On Sunday, October 18, a professional hypnotist was hired by the University of Tulsa administration to perform at the beginning of Homecoming week so that the students would get excited for the other events of the week.
When Jack Woodworth, a junior petroleum engineering major, was asked about his experience at the hypnotist show, he was more than happy to comment.
The beginning of the interview went smoothly, and he described the hypnotist show as being “the greatest event he had ever attended.”
Woodworth went on to say that he had “never been more psyched for the rest of the homecoming events. [He was going] to attend all of the events and show as much school spirit as possible.”
Although Woodworth had not been called up to the stage to be hypnotized, he said that “being in the audience was just as much fun, and everyone was so full of spirit.” When asked what made the show so much fun, Woodworth struggled to answer, confused.
He responded with, “Well… You know… It was just really fun… Like all TU events are… The administration is so amazing at planning events, and I love our school so much!”
When pressed further, Woodworth struggled to remember the funniest thing the hypnotist had asked the volunteers to do, and he was again greatly troubled until he remembered that “the administration is just so great, and I love our school so much.”
A day after the interview, I was approached by another student who wishes to remain unnamed. She expressed her concerns about her friend who, like Woodworth, does not seem to remember the hypnotist show but was not a volunteer.
The student was close to tears as she explained her friend’s newfound love for the university and its administration.
“He doesn’t talk about anything anymore except homecoming and TU and events that are planned by the administration. He never used to care all that much about Tulsa football or school spirit, but now he is obsessed.”
The student fears that her friend, along with the rest of the audience, may have been hypnotized into having a greatly increased amount of school spirit.
The administration has been recently pushing for students to show more school spirit, and many people are suspicious about the coincidental hypnotist show and strange influx of school spirit since.
“Would the University of Tulsa administration really go so far as to infiltrate the minds of the students via hypnotism?” the student asked State-Run reporters, before anxiously shaking her head and turning away.
This link between the unremembered hypnotist show and the school spirit could either be a harmless coincidence or an attempt at mind control by our very own administration, but one thing is for sure: the rise in school spirit has had absolutely no bearing on how well the school performs in sports.
