Bakersfield College welcomed students back for the fall semester with another edition of Mind Surfin’, a mentalist show. The performance, which took place in the cafeteria on August 22, allowed BC students to participate in telepathic and psychokinetic tricks lead by the mentalist, Rick Aimes.

The event began with the mentalist guessing the favorite scary movies of multiple audience members, all of whom marveled at the abilities of the performer.

Next came a game called “Find the Killer,” in which a blindfolded Aimes managed to pop a green balloon with a pocketknife after having BC students pass it around at random. Aimes blindly ambled around the crowd in search of the balloon, leaving many onlookers crying out with gasps and shouts. Aimes finally decided on a “victim” and popped the balloon with a quick thrust of the knife. Jose Garcia, the student holding the balloon, laughed as Aimes zeroed in on him.

Later, Aimes asked for audience volunteers for two games. One had a student ring a bell with nothing more than the power of their mind, and the other had the same student bend a spoon with their mind. Claudia Flores was the chosen volunteer. As the crowd looked on, she sat in a chair and closed her eyes while Aimes told her to focus all of her energy on ringing the bell. Several seconds passed, but eventually the bell chimed and many, including Flores, gasped in amazement as the bell rang without any hands touching it.

Immediately after that, Aimes had Flores hold a metal spoon between her hands and focus all of her energy on bending the spoon.

After a few seconds Flores cried out and threw the spoon on the floor. The spoon, which was originally straight, was now noticeably bent at a 90-degree angle.

“It’s real. I felt the energy,” said Flores. “I felt something move through my back, then the spoon got hot in my hand. I felt it bend. I could feel the energy around me, and I knew I could do it,” Flores responded when asked about her role in the performance.

Following the spoon bending, Aimes performed another round of guessing random words and images that audience members thought of. One exercise had audience members and longtime friends, AnnaBelle Aldaco and Jax Malivuk, think of two different scenes in which Aimes accurately predicted components of both.

In his penultimate endeavor, Aimes attempted to hypnotize the audience into overcoming their fears. He held up a poster with a list of common fears, including change, public speaking, failure, pressure, and stress.

Aimes then chose an onlooker at random and accurately guessed that their fear was public speaking.

He walked the audience through relaxation techniques and encouraged all who watched to let go of their fears.

For his final trick, Aimes taught the audience how to hypnotize themselves.

Stating that, “Hypnosis is not like what you see in the movies. Anyone can do it. You don’t black out. Hypnosis is nothing more than affirmations that you tell yourself and believe.”

Aimes taught the crowd that the first step in hypnosis is relaxation, second is a countdown from five to one, third is a repeating of affirmations, and fourth is snapping one’s self out of the hypnotized state by pinching or digging your thumb nail into your fingertip.

Aimes encourages everyone to hypnotize themselves with positive affirmations and to use his techniques to achieve one’s goals and let go of fear.