This happened at Realm's con in Corpus Christi on Friday, just three days ago. I went dressed as Tai from Digimon 01, and Ian went as Matt. I've been a major fan of Joshua Seth for a few years now. He's a voice actor and also a professional stage hypnotist. I went insane when I heard he was going to be in Corpus, of all places! That's just half an hour away!

Ah, but first of all, I must tell you that I was feeling sick and nauseous that afternoon, and I had no idea why. Ian went and got some Pepto-Bismol for me, the wonderful lad, and I had been swigging it every couple of hours to keep the nausea at bay, but it never completely went away. Ian and I ran into Joshua Seth in the lobby once. "Hey, I heard you weren't feeling well," he said. I told him I was feeling nauseous, and he told me to drink lots of water. I agreed, and we went on our way. Ian and I just sort of looked at each other in disbelief. The significance of my not feeling well will be revealed at the end of this entry.

On the top floor, we saw a notice taped to the wall outside the ballroom doors. It was written in Joshua's handwriting, saying that the hypnosis show had been rescheduled to the next day. Bummer. Then Alyssa went and ripped his signature off! I was screaming NOOOOOOOO, but Brittany was holding me back. I really, REALLY hope Joshua doesn't think I ripped his sig off the paper. X_X

After Lisa Ray's piano performance, we waited for the elevator to take us back down. The doors slid open, and there was another notice taped to the back wall of the elevator, saying the hypnosis show was back on! So we all made quite a ruckus scrambling back out of there into the ballroom. All seven of us took up most of the front row. XD Ian and I killed a few minutes with our harmonicas. Then Laurie looked towards the door, nudged me, and said "He's here!" I jokingly hyperventilated into my harmonica, making a comical accordion sound. =P

Joshua started arranging chairs in a row on the wood floor that passed for a flat stage. The edges were duct-taped down so you wouldn't trip. XD Laurie pointed out that there were seven chairs. Ian said "The digidestined!" I immediately counted the chairs to make sure. Seven. I counted all of us in our group. Seven. I counted the chairs again. Seven. Our group. Seven. Then Ian stopped me.

The room was pretty full. Joshua asked us all to raise our hands if we wanted to be hypnotized. Everyone's hands in our group went up, and many other people's, too. I was hesitant, but Ian forced my right hand up. Then Joshua told everyone to put their hands out, right hand facing down, left hand facing up. Time for THE TEST! He told us to close our eyes, and imagine a red balloon tied to our right wrists, and a really heavy weight in our left hands. When we were done, we opened our eyes to discover what happened. My arms were apart some, but Ian and Brittany were like whoa, one arm straight up and the other down. The test was to see who was the most receptive to hypnosis.

Joshua chose me anyway because Ian had already asked him to in an email. X_X

He also chose everyone in our group! Except for Alyssa, who wanted to film. He got some other girl to fill in. So there we were, the seven of us, seated in the chairs on the fake wood linoleum. Brittany to my right, Ian to my left. He told us to put our feet flat on the floor and make sure our hands weren't touching, and to close our eyes. Relax one hand, then the other, then one foot, then the other, and...poof. I don't know how, but that was it.

I don't remember the order of events that well, but I do remember that I wasn't as deep into it as Ian or Brittany. Probably because I was freaked out by Joshua Seth just being there. Anyway, we were told that we had a lottery ticket in hand, and we were watching the numbers come up on TV. As each number came up, we realized that it was the right one, and we were to get more and more excited as we realized that the lottery ticket was a winner. I put my fingers together to hold the ticket, but then I just got confused. "What is this? I never play the lottery," I thought. Apparently, it was too unrealistic for me to take it seriously. XD I remember Brittany jumping up and yelling something, and Ian saying "Huzzah!" I was still confused.

Next, we were all playing in an orchestra. I chose the piano, because, well, for obvious reasons. Twelve years of piano will influence you that way. XD The music started playing, and I put my hands on the keyboard, but...there was no piano there! ;___; The song was going too fast for me to improvise, and, well, I can't play if there's no piano there. >< I just had my hands there in the air, deeply confused.

Next up was being stuck to the chair. I was still pretty darned confused, so all of my movements were really slow. I put my hands on the edges of the chair and pushed, trying to break free...no go. Tried again. GWAH! Stuck! Nyeh!

Then that was over. Joshua had Laurie stand up, and then he told her that her butt was gone. She tried to sit down, and couldn't. I had my eyes closed the whole time, but I knew what was going on because I'd seen it in the video on joshuaseth.com. I didn't have the will to open my eyes, though. O.o Anyway, Laurie complained that she couldn't sit down. Joshua asked her what was wrong, and she said her butt was gone. XD He then told her that a girl in the audience had stolen it. He told her to ask nicely for it back. "Give me my butt back!" she suddenly yelled. I didn't know what happened next, but judging from the video, the girl tossed her butt back, Laurie tried it on, and sat down. XD Bummer I didn't get to see it.

Joshua asked us to raise our hands if we'd seen the Six Flags commercials. I raised mine. He chose Brittany, and told her that whenever she heard the music play, she'd get up and dance badly just like the old guy in the commercials. Suddenly, We Like to Party came on the speakers. Brittany launched out of her chair. I didn't see or hear any of what she was dancing or yelling. I was paying attention to the music. XD Awesome bass. Suddenly, the music cut off, and he asked her what she was doing. "Hey, what are you doing? I'm trying to do a show here," he said. She answered quietly. "I'm...I'm not sure." She sat back down. Then the music came back on, and off she went, and there I was silently jamming to the music, not paying a damned bit of attention to anything else. XD Joshua stopped her again. She still didn't know what she was doing. She sat down.

Ian's turn! I still had my eyes closed, but I was listening. Joshua told him that the number six had never existed. There was no such thing as the number six. He told Ian to count his fingers. Ian did so slowly and carefully. "One, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven."
"Eleven fingers?" Joshua said. "Eleven? Try counting backwards."
Once again, Ian continued slowly and carefully. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, five, four, three, two, one...zero."
"Zero?" Joshua said, laughing. "Alright." Then he made Ian forget his own name! I heard several moments of silence as Ian tried to say it, but couldn't. Finally, he said very slowly, "...I'm known as...Lan, to some people..." Then Joshua told him to rap in perfect Japanese. A snazzy hip hop beat came over the speakers, and Ian started rapping Shiroi Yami No Naka, replacing most of the lyrics with nonsense syllables. I could tell it wasn't perfect Japanese, but psh, I didn't care. I was conked out in my chair. XD

Then We Like to Party came on again, and Brittany jumped up and started dancing around like before! I still didn't get to see. >< I couldn't help but listen to the music. Techno is my favorite.

Joshua came over and surprised the hell out of me, because I couldn't ever tell where he was at all. I stood up, opening my eyes. I didn't really notice anyone around me. I vaguely heard Joshua tell me to rap in perfect Japanese. He gave me the microphone, and the music started. I hesitated and offered the mic back. "I...I can't." He took the mic and told me what to do again. "You're going to rap in perfect Japanese. In your mind, it's perfect Japanese, and in everyone else's minds, it's perfect Japanese." Then he put the mic in my right hand. I looked blankly out over the small audience, not focusing on much of anything. I went for it. "Shiroi! Shiroi yami no naka! Shiroi, shiroi yami no naka!" That's all I got out correctly before stumbling through the next few lines in a jumble of messed-up syllables and random Japanese words. I could tell that I wasn't saying the right lyrics, but I didn't freakin' care at all. I was rapping, and the audience loved it, and I wasn't about to stop. I was just about to launch into the Hunt Down! Dekinai shitakunai! part, when Joshua suddenly said "Sleep!" and I freakin' collapsed in mid-rap. Didn't care about falling or anything; I just collapsed. He caught me and more or less dragged me back to my chair.

I heard Joshua tell the audience about a little doll he'd gotten as a gift after doing a show in some other country. He told us to mimic the doll's every move. The song Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake came on, which I normally would have hated, but I didn't freakin' care at all. That doll was awesome. It reminded me of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Couldn't take my eyes off the damned thing. Joshua started making it dance in mid-air, and of course, I mimicked it while sitting. Then he made it stand and dance in place, and then I was aware of all seven of us on our feet dancing in poorly coordinated movements. XD I remember it crossing my mind that I hated that song, but I didn't care. I just...didn't care. Just follow the doll...

That was the last thing. We all sat down, and Joshua brought us out of it. He told us that we wouldn't remember any of what went on. I think he counted to three or something, and suddenly, we were all awake. I blinked, looking at the small audience. Then I turned to look at Ian to my right. He turned to look at me. We just stared at each other for several seconds.

A minute or so later, we were all standing together, trying to remember what had happened. I found I was comprehending things a lot slower, and I didn't like having people around me. Laurie was freaking out as Alyssa told her about her butt disappearing. "What!?" Laurie screamed as she suddenly whipped around to check on her butt. XD We stood in a circle, chatting, but I was kinda silent and blank. Didn't feel like I was totally out of the hypnosis. Joshua came over to see us. He looked right at me, and said, "You're gonna feel a lot better now." I sorta just looked back at him with a glazed expression. I had no idea what he meant.

A bit later in the hall outside the ballroom, I was paranoid of people. Whenever a person would walk by, I'd whip my head around to look. Brittany freaked me out when she touched my backpack. I was even scared of the wall, dude, when my backpack brushed up against it. My reaction time was much longer than usual, also. I dropped a glowstick on the floor, and I just stared at it for like three seconds before picking it up.

After a little while Ian reminded me that I'd been sick earlier that day. I suddenly remembered! From the hypnosis until then, I had totally forgotten that I was ever sick! O_o I felt fine! Whoa! Coolness!

I also suddenly remembered a dream I'd had several months ago, back around February. Joshua was doing a hypnosis show, and I was one of the people in it. He took my left hand, high-fived it, I collapsed, and he caught me. Weeeeird! I told this to Ian, and he agreed. I freakin' had a premonition months before, but I didn't realize it until right then! KICKASS!

So, folks, hypnosis is freakin' real. Don't dis it.

[shoe]