Derren Brown

[T0X1C]

I'm sure a lot of you know all about Derren Brown and what he does, if you don't then there's a magical thing called Google.

 

I was wondering how many of you guys "believe"? Some of the things he does to, what he claims, unknowing participants honestly seem too amazing to be true. I know that the human mind is a very powerful and complicated object, but I simply can't wrap my head around how one man can have such a degree of control over another man's mind. At first I was 100% sure that he was legit, but as his experiments have become increasingly amazing, I'm finding myself questioning his validity more and more.

Now I do believe in hypnosis, I accept it as fact, but his methods seem 10000 steps beyond normal hypnosis. Many times he's demonstrated his supposed ability to instantaneously send a person into a state of hypnosis simply by walking into them and touching their face, essentially. On his 'Apocalypse' special his subject dropped like he was hit by a sniper after answering a phone call. A phone call! I really cannot wrap my head around it. I don't think that he's a phony, but I can't help but wonder whether some of his experiments are staged.

 

On his 'How to Control a Nation' special his goal was to glue the audience watching at home to their seats, rendering them unable to stand up. This didn't effect me at all, so I have no proof either way as to his credibility, on a personal level.

 

What do you guys think? Is he a complete hoax? Does he stage certain scenarios? Is he simply an amazing individual with powers almost beyond comprehension? Has anyone actually been hypnotized? Has anyone been hypnotized by Derren himself?

[epoxi]

I think Derren Brown has genuinely developed the ability to hypnotise and influence people. However his techniques only work on a suggestible portion of the public which he is very capable of identifying for his demonstrations.

 

Regardless of his actual ability, I am always very impressed with his showmanship and the effort he puts into his elaborate shows. Also, I think he tends to mix real situations with magic tricks so you are always left with the impression he can do anything.

Edited June 2, 2013 by epoxi

[Secura]

The majority of it is psychological, he uses a number of tricks that are quite apparent to anyone who's moderately well versed in the field of psychology, most notably are his attempts to convince the audience that they should either want or not want to do something as he'll always use reverse psychology in these situations. More then that he'll only pick someone (particularly for his hypnosis acts) who's more susceptible to being hypnotised or controlled, the mind has to first allow it and bring down its mental barriers before any outside source could even attempt to enter in.

 

Another thing that he uses fairly frequently is the illusion of truth; for example although he could have a briefcase dangling high above the stage with papers inside it that supposedly reveal some complex sequence or pattern of numbers and letters he could simply fill the briefcase with a bunch of sheets containing each and every individual outcome of the test/trick and as a result he'd give you the illusion of him actually possessing a form clairvoyance and being able to in a sense preconceive what was going to happen before it happened. Remove the option of choice from the equation and it becomes as simple as selecting the right piece of paper, or the right person from the right location and everything'll run as smoothly as you want it to.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Lightning Strike