Glenn Alexander is hypnotizing China’s brightest university students and they can’t get enough

When people discover Glenn Alexander is a hypnotist, many think he spends his days waving a silver pocket watch back and forth like a pendulum in front of his subject’s eyes while chanting, “You are getting sleepy. Now bark like a dog!”

While Alexander sometimes uses the watch, he mostly talks to people and educates them.

Clad in a black, tailored suit, black dress shirt, white silk tie, rimless glasses and goatee, the 44-year-old Canadian was like a standup comic as he worked a crowd of 760 curious and skeptical students at Tsinghua University last month. As he told funny stories and clicked through his PowerPoint slides during his introduction to hypnosis presentation, Alexander explained that hypnosis is a scientific tool used to change people’s lives for the better.

[Being hypnotized] was really intense and an unforgettable feeling. I felt like I had an unlimited capacity for concentration.

“I’m talking about finding out what you want to do in your life and the things that limit you,” says Alexander.

Wildly popular (over 100 students were turned away from his December 14 lecture), Alexander has helped many celebrities, athletes and ordinary folks quit smoking, lose weight, improve athletic performance and self-confidence, reduce pain and stress and overcome phobias. He’s helped an airline stewardess cure her fear of flying and an NHL player improve his game.

“I can’t take someone who has never skated before and make them a superstar on ice,” clarifies Alexander. “I’m good, but I’m not that good.”

Alexander is one half of the world's first and only dual hypnosis team, Dr. Chaos and Damien Noir. Though he and his sidekick Kevin Blyth have lived in Beijing for three years, they marked their debut in the Middle Kingdom with Alexander’s teaching and lecturing at Tsinghua in fall 2006.

Often, Alexander, who does motivational speaking, comedic hypnosis shows and lectures, is dared to prove hypnosis is real, as was the case when a student, Walland Thu, challenged him at Tsinghua. “You, come here,” said Alexander.

As Thu settled into a black, plastic chair on stage, Alexander hushed the audience and instructed the speckled man to close his eyes and relax. Then he invited the audience to do the same.

“Hypnosis works best when it's one-on-one, not one-on-500,” said Alexander. Then he began. “You’re aware there are a lot of people in this room. You’re aware there are a lot of people looking at you. You’re aware of my voice. You’re aware your body is starting to relax.”

The audience, expecting something dramatic, giggled as Thu remained motionless.

Alexander continued to tell the young man to relax various parts of his body starting with his toes and working upward. Alexander counted backward from 10 and then told Thu to visualize himself lying in the sunshine.

By now, most members of the audience had their eyes closed and the room was silent except for Alexander’s soothing voice.

“Remember everything I’ve told you. 3-2-1. Sleep even deeper.”

With this command, Thu bowed his head. As Alexander took his hand and commanded him to look into his eyes, audience members who were not trying to be hypnotized, erupted in laughter which woke Thu. Despite his failure to hypnotize any students, they were eager to ask questions, ask for autographs and beg Alexander to return to train them.

“I was almost hypnotized. I felt very relaxed,” said Thu, 19. “It’s mysterious. I hope I can learn more about it.”

And that’s how most get into hypnosis. For Alexander, it happened when he was working as a radio DJ at an adult contemporary station. He had to interview a hypnotist who was performing in town.

Alexander, who had studied psychology at University of British Columbia, was curious but had many preconceived notions. He grilled the hypnotist mercilessly after the show. Finally, the hypnotist said, “You really ought to be doing what I’m doing. You’d be better at it,” says Alexander. “I went to see his show that night and I thought he was God. I couldn't believe people were falling out of their chairs.”

His mother stumbled upon the [hypnosis] toy, calling it a tool of the devil.... [His parents then] set it on fire.

After that Alexander went on the road, shadowing his new “god” in a mini apprenticeship. But many of Alexander's questions remained unanswered, eventually leading him to the Canadian Institute of Ethical Hypnosis, even though hypnotists don’t need a license.

He was first hypnotized during training.

“I was pretty skeptical. I wasn’t sure that I could be hypnotized,” says Alexander, whose teacher led his class through a series of visualizations. “It was really intense and an unforgettable feeling. I felt like I had an unlimited capacity for concentration.”

He imagined he was lying in soft grass by a lush waterfall. The trance lasted three or four minutes. “I could hear the waterfall,” explains Alexander. “I could smell the flowers and hear the birds. I wanted to go deeper. I got so excited that I brought myself out of the trance.”

Blyth’s fascination began earlier.

Blyth was 8-years-old when he saw an advertisement in the back of a comic book for a plastic hypnotic disk. He immediately shoved US$2 in an envelope and mailed away for it. As soon as the disk and hypnosis instruction booklet arrived, Blyth promptly started “hypnotizing” his friends until his mother stumbled upon the toy, calling it a tool of the devil. Blyth was led outside where his parents poured gasoline on the disk and set it on fire. At that moment, “I decided I would learn everything about it in spite of them,” says Blyth, now 30.

He met Alexander 11 years ago when he was bartending in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Many hypnotists had come through town doing shows, but Alexander was special.

“Glenn was one of the only hypnotists willing to sit down and answer my questions,” says Blyth. Alexander was looking for a new show manager and Blyth quickly signed on in hopes of learning the craft. With Blyth on board, Alexander left the comedy and nightclub circuit where he had been touring 11 months a year and turned to an all-ages show. It was during a tour break three years ago that the two decided to move to China.

“I had wanted to come to China since I was 4-years-old,” says Alexander. When he was 5, he tried to dig a hole to China in his mother’s flowerbed.

Despite the duo’s enthusiasm, they knew little about Beijing.

“Our idea was to land in Beijing and we hoped they had cars and computers,” says Alexander. “I’m embarrassed about what I didn’t know.”

Since then, they have settled in. done some research and started their new lives as expats. Driving around in their black, Chinese SUV in Haidian, they enjoy anonymity which is impossible back home in Canada. They plan to stay here indefinitely.

“Hypnosis is my passion, my joy and my life. I know Kevin feels the same way,” says Alexander. “We get up every day and do something we love to do.”

contact the author at: editor@cityweekend.com.cn