Derren Brown hypnosis for color-blindness, personal growth, and instant religious conversion

September 2nd, 2007 | by Brian |

Last night Liz and I watched an episode of Darren Brown’s Mind Control on the SciFi Channel. There were three remarkable segments in this show. In one of them he used his skill in detecting lies to navigate an obstacle course, and (if you believe him) was confident enough in his ability to risk serious injury. Another involved his using “anchoring” techniques of Neuro-linguistic Programming to make a woman colorblind (watch it). A third involved him teaching a student how to play the piano is quite a remarkable way. I won’t spoil it, so just watch.

Browsing around YouTube, I found Derren Brown’s “Instant Conversion” videos where, apparently, he “converts” non-believers into believers (in some kind of religious belief.) Quite impressive, intriguing, and well, creepy! [watch part 1, part 2].

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  • Bob Cormack
    I find what Brown does rather repugnant, but all he is really doing is manipulating the subconscious communication and cooperation that allows civilization to work. What is really objectionable here is our "education" system that teaches absolutely nothing about this, or the occasional necessity for (and techniques of) psychological (or psychic, if you like) defense.

    My mother helped me prepare for this when she would say (fairly often, as I was growing up) "never run with a crowd", but to mentally step aside and ask myself if I would be doing this if I were alone. This takes you out of the subconscious loop and makes you think about your actions.

    Specifically, in this video, an effective defense would be to refuse to cooperate physically (after all, the audience was presumably there to listen to Brown talk, not to take orders from him). If he asks to touch you, say no; if he tells you to stand up, ignore him, etc. Under no circumstances do something because people around you are doing it (see my Mother's advice). If you ever go to a revival meeting (and don't want to be converted) I strongly recommend this tactic. It will not be comfortable -- ignore that and do it anyway. Many people (especially highly educated ones) vastly underestimate the connection between action and thought and assume that they can physically cooperate (to avoid embarrassment) while maintaining private mental reservations. Brown easily leads people who use this ineffective "defense" -- it is important not to cooperate in any way at all, even if it makes you look like a jerk. (BTY, this is not a bad way to deal with a pushy car salesman also.)

    You are justified in acting this way because Brown is being deceptive -- he is pretending to just talk, while he really is trying very hard to manipulate you. He has already violated most of the (unwritten) rules of peer-to-peer dialog, and hence you owe him no respect or courtesy.

    It may not be too paranoid to observe that there is a conflict of interest in government-run schools teaching defense against manipulation, when many politicians achieve power with help from such manipulations.
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