Standing center stage in the Grand River Room at Grand Valley State University Wednesday, Nov. 30, hypnotist Tom DeLuca commanded the attention of every GVSU student in the room.

“This show is all about your imagination and I’m going to show you how your imagination affects your behavior in a very, hopefully fun, fun way,” he said.

Taking 20 volunteers from the audience, DeLuca turned his back to the audience, instructing the room to quietly chatter among themselves as he began to gently suggest the audience participants to enter a deep sleep and began to lead them on their first hypnosis-induced journey.

Hosted by Spotlight Productions, DeLuca, a four-time College Entertainer of the Year recipient, has performed his hypnosis comedy show at GVSU for 30-plus years.

Earning a master’s degree in psychology at the University of Illinois, while working as a therapist he began to develop his hypnosis craft and performed before various civic groups before gaining national prominence as a corporate and college hypnotist.

Recognizing the importance of imagination and how valuable of a tool it can be, the hypnotic trance DeLuca put the GVSU audience participants under was lighthearted as he led them on their “blue, blue, blue vacation.”

“Squeeze that hand tight like you’re holding a fishing pole,” DeLuca said over the laughter of the audience. “Start waving that pole back-and-forth, not side-to-side, and on the count of three I want you to give a big cast to the arm and put some energy into it.”

The hypnotized individuals on the stage vigorously began to wheel in their pretend fish, as their lips snarled and as they panted in order to bring in the catch of the day.

Sabrina Sommers, the special events co-chair for Spotlight Productions, said having DeLuca interact with the audience and putting them under hypnosis is an entertaining break for the end of the fall semester.

“We like to have people relaxed right before finals start,” Sommers said. “We have been really encouraging people to come in because they’ve already started to study hard and they just need time to relax and laugh a little bit and he just does a good job with that.”

Helping out with the show last year as a general assembly member in the special events committee for Spotlight Productions, Sommers said she never liked hypnosis before but is now excited to see the humorous situations DeLuca will cast over his audience.

“We just know how great his shows have been in the past and that he enjoys coming here, so we just invite him back every year to come do another show,” she said. ‘“We just like his whole package because he does a good job.”

Later in the show, DeLuca convinced individuals on the stage that they were driving a Ferrari and were speeding down a highway. As they dodged dogs in the road, veered hard to the left, passed cop cars and drove deep into a corn field, the audience laughed, cried and took videos in order to capture the ferocity of their hypnotized friends’ facial features and body movements.

Besides combining hypnosis, entertainment and education in corporate or university-based events, DeLuca also created and conducted the ImaginAction! workshop. Teaching audience participants how to relax and increase productivity, DeLuca’s goal is to implant positive messages into his audience’s subconscious.

“I teach people how to give themselves a suggestion, something that they want to do and are capable of doing and not getting done,” he said. “I teach them how to put it into their subconscious and I give them triggers so that when they see it, they’re kind of pulled into that direction.

“It’s not magic, but pulls you where you need to go.”