How do we explain Barry's conviction that he witnessed Lenz rise up from the ground?
Premise 1: The laws of physics imply that levitation events as claimed by Barry are improbable-verging-on-the- impossible. Premise 2: Barry is not communicating with us from the padded cell of an institute for the incurably insane. Premise 3: One in five people are suitable subjects for deep-hypnosis experiences. Premise 4: Frederick Lenz was a hypnotist. (This seems likely in view of the testimony of ex-followers who do claim that Lenz could use mass hypnosis.) It's commonplace in hypnosis work to induce negative and positive visual hallucinations - I've seen Derren Brown convince someone that he (Derren) was invisible and that objects moving around in front of him were levitating - though we observers could see Derren himself simply lifting up and putting down the items. I can't see why a hypnotist couldn't persuade people that he was floating mid-air. That may not even be necessary: if Lenz was simply to give someone a post-hypnotic suggestion that they'd have the memory of having seen the master float - then induce amnesia of what was said during the hypnotic trance itself - the subject would faithfully recall the miraculous event. As 20 per cent of people are natural somnambulists, maybe Lenz selected from that group to be in his inner circle. Barry may not be naturally somnambulistic but as he's been into lots of weird shit he's probably trained himself to enter altered states. So I wonder if Barry recalls ever being formally hypnotised by Lenz? Maybe someone has another explanation?
