On January 18th, Spring Lake seniors enjoyed an all-night party at Battle GR, which was a surprise to them until they arrived. The night kicked off to a good start with pizza and breadsticks available as the senior class flooded in and saw their range of activities for the night. Laser tag, human-hungry-hungry hippo, archery, sports, axe throwing, video games, karaoke, and arcade games were all available to seniors, as well as a hypnotist, named Chuck King came to put on a show for everyone at the end of the night.
Sixteen volunteers were pulled from the crowd to be hypnotized. After they were put to sleep they were given suggestions from the hypnotist. For example, one student was told that they could not remember the number six existed and was then instructed to count out loud to ten. When the student began counting they could not remember that six had ever existed and just skipped past it. Later, all of the students were told that they were on a hot bus with no air conditioning. It was crazy to see their expressions change as they began to fan themselves and act as if they were actually on that bus. Some of the students even looked like they were in distress because of the heat they were feeling. It was very entertaining.
Lauren Nicles, one of the students who was hypnotized, said, “The hypnotism was so cool. I don’t remember most of it, but my mom made sure to show me all of her photos and videos! It was a really interesting experience but I probably wouldn’t do it again.”
Karl Sineath, a psychology teacher at Spring Lake High School says that hypnotism can actually help people reach a state of consciousness that is a bit different from being awake and being asleep. He explained that when you are in the hypnotic state, people are typically more relaxed and more likely to take suggestions, but only about 10% of people are highly hypnotizable. Most people wouldn’t fall into a hypnotic state or at least wouldn’t be as likely to take suggestions. Even though you are open to suggestions when under hypnosis, you will not engage in behavior you wouldn’t otherwise do. Hypnosis can also be therapeutic for people.
Overall the senior all-nighter was a success for the class of 2025!
