Hypnotist emphasizes perceptions

Hypnotist Joshua Seth puts KSU students into a deep sleep and makes them perform various random acts such as dancing, rapping in Japanese and giving birth last night at the Kiva. STEVEN MANTILLA| DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: Steve Schirra

Can men become pregnant and go into labor? The obvious answer is no, but the power of belief can be so strong that just about any man can be convinced he is pregnant and experiencing horrendous labor pains.

Don’t believe it?

It happened last night when hypnotist and mentalist Joshua Seth performed his stage show for about 250 people in the Kiva. The show was presented by the KSU Anime Society and sponsored by Undergraduate Student Senate.

Seth hypnotized 14 people on stage and, at one point, told all the men that they were pregnant and going into labor. Instantly, all seven men began to practice Lamaze techniques and scream in pain. Then Seth asked the men how they became pregnant.

“My boyfriend Andy knocked me up,” freshman finance major Jeremy Brauning said sadly. He said that he still loved Andy, though, and hoped things could work out so they could raise their baby together.

Seth can make a person do or say just about anything while under hypnosis. An exceptionally bright child, Seth began taking classes at Kent State when he was only 8 years old, and it was then that he became familiar with hypnosis.

Students and professors performed experiments with him to test altered states of reality and perceptions. Seth said his years at the university, which he attended until he was 18, inspired his passion in life.

Seth describes the hypnosis as the power of the mind to alter reality. He also is a mentalist, which is someone who can perceive other people’s thoughts but does not claim to have supernatural powers like a psychic does.

Because his father was a hypnotherapist and because of his experiences at Kent State, Seth said he was able to accept that there is more to the mind than most people think from a young age.

“There’s so much more than meets the eye,” Seth said. “Most of the spectrum of visible light is not perceived by the retina. It doesn’t mean it isn’t there; it’s just not perceived.”

Seth thinks just believing in something can make it true, as demonstrated in his show. In addition to making men believe they were in labor, he persuaded the others on stage that they were playing in an orchestra, that they’d won the lottery and that they were the dancing old man from the Six Flags commercial.

During the mentalist part of the show, Seth was able to demonstrate to the audience that he is not the only one who could “read thoughts.” He asked the audience to describe his last vacation, where he went, who he went with and how much he spent.

After random people from the audience answered his questions, Seth pulled out a sealed envelope from his pocketbook and had KSU Anime Society president Nicholas Trojack pull out the piece of paper inside.

All of the audience members’ answers coincided with what he’d written on the paper, sending a chill through the audience. Everyone has intuitive abilities, Seth said. It is only a matter of honing and using them.

Seth also said that perceptions and attitudes “determine the very fabric of the way you live your life,” and people should know that anything is possible.

“As we change our perceptions and our consciousness of what is possible, so too can we change the way we live.”

Contact on-campus entertainment reporter Lisa Hlavinka at [email protected].