»

Derren Brown uses exactly the same mind tricks that American Evangelist preachers use on their congregations, to convince the preachers themselves that he is the Messiah.

It should be riveting viewing, the man is a genius. :-D

Fekk me!

The man just "converted" an Atheist to Christianity just by touching her head once! :-o

[cecilia]

yeah, right!
if that guy tried to "touch" my head, i'd be-Otch-slap him back to the stone age!

cecilia wrote:
yeah, right!
if that guy tried to "touch" my head, i'd be-Otch-slap him back to the stone age!

heheh

The woman really did believe in god and all that stuff as soon as he touched her head!

By his own admission it was all a trick, but only he knew that. The woman certainly didn't.

He was just showing that what these TV evangelist idiots you have over there are doing is just a trick too.



http://www.derrenbrown.co.uk/

[zudobug]

Aye, I just watched that. He's good ain't he?

He's very careful to say that just because he's using tricks to fool people, not all evangelists, new age people or spiritualists are charlatans - but they could be.

In my opinion, the problem is this: if the experts who endorsed him are just tricksters like he is, they must know it's a trick and thus wont say "hey, I don't believe this guy" and explain why because they could end up putting themselves under the same sort of scrutany. They must obey the rules in-order to keep the illusion going.

The most irritating thing about Derren Brown is he never (or very rarely) tells you how he does it. Although I did make the "Don't go overboard" - picture of a boat link :-)

-zudo

zudobug wrote:
Aye, I just watched that. He's good ain't he?

He's very careful to say that just because he's using tricks to fool people, not all evangelists, new age people or spiritualists are charlatans - but they could be.

In my opinion, the problem is this: if the experts who endorsed him are just tricksters like he is, they must know it's a trick and thus wont say "hey, I don't believe this guy" and explain why because they could end up putting themselves under the same sort of scrutany. They must obey the rules in-order to keep the illusion going.

The most irritating thing about Derren Brown is he never (or very rarely) tells you how he does it. Although I did make the "Don't go overboard" - picture of a boat link :-)

-zudo

I noticed how he made the bloke fall, he said something similar to but not exactly like "don't worry i'll catch you", similar enough for the brain to make that connection sub-consciously though.

He says how he does some things on the Channel 4 website.
http://www.channel4.com/entertainmen...M/mindcontrol/

Even if these "experts" and religious leaders don't admit it's all bollocks, we know it is because Derrens shows it up for what it is. Complete and Utter Bollocks of the highest order.

[zudobug]

mdma,

Yeah, I've seen the microsite before. It's good stuff. I guess the only way to know how he really does it is to read all the books on the different subjects (there's a list of further reading on the site I see.) He mentioned on the show that there is a wealth of information out there on faking the medium. Did you see the séance last year? That was very interesting.

Even if these "experts" and religious leaders don't admit it's all bollocks, we know it is because Derrens shows it up for what it is. Complete and Utter Bollocks of the highest order.

Well, he shows how easily it can be faked and thus suggests that if it can be faked, and conmen can make a lot of money from faking it (and they do) then it most probably is. But that doesn't mean that there are definitely no genuine articles out there.

Here's a good quote from his page on the channel 4 site:

But what, after all, is wrong with his questioning of people's beliefs? If you haven’t investigated what you believe independently and looked at the arguments standing against you, your beliefs have little validity.

You and I have the luxury of not believing the things Derren exposes as easily faked in the first place, thus we have no problem accepting that it could very well all be fake. But I think it's a bit of a leap of faith on our part to say “Derren has solved it, it's all fake, end of story.” I don't think believers will be so easily convinced, nor should they be. But maybe they will be more weary of charlatans and that is a positive thing imo. Or maybe they were all watching Dom Jolly being a tit on the other channel.

-zudo

[bloodline]

Brilliant wasn't it!! :-)

I've read a few books on hypnosis, and it seems to be that he is a master of subtle suggestion. He carefully phrases his sentences and taking in such a way as to relax you... What we, as the viewer, don't see is the prep work that he does, it's editied out. But he will probably spend quite a while talking to his subject(s) relaxing them and placing ideas in their heads.

bloodline wrote:
Brilliant wasn't it!! :-)

I've read a few books on hypnosis, and it seems to be that he is a master of subtle suggestion. He carefully phrases his sentences and taking in such a way as to relax you... What we, as the viewer, don't see is the prep work that he does, it's editied out. But he will probably spend quite a while talking to his subject(s) relaxing them and placing ideas in their heads.

He uses Neuro Linguistic Programming to it's best effect.

I've read a couple of books on the subject as I thought it would help when I take classes with unruly children! :-D

I don't think believers will be so easily convinced, nor should they be.

Butmaybe they might start questioning they're beliefs. If you belief is strong then you should be able to question it without fear.

It's worth noting that Derren was actually (in his own words) "A full on happy clappy Christian, with unshakable belief" until his mid to late twenties.