Mind Control with Derren Brown

[Shrykull]

Does anyone know if this guy is legit?

I know how John Edward's method's worked, cold readings basically, he would throw out something general like "I'm seeing someone old with glasses, white hair, etc" then when he gets a hit he'll throw out something else out more specific, each hit gets him closer, but he doesn't have to know about them at all really.

I can also understand how certain stimuli effect us different ways, but the one that really got me, was he had a woman hold up her hand, look at a person outside the window, close it, and they stopped right where they were. How does this work? How could the person be effected without ever seeing Derren, the woman he had do it, or perhaps even knowing Derren and her even existed?

[CaptainChewbacca]

Most of what he does is legit, though I have no idea about the 'freezing' women in their tracks. He may do some prep work ahead of time.

[J Ryan]

Does anyone know if this guy is legit?
I can also understand how certain stimuli effect us different ways, but the one that really got me, was he had a woman hold up her hand, look at a person outside the window, close it, and they stopped right where they were. How does this work? How could the person be effected without ever seeing Derren, the woman he had do it, or perhaps even knowing Derren and her even existed?

The trick with that one is not that he made somone stop in their tracks, as they are no doubt an actor, its how he managed to get that women to hold her hand up when the actor was about to stop.

They no doubt agreed something before hand like stop when you pass the lamp post. He then influenced the women standing next to him to hold the hand up at the point in time.

Of course it could have all been faked, but thats what I believe he did

[Molyneux]

Isn't the whole point of the show that he SAYS right off the bat he's just using psychological tricks? He's like the anti-John Edwards.

[Andrew J.]

Isn't the whole point of the show that he SAYS right off the bat he's just using psychological tricks? He's like the anti-John Edwards.

If he's actually using psychological tricks, that would be true. If he's staging everything with hired actors, then he's just as dishonest.

[chitoryu12]

I'm honestly extremely skeptical toward anything involving "hypnosis". There's always a huge chance that it's a hired actor, so I don't believe it unless he actually hypnotizes me.

[Rye]

Derren Brown is legit as far as I know, but there's a good chance there's a lot more to his tricks than we see, not actors, per se, but there's a good chance he'll have met them beforehand and talked to them dropping subliminal hints and the like. As he points out, it's a mixture of psychology, magic and showmanship. I want to see him mess with some scientologists.

[fusion]

The thing with "mind control" is that it requires the right breed of people. People who pass the "hypnosis test". These people are people who have huge phobias and can roll their eyes very far back. They are also people who like to do everything in their minds, like dreaming lots of vivid dreams. I read this in discovery magazine, somewhere...

[DPDarkPrimus]

I'm honestly extremely skeptical toward anything involving "hypnosis". There's always a huge chance that it's a hired actor, so I don't believe it unless he actually hypnotizes me.

I've seen a few demonstrations of hypnotism in person, involving people I knew personally. Talking to them afterwards, they were aware of what they were doing they couldn't stop it, even if they wanted to.

[Molyneux]

I'm honestly extremely skeptical toward anything involving "hypnosis". There's always a huge chance that it's a hired actor, so I don't believe it unless he actually hypnotizes me.

I've seen a few demonstrations of hypnotism in person, involving people I knew personally. Talking to them afterwards, they were aware of what they were doing they couldn't stop it, even if they wanted to.

I've only been deeply hypnotised once...and the whole time, I felt like I could stop what I was doing if I wanted to. I just never quite wanted to.

[Alferd Packer]

If you watch his Youtube videos, there are a couple of them that are really well-explained. It may not be exactly how he does it, but in the context of the videos themselves, it makes sense.

The Russian Roulette special, as an example, is has a possible explanation in the comments for the video, and cites visible evidence for it.