by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Reuben Pecarve

Age: 72

Occupation: Hypnotherapist

Bio: This extremely talkative Plateau-born downtown resident has been putting the hypnosis whammy on people for over 50 years now. Intensely proud that he never finished Grade 6 nor went to high school, he rarely performs on stage anymore but operates a thriving hypnotherapy business and is regularly called in to local hospitals to anaesthetize patients through hypnosis prior to their going under the knife. He drives a 1997 Mercedes.

Does he have a medical education? Sort of, but minus any official degrees. “I had five years of med school at McGill but I was never a student. I used to sit in on lectures and wait around outside the university with my scalpel set. At that time there were usually four students to a cadaver, and whenever I would see that only three students would show up, I would just go in. Sometimes I’d even start lecturing the new students present about anatomy, histology, cardiology, immunology. I did this for five years.”

Something he says people should be wary of when choosing a hypnotherapist: Charlatans.

Why somebody undergoing a major surgical operation might choose hypnosis over anaesthesia: Generally, because they are allergic to anaesthesia and their options are either death, one hell of a lot of pain, or the services of the Amazing Pecarve.

The chances of somebody emerging from a hypnotic state while on the operating table: Zero.

Has he ever hypnotized an insect? Yes, a grasshopper.

A few of the more common things people come to see him for: Anhedonia (the complete absence of pleasure), migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, pain from phantom limbs, weight reduction, to quit smoking, to alleviate their fear of flying. “I have 100 per cent results with people suffering from aerophobia, and about a 75 per cent success rate for people with migraines.”

The cost of a session: $110/hour plus tax.

How many sessions it generally takes for someone to have their smoking habit hypnotized away. “Two, three, four sessions. Somewhere in that area.”

Most satisfying part of the job. Being mistakenly referred to as a doctor by health professionals.

Something he likes to do: Cruise up and down the Main talking to people and essentially just hanging out. “The people I meet there are true people. They tell it like it is. They’re on drugs and they’re interesting to listen and talk to.”

Childhood ambition: To become a doctor.

Current ambition: To do brain surgery without any anaesthetic.

Musical preferences: Frank Sinatra, Pavarotti.

Television preferences: Reruns of the old CBC program This Hour Has Seven Days.

Film preferences: “I like to watch anything that has to do with marriage or divorce. I’m divorced myself and I also do marriage counselling.”

Words of wisdom: “Oh magic sleep, oh comfortable bird. That broodest o’er the troubled sea of the mind till it is hushed and smooth. Hypnosis.” :

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