Derren Brown – The Master of Hypnosis

I am not sure if you have heard of Derren Brown, but if you live in UK, it is likely that you know who he is.

Derren is one of the most talented hypnotists in UK, he has his own show on Channel 4 and he does quite a few performances in theatres.

As I am learning NLP, many techniques involve hypnosis. And as I was learning about hypnosis, I kept being led to the performances of Derren Brown.

Although he uses hypnosis knowledge for tricks and I want to use this knowledge for helping people, it was still very useful to find out about his hypnosis and suggestion methods.

One thing that fascinates me about this man is that he can hypnotise people in so many ways. He can even hypnotise people whilst having a casual chat with them.

He can say something in a way that gives a command to your subconscious mind to do something, and you don’t even realise that. You just simply think that he is telling you a story. He uses this particular technique quite a lot in the last video on this page.

The first video also perfectly illustrates his hypnosis skill. He uses story telling and anchoring (the way to give commands to your subconscious mind) to make your mind temporarily forget the immediate task. That’s as far as I can guess since hypnosis is still quite new for me.

So he tells you any story but the purpose of that story is to influence your subconscious mind even if you consciously do not understand that. Check the first video to see how he makes the person forget about which stop the person is supposed to get off at.

Here are some more of Derren Brown’s tricks that are really worth watching.

(If you are scared of clowns then don’t watch it:)

The trick that is really funny is the one with the guy in Nevada. It starts at around 8 mins into the video (or just click the 4th video in the second row – if you now see many small video stills in the player).

When Derren was a teenager he had no money. He decided to earn money by learning some magic tricks which sometimes involved hypnosis. He read many books about psychology as well as hypnosis and he finally formed his own unique style.

Derren Brown became a star in the year 2000 when his first show was aired on TV which was called “Mind Control”. He became famous almost instantly.

He is best known for his “mind reading” ability. He says that it seems that he can read others’ minds because of his knowledge of magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection, showmanship and body language. He does not believe that it is actually possible to read mind as psychics claim it is.

He created many shows including:

“Walking The Dead Show”. This show was a very big hit online. In this show Derren hypnotised people in pubs and maybe other places (I am not sure) and then took them into the place which looked exactly like the video game. In this place the hypnotised person really felt as though he/she is a character in a game.

I watched this show but it was a bit too cruel for me and I really felt sorry for those people. In some shows Derren would give a contract to the person to allow him to do everything he likes with the person. However, in this show people did not know that they are going to be hypnotised.

“Trick Or Treat”. In this show Derren would give two cards to the person. One would say “Trick” and another “Treat”. If the person selected the “Treat” card, she would be able to learn something from Derren, like to learn how to outplay the best poker players in a week. However, if the person would choose a “Trick” card, she would have to suffer – usually really suffer.

I thought that in this show some of his tricks were a bit over the top, but participants knew what they are getting themselves into, so it is fair enough. I couldn’t find any videos of a full “Trick Or Treat” show, but follow this link to watch it on the Channel 4 website. This page contains many of his theatre performances and TV shows. If you live outside the UK, the videos may not work.

“Mind Control”. This was his first show on TV. This show is basically about how Derren can influence people without them realising that. I included this video so that you would be aware of how easy it is to influence some people only by saying some nonsense which you convince yourself to be true. It is good to know such things so that you would not fall for it like these people!

“The Heist”. In this broadcast he uses mind control tricks to make participants rob a security van in a broad daylight. It is really worth watching this video because it helps you better understand different personality types and different kinds of behaviour. Here is the video of The Heist:

One piece of advice – if you see an ad asking to participate in Derren Brown’s show – think really carefully before proceeding! (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch the last video:)

P.S. If you think why on earth I decided to put the whole biography of Derren Brown on my website – don’t ask:) Sometimes I just get an inspiration to do something and I just have to do it. I hope you will understand me:)

Finished reading about Derren Brown? Read other great articles here.

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