Hypnotist visits Oberlin

Seven bodies are sprawled out on the chairs and floor of Wilder 112. In the midst of them sits a man, more upright than the rest, with the only open eyes in the room. "I'm a non-smoker again," Don Mannarino says, again and again. With his announcer-like voice, he stresses words with a flourish, emphasizing all the "d" he can in words like "deeper" and "drop."

His tone is different from that which he had used to explain how the hypnosis was going to work. While answering questions about himself and hypnosis, he speaks in well-polished phrases. But when he speaks to the hypnotized group, he slows the rehearsed phrases, stressing sounds instead of words.

As a clinical hypnotist, Mannarino has been traveling for the last 18 years for various health organizations. Through hypnosis he has helped people stop smoking, lose weight, sleep, relax, get rid of headaches and cure a litany of other medical complaints. He came to Oberlin last Sunday to perform one of his workshops - this time, to help people quit smoking.

Mannarino started doing hypnosis in sixth grade when he learned it as part of a magic performance. He did it for fun through high school, specializing in stage hypnotism.

When Mannarino's friends started to come home from the Vietnam War unable to sleep, Mannarino discovered the clinical side to hypnosis. He has treated a host of psychosomatic illnesses and has worked for several national health organizations. Now he represents the American Lung Association exclusively.

On Sunday the seven students enter the room in groups. By 4 p.m. they are assembled. As the students filter in, Mannarino asks them where they are from and what their majors are. He had grouped together the most comfortable chairs in the room and that is where people congregate.

Mannarino is not a quiet man. He fills the time with conversation. Passing around a photo of his daughter, he says she looks like one of the students in the group. Mannarino says he has made special hypnosis tapes for each of his children so they can listen to them when they need to.

Mannarino also answers questions about the impending hypnosis. Members of the group ask many questions, but they don't seem nervous about the hypnosis.

After registering, the students receive an audio tape of Mannarino speaking. He tells them to listen to it whenever they need to. According to Mannarino, the tape can be used to bolster Sunday's one-time session.

College Physician Dr. Judith Appleton said that hypnosis is the most successful method for quitting smoking. Although fewer students than hoped for signed up for the workshop, Appleton hopes to bring a hypnotist back several times a year. "I think smoking is one of the largest health problems on campus," Appleton said.

Mannarino said that he believes hypnosis works because it reaches the impulse to smoke at its source. "I don't believe in behavior modification. I believe in cognitive modification. Avoidance reminds you of what you are avoiding. What I know how to do is go back to the subconscious mind and change it," Mannarino said.

To prepare for this trip into the subconscious, Mannarino had closed all the curtains in the room. The room is lit by a few patches of sunlight which escaped the curtains.

Mannarino asks the eight people in the room to take off their shoes and slouch. He tells an anecdote about doing a workshop with a group of policemen in Cleveland. When he asked them to get comfortable they took off their weapons and so instead of a pile of shoes, a pile of guns and batons lay in the center of the group.

Mannarino says, "Don't be surprised if you find it works." He predicted that members of the group would feel like they weren't paying enough attention, that they would hear the furnace and the door and half the time their minds would be wandering.

"I felt like the whole time I wasn't buying it, but when he would say something about not being able to move my arm or open my eyelids, I couldn't. I hadn't realized how relaxed I was," said a college junior who participated in the workshop.

After the group is comfortable, Mannarino instructs the students to close their eyes and relax their neck muscles. Heads fall to one side, arms drop and knees relax. Two people who had gotten the less comfortable chairs move to the floor and lie on their sides.

As the relaxation begins to spread throughout their bodies, Mannarino tells the group that an important aspect of the hypnosis is remembering his voice. "You'll know my voice because my voice will be saturated in your brain for the rest of your life," says Mannarino.

The college junior echoed that sentiment. "It's funny how his voice changed. He's right that that voice is lodged in your brain. When I think of a cigarette, I'll hear that voice and it'll be something that isn't my voice," she said.

Breathing is important in the process of hypnosis. One of the first things the group did was take deep breaths slowly and then exhale them quickly. As the breath was exhaled, another part of the body was relaxed. "Sleep the body," Mannarino repeated over and over again.

Mannarino called hypnotism "the ability to concentrate on one thing." He said that yoga, bio-feedback, transcendental meditation and psyching up before a game are all versions of hypnotism.

As the relaxation spreads through the body, Mannarino used counting to make it more profound. "Ten, sleep the arms, drop them, inhale through your forehead, sleep the arms, exhale through the fingertips. Nine.…" The process produces a deep relaxation, one which Mannarino said was stronger than sleep.

Continuing the emphasis on breathing after the body is relaxed, Mannarino tells the group to inhale and "roll your eyes back, back into your head. Go back into the darkness when you were a non-smoker, a non-smoker again."

Mannarino reminds the group that if they wanted to right now, they wouldn't be able to remember how to raise their arms or open their eyes.

When it is time to awake from the hypnosis, Mannarino tells the group to try to open the insides of their eyelids by blinking them open.

Slowly, seven people blink their eyes open and look around, dazed. Bodies still slouched and extended, they are in an utmost stage of relaxation. Mannarino then teaches how to go into hypnosis without a hypnotist. The steps are the same, and once again a slumber appears to have spread through the group. By blinking, the group is slowly revived.

According to Mannarino, within 48-72 hours after the hypnosis, the smokers then assembled would be non-smokers. "You were born a non-smoker, you made a decision and became a smoker. I know how to get into your subconscious and reverse that," Mannarino said.

Mannarino said not to use gum, mints or other substitutes because they would only be reminders of what the students weren't doing. They also couldn't talk about how they were doing with each other for the next three days, for the same reasons.

Mannarino also suggested that the members of the group drink huge amounts of fluids. Lemonade is the best, then ice water and then coffee. According to Mannarino the liquids would clean out the chemicals left in the body from smoking.

As the students begin to sit up and put their shoes back on, Mannarino reminds the group of the restrictions once again and reminds them to listen to the tape as often as they need to. The students leave in groups as they had come and walk out into the hallway of Wilder.

Professional Eyes: Clinical Hypnotist Don Mannarino looks menacingly at the camera before leading a group hypnosis on Sunday in Wilder. (photo by Susanna Henighan)