There’s nothing quite like seeing 20 USC students go limp right before your eyes. They weren’t gassed, or hurt — all hypnotist Eric Mina had to do was say “sleep,” and they were out.
It’s uncanny what the influence of a hypnotist can do. During his CP-produced hypnotism show Wednesday night, Mina had various students playing mock instruments with their feet, cowering together to escape imaginary cold and making one student insist his name was Tinker Bell.
No matter how amazing his feats of mental control may be, Mina insists it’s nothing trickier than knowledge of the human mind. He sat down with The Daily Gamecock to discuss getting his start, what makes someone easy to hypnotize and what happens when a hypnotism show goes wrong.
The Daily Gamecock: So I understand that you are a comedian hypnotist — how do comedy and hypnotism fit together in your view?
Eric Mina: Well, depending on how you do it — I mean, have you ever seen a comedy show? Or a hypnosis show?
DG: It’s been a while.
EM: Yeah, they always try to add some bit of comedy in there, or at least the good ones, I feel like. Back in the day, they used to do it like “Oh, look what we can make these people do,” but now I just thought it would be better doing the comedy aspect. But the reason why I depict myself as a comedy hypnotist is because a lot of hypnotists are generally pretty boring in the beginning before they get the people on stage, and I like to put a bit of comedy in the beginning part while getting them up on stage, making the whole show good instead of just the part while people are on.
DG: Yeah, that makes sense. How did you get started in hypnotism?
EM: I actually saw a guy do it. I was doing magic beforehand, and the magician that inspired me said to me, “Hey, I think you’d make a really good hypnotist, given your psychology background.” And I was like, “But I just learned a whole bunch of magic.” And then I actually saw one and I was really intrigued by it. I just thought it was phenomenal and I figured that I could help more people, because I was supposed to be a social worker to begin with. Hypnosis just seemed like that great path to help people more, and then doing it on a stage just seemed like the ability to inspire more.
DG: Right. How long have you been doing magic?
EM: About a year before I started doing hypnosis.
DG: And would you say that magic has tied into your hypnosis? Do you think they’re similar?
EM: For the college market, yeah. It’s a great way to get kids to come to the show, usually. In the college market you do a little teaser beforehand, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one. It’s fun to do stuff at a meet and greet or afterwards, and I just always enjoyed tricking the mind or inspiring. One way or another, things with the mind.
DG: How has your education at Penn State in psychology influenced your hypnotism — the way you interact with your audience for hypnotizing? What did you learn from your psychology degree?
EM: Oh, sadly I felt that I learned more about how the brain works by functions in my hypnosis training than I did in my schooling in psychology. Where psychology teaches you more about theories and development, but unless you get into very specific fields inside of psychology and get specialized, it doesn’t get into how it functions and why it does things the way it does. And I didn’t want to look at it from a chemical aspect, physiologically speaking. But this is how it functions on a daily basis; that’s what I enjoy, the psychological subtleties.
DG: How are college crowds different from other crowds?
EM: They’re more fun. They’re a lot more vibrant, very diverse in the type of people that are generally in the crowd. The diversity that happens in other crowds usually is just age and then you have wherever the area is. But in college crowds, everybody is here with the idea to learn, but it doesn’t matter race, religion, this or that. So you get such a diverse amount of people, but they’re always excited. I love the energy of a college crowd.
DG: What makes someone easy to hypnotize?
EM: Well, there’s actually a couple of things — one, military are actually able to get hypnotized more because they have to follow orders. High school students and college students, also, and the reason why is because they have more of an open mind, and the ability to let things happen, versus when we get older, our mind starts to close down a little bit and we stay with those little things we have learned and don’t like to open up to new ideas … I think it’s the willingness to learn and to be open to new ideas, that’s the difference.
DG: What would you say to someone who is skeptical to hypnotism, or that doesn’t believe it really works?
EM: Well, in what way? Like, “It wouldn’t work on me”? Well, I would say that they’re right, because all hypnosis is, actually is self-hypnosis. I don’t like to proclaim any special power that most hypnotists do. They proclaim like, “Oh, I’m a great hypnotist and I’m going to hypnotize you,” but that’s not the truth. I’m just a guide — you hypnotize yourself and you don’t even know it. That fuzzy time when you’re driving and you don’t remember how you got home? That’s hypnosis. The most powerful suggestion in the world is self-suggestion. There’s nothing else that matters. What you believe is going to trump everything else that’s out there. That’s why I like to tell the truth in my show, I’d rather tell the truth and just inspire people to use their brains better. That’s another reason why I like the college market so much — because they’re so open-minded and because I feel like I can make a little bit of a difference to help them open up their minds.
DG: So, you think there is an educational aspect to it?
EM: Huge. I always have those few kids that come up to me and say, “How could this help me, can this give me a better memory?” Yeah, it can. It did for me. I lost 50 pounds from hypnotizing myself … But yeah, just those kinds of things. Sports — I learned golf for the first time, I went back a week later and the guy was impressed on how much I learned right away. And he’s like, “How did you do that?” and I told him, “I’m a hypnotist, I practice in my mind.” It’s just being able to give kids that information to go out and learn something new, I think that will help in any way.
DG: What would your advice be to someone who wants to get started as a hypnotist or a magician?
EM: Well, they’re very different. If you want to become a hypnotist, I would suggest to go get a certification in hypnotherapy. I went to the National Guild of Hypnotists, and they have little pods of teachers that will do it for different prices, depending on where it is. There are schools that you can go to, and certain colleges actually offer it. I wouldn’t just read a book and assume you know what you’re doing, because you might be doing more damage than you realize. Now magic, that you can pick up a book or a video. I think with anything, once the student is ready, a teacher will come out of the woodwork. That’s what happened to me.
DG: Right, who inspired you?
EM: My whole life I enjoyed Houdini. That was probably my major one. When I was younger and seeing people like Lance Burden when I was in Vegas or whatever, but hypnosis-wise I was a little bit interested when I was younger, but just I didn’t understand it then … but definitely Houdini, his crowd presence and just what he could do …
DG: So you think showmanship is …
EM: Showmanship is where it’s at. I don’t care about anything else, I’ve seen amazing magicians that have no showmanship and they won’t get off the street, and then I see mediocre magicians have TV spots. It’s just how it works, because that’s the difference, people don’t realize that it’s not about the trick, it’s about this interaction I’m having with you and me.
DG: Did you have a background in performing or comedy before you started your magic?
EM: No! — laughs — No, not at all actually. I come from a family of nurses and salesmen. Doctors, nurses, medical field and salesmen. That’s it. So I had the sales, and I think that’s where the interaction I learned from … I had one uncle that was President of Zurich Insurance company branch for a little while, and my dad, who was like a nuclear medical tech. It’s just very, very vast, and no performers, so lil’ ol’ me out of nowhere. I dunno, I was either the black sheep or the shining star, I don’t know they look at me some days. — laughs — I think now that I’m doing good it’s a little better. God help me on that comment, alright, going to be getting “what did you say?!?” My uncle’s going to read it…
DG: What is the most unexpected thing that happened at one of your shows?
EM: Somebody had an asthma attack, and I had the show going on, and it was right at the end — thankfully, the way it worked out, it was right at the end that he had an asthma attack, and he was one of those people that refused to bring an inhaler with him, and he just denied that he had this problem, so we had to get him off, and they called the emergency crew in there, paramedics and everything, but luckily I was there and able to get him to calm down … sorry, once they got there he was pretty much fine, but, y’know, understanding breathing techniques and being able to calm him down, calm his lungs down and his mind is actually pretty powerful.
DG: So you could actually help.
EM: Yeah, it was scary, yet, like, it’s that moment that you become a lifeguard, and then something actually happens and you don’t know if you’ll be able to do it or use it or not, and that was like the first time anything big happened to me and I was able to use these skills that I learned in a very immediate, necessary emergency way, and it worked out. I was scared yet happy I was able to help, if that makes sense.
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