The Hypnotist

In the class ahead of me in Roosevelt High, there was a guy named Sanford Berman. I did not know him at all, but years later I almost fell under his spell. Yes, he became a professional hypnotist and changed his name to Dr. Michael Dean. He did earn a Doctorate at a University, so he was entitled to be called a doctor. But he wasn't a medical doctor. He was into words and their meanings----something called semantics. He wrote books and taught classes and such, but he wanted more.

So he became a nightclub hypnotist.

Time passed and my daughter was attending Roosevelt High just like I did so many years before.

Dr. Dean came back to his old school and put on a show for the local people, but not in a nightclub, but in the Roosevelt auditorium, the proceeds going to a scholarship fund for students.

My daughter was picked to be a participant in the show along with a few other students. I sat in the audience. Dr. Dean did remarkable things like suspending a boy between two chairs with

nothing between to hold him up. Another boy was put upon him, but the hypnotized boy was as stiff as a board and was undaunted by the heavy weight he had to bear.

Dr. Dean told the volunteers that they were naked. The audience really enjoyed watching the kids trying to hide their illusionary nakedness. I felt a little sorry for my daughter. He also told them that they were good dancers. My daughter didn't have a good sense of rhythm and I thought she looked silly. Young John Eide was told he could sing just like Andy Williams, so

he put his heart and soul into singing "Night and Day". But he wasn't very good.

Dr. Dean faced the audience and began to move his arms very slowly up and down. Up and down, up and down. I was beginning to get very sleepy. I realized I was being hypnotized even

though I was sitting in the audience. I fought it with all my might. I don't think I went under.

It makes you wonder if there are people walking around in this world under one kind of spell or another. Maybe I'm one of them.

stiff as a board