June 12, 1979

I am 15.

Tuesday: Today I finally did something that I have been trying to do for years. I have finally succeeded in hypnotizing someone. I have known a technique that I have read in a couple of books, and this has been the first time that I have tried it. On Tim D. it has worked. It all started when Tim and I, who are best friends, started talking about his problem. Time has a problem with girls. Unless he really likes them, he can talk with them and get along nicely. But if there is a particular girl that he likes, he has problems talking to her. That is, until he met Chris. Chris is a girl who works at the gas station in Waterville where Tim works. As soon as they met, Time fell for her. Luckily he can talk to her easily, and he feels comfortable around her. Unfortunately, he cannot get the guts to call her to ask her out. This has been a problem since he was 11.

When he was 11, and in the 6th grade, Tim fell for a girl named Cathy D. Cathy liked him too, but waited for Tim to make the first move. Too bad for Tim, some other boy made the first move toward Cathy, and she accepted. This hurt Tim, but he was again broken when he saw her and her boyfriend at the ice arena. He said Hello, and Cathy started calling him names and being mean to him. This upset him for quite a bit. Ever since then, 6 years ago, Tim has never got the courage to be anything more than casual friends with a girl.

Tim does want to have a girlfriend, no mistake about that, but some fear has always held him back, to his vexation. Me and Don M. (who'll I'll tell you about later) have tried every argument, explanation, and threat possible to try to help Tim, but to no avail. Tim will simply not call a girl. Once he wrote a letter to one Elizabeth W., but nothing happened. That defeat there only worsened his phobia. Now that he's 17, this phobia is getting a little ridiculous.

Well, today Tim and I were discussing his problem, trying to find what caused it. I then hit upon the idea of hypnotizing him, to see if this would help. We had tried to hypnotize each other before, but with no success. This time, I used a different method. I placed Tim in a chair and had him stare up at a dot on the wall ahead of him. He had to raise his head slightly to stare at the dot, but his was purposeful, to get the neck muscles tired. As he concentrated on the dot, I talked quietly to him, to coach him to a trance. Soon his eyes were closed, so I began questioning him. I asked about his life from kindergarten to the present, but I could not find any clue to the origins of his phobia. I might have had success, but his sister Mary walked in the house and disturbed him. he told me that he was really under, and he looked it. He was aware of what was happening, but he kept getting deeper and deeper into his subconscious. I had to wait longer for an answer toward the end of the questioning. It took no longer than a half an hour, I think. He said he felt strange during it. I seem to be writing rather disorganized and incoherent sentences.

#1 album this week: Breakfast in America, by Supertramp