Students peruse through possible decorations for their dorms at the poster sale held this past weekend.

Mapes Astounds Audiences at Jorgensen

By: Kaylah Baca

Posted: 9/20/07

Amused astonishment is the perfect phrase to describe the atmosphere at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday night. James Mapes, a renowned hypnotherapist and public speaker, presented his one-man show "Journey Into the Imagination" Wednesday night for another year at UConn. Hundreds of people attended the show with feelings of excitement, anticipation and for some who had already seen James Mapes, the knowledge that they were in for a good night.

Purple and red lights shone on the white backdrop of the stage. A single row of about 30 chairs were lined up with three overhead projectors evenly spaced behind them.

As soon as the lights faded applause broke out in the audience, whistles were heard and by the time the SUBOG student representatives left the stage after introducing Mapes, the anxious conversations ceased. A man's voice came on the speakers and gave the audience some background information on Mapes. Mapes has been seen in over 150 television shows including All My Children and One Life To Live as well as the movies Taxi Driver and Star Trek VI, according to the voice overhead. Mapes was the first stage hypnotist to receive the "Campus Entertainer of the Year" award and has worked with professional athletes for sports improvement and the New York Police Department assisting in memory recovery. He has also worked with cancer patients by helping them to control their pain. He has an MA in Theater, is a certified hypnotherapist and holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology.

Suddenly, "Pure Imagination," the title song from the classic "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," starts to play on the speakers. James Mapes took the stage wearing an all-black suit with a purple shirt on underneath, somewhat resembling a magician. The crowd erupted into applause and screamed.

"'Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.' That is my favorite quote by Albert Einstein," said Mapes. He then went into an explanation of the various exercises he would be conducting with certain members of the audience. The first exercise involved Mapes biting into a lemon - which made the juice fly everywhere and caused the first major laugh of the night - and asking the audience if anyone felt their jaw tighten or tasted a sour flavor. Scattered hands rose in the audience.

Next in a short relaxing exercise in which he told everyone to close their eyes, take a few deep breaths and to just "focus, focus, focus." Thos in the audience who were left with their hands stuck together because they had successfully self-hypnotized, all got to come up to the stage.

Mapes started giving the students sitting on stage directions. He used a harmonica throughout the show to lull a few members in the audience into a trance. Slowly Mapes got the hilarious participants to relax all the way up to the point where they were asleep. Heads rolling to the side, falling off the chairs and onto the floor, asleep! All this in front of a hysterically laughing crowd of their peers. At this point Mapes started to tell the audience that this type of relaxation is a great tool to use in high stress situations.

Mapes then made it interesting for the hypnotized students in the audience when he said that anytime during the show, whenever he stomped his foot twice on stage, they would feel a pinch on their behinds and it was the person's fault in back of them. However, they would not remember anything he said.

Then it was the stage participant's turn as Mapes turned his attention to them.

Mapes said that they were all on a space ship about to take off to outer space but first they better check their seat belts. So the 36 sleeping participants, limply checked their non-existent seat belts. The students acted as if they were pressed to their seats, and when they finally got to "outer space" they were weightless.

"I was crying while those kids were imaging they were in space. It was so entertaining," said Samantha Brown, a firstsemester business major.

Next they thought they were in a space ship with changing temperatures and monsters of other planets trying to attack them. At this point, the students on stage began to take of their sweaters when told it was too hot, or cuddle next to each other when informed the temperature dropped below freezing. One guy flipped off a monster when Mapes said it was trying to attack his ship.

Then Mapes had the stage participants wake up to the feeling that they were extremely content. For no apparent reason they thought the lights were funny and for obvious reasons the audience thought they were funny as well.

The age regression segment of Mapes' performance was more on the serious side, when two of the students actually began to cry. Mapes had them go into a repressed memory from their previous life.

Overall, the show was a major hit, many rounds of applause and lots of happy students walking back home. The two hours the show lasted went by too fast, and the laughter carried out long after the show ended.

"I felt, tingly, and I don't remember pain, or anything I did. Hope I didn't make too much of a fool of myself," said John Groth, a stage participant.

Contact Kaylah Baca at Kaylah.Baca@UConn.edu