On Wednesday 12 October, the Sixth Form Society arranged for a rather unusual form of evening entertainment; a visiting hypnotist! The spell-binding experience was arranged by members of society; Nick Wright, Ross Johnston, Quin Wagner-Piggott and Seb Roberts. Taking on everything from finding and booking the hypnotist, organising the logistics of the evening and advertising to the rest of the Sixth Form, the pupils had worked hard on making sure the evening was a success.
The Lecture Theatre was packed with pupils, parents and staff members. Due to the explicit nature of the evening, only pupils in the Sixth Form were allowed to attend, and they filled the room, eager to see real-life hypnosis up-close. An assuming gentleman stood at the front of Lecture Theatre, in front of a row of empty chairs. His name is Martin S Taylor, and his greatest trick is being the hypnotist who doesn’t use hypnosis. Widely credited as the hypnotist who inspired Derren Brown, Martin has spent his career performing in schools, universities and colleges, as well as a number of other venues. The audience were captivated; not only was Martin incredibly entertaining, working the audience as a comedian, he was impressively knowledgeable, explaining about the modern-day understanding of what hypnosis really entails. It was a lecture on the psychology of suggestion; students learnt how the combination of suggestion, peer pressure and the innate sense of obedience makes subjects particularly susceptible to hypnosis. Refuting any preconceptions, Martin went on to detail how hypnosis does not exist; groups of people onstage cannot be truly hypnotised. By now, the audience were eager to see Martin’s demonstration of stage hypnosis.
At the call for volunteers, more than twenty people rushed forward, keen to be part of the experiment. Through a series of experiments, the willing volunteers were gradually whittled down until it was just seven people left onstage. The willing participants were Chelsea Holliday, Miles Bridgeman, Jade Miller, Alice Ingham-Halshaw, Freddie Bowcock, Hugh Rutledge and Joe Booth. The tests became more extreme; Martin hypnotised subjects so that upon opening their eyes they couldn’t remember their names, or had to leap out of their seats thinking that they were boiling hot. The audience were completely engaged in the show; it was amusing and captivating. Head of Psychology Mr Richard Ebbage, who was instrumental in assisting the Sixth Form Society with organising the evening, commented: ‘from a Psychology point of view, I liked how Martin S Taylor explained the cognitive processes behind what he was doing, including suggestion, obedience and conformity. From a performance point of view it was a bit risky and put students out of their comfort zones, which was entertaining for those taking part – but especially so for those watching!’