Aibu to think that anyone who believes is derren brown is daft?

[TENDTOprocrastinate]

I have no belief in derren browns psychic ability. his usual hypnosis shows are blatantly all set up with actors/actresses. I have had many an argument about this in the past with dh. His current 'apocalypse' show- if it were real- would be a Jeremy beadle gone (far) too far. However, this apocalypse show is mildly entertaining. At least he is admiting that there are actors involved- though clearly guy who is supposed to be hypnotised is an actor too. (Dh thinks otherwise)

So the suspicion is that Derren has gone from being a brilliant magician and mentalist to simply making a piss-poor zombie flick?

Why would he do that?

Contractual obligation? ()

TheHamish I said to dh it looked like blue screen. I'd forgotten until you said that.

According to the Icke's, Derren Brown is in fact an MI5/MI6 agent, they can't quite decide which.

oh, I love this!

It's been much too easy to spot the wizard of oz theme. He's leading us in that direction very obviously. Is he distracting us?

The latest post on here proves that we cannot take this at face value, I would say.

Re Wizard of Oz- there are some interesting posts on Digital Spy about something called the 'Oz Factor' (a term coined by a UFOlogist in the 80s). The poster says:

'the Oz Factor is a state of consciousness that according to Wiki occurs during allegedly strange events that strike out of the blue (such as alien contact) where the witness loses touch with reality. It is one reason researchers think alien abductions are not real life events but are internal experiences during altered states of consciousness'

He/she also says they have met lots of alien 'abductees' and:

'I never came away from meeting these people without reaching the following conclusions:

1: They were sincere and were relating what they believed to be an actual experience.

2: But deep down they were not convinced it happened in the literal way that their story implies.'

I hope it's ok to quote someone off another forum. I just thought his/her comments were interesting.

I'm struggling to belive that someone who has expert observational skills and has made a successful career out of spotting things that most people miss would make those continuity errors accidentally.

...if they are continuity errors. The program could have been cut to appear as if they are.

I agree corny. It seems too careless.

yep. all they would have to do is cut out a couple of minutes for the water bottles to move along the floor- the ambulance was being rocked by the zombies

I can't believe any of you think that guy was anything other than an actor in on the whole thing..and a pretty bad actor as well. Not having experienced an Apocalypse myself, but I would imagine most people would be desperate about their families and on seeing the 'zombie' would have said 'fuck' or some other swear word at least once. In fact on waking up I think I would say "what the fuck is going on". No swearing, no immediate sense of worry for family and no going to the loo the whole time (don't even get me started on the amateur acting) - it's just a set up. The only people who are being fooled here are the fools who actually think the guy is really experiencing this.

It's odd, isn't it, how unconvincing "actors" are when they're trying to convince the viewers that they aren't acting at all.

The water bottles moved when the ambulance was stood still.

Eh. YABU. Derren Brown explicitly states himself that he has no supernatural powers and all his shows are tricks. As far as I know he is an atheist, good buddies with Dawkins and sets out to expose psychics/the paranormal for what he believes to be nothing more than slight of hand/cold reading/confidence tricksters. He shows how it is possible to fool people. This is his whole raison d'etre (apart from the money of course ).

He also states he doesn't use actors or stooges.

I don't think he's an actor
I think he's under hypnosis

I'd like to think so corny, but I can't see how consent forms and psychological profiling could make it ethical, hypnosis or not.

Unless he was told beforehand that he was going to experience something truly horrible blah blah blah, but not given any detail. Would that count?

He's done exactly this sort of thing before though. There was the zombie arcade game that put an unsuspecting punter into a trance, Derren then whipped him out into an alley, put a paint gun into his hand and let loose some zombie actors onto him. The guy came out of the trance, went mental and then started shooting the zombies. Then Derren put him back under, moved him back in front of the arcade game, woke him up and asked him what he thought of the game!

And don't forget the trick or treat series which had someone being abducted, tied in a sack and thrown in a lake, and of course the girl who witnessed her own death in a car accident.

I expect if there were any problems with consent, they'd have come up by now!

cornybeefhash does hypnosis take away your ability to respond to a situation naturally and instead look like you are acting a role very badly? I didn't see the genuine terror you would expect someone to feel in that situation - just hammy acting. He just wasn't believable IMO. It was cringeworthy in parts.