The volunteers’ hypnotic antics included having their arms transformed into giant bunny ears.
HANCEVILLE – Comedic hypnotist Gary Conrad visited Wallace State Community College Sunday afternoon to help promote the work of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which helps bring moments of joy to children fighting deadly diseases. The event was a fundraiser for an upcoming Make-a-Wish project by Sandy Seibert, who was the host and emcee.
Before the performance, Amy Olvey shared with the audience the Make-a-Wish experience of her daughter Mary, whose wish was to be a Disney princess:
“We had a wonderful family that came to visit us, and helped us get everything prepared through Make-a-Wish for our wish to go to Disney World. We actually got to go for a week, and we stayed at a place called ‘Give Kids the World.’ And they absolutely give kids the world there. I could not have asked for a better experience; we had one week when our family was normal. The boys could be boys, they could be her brothers, and we didn’t have to worry about cancer. We got to be a real family and enjoy our time. It was awesome! I would love for other families to be able to experience what we experienced.”
Conrad, who is New Jersey-born and South Carolina-based, has been performing hypnosis for more 30 years. He explained a little about what he does.
“What hypnosis does is slow down the brainwaves a little bit. When you’re in the alpha brainwave state, which some people call hypnotism, it’s very close to being awake, but different enough to warrant its own category,” said Conrad. “When a human being is in that state, they are very suggestible; suggestibility being a type of learning. Because of that, they find that they are able to program the individual a little more the way the individual wants to be programmed.”
Conrad mentioned weight loss, overcoming bed-wetting and breaking nail-biting and tobacco habits as efforts that can be assisted by hypnosis. In addition to entertainment, he has performed therapeutic hypnosis to help people with these issues.
During the show, he asked for volunteers from the audience and took them through a slow, gradual procedure to put them into a light sleep and prepare them for programming. What followed was hilarious and fascinating to watch. Volunteers became bunnies and fish, viewed each other as giant teddy bears and pillows, danced disco and Gangnam style, lost and gained body parts, answered phone calls on their shoes, and tried to pinpoint the source of a completely imaginary noxious smell.
Afterward, everyone was awakened safe and sound, but had to have family and friends explain to them why the audience was chuckling. One volunteer, Larry Rowlette, who assured those with him that he cannot sing, listened to descriptions of his onstage “American Idol” audition.
Helping veterans
After the show, Conrad spoke to The Tribune about another serious cause he hopes might benefit from the therapeutic side of his talent. A veteran himself, he wants to start workshops to help combat veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and amputee veterans who experience Phantom Limb Syndrome.
“I want to teach them self-hypnosis,” said Conrad. “I’m trying to get a self-hypnosis workshop together that would take about five hours. Hypnosis works very, very well with both of those conditions.”
If you are a veteran with one of these conditions, or know someone who is, and you would like more information about the therapeutic benefits of hypnosis, look up Gary Conrad on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gary.conrad.712 or http://qrne.ws/gconradvets.
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