Keith Karkut hypnotizes a group of students on the stage in Hoff Theater on Thursday, April 30, 2015.
Cameron Jackson thought he was at a typical college party with about 20 other students, even though he was on Hoff Theater’s stage. He was convinced he was drunk, even though he had only drank water.
When he smelled the water, it had an alcohol-like odor, and as he wandered to the back of the stage, he passed out on the ground.
Alcohol did not fuel the freshman geography major and the other dancing students’ debauchery. Hypnosis did.
During the Hypnotic Intoxication event Thursday night in Hoff Theater, stage hypnotist Keith Karkut had students stumbling, dancing and even passing out under his control.
As part of the educational event on alcohol awareness, he had participants forget their name and laugh uncontrollably — one even pretended to be a ninja.
“I knew what I was doing, but I sort of had this feeling,” Jackson said. “It’s hard to explain, because you are completely aware, but not that cognizant,”
Hypnosis is “just a enlightened level of relaxation,” Karkut said. To make people reach this state, Karkut invited students on stage and asked them to relax and listen to him. He then spoke so quickly, he fell into mumbles.
As Karkut put them in a “deep relaxation,” many heavily slumped in their chairs with their heads between their legs.
Karkut then gave specific instructions to the participants. When they woke up, still under Karkut’s “spell,” they followed everything he said.
Karkut hypnotized Jackson to fall into his arms once and believe his name was Godzilla.
Sophomore kinesiology major Imani Cabassa forgot how to say her name but had no problem dancing to Nicki Minaj’s “Superbass.”
“I remember being Nicki Minaj, but for everything else I felt like I was asleep,” she said.
In the simplest properties, Cabassa’s state was very similar to a daydream or a trance, said Erick Lundin, College Park Hypnosis Center clinical hypnotist. While hypnotized, normal thoughts fall to the wayside and imagination takes over.
“So what trance is, is setting your conscious mind aside and letting your unconscious come forward,” he said. “The person knows what it’s like to be drunk, and if they told them it was alcohol, then they’ll do what is expected. They’ll use their imagination to act like what is expected.”
This, requires willing participants, Lundin said, such as Cabassa and Jackson, who both said they wanted to be hypnotized.
“They’re looking for someone who is looking for a good time, who likes to show off in front of people, and most importantly, can follow directions,” he said.
While his goal is to entertain, Karkut said he tries to incorporate a message about alcohol into his water-fueled show. He started the Hypnotic Intoxication program 14 years ago after brainstorming ways to teach college students alcohol awareness at college.
Karkut lost his friend to alcohol poisoning when he was in college and said he often drank to lethal limits. While Karkut developed his program in 2002, Daniel Reardon, who attended this university, also died from alcohol-related causes.
“If [his friends] would have got him help, he would probably be alive right now,” he said. “If you study college related drinking deaths, one of the biggest things is time. Somebody could have helped them.”
From these tragedies, he said he felt inspired to provide students with the education he didn’t have.
“We talk about the mind being a powerful tool,” Karkut said. “If you feel like you have to get drunk to have a good time, ask these people, who did not have alcohol in their bodies, but they felt pretty damn good.”
