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On Wednesday, 8/10/97, I went to the pub, knowing that they were having a comedy hypnotist on. I entered the pub as the worlds biggest sceptic. First of all, the hypnotist asked for volunteers to go on the stage. I was very tempted go on, but I didn't. Anyway, he had about 10 people on, and performed some tests on them to see if they could be hypnotised. He had to reject about 8 people.
With the 2 left, he got them to go into trance, and then perform as if they were a washing machine, a toaster and a champion jockey riding the Grand National winner. I was watching them, feeling very intrigued by what they were doing. They didn't act over the top, just sort of timid, shaky movements.
He then turned to the audience to try and recruit more people.
He asked the audience to place their hands on their heads. So we all did. He then said he would count down from 10 to 1, and as he counts we would feel our hands sticking together. I was thinking, "Yeah, right! Of course my hands will stick together."
He started counting, "10. Your hands are together... Your hands are staring to stick... Your hands are getting tighter" As he got to 6, I looked around the room at everyone, and thought, " Yeah, of course our hands are sticking together. You sad people for believing him!"
He continued. "5. You can feel me applying superglue... 4. You can feel the superglue staring to stick." and the strange thing was, I could feel my hands getting drawn together tighter. "3. Your hands are stuck... 2. You can't seperate them... 1. Pull your hands apart!"
I tried to separate my hands, and I couldn't move them! I'm looking at my mates, and they had separated their hands, and saying "Come on Rich!". I couldn't move my hands at all!
I kept pulling on them, and they were stuck! I kept pulling, and could feel them moving ever so slightly. I kept pulling, until they were just joined by the fingertips! Even so, my hands were as tightly fastened as ever! Eventually they came apart, but all the time he said my hands were stuck, they were! It took about 25-30 seconds to fully separate my hands!
After this, he carried on with the rest of the show, with the new recruits he had just got.
I had never been as scared in my life. Just think about it. This guy was talking. Not directly to me, but at the whole crowd, and he was controlling me. He said my hands were stuck together, and they were!
Remember, I said I went into the pub as the worlds biggest sceptic. I certainly came out believing in it. I'll never watch the Paul McKenna show in the same way again!!!!