Seetag

February 4, 2024 sea day

First I attended a lecture about our next destination, Puerto Quetzal, and what Guatemala had to offer in its surroundings. Unfortunately, our time there would only allow for shorter excursions.

In "What Moves the Movies" Peter Maeck explained to us how successful films are structured using "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Godfather".

In the evening the hypnotist Marc Savard performed. Since I was sitting in the front row as usual, Marc wanted to hire me as a test subject, which I successfully fended off. He still found his approximately twelve participants. Two of them were sent off the stage shortly afterwards because they probably couldn't be manipulated. But the rest... I found it frightening how grown people completely subordinated themselves to the will of the hypnotist, danced on command and allowed themselves to be manipulated emotionally. He had whispered to a woman that he was the most disgusting guy in the world, to which she rejected every touch from him as absolutely disgusting. He had a trouser belt given to him and made his subjects believe that it was a poison attack, whereupon some of them fled in panic. Many spectators found the performance amusing, but it made me cringe.