A handful of students at a Canadian private school got more than they bargained for when some reportedly remained in a trance for several hours after being hypnotized.
Earlier this month, Maxime Nadeau, 20, performed a routine at Collège du Sacré-Coeur, in which he hypnotized a group of 13- and 14-year-old girls, the CBC reports. But after several failed attempts to wake them from their trance, the hypnotist had to call on his mentor, Richard Whitbread, for backup.
"There were a couple of students who had their heads lying on the table and there were [others] who, you could tell, were in trance," Whitbread told the CBC. "The eyes were open and there was nobody home."
After travelling about an hour to the school, Whitbread used a "stern voice" to help bring the students back to reality.
According to Whitbread, Nadeau's good looks may have played a role in the trance.
About 13 students reported headaches or nausea, while five students reported "more serious trouble" following the performance, the Canadian Press reports.
School officials said they were not aware hypnotism is not recommended for children under 14 years old, the report notes.
According to the International Association of Pure Hypnoanalysts, hypnosis is simply a state of relaxation in which persons remain completely awake and susceptible to suggestions. Persons may "feel very heavy, relaxed, lethargic or quite light and tingly."
However, while this technique can be used to "modify your perceptions [and] behavior," persons remain completely in control of their actions, the Mayo Clinic notes.
A post featured on the Alchemy Institute of Hypnosis website points out that some forms of hypnosis are much more common than some might think and that they're often used by advertisers to sway customers into buying their products.
(Via TheFW)
Watch video of the routine in the video above.