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SunSplash goers in for some magic next weekend

Hypnotist, motivational speaker and magician Gary Summers will perform at the SunSplash Family Fun Day in Paradise on August 18.

By Olivia Bradbury / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As regular attendees know, SunSplash Paddle in Paradise sure is a lot of fun every summer. This year, at least one of the events is promising to also be magical.

While some events have already started, most of the summer festival’s schedule runs from August 15 to August 18. Among them, as always, is the Family Fun Day on the final day of the festival. That’s when St. John’s hypnotist, mentalist, and motivational speaker Gary Summers is promising to bring the magic.

Summers began practicing magic about 40 years ago after he walked into a magic shop in Toronto. The shop owner, who was engaged to a woman from Deer Lake, took Summers under his wing. About 20 years later, Summers added hypnotism to his portfolio. 

In fact, most people would probably know Summers from having attended one of his workshops or seminars through work as part of their professional development, or from his personal counselling sessions. Summers is also a motivational speaker; he speaks at conventions, talks to businesses about how they can become the best version of themselves, etcetera. He also offers therapy to help people quit smoking, lose weight, sleep better, and have less stress in their lives. He has even helped some people overcome their phobias. 

Summers said we are all typically born with two fears: a fear of falling and a fear of loud noises. All other fears, he says, are acquired and, by extension, can be unacquired. He has helped people overcome all kinds of phobias, including a young girl who had an extreme fear of needles.

Regarding his motivational speaking, Summers said he teaches people how to control their thinking. “Once you can control your thinking, you can control your life,” he said. He asserts that it is not what happens to people that creates problems, but rather how people think about what happens to them. He helps people learn how to less frequently make common mental mistakes, such as assumptions, which he said hurts the assumer, or to have uncontrolled expectations, which can inhibit one’s ability to understand different people and situations. Certain negative expectations can also set people up for failure. Summers gave the example of a young boy who, after getting a zero on a math test, continued to think he would always get a zero, expecting that when he sat down to take the test, he would automatically forget everything he had learned. Summers refers to the phenomenon as “state dependent memory.” After a session with Summers, the boy began to ace his math tests. Years later, the boy’s mother informed Summers that her son was doing nautical engineering, which is a heavily math-based field. 

“All you have to do is decide that the way you’re thinking is not working for you,” said Summers. “And once you make that decision, then everything can change.”

Aside from all that, Summers practices magic. While most people likely know what magic and hypnotism are, some may not be aware of mentalism. Mentalism is a way of “reading” people’s minds. Summers says it is not actual mind-reading, but gives the impression that you have that ability. 

“Some of the technology and things that are out today really can get into the audience’s heads and they believe that you might have some kind of superpowers — which I don’t — but it makes people believe that you can actually get inside people’s heads,” explained Summers. 

He admits to having a bit of an advantage because he has an undergraduate degree in psychology. “I’ve got a good background as to how the human mind works,” he said. 

So while he enjoys performing magic for children, the mentalism act is more suited to an adult audience, he said, which is typically high school age or above.

When it comes to magic, while he thinks children under age 10 can enjoy some of his act, Summers believes older kids — teenagers and up —really appreciate the show. His hypnotism shows are for everyone, but it is a legal requirement that those who volunteer to participate in the acts at the shows be at least 16 years of age. 

High school students are perhaps his favourite demographic. Summers does a lot of safe grads and notes that high school students do not mind stepping outside their comfort zone and trying something different. The older people get, he said, the more they seem to fear saying or doing something that they might regret, and this fear is amplified by the concept of hypnosis. However, he insists that the idea that a hypnotist can make you do anything he wants is a misconception. Hypnotism, he explained, is about suggestion, not control. He cannot make someone do something under hypnosis that they would not do otherwise. Summers spends time before each hypnotism performance assuring the audience that it is a family show and that no one is going to be ridiculed or made to do anything dangerous. “It’s all about having some fun,” he said.

Summers will be performing in Paradise Park at 1:20 p.m. on August 18th as part of SunSplash’s Family Fun Day. He will be doing his regular magic show, but said there may be some mentalism sprinkled in. 

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