Derren Brown

I remember hearing about this British illusionist named Derren Brown awhile ago. I had seen a couple videos he had done and was impressed but skeptical.

Well, the last few days I've been going crazy watching videos of him on YouTube. I've watched most of his television show "Trick or Treat" and a couple of his specials. I wanted to embed some of the videos in this post, but it wouldn't let me. Check them out yourself by searching "Derren Brown". I think they're absolutely fascinating. But I'm left wondering what to believe.


Most of his tricks involve reading people's minds. He can tell if you are lying or he'll get you to think of something and then draw a picture of it. He says he's not using any actors and that all the people are strangers and aren't in on the trick. So I wonder, can he really tell if someone is lying or pick up on what you are thinking just by observing subtle changes in your behaviour?

Another thing he does is hypnotize people. I kinda believe that is possible to a certain extent, but sometimes he hypnotizes people so quickly, I just have a hard time swallowing it.

And perhaps the strangest thing he does, supposedly, is use subliminal messages to make his participants do what he wants. For example, in one performance he kept repeating the phrase Mail or Daily Mail subtly throughout the show so that later when it came time for a volunteer to choose one of ten papers, she chose the Daily Mail. Is that possible? My hunch is that he says that's why the volunteer choose the Daily Mail, but I think he's just saying that to misdirect the audience from seeing how he really does it. By saying he can use subliminal messages, he makes his performance appear more mysterious and foreboding.


All this had gotten me to think more and more of how we perceive the world, and we understand God. But that will be for another pst...