On Saturday night we went to a hypnotist show. It was for the spring festival going on in town this week, and included dinner and a comedian. The comedian was a bit bemused by the whole "ohmygod it never gets dark" experience, and the fact that people were coming up to him at the airport and saying to him, "You must be the comedian," and not because they recognized him, but because they didn't. It's a small town.

Anyway, the hypnotist show. He asked for volunteers, and I stood up. Twenty of us went up and filled the chairs on the stage, and he said that he would be sending some of us back to the audience. After a few minutes of listening to his spiel, I still felt totally normal and I figured, ok, maybe I'm not suggestible enough and he'll send me back in a minute or two. Then he stepped it up, started asking us to stare at a spot on the ceiling, and then we had to close our eyes and then. After that my memory gets a bit spotty. At one point I guess he was going through the volunteers to see who was relaxed, and picking up people's hands and dropping them. I didn't realize he'd picked up my hand until I felt it hit my knee when it fell, so I can only imagine that he picked up my arm and it felt like overcooked spaghetti.

My friends said that I still seemed like myself. I have a memory, like you would have from a dream, of dancing with one of the town councillors. But apparently I was more reserved than some of the younger women.

I expected something more dramatic. I expected to not feel like myself, I think. But it was interesting, because it was as if there was a tiny bit of consciousness that was still me, and it was watching with interest. As if, I knew what I was doing but it didn't really matter. I was surprised afterwards to hear that all the people around me were asked to go back to their seats, I wasn't aware of that at all. Interesting, all in all.