^ ; f:
■ Hypnotist Jerry Harris
brings the misunderstood
art to Eugene, hoping to
mesmerize audiences
By Rory Carroll
Oregon Daily Emerald
TWelve years ago, Jerry Harris
held a high-pressure job as the
vice president of an investment
banking company.
“Stress was actually killing
me,” Harris said. “My doctor
gave me six months to live if I
couldn’t get it under control.”
His doctor suggested that Har
ris try hypnosis to combat his
soaring stress level, so Harris en
rolled in a hypnosis institute in
Los Angeles, where he reduced
his stress level to almost nothing.
Shortly after graduating from
the institute in 1988, Harris re
tired from banking and began
teaching stress management to
other executives in seminars
and large groups.
“I started adding humor, and
eventually, it evolved into the
show we have today,” Harris said.
Today Harris, a.k.a. “The Mas
ter Hypnotist,” performs more
than 300 shows a year around
the country.
When he takes the stage at
Kowloon’s Restaurant in the
Scandal’s Lounge on Saturday, it
will be his first performance of
public hypnosis in Oregon. A
historic state law against stage
hypnosis kept him from per
forming in Eugene until it was
decriminalized last October.
The show involves getting 10
to 15 volunteers from the audi
ence onto the stage for an “in
duction.”
“I will then give the partici
pants suggestions, and they’ll re
spond however they find appro
priate,” Harris said.
Harris’ show has consistently
been a huge success, mainly be
cause of his professionalism and
sense of humor, said his booking
agent, Donna Richards.
“There is always a huge draw,
and I’ve been booking him for
over 10 years,” Richards said.
Harris also views the show as
a success.
“In 12 years’ time, I’ll bet
there’s not five events that I have
not been brought back to do
again,” he said.
Harris is not interested exclu
sively in the entertainment facet
ofhypnosis.
“Hypnosis can be used in a
million different ways and help
anyone accomplish anything,”
Harris said.
He sells 22 different self-help
tapes that utilize hypnosis to aid
people with everything from
playing better basketball to ex
panding memory to having fan
tastic sex.
Despite his success, Harris
said hypnosis is a field that is of
ten misunderstood.
“It’s not what the movies por
tray it to be. They make it look
like we take control of that per
son’s mind and body. We don’t
at all,” Harris said. “You don’t
give up any power, and you
don’t give up any control. That
surprises a lot of people.”
A person under hypnosis
won’t do anything they would
n’t do otherwise, Harris said.
Still, hypnosis has not fully es
caped its negative reputation.
“There isn’t a good scientific
understanding of trance,” said
Dr. David Northway, a psycholo
gist in private practice in Eugene.
Northway used hypnosis dur
ing the early 1980s in his practice
but now avoids it because of its
prevailing negative image.
“It can be useful for habit con
trol and it helps people to focus
internally,” Northway said. “But
it is misused 90 percent of the
time.”
Hypnosis is by no means ex
clusive to the stage, according to
Harris.
“Anytime you relax and your
brain wave pattern slows down,
you’re actually in that same state
of mind that we use for hypno
sis,” Harris said.
You’ve been considering it for quite some time.
What’s stopping you! Call us and we’ll calm your
fears — of the jump and the price.
8953029
Eugene Skydivers
008898
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