Last night I got the opportunity to go see Tom DeLuca, the hypnotist, at New Trier. His claim to fame is being able to hypnotize people and then proceed to make them do completely outrageous things. Some of these "things" included hypnotizing a boy to believe he is Jackie Chan's younger brother, or hypnotizing another person to believe he is America's greatest spy. Needless to say, it was hilarious, and Tom DeLuca really convinced me that hypnosis is actually possible.Now, I know this could seem like somewhat of a stretch, but in some ways, his act made me think of The Crucible, and how Tom DeLuca is like a modern day wizard. He "possesses" others, and makes them do whatever he wants, somewhat like The Crucible. Those accused of witchcraft in The Crucible are often accused of possessing their victims as well. After thinking about it more, it seemed interesting to me how witches in the Crucible were persecuted and put in jail, but now, "wizards", such as Tom DeLuca, are paid to perform and entertain people. Why do you think throughout time witches and wizards changed from being criminals, to being entertainers?
Well besides Harry Potter ;)...
ReplyDeleteI think that once the US became less religious (once separation of church and state came around) and life became more secular in America, like christmas being more about santa than the birth of Jesus, or easter being more about the easter bunny than Jesus's resurrection. Once we could separate religion and American culture, wizards became cool... again... harry potter, just sayin'