Noted Hypnotist Visits UIS, Mesmerizes Audience

September 03, 2008
By Gary Smothers
Staff Writer

Photos by David Clary

“Don’t make me do this,” stated an excited attendee of the Fredrick Winters hypnotism show. Held on August 26 in the Student Life Building Gym, a large crowd gathered abuzz with anticipation before the show. Many had seen Winters perform before and were in great anticipation to either watch or offer themselves up to his powers of manipulating the human consciousness.

Speaking to Winters before the show offered some insight into how a regular guy finds himself as perhaps the most successful “campus hypnotist” in the country. “I’d always seen myself entertaining, but never at this level … I’ve always had an affinity for hypnosis, but this is crazy. I love it,” said Winters. Fredrick Winters got his start by shadowing with another hypnotist and later became certified in the behavioral modification practice called hypnotherapy. He admits freely that he had once been a skeptic of hypnosis. To those that would doubt the power of consciousness manipulation, Winters dares, “Get hypnotized. Once. I did.”

Winters introduces himself to a crowd of UIS students. Many saw Winters at his last performance on campus in early 2008.

The crowd cheered in delight at the show’s start, apparently fully prepared and already under a spell of sorts. After a brief introduction, Winters began the show with a “speed hypnotic induction” of an attendee named Roger who had seen Winters perform on a previous occasion. A collection of twenty audience members, including the newly backwards-walking Roger, assembled on the gym floor. Techno music filled the gym as Winters spoke in a cadence with the beat of the song as the twenty students gazed up at an orange light apparently mesmerized. Soon, one by one, they began to relax, sagging like wilting flowers, their arms and heads appearing lifeless. Their consciousness, a small portion, Winters clarified, now belonged to him.

The hypnotized twenty went to the beach, checking out attractive mates and yelling what they thought were good pick-up lines. While on the beach, it became very chilly. A roller coaster ride was taken. Ice cream was licked from non-existent cones. At times inadvertently hypnotized attendees were brought into play as well as they stood up at key worded moments and proclaimed, “I need a man!” And finally, the hypnotized ones became dogs, dog handlers, or judges at a dog show.

Later, post-hypnotized student Aimee Winebaugh summed it up well when asked what had just occurred. “I felt detached. I don’t know. It was just awesome.”