Derren Brown

mehfesto2

Hello all.
First time in the forum, here!

Was just wondering what the general impression people here have of showman / magicial / illusionist / hypnotist Derren Brown. Im reading his 'Tricks of The Mind' book at the moment and there's a section where he tears mediums, oija boards, spirits etc to shreds. It's an interesting book and I kind of want the other side to the story before I make my mind up on the issue. I don;t like to hear one-sided arguements!

Thanks!
-Sean

???

mehfesto2 wrote: »

Hello all.
First time in the forum, here!

Was just wondering what the general impression people here have of showman / magicial / illusionist / hypnotist Derren Brown. Im reading his 'Tricks of The Mind' book at the moment and there's a section where he tears mediums, oija boards, spirits etc to shreds. It's an interesting book and I kind of want the other side to the story before I make my mind up on the issue. I don;t like to hear one-sided arguements!

Thanks!
-Sean

Every word he writes is the truth! It's a very good book and he deals with it very comprehensivly.

dlofnep

he's right, it's all nonsense. He's a genius, I love his programs.

karynp

I enjoy watching his shows on telly,hes entertaining,i actually find it funny the way he slates mediums ect. Its his way of staying famous really,along with his illusions ect. Hes a very intelligent man and has done lots of research and learned loads of stuff about the mind and how to read it or control it. Who knows what he could tell you about yourself if he tried.
Maybe hes always been psychic himself but instead of taking the role of a psychic hes decided to turn his back the other way and take the pee outv of it. I often wondered watching him,is he just in denial or what.couldv had bad experiences or been ridiculed about it.just my thoughts.

Syke

He's a bit of an Houdini wannabe with his carry on. I like his shows, but I think he stages alot of stuff and some of his tricks are hoaxes which he claims are psychology. For him to accuse mediums etc of such trickery is a little bit hypocritical.

El_mariachi

karynp wrote: »

Maybe hes always been psychic himself but instead of taking the role of a psychic hes decided to turn his back the other way and take the pee outv of it. I often wondered watching him,is he just in denial or what.couldv had bad experiences or been ridiculed about it.just my thoughts.

Wow.... my IQ dropped reading that.

He is a magician. He is doing trickery. He admits it to be trickery. Plus he's a damn sight better than some of the "psychics" I've seen. If you would to get some of his video's and send me links. I will take you step by step on how its done. Mentalist tricks are my area

Syke wrote:

He's a bit of an Houdini wannabe with his carry on. I like his shows, but I think he stages alot of stuff and some of his tricks are hoaxes which he claims are psychology. For him to accuse mediums etc of such trickery is a little bit hypocritical.

Of course he lies and deception, he's a magician. Thats his job for good sake.
But the difference is he's honest with his dishonesty.

???

The fundamental difference is his trickery is open and for entertainment. Mediums dishonestly pretend to contact dead loved ones. Bit of a difference there.

And I have also felt my IQ dropping to the moron range...

degrassinoel

i thought he was good fun until he decided to have himself shot (with a 357 magnum or something) at on live television, now i think he's a complete dckhead.

him and david blaine are in the same boat now for me.

???

What's wrong with that? It was an entertaing and engrossing display.

degrassinoel

to you maybe, to me it was extremely bad taste. same as that gob****e blaine freezing himself in a block over times square for two weeks or whatever, oh and the blaine interview with yer man eamon holmes on itv.

ye know what, maybe thats why those two tards arent on tv so much as they were 5 years ago.

anyways, thats my impression of the chap. i havent read nor do i intend on reading any of his books, i've seen enough of what i dont want to see

???

Blaine's endurance feats can be a little irritating. I think you're not grasping what it was Derren really showed. 5 years ago Big Brother and the like were at the very top of their popularity and what he was doing was seeing how far would people go with the whole voyerism thing. He's not just a magician, he has a huge interest in psycology and human nature (see The System and the Russian Roullette).

degrassinoel

yeah i sussed that out too, and i still dont like how he decided to play out his part.

hence why i dont like the guy.

Also, why would a well known magician type guy have such an irritation about reality tv shows that he has to play RR with himself and pick some poor beggar from the GP to pull the trigger.. did it have any effect other than people talking about it at the water cooler the next day or me for instance remembering the feat today and thinking about how much i dont like him?

reality tv is still here, in fact its probably even worse these days than it was five years ago.
And i'm certainly no fan of big brother or celebrity get me out of here.

maybe Brown just didnt like his new found fame and decided to be a magician, and do a disappearing act from tv since the infamous gun trick.

has he written many books or is this the first?

Dave!

lol how petty degrassinoel. I seem to remember one of Derren's live shows being on TV just a few months ago.

He's been touring since February, and he'll be performing in the West End soon AFAIK.

He's not short of business, rest assured.

He's written 3 books

degrassinoel

yeah maybe it is, but i just dont like the chap

stevenmu

El_mariachi, ??? and DaveMcG, please read the forum charter if you wish to continue using this forum. Whatever your views about Derren Brown and mediums, at least be civil and respectful to other users of the forum.

I saw what he said about mediums and what i would love to see is him to go head to head with a medium on a show.

karynp

??? wrote: »

Mediums dishonestly pretend to contact dead loved ones. Bit of a difference there.

And I have also felt my IQ dropping to the moron range...

wheres your proof? from books,reports,tv????? or have YOU personally proved it?

Derren Browne is a trickster and a darn good one yes,he openly slags off psychics mediums ect, for what? for fame! simple.

hes not to be taken seriously really now is he.

karynp

Deleted User wrote: »

I saw what he said about mediums and what i would love to see is him to go head to head with a medium on a show.

now that would be very interesting.

???

karynp wrote: »

wheres your proof? from books,reports,tv????? or have YOU personally proved it?

Let's see. Big famous medium? Lets go with Sylvia Browne! She has had four well documented missing person cases where she's been totally wrong, the Sago mine issue and many other total failures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Sylvia_Browne

Another? Derek Acorah has been in contact with Kreed Kafer (Derek Faker), Rik Eedles (Dereck Lies) and Ged Harken (Hang Dereck). Because of these proving him a fake his show was dropped.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Acorah#Criticism

Derren Browne is a trickster and a darn good one yes,he openly slags off psychics mediums ect, for what? for fame! simple.

hes not to be taken seriously really now is he.

Or maybe it's because the likes of Browne charge 700 dollars for 20 minutes of false hope? Just a thought.

Now maybe there are real mediums however many people, Ian Rowlands, James Randi and even Harry Houdini, have succesfully repeated all they do using cold reading. Hell I can even give a fair medium performance.

And why shouldn't he be taken seriously? He is intelligent and well read in the area of belief, psychology and the paranormal. Makes him a bit more of an expert than you.



At his last show 'An Evening of Wonders' a large amount of the time was spent reenacting medium acts such as the Oracle Act, using ideomotor to spin a table as well as a levitating table act. Very good performance.

karynp

???
If youve read my earlier posts you will see i respect what he does,,have said he is very intelligent ect,that is not a dispute. I watch his stuff on tv and enjoyed it.

Slyvia Browne was discredited years ago,even reading one of her books will almost immediately alert you to the fact shes guessed a lot of her "information"
Derek Acorah,hes a right joke and i dont think anyone ever thought him to be other than that, far reached out plots,and such bad acting.

So,those two people are not to be examples as they were noticably crap at what they claimed they could do.

Helen Duncan was a great medium. Gordon Higginson and Albert Best were too,all good examples of real mediums.


Then there are a lot of crap ones too,as in any kind of occupation where fees are charged,no newwbie there.
So,all in all,these are our seperate opinions and i respect that.

Oh,and im intelligent and have learned a lot of things,,yes your right,Derren Browne is more of an expert than me, at fooling people and tricking there mind,im not good at that and prefer not to be. But what i do know, i know a lot about . I find it hard that when people say its all fake,mediums ect,perhaps taking a little step inside oneself and trying to discover for yourself if its all real or fake would be way bettr than taking someone elses word for it? THEN,there would be REAL reason for you to feel Derren Brwone has got it right and has pegged every single person claiming to be psychic or medium, fake!

???

Well I've no knowledge of the mediums you've listed so I can't say much on them, I can only work with the well publicised mediums. Not think it's a bit fishy that all the really popular ones are discredited? You'd think if there were really good ones they'd be out in the limelight defying critics...

karynp

??? wrote: »

Well I've no knowledge of the mediums you've listed so I can't say much on them, I can only work with the well publicised mediums. Not think it's a bit fishy that all the really popular ones are discredited? You'd think if there were really good ones they'd be out in the limelight defying critics...

I was thinking the very same thing,why are they not stuck up in the headlines being ranted and raved about.? Its a very strange one.

But,the Derren Brownes of this world are always going to be there,and rightly so too,otherwise people would be sucked in by fakes all the time. I just think that it would be good to have a good medium and psychic get together with him and see what happens.

Dave!

karynp wrote: »

Oh,and im intelligent and have learned a lot of things,,yes your right,Derren Browne is more of an expert than me, at fooling people and tricking there mind,im not good at that and prefer not to be. But what i do know, i know a lot about . I find it hard that when people say its all fake,mediums ect,perhaps taking a little step inside oneself and trying to discover for yourself if its all real or fake would be way bettr than taking someone elses word for it?

HAH! Don't be so dramatic. You make it sound like he's out tricking old women into giving him their pension. He's an entertainer and a good one at that.

???

karynp wrote: »

Oh,and im intelligent and have learned a lot of things,,yes your right,Derren Browne is more of an expert than me, at fooling people and tricking there mind,im not good at that and prefer not to be. But what i do know, i know a lot about . I find it hard that when people say its all fake,mediums ect,perhaps taking a little step inside oneself and trying to discover for yourself if its all real or fake would be way bettr than taking someone elses word for it? THEN,there would be REAL reason for you to feel Derren Brwone has got it right and has pegged every single person claiming to be psychic or medium, fake!

Missed this section at first read. Why would I have any reason not to accept Derren Brown at his word. I have read numerous others on the same topic. People on the board are giving me an internet reading so you can hardly say I'm not trying to test people. Hell if I had to test everything everyone said I'd be bloody slow to learmn anything, there comes a point when you really should just accept the scientific consensis...

6th

karynp wrote: »

Helen Duncan was a great medium. Gordon Higginson and Albert Best were too,all good examples of real mediums.

??? wrote: »

Well I've no knowledge of the mediums you've listed so I can't say much on them.

They're all dead.

dsmythy

Derren cast serious doubt on all mediums when he did his own fake medium show on a bunch of New Yorkers. Looked like any other medium's show with all the accurate descriptions of dead loved ones and the crying and what not.

Of course Derren is not a psychic or a medium. Makes you wonder if many of the bigger medium shows' stars are just using the same techniques as him. If i had such ability i wouldn't charge a cent for it.

On the Russian Roulette there was no live rounds used. The gun was armed with a blank. Still it wouldn't have been a pleasant feeling getting hit at point blank range had he used the chamber loaded with the blank.

???

dsmythy wrote: »

On the Russian Roulette there was no live rounds used. The gun was armed with a blank. Still it wouldn't have been a pleasant feeling getting hit at point blank range had he used the chamber loaded with the blank.

Blanks are still lethal at short range. More than one stuntman has found that out the hard way!!!

Check out the cold reading thread in the magic and illusion board for more on cold reading (the technique).

colmmeister

the man says at the start of EVERY show tv or otherwise the techniques he employs!! states every time he has no psychic ability. yet people still believe he has paranormal skills. he is a performer, imo a great one. the book your reading is fascinating and yes its all true. charlatanism IS what all psychics have built thier profession on, fact. its just a question of whether they believe the hype of their own bs as to how far or how much money they make from telling expectant people what they want to hear. as long as people have doubts they will look for answers, some just look in the wrong place, ie , seeing a medium,palm reader, tealeaf gazer whatever.

colmmeister

if it looks smells and quacks like a duck, chances are, its a duck. if you want to believe its all b.s. about psychics then you'll believe it. plenty of people will try to convince you otherwise but its your call as to which set of belief systems you want to hang your hat on.

stevenmu

colmmeister wrote: »

charlatanism IS what all psychics have built thier profession on, fact.

colmmeister please read the charter if you wish to continue posting on this forum.

karynp

DaveMcG wrote: »

HAH! Don't be so dramatic. You make it sound like he's out tricking old women into giving him their pension. He's an entertainer and a good one at that.

LOL, im not being dramatic,my way of making my point,no harm!