s a lot of teamwork,” Fowler said.
