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)

YABU.

I am not suggestible. DP is, which is why he was picked to go on one of his shows.

I think Derren is great. Most importantly, it's hugely entertaining.

I brought this up with my brother after reading this thread and he said some friends went to his live show, really loved it so bought more tickets and...you guessed it: Same people went up on stage.

I trained as a hypnotherapist many years ago (never actually practiced) and it is quite possible to just put your hand over someone's eyes and send them back into a trance! or tap a pencil on a table, or clap your hands, or touch them on the forehead, or pretty well anything. The first time I did it - in training - really shocked me as I had no belief that it would work.

You get someone suggestible, you hypnotise them a few times so they go into trance more and more easily, and then you plant some suggestions into their mind while they are under, along the lines of "I will whisper to you and you will fall instantly asleep, as deeply asleep as you are now", repeat a few times in slightly different words, bring them round, some time later you say the word or perform the action and bingo! That really is all you have to do.

FWIW, this whole thing would never get past an ethics committee anywhere except showbiz.

Let's pretend we think this poor lad Steve has been hypnotized, isn't an actor. He will have signed a waiver long before the potential candidates were whittled down to him. He's been through lots of personality profiling, psychological tests etc. to get the candidate who is most likely to come out unscathed. However, I'm still not comfortable about it.

Entertainment is getting more extreme. Ergo, DB is getting more extreme. I do admire DB's abilities, and I really like that he exposes 'psychic' ability as no such thing. In the early days, he was just amazing. Some of the things he does are great. I loved that he had bought that doll and restored it (on tv some time ago, I think it was one of his theatre shows, televised).

If he could hypnotize me and persuade my brain to mend my myelin sheaths I would worship him forever! I doubt even he could do that! Come on Derren Brown if you think you're hard enough!

Your what, Jux?

I think Jux has MS - the sheaths around the nerves are impaired.

Good post Jux. Exactly. The most important part of the stunt is choosing the susceptible person.

I've read his book, Trick of the Mind. Very very interesting. I've also done a bit of self-hypnosis training.

BOFs link is the 'victim' standing with his arm round some bloke and the caption says

"Me and Adam Buxton :)
Updated over a year ago · Taken at Giles
Filming on the set for a BBC pilot of his"

Ahh, I undestand now, the bits that protect your nerves from being over-stimulated.

what's that, BlueEmerald? The SAME 'members of the audience' go up on stage at his performances?

Wow. They must all really love his show.

And how lucky to repeatedly get picked at random out of the audience.

Amazing.

And yet people still cling to this idea that it must be real cos it's like, soooooo amazing.

I think that anyone who believes him when he "explains" how he does the things he does is pretty naive and gullible too.

I'd bet good money that he NEVER gives the true explanation.

Whoever says that the same people get up at each show is talking bollocks. He selects his volunteers by chucking frisbees randomly into packed audiences. Unless the audience is filled with paid stooges and not people with expensive tickets (like me!) there is no way he could get the 'right' people on stage.

He's definitely misleading insofar as he claims on stage to be doing stuff with NLP and ultra-sophisticated body language reading which is almost all down to good old fashioned conjuring. However the disclaimer at the beginning of the show does make it very clear that that's what's happening, so if you find it more fun to believe he's an evil mind reading genius then that's your choice.

I love his stage shows, think they're very clever. He is honest that he's pt a psychic,etc.

However last ought was a crock of shite. That bloke is obviously an actor. If it was a real person they'd be talking more rather than just sticking to a stilted script. I'd be talking non stop, omg there's fucking zombies, what's happening, omg, where's my brother, I'm going to die, etc. he's hardly saying anything.

How can he pick the same people when he (apparently) selects them randomly? IIRC we bounced beach balls around the theatre to select people to go on stage. Unless the majority were actors there's no way DB could guarantee selecting the 'right' person.

He did 'know' a member of the audience was adopted in a Q&A / 'mind-reading' session at the end. The lights were up and I realised it was a girl I used to sit with at school (small town), and, yes she had been adopted as a child. Whether he found that out from her seat number I don't know, but I'm fairly sure she wasn't in on it.

Some of the amazing and unexplainable things magicians can do makes me think that no illusion is impossible. tricks rely on the audience believing trickery is impossible. I haven't seen the show, but I have no reason to believe that Blue would lie and if she says her brother went to two shows and saw the same people getting up on stage on both shows, I believe her.

i don't think it is impossible, given the incredible illusions we all know such people can bewilder us with, where we go how the HELL did they do that?! that something as seemingly random and uncontrollable as a frisbee could actually be controlled. How better to make you believe it couldn't possible be controlled and must therefore be real

Derren Brown doesnt claim to be phsycic he dismisses it as rubbish saying that I think he is rubbish a bit power mad and a wee bit creepy and cruel , I cant watch any of his Programmes , the DDS love him so I catch some of it when it is on didnt watch last nights it is recorded

I have no reason to believe that Blue would lie and if she says her brother went to two shows and saw the same people getting up on stage on both shows, I believe her. - You also have no reason to believe her but she supports your point of view so that's why you do. Also she is only repeating what her brother said but he may be the one lying or saying it for dramatic affect?? Not really sure either way but I do think it's interesting how people pick the bits of information which support their view and ignore the bits that don't.....

Anyway I think it is probably a mixture of both re stooges and 'real people'. I think there may be stooges for some things in some cases just so there was a 'back-up' plan but having been to a hypnotist show as a student I do know that 'real' people do go up on stage having been 'hypnotised' in the audience. It was at our students union so a relatively small pool of people who I continued to see around campus for several years to come and they certainly weren't all stooges or actors. I have to say as a personality type they did tend to be the overdramatic attention seeker types and struck me as the type who would want to get up on stage 'hypnotised' or not.

I think the fact that he did just stand picking at his mouth and is walking about like a startled chimpanzee is awesome, if he was shouting 'OMG' its zombies' I'd be much more sceptical!

This is the 2012 version of Ghostwatch. Remember that?

I'm enjoying it immensely.

My point of view that it is a clever trick? Yes. It does. What am I ignoring, just out of interest?

One person went to one show and saw a random way of selecting people who then went on stage.

One person went to two shows and saw a random way of selecting people who then went on stage and noticed that they were the same people.

I believe both of those people.

It's simply that the second one has a piece of extra information that the first does not.

I think that people play along for the fun of it, because it's nice to be on stage and get attention and if that means you flap your arms like a chicken, so be it.

If someone wants to hypnotise me and subsequently films me acting like the bit of string they're dangling in front of me is a deadly snake about to kill me, I will of course shout most humble and sincere apologies from the rooftops

Until then, I think it's a trick. A clever, funny, entertaining trick.

Derren Brown actually says he is there to confuse and trick his audiences he does say that none of what he does is real and he is proving that his audiences are taken in with the power of suggestion and hypnosis , I think he is an Evil Genuis I cant watch it though makes me feel really uncomfortable,

I went to see him live and my friend was picked randomly from the audience. She was definitely not an actor or stooge and his 'trick' worked on her

Well yes.

"I am here to confuse and trick my audience"

It's not a great leap to say that what you see is a trick and not actually real

What did she do, snug?

Poor Steve was so rubbish, that Derren has probably endured he never works as an actor again. Or indeed, gets a girlfiend. Did you SEE those Simpsons slippers?