Derren Brown new series

[scumbalina]

I'm readin his book at the mo, it's got loads about the stuff he did last night, memory shit. When he explains how his mind works it's a bit

 

[colbhoy]

It was like the one with the horse racing from last year. I wanted to believe that he could predict the outcome of races but was sure he couldn't.

I would love to believe that just by scanning your eyes over thousands and thousands of pages of text your subconsious mind will memorise it all but it just doesn't seem possible and am sure there has been some form of trickery involved.

 

[Structaural]

I reckon Derren knew the questions and had prepped him with the answers with a bit of auto-suggestion. The rest was smoke and mirrors.

 

[Juice Terry]

I reckon Derren knew the questions and had prepped him with the answers with a bit of auto-suggestion. The rest was smoke and mirrors.

^^This, he's very good at subliminally planting specific information into people's minds. I bet if you rewatched the programme knowing the quiz questions you might pick up on him doing this, he likes to leave clues lying around, in fact I might do this tonight.

The notion that an ordinary bloke could memorise a library of books just by scanning the pages is ludicrous.

 

[scumbalina]

^^This, he's very good at subliminally planting specific information into people's minds. I bet if you rewatched the programme knowing the quiz questions you might pick up on him doing this, he likes to leave clues lying around, in fact I might do this tonight.

The notion that an ordinary bloke could memorise a library of books just by scanning the pages is ludicrous.

Although doesn't he say that he doesn't know the questions/quiz organizers etc at some point? I think he's pretty down on lying and using patsies(is that the right word) etc to make it look better, so it might be something else...

 

[Structaural]

I'm pretty convinced he doesn't use stooges, I've read all his books and seen all his 'magicians only' videos and he's quite against it. Even his 'instant hynotism' he often does is bullshit based around the fact that the person brought up on stage is nervous enough and will go along with most things and most people in that situation will obey an authority.
But most of his mentalism tricks are based around auto-suggestion. I've come across that memory reading style before and it might work - if he's using auto-suggestion to reinforce his retention but I'm not convinced that that is what happened. My gf reckons he was a quiz master and Derren made him forget he was (like the pianist in the last series).

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I'm pretty convinced he doesn't use stooges

I'm sure he dosen't as well.

He's based his reputation on this fact, and in this day and age it would come out too easily, a secret in showbusiness is a very hard thing to keep.

 

[dtb]

an entertaining episode, he could have explained more about the technique used - there's a chapter about memory and neumonics(?) in his book.

i watched his live show and one of his tricks was a little suspect

 

[Structaural]

from 'speed reading' on wikipedia:

More recently, speed reading courses and books have been developed designed to help the consumer achieve even higher increases in reading speed, some at 10,000 words per minute with high comprehension. With specific reference to pseudoscience concepts, companies have claimed to be able to extract meaning out of consciously unnoticed text from the para-consciousness or subconscious. These courses go by various titles such as photo-reading (1994), and alpha-netics (1999). Reading experts refer to them as Snake oil reading lessons because of their high dependence on the suspension of the consumer’s disbelief.

He's quite up on New Age bullshit pseudo-science so I reckon he was playing.

 

[belboid]

Even his 'instant hynotism' he often does is bullshit based around the fact that the person brought up on stage is nervous enough and will go along with most things and most people in that situation will obey an authority.

that's what all hypnotism is

 

[Structaural]

Essentially yes, but there's levels of susceptibility and depth of trance that go further than stage hypnosis.