On Thursday, Aug. 28, hypnotist Zach Pincince performed at the University of New Mexico showcasing his abilities in hypnotizing students. After avid interest from the crowd, Pincince chose to hypnotize the entire group at once, asking students to shut their eyes, listen to the sound of his voice and breathe.
During the performance, students entered a hypnotic state, in which any idea Pincince supplied to those hypnotized would become their experience of reality, and that anything he told them would be “unquestionably true” in that state, Pincince said.
“Hypnosis is a real state, and it's actually very similar to the state that you go into every single night when you fall asleep and you dream, because when you have a dream, you know that dream isn't real, that nothing that's happening in your dream is actually happening, that it's not actually going on. But while you are dreaming, it still feels real. You experience that dream like it is, even though some part of your mind knows that it's not,” Pincince said during the performance.
Pincince gained fame on TikTok by posting impression videos, amassing approximately 5 million followers, and has hypnotized celebrities including Meghan Trainor, Daryl Sabara, Tony Robbins and Charli D’amelio, he said.
In hypnotizing students, Pincince asked the audience to imagine themselves travelling down a staircase in which they felt more relaxed the further they stepped.
“Allow yourself to really focus as much as you can, and allow yourself to just go all in again. It's not something I make happen to you. It's something you let happen to you. So the more you just allow yourself to let go, go with the flow, have fun, the better this experience will work for you,” Pincince said.
After Pincince hypnotized the entire audience into a calmer state, he hypnotized nine students to forget their own names, who then joined him on stage. Pincince used hypnosis to cycle the nine between realities, using the word “sleep” to put them into a relaxed state, and “awake” to return them to an active state.
Pincince then performed a series of activities with the nine, including suggesting the word “hypnosis” and Pincince’s back were the funniest things they’d ever seen or heard. The hypnotized then vied for a fake $100K best statue pose game show and decided what they’d spend the winnings on.
They then met their favorite celebrity and got to ask anything they wanted. Two contestants saw Michael B. Jordan when they looked at Pincince, and quickly agreed to an offer to star in Jordan’s next upcoming movie. Another contestant saw Billie Eilish, who serenaded her with a magical rendition of Eilish’s newest song, which was really Pincince singing the “ABC’s.”
“Their mind is experiencing the ideas that I give them as if they are real. And in fact, unless you are a really well trained actor, it's really hard to turn an emotion like laughter on and off like a light switch, like you just saw them do,” Pincince said.
The hypnotised reported seeing a chair floating through the air, after Pincince convinced them he was invisible at the stomp of his foot, and saw Bigfoot trudge across the floor, sending the students to the edges of the stage to escape.
Scarlett James, a freshman and one of the nine hypnotized, had seen Pincince’s videos online and decided to come to the show, but did not expect to be hypnotized.
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Pincince prompted James, in her state of hypnosis, to give an inspirational speech, convincing her to speak with confidence.
“I remember not being able to remember my name, and then I went up there, and then, it's kind of foggy. I remember giving a speech and I remember thinking I met Ryan Reynolds. I definitely remember that. It's sort of coming back,” James said to the Daily Lobo after the performance.
Heather Rovertson, also a freshman, had attempted hypnosis through videos, but Pincince’s show was her first time experiencing it in real life.
“I like haunted things because they’re really cool, and that chair was definitely haunted,” Rovertson said of the floating chair trick to the Daily Lobo after the performance.
Pincince concluded the performance by having the hypnotized rejoin the audience and, at a later point, simultaneously count backwards from 10 when given a signal, breaking the hypnotic state.
“Because their mind is so locked into the suggestions and ideas that I give them becoming their experience of reality, they are able to use their minds in a way that they normally aren't able to tap into, where whatever belief or suggestion I give them becomes their experience, and we're going to continue to explore this special state and see how much fun we can have using this special state of relaxation,” Pincince said after the performance.
Maria Fernandez is the copy editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at copy@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
Nate Bernard contributed reporting to this article.
