Barbara Fredricksen discovers that her skepticism about hypnosis is misplaced when she meets up with professional mentalist and stage hypnotist Ken Whitener . . . no joke, comedy hypnotist blows skeptic’s mind:

…he began a soft, relaxing patter about being drowsy, and though I went along – after all, I needed this experience for my story – I was determined that I wasn’t going to do whatever he told me to do. All he asked me to do was hold my writing pen between my thumb and forefinger and not drop it. More patter, and, as his voice went lower, he told me to drop the pen on the count of four. “No way,” I clearly thought. “Then pen stays right between that finger and that thumb.” Then, Whitener said “four,” and – I don’t know why or how – the pen dropped. And Brendan laughed out loud. Moments later, Whitener led me out of the trancelike state, and I was as wide awake as I am when my cat suddenly yowls and jumps on my stomach at 2 a.m. Whitener said some subjects remember everything they did, heard and saw during hypnosis and others don’t remember a single thing. I’m a rememberer, but I don’t remember why I couldn’t control my hand.

Whitener demonstrates one of the key ways methods of media relations when it comes to hypnotists . . . don’t talk about it, demonstrate it . . . of course, that also means you have to have competence and confidence in what you’re doing . . . something you should have anyway before meeting with the public.

As he is both a stage hypnotist and a performing mentalist, Whitener leads in with a mentalist bit which both engages Fredrickson’s imagination and gets her into a playful state of mind as well as demonstrates his skills in that field (read the original article for a description of her experience, it’s a fairly straightforward book test which he leverages into his spiel).