Comment from Andrew M. Gobel

from Andrew M. Gobel (andrewgobel@aol.com)

Dear Mr. MaCoy,
My name is Andrew Gobel. I was a senior at Dallastown High School and I was hypnotized during my senior all-night party. If you recall, I was"hypnotism subject" number two, second from your left. Anyway, I promised I would give you my feedback, so here it is. I had lost the slip you gave me with your website for a spell, but fortunately, I found it.

The experience was, to use only one word, eerie. Don't get me wrong; it was ultimately really fun and funny. While it was going on, however, I just felt incredibly removed from myself. I suppose it was eerie to not be able to control my body.

In the interest of total coverage, I was supposed to  call you a phoney and a fake hypnotist when you rubbed your chin. I watched you intently during all the other students' antics, waiting for that chin rub.

As I said earlier, I was extremely out of it, almost as if watching the whole set in third person. So, the chin rub came, and I jumped up, knowing I was supposed to do SOMETHING. I remembered it was to call you a fake, but I couldn't do it. I remember thinking hazily, "I can't call him a fake; I am undoubtedly hypnotized."  (I even felt kind of intoxicated.) So I blurted out "I know I'm supposed to call you a fake, but... I can't do this. It's too real." 

So I sat back down and enjoyed the rest of the show. The unfortunate part of my failure to perform as you suggested was my friends' interpretation of what I did end up saying. Not surprisingly, they said I sounded mumbly when I jumped up to confront you, but all they heard was "I can't do this."

Incidentally, all my friends thought I was telling you,"This is stupid. I don't want to do this." In fact, it was the opposite. In retrospect, I wish my "act" would have been a simpler one so I could have been more involved. However, it was very fun and I will be glad to be able to say I took part in such an interesting show.

Lastly, I felt! groggy for quite a while after the set. Like I said earlier, I was kind of "out of it" and felt a little bit intoxicated (which I can assure you, I was not.) Granted, it was the middle of the ALL-NIGHT party, so I'm sure the hour had something to do with that, too. It was no overwhelming sensation that a can of Red Bull couldn't kick to the curb.

Anyway, to wrap up, I hope this email has been of some help to you; I'm sorry it took so long. Also, thank you for making graduation night all the more fun-filled and memorable.

RESPONSE:
Many thanks, Andrew. Fascinating. As you may recall I told you that ordinarily a subject will not do anything they would not normally do and that obviously varies from subject to subject. I think you could just not bring yourself to call this nice old man a fake! Some girls can not resist the suggestion to slap me while others, even though sorely tempted, can't bring themselves to do it.