As a part of the college’s Halloween festivities, hypnotist Al James will perform at the Transmountain campus Foyer at 10 a.m. on Oct. 30. He will also perform at the Valle Verde cafeteria annex at 11:30 a.m. on the same day.
James has been a hypnotist and magician for 30 years and has appeared on NBC’s The Today Show.
“He called us and offered his services,” said Michelle Ruiz, Campus Life representative.
James has been hypnotizing people all over the country.
He does over 100 shows a year.
“Living in a big city like Chicago, there is lots of work for me,” said James.
During his show, James said he will start with a lecture on hypnosis, and then ask for volunteers to be hypnotized.
James became a hypnotist by attending the Association for Advancement of Ethical Hypnosis in Chicago.
“It’s a science and an art,” James said. “Science because you’re dealing with established principles and an art because you have to act and make people believe, sort of like acting.”
James starts with progressive relaxation methods, which is relaxing the entire body, then moves on
to visualization techniques where he suggests to his volunteers things to do.
“Nothing in bad taste,” affirmed James. “I’ll tell them it suddenly got extremely hot in the room and they’ll start acting like they’re sweating and take off coats.”
College students with active minds are James’s favorite subjects because he said they don’t have many inhibitions, and won’t shy away from acting the way their imaginations tell them.
