For more than a decade, Impact, Harding\u2019s freshman orientation event, has featured Dale K, a traveling hypnotist and comedian better known around campus as \u201cthe hypnotist.\u201d As the finale of the weekend, the show brings together not only the incoming students and transfers, but the returning student body, faculty and staff as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I look back, it just seems like a few years. But when I really look back, it\u2019s been a long time,\u201d Dale K said about his thirteen years at Harding. \u201cI don\u2019t know what magic is on this campus, but there\u2019s something always crazy that happens that I just go, \u2018This is the best thing I\u2019m going to see all year.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Dale K explained that, though he is usually booked every night of the month during his busy season, Harding\u2019s Impact show has always stood out to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a special place, it\u2019s a beautiful room . . . they\u2019re just a good, creative, energetic group of people,\u201d Dale K said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got people from all around coming to this school, and I think when they get up there, you see how diverse everybody is and how they react to different things in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the row of chairs he fills with volunteers at the beginning of the program, his show requires very few props. But, after the participants are selected and put \u201cunder,\u201d the hour is full of almost non-stop laughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents love it,\u201d Logan Light, director of campus life, said. \u201cThere\u2019s a laughter that\u2019s like, \u2018That\u2019s not me, whew. That\u2019s not me.\u2019 . . . It\u2019s been the thing that brings students back to campus. They come back [and say], \u2018See you at the hypnotist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
One of this year\u2019s participants, junior Toni Sharp, has attended Dale K\u2019s show every year since attending Impact herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of fun to watch other people do things we could never picture ourselves doing,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cFreshman year, I never would have gone up on stage and essentially embarrassed myself in front of the entire student body, . . . but people go because they\u2019re curious if something like that can actually work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sharp explained she had always wondered how it felt and decided to experience it for herself this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was surprised that it worked,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cIt was kind of weird, because you\u2019re aware of everything that\u2019s going on. I was aware that the audience was out there. I was aware that he was asking me to do things. But you\u2019re just so relaxed that you\u2019re like, \u2018Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, I\u2019ll do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Light said although the show may seem hard to believe, Dale K\u2019s technique is straightforward, and the performances are all a part of the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very upfront by saying, \u2018This isn\u2019t mind control, this isn\u2019t wizardry. There\u2019s a science to this,\u2019\u201d Light said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s coercive in any way. It\u2019s a real odd feeling. You\u2019re both aware and not aware at the same time. He talks about the power of suggestion, and that\u2019s just what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dale K described his first hypnotist experience at 16 as both intriguing and inspiring.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack then, there was no internet, nothing like that,\u201d Dale K said. \u201cI would look for books. I grew up in Canada, so I remember going through snow up to my knees to a library and trying to find a book. . . . Finally, I just read enough books and gave it a shot. It clicked. Fast forward to some trial and error, two steps forward one step back kind of a thing, and here I am in the metropolis of Searcy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dale K explained that his approach has changed over the 30 years he has worked as a hypnotist, and that most of his material he has developed himself, but that he hopes the freedom he allows between him and his participants on stage to \u201ccreate\u201d makes his show unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think about anything, it\u2019s those people that took a risk or thought outside of the box that make history,\u201d Dale K said. \u201cI think the best advice is to make sure \u2018you do you.\u2019 Stay true to yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Impact is intended to connect incoming students with each other, as well as the rest of the Harding community. And \u201cthe hypnotist,\u201d as the conclusion to the Impact experience, has epitomized that effort year after year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has become kind of a rite of passage and a ritual of sorts,\u201d Light said. \u201cI think that is another reason why people enjoy it so much: That memory of, \u2018this is what me and my friends do when we come back to school.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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