Ironwolf

Derren Brown: Messiah

Derren Brown traveled to the United States to try to convince five leading figures that he had powers in their particular field of expertise: Christian evangelism, alien abduction, psychic powers, New Age theories and contacting the dead.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Skepticism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Derren Brown: Messiah”

Ascius Says:
June 4th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Very interesting vid, but I’m curious about how he managed the “instant conversions”. Any insight on that bit? I’d guess he had conspirators planted in the group, but I don’t recall him saying yay or nay about it. Or is there some suggestion technique that lets you knock people over and make em feel warm without them already wanting it?
Ironwolf Says:
June 4th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Ascius,

The vid has a disclaimer at the start to the effect that “no actors or stooges (shills) were used in the making.” So, I doubt the “instant conversion” audience had plants. However, I think it likely that the participants were pre-screened and the ones who might prove to be more highly suggestible identified. Those would be the logical first targets. After some “hits” with those, people will often follow along, even the less-suggestible ones.

For further examples of this, see the recent Rolling Stone article, Jesus Made Me Puke.
elementalmuse Says:
June 6th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUGGESTION by Boris Sidis, Ph.D. was quite informative and seemed to shed some light on how this sudden conversion process was really a matter of skill rather than the power of *God*. What’s more these pages are most certainly not recent publications, so the knowledge of how to become highly skilled at suggestion has been around for a good period of time.

Chapter 4 THE CONDITIONS OF NORMAL SUGGESTIBILITY

The conditions of normal suggestibility:

1. Fixation of attention.

2. Distraction of attention.

3. Monotony.

4. Limitation of voluntary movements.

5. Limitation of the field of consciousness.

6. Inhibition.

7. Immediate execution.

Chapter 6 THE CONDITIONS OF ABNORMAL SUGGESTIBILITY

The conditions of hypnosis, or, what is the same, of abnormal suggestibility:

1. Fixation of attention.

2. Monotony.

3. Limitation of voluntary movements.

4. Limitation of the field of consciousness.

5. Inhibition.

Chapter 14 - SUBCONSCIOUS SENSE-PERCEPTION IN THE WAKING STATE

The subwaking hypnotic self surpasses the waking self in its sensitiveness; its range of sensibility extends farther than that of the upper personality. The senses of touch, pressure, and temperature are much more delicate in the hypnotic condition. The æsthesiometer showed in Mr. J. F., one of my subjects, when in normal state, the sensibility of the skin on the forehead to be eighteen millimetres, while the same in hypnosis (slight degree) was but fourteen millimetres. The sensibility of Mr. A. F. in normal state was fourteen millimetres, while in hypnosis (falls into the deepest state) it was eight millimetres. Mr. D. W. showed a sensibility in the normal state fourteen millimetres, but when in hypnosis (falls into the deepest state) it was eight millimetres.

“It is quite certain,” writes Braid,1 “that some patients can tell the shape of what is held an inch and a half from the skin on the back of the neck, crown of the head, arm, or hand, or other parts of the body, the extremely exalted sensibility of the skin enabling them to discern the shape of the object so presented from its tendency to emit or absorb caloric. . . . A patient could feel and obey the motion of a glass funnel passed through the air at a distance of fifteen feet.”

Derren Brown: Messiah

3 Responses to “Derren Brown: Messiah”

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