South Yorkshire Times September 24, 1949
Hypnotism at Denaby
Our Reporter Proves an Apt Subject
Mr Mark Dunnaman, hailed as Britain’s leading exponent of hypnotism and telepathy, at Denaby Denaby Miners Welfare Hall on Monday evening, challenged any of the other experts in Britain today that they could not obtain these results.
Hard Bitten
Mr Dunnaman (that is not his actual name) opened his show by asking for members of the audience to help him by coming onto the stage and acting as these “committee.”
Accordingly several male members including a few hard-bitten and very sceptical miners and one young reporter, (not as hard-bitten, but just as sceptical), shuffled a trifle self-consciously up the steps to join their entertainer
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I happened to be number one which resulted in my being one of Mr Donovan’s main subjects. Starting with a house-warmer, the hypnotist asked all the audience and committee to lock their fingers above their heads and concentrate on the fact that they would not be able to unlock them. After a few moments concentrating cogitation it was found that one young woman could not, indeed free herself and she was added to the existing committee.
After that, Mr Dunneman left the audience alone and began to work on the stage party. He began by sending us all to sleep and telling us to extend our arms rigid in front of us and leave them there for several minutes. What followed was naturally a little indistinct to me, as I was hardly in a position to appreciate it.
Mr Dunneman then began to put us through our tricks in earnest. While I was seated in a plane travelling to America, the young woman one of the other men were invited to a party and given drink. It was only to be expected that they should become “drunk,” and that they should in consequence sing loud and long before they went home. When they returned to normal again, Mr Dunneman came back to me. I was taken out of my seat (after unbuckling my safety belt) and told to look high into the sky to see the skyscraper. After I dutifully looked I was returned home while the others received a little more attention.
Then Mr Dunneman told the audience that I was going to see the Indian Rope Trick. Had I been awake I would have laughed. Being, as I was asleep, I saw the Indian Rope trick. So I am told. I started by pointing out the rope, followed it up with my eyes then watched a little boy go to it and commence to climb. After he had duly disappeared at the top, I watch the rope fall down again and coil up.
Human Bridge
Test five on the programme told everyone that they would see the deep sleep and catalyptic stage of hypnotism, I think before that night, I didn’t even know the meaning of, but I soon obtain practical experience of it. I was told to make myself rigid “like a rock, or a bar,” and at once went quite stiff all over.
I was then lifted up, without sagging, and deposited on two chairs, with my head on one of my feet on the other. Then I was left for over 10 minutes, bridging the gap, and supported my own weight by my neck and ankle.
However, Mr Dunneman considers that a bridge should be utilised, and sought to make the test more convincing, he stood his 13 stones upon my stomach for two or three minutes more. Then I was picked up again, stood on my feet, and told that the rigidity would go. It went and I was told to sit down. Halfway down I was taught to stop and remained for a further two minutes in a sitting position, but without a chair. At the end of that time my chair would be taken away and I would fall to the floor. I fell
Undoubted Skill
The interval followed this, and when I had been informed of the evening’s events I had the time to think about the act. It was not only Mark Dunneman’s undoubted skill that an over 420 of the toughest people in South Yorkshire for so long; it was his compelling personality, his beautifully modulated voice, and a touch that was every bit as soft as that voice.
It was also his genuine sincerity and belief in what he was doing. As he said this ex-RAF officer, was decorated for bravery during the war, his act was an entertainment, but it was also a scientific demonstration.