Getting hypnotized is a mysterious concept on par with love potions and fortune telling. CBS’s The Mentalist has depicted hypnotism as an ultimate form of manipulation to carry out evil deeds or to reveal true inner passions. But does hypnotism really work? Or is it as real as reality TV?

As a part of the UI’s back-to-school Welcome Week, the Campus Activities Board will present comedian hypnotist Erick Känd at 8 p.m. today in the IMU second-floor ballroom.

“There will be no swinging watches in this show,” he said in expressing his disdain for the conventional Hollywood representation of hypnotism.

The mind trick is believed to subdue the body into a rapt relaxation. Then, spellbound by a heightened inner focus, subjects are more likely to acquiesce to suggestions that change their behavior. Känd has crisscrossed the nation and cruised international waters to demonstrate his adept ability to surprise and entertain audiences.

“I had people who had a friend with a glass eye come up to me and ask if I could make him believe his eye was rolling off down the stage because they thought it would be funny,” said Känd, who rejected the request.

Unfortunately, he will not divulge his favorite stunts or the supposedly unbelievable method of hypnotizing people. However, the performer was willing to relay an amusing event from his Sunday night show at a college in upstate New York.

“I had a girl believing her shoes were phones,” he said. “She answered one, and it was Sen. Washington, and she was bouncing all over the stage talking to him. But then the other shoe rang, and it was Barack Obama. The girl was so excited she hung up on Sen. Washington and continued to bounce around the stage as she talked to Barack.”

Volunteers may also hallucinate and think that their belly button has disappeared or be tricked into believing they have won the lottery. Känd enjoys visiting colleges and universities because students are generally more enthusiastic about hypnosis than older, more conservative audience members.

Hypnotism is futile if the person is unwilling to follow the necessary directions, he notes.

“I get rid of people real quick if they’re pretending,” he said. “I don’t waste my time with people who don’t want to be up on stage.”

Känd is enjoying a domestic tour, visiting a slew of colleges all over the map to provide opening-week entertainment. The hypnotist will have hopped from Colorado to New York to Texas in a week before he lands on the IMU stage.

He once had a hypnotism health practice in San Diego before the excitement of the entertainment business stole him away indefinitely. He has been invited to hypnotize audiences ranging from Venice, Croatia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Showcasing a hypnotist is a Welcome Week ritual; however, this will be Känd’s first UI appearance.

His show is definitely not a static experience. The conjurer of hallucinations and make-believe has an eclectic bag of tricks that keep his shows varied and his audiences mesmerized.