by: Nia Pettiford
Sat. Nov. 5 the Panthers Den was under the trance of hypnother- apist Steven Stone. At promptly 7pm Stone invited 10 guests to the stage. Within minutes of being on stage Stone spoke his words and made all of the participants fall asleep with the touch of a finger and the sound of a word. “The experience was crazy! It didn’t even feel like an hour, “said fresh- man Janessa Arce directly after being hypnotized. “I kind of don’t remember anything but I do re- member some. I feel weird right now but I know I would want to be hypnotized again.” Stone had participants believing they were celebrities singing happy birth- day to fans and Japanese rappers conducting interviews with transla- tors. One participant went as far as believing he was a fairy princess and was able to make his fellow
participants fall asleep. The experi- ence was promised to be relaxing; seeing that participants were put to sleep at least three times during the show. Junior Selden Poole called the experience “relaxing” saying, “I was asleep but never truly went to sleep. I am now rejuvenated.” Along with Poole, fellow partici- pant, freshman Jason Elliot said, “it was the best sleep I’ve had throughout the whole semester.”
helps those that struggle with dis- orders such as PTSD. Stone says he keeps his mind sharp by reading one book a day.
Though thought to be a sort of magic hypnotism is actually a science called Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Stone uses specific words and word patterns that can mean one thing to the par- ticipants and something different to audience members. The trade was not picked up overnight, as Stone trained for five years, 8 hours a day to be able to do what he can do. In his hometown, Stone has a practice where he performs therapies and