By Shuying

2009 marked the 80th anniversary of the first West Lake Expo in Hangzhou and the tenth anniversary of its resumption. Since it restarted, the expo has served as a mega event carrying a great deal of hitchhiking activities. This year saw a number of brand events initiated. Hypnotism was one of the new events that had never been seen before at the West Lake Expo.

The hypnotism demonstration was hosted by Runben, a company engaged in health consultation business in Hangzhou. It was a certified partner of the West Lake Expo.

The hypnotism demonstration took place on the afternoon of October 17, 2009 at Exhibition Hall A on the second floor of the Peace International Conference and Exhibition Center. It was opened to the general public. It was conducted through an interpreter by Gram Alexander, a celebrated Canadian hypnotist, and his assistant Tyson.

The two hypnotists aimed to show that hypnotism could help minimize or remove stress and make people comfortable. Before Alexander started the show, he briefly talked about pressures and stresses in everyday life. He cited some situations: Your tires were flat; you partied until 2 am; your kid was enrolled in a university; your bedroom furniture was delivered; a couple, your friends, would come to stay at your house for a week. Would these situations bring pressure to you? Answers from the audience were diverse. Alexander said affirmatively that all these could put people under stress and make them unable to sleep well.

Alexander asked the volunteers on the stage and the audience to close their eyes, put their hands flat on the thighs, place their feet comfortably on the ground, and then relax. Relax, relax, he uttered these words slowly against the background music almost invisible, as if bringing them into a world where they could hear quiet tides lap lazily on a white beach. The volunteers on the stage came under and many among the audiences sank into a light slumber.

Slowly, the hypnotist described a situation: a boy was chasing a dog happily. A car appeared, charging toward the little dog. The doggie might come under the wheels. Tears came to the eyes of a girl under hypnotism on the stage.

The demonstration was held to enhance the publics awareness of the everyday life stress and the awareness of the professional help available at hand. Runben provides a wide range of psychotherapies and services for problems people find in parenting, children, education, marriage, relationships, sleep, job-centered stress, and stress in menopause and old age.

During the West Lake Expo, Runben Health Consultancy held two more events in schools for youngsters to understand more about their classmates and for their teachers and parents to understand more about preteens and teenagers.

A demonstration was organized for the third graders at a junior high school in Hangzhou. Students were seated in a music room. The consultant asked a student to play a percussion instrument to imitate a most representative feature of a classmate and his or her classmates could guess who was best described by the playing. The classroom buzzed in excitement. A student eagerly came forward and played a percussion instrument, imitating a classmates laughter. The unexpected but accurate description made all the classmates understand who was being described. They burst into laughing and vied each other to give the answer. A student played a familiar melody and explained that the key to the musical riddle was the nickname of a classmate. □