Derren Brown

[kelem_ryu]

Although i've already seen something by him a while ago, i started only recently to hunt down vids of his shows in youtube. They never cease to amaze me and i had to think a lot about what he does recently. In case you might not know him, here are just some examples of what he does:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trains... of thought

 

 

 

He makes shows about mind tricks.

 

 

 

 

 

In the beginning of every episode of his show "Mind Tricks" he claims that he doesn't use actors and stooges (if you look closely, you'll notice that he enforces this claim with a very suggestive hand movement).

 

 

 

Most of his tricks could be easily explained by assuming his victims to be actors. There would be an army of actors and stooges employed by him now. On the other hand hypnosis and suggestion are known to work, aren't they? (Personally i know way too little about this particular subject to make any educated statements.) There are certainly plausible explainations how many of his tricks would work using these techniques. In fact he makes a point in explaining plenty of his tricks himself according to this.

 

 

 

Personally i'd like to believe he really is doing what he claims. Many of his victims responses look so damn genuine, as well as he and his explainations do. Then again it is easy to convince somebody who wants to believe in the first place (like me). Add to that that what he accomplishes is unbelievable, it really makes you wonder. (Well at least it makes me wonder.) Nevertheless i do believe he is just doing mind tricks (and really that is the only explaination besides stooges).

 

 

 

Assuming that he is genuine he obviously knows much more about the workings of the mind then i do and that is what intruiges me most. I wonder to what positive effects you could influence people with his level of expertise. I also imagine that he might see the world around him quite in a different way. Take this birthday present thing as an example. He basically just took a random guy and told him that he really, really wants a BMX bike and once asked the guy stated he really wants an BMX bike. Sure there was plenty of technique involved, but imagine you could tell random people what they want, what to do, what to see and they would follow your lead. It is quite ridiculous. If he can do that, who tells me that what i think i want is what i really want, that i don't just do what i was told to and that i see what is actually there. I can't quite shake this feeling that this is what his show is all about (besides being fun for him to make it).

 

 

 

Yah and this is one piece, where i think he went to far:

 

 

 

Zombies

 

 

 

If i was that guy (assuming he wasn't an actor), i would be pretty pissed off, once i would see what he did on TV. On the other hand he got exactly the gaming experience he was looking for. Can this whole stunt be even legal though?

[StrOwez]

I love Derren Brown, he shows how easy people can fall for religion, spiritual things and exploits the methods the people use to capture others. There's a good one on youtube where he converts about 10 atheists into believing in God in about 10 minutes

 

here it is http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sq-YUdq1OI

[NorthernHero]

They just seem so hard to believe in..Has to be actors or something.. :-k

[Biabf]

He went to my school :P He's pretty good, but is he genuine or not, sometimes it seems he is when he does the psychology but sometimes I'm not so sure...

[assassin_696]

If you watch something like The Heist you can see how he can do it without actors, he's a very good showman and a very good cognitive therapist. He doesn't use actors or anything, since he sometimes explains how he does it so there's no point.

[Adam007]

I love the show. Should this go in the tv section though? I made a thread on him awhile back there, but nobody really knew about him.

 

Anyways, it's an awesome show. It's just amazing what he can do. For anyone who hasn't seen it, you're missing out.

[Bloodredsword]

Wow...I'd never heard of him before. But I watched the paper money one and I'm hooked.

 

 

 

Freaking awesome.

 

 

 

OMG! A GULLIBLE!

 

 

 

Subliminal Messaging

 

 

 

That one is funny