On November 2, hypnotist Paul Ramsay made his annual visit to Goffstown High School.  Students flood the main office to get their hands on a permission slip to be hypnotized.  A good portion of these students are “non-believers” and want to see if hypnosis is real or not.  One “non-believer” was junior Benjamin Dodge.  Ben was told by many people, who have never tried it, that hypnotism is a fake mind trick to convince people out of their bad habits, like smoking.  Being curious, Ben rushed to the office to get his paper and get it signed by his mother.  On November 2, Ben was called on stage and was hypnotized in front of students and parents.

When Ben was called on stage, he could not have been more nervous.  Not that Ben had thought about it, but maybe hypnotism was real.  “I heard mixed opinions from my friends, and my opinion was starting to change” said Ben.  After a few warm up exercises, Paul Ramsey picked a few people to go back to their seats, and a few to stay for the show.  Ben was chosen to stay.  “I was slightly hypnotized at that point, but I understood what was happening, and I found it pretty funny that I was going to be hypnotized” Ben reflects.  

Ramsey brought his custom voting system to the show, so the crowd could pick what they wanted to see.  First Ben was hypnotized to pretend to be Troy Bolton from High School Musical.   He sang and danced to “The Start of Something New” in front of the crowd, and the crowd loved it.  “I’ve never really seen the movie” said Ben following his breakout performance.  “I just hummed along and danced, and people enjoyed it”.

But still the question stands, is hypnotism real or fake.  “100 percent it’s real” said Ben.  After experiencing it, Ben realizes the hypnotist uses the “power of suggestion” to persuade people into action, but the “hypnotee” is completely in control the whole time.

Multiple people were asked at the door whether they believe in hypnotism, or not.  Surprisingly, we have a lot of people who say it is real.  One man said he went to “hypnotherapy” and his urge to smoke went away after ten or eleven sessions. But, there were a handful of non believers.

One non believer was Steffi Flegal, a junior her at GHS.  She thought there was no way one person can control another’s mind with simple words.  She has seen videos online and remained skeptical. “It’s all fake, the people have to be in on it” she said.  She went hoping to be called on stage, but she was not.

So the question remains, is it real, or simply a scam to get people to pay?