ENMU The Chase | By Kiley Garrett
MTV Award winning hypnotist Sailesh Jiawan, known as Sailesh the Hypnotist, visited Eastern New Mexico University on Feb. 6, and according to audience members, the results were hilarious and shocking.
Many people rushed the stage when Sailesh called for volunteers, even the skeptics, who believed that hypnosis was not possible.
Connor Words said he was skeptical at first, but once Sailesh started speaking, he went into a trance.
“His voice reminded me of an infomercial,” Words said. “I was gone; I was so calm.”
According to Sailesh, hypnosis is something that most people put themselves under almost every day. The most common type is called Highway Hypnosis, which occurs while a person is driving, especially if they already know how to get to their destination.
“If you’ve never experienced hypnosis, you probably don’t have a car,” Sailesh told the audience.
While Sailesh was focusing on putting volunteers under deep hypnosis, several people in the audience noticed that their friends had also become hypnotized, an event that Sailesh had said might happen to some who focused on his voice and relaxed their minds.
“Give me an open mind, and let’s see what happens.” Sailesh told the audience.
While many found themselves easily being put under, some either intentionally or unintentionally fought the hypnotic sleep.
“Just because you don’t go under tonight, doesn’t mean you can’t be hypnotized,” Sailesh told the few volunteers that didn’t go under. “You’ll get there.”
Starting off by making the volunteers believe they were enduring subzero temperatures that had many of the people on stage huddling together, he slowly began to transition into more adult-oriented content, making volunteers believe he was the most beautiful woman on the planet and having the male volunteers lightly slap themselves every time they had an impure thought about him.
Sailesh closed the show with a positive ending, telling those who were hypnotized that when they woke up, they would be more confident, and when they looked at their reflection from then on, they would like what they saw more than they had before being hypnotized.
According to Sailesh, Hollywood has hypnosis all wrong.
“A hypnotist puts the conscience to sleep and works with the subconscious,” he said. “The subconscious doesn’t know the difference between reality and fiction.”
Sailesh said that while a lot of people think that they have less control while hypnotized, it’s actually the opposite.
“Illusion becomes reality,” Sailesh said after the show. “You’re visualizing and seeing things that aren’t really there, but it feels absolutely real.”
Sailesh said he hopes this won’t be his only visit to ENMU.
“I loved it,” Sailesh said. “The energy was amazing. Hopefully, we can kind of make it a little bit of a tradition.”
