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Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

Hypnotist headlines first Spring Union Fair

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Eleven IU students sat in chairs on the Whittenberger Auditorium stage with their heads bowed. They were hypnotized.

“Try to get a really good mental image of what you look like after the last eight or nine years at the gym,” hypnotist Tom DeLuca said. “Now hold on to that. Yes, that’s you. You look that good. It’s not just your friends and family who’ve noticed. The whole world has noticed how good you look.”

The students listen to minutes of reaffirmation about their perfect looking bodies before being asked to show off those muscles. DeLuca counted to three.

“Three, up and pose,” he said. “You are looking good. Hold that pose.”

Students performed any task DeLuca directed them to while they were hypnotized Wednesday night during the Spring Union Fair, presented by Union Board.

DeLuca had one man singing about apples, another acting as an Indiana cheerleader and one woman was taught to believe the number six didn’t exist.

Mara Jacobucci, who had been hypnotized once before, said she felt relaxed and re-energized after the hypnotization.

“I mean, hypnotism, I think, is an interesting word because I think it’s almost like meditation more,” she said. “For example, if you do a yoga class and the teacher is telling you to do things and you just do it — it’s kind of like that feeling more for me.”

The event was part of Union Board’s first Spring Union Fair.

While DeLuca highlighted the festivities, there was also the Gallery Evening Music Series as well as a caricature artist and silicone wristbands to be engraved.

The purpose of Union Fair is to provide an alternative to alcohol during Little 500 week, Union Board Director of IU Traditions Jason Gross said.

DeLuca used to perform hypnotism at IU during Welcome Week every year. Because that always drew such a large crowd, Union Board decided he would be perfect for their new event, Gross said.

Among other tasks, Jacobucci was told she was the captain of the “fun police.” Upon command by DeLuca, without realizing it, Jacobucci began yelling at anyone in the crowd who laughed.

She said it doesn’t take long for all the focus to turn to DeLuca and forget about the audience.

All of a sudden you’re in a different world, she said.

“I remember all the actions that people were doing, but I was confused a lot of times why people were doing the things they were doing,” Jacobucci said.

With the support they had from students at the event this year, Gross said Union Board will continue the Spring Union Fair in the future.

“It’s new this year, but we’re hoping to make it bigger every year,” Gross said.

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