This is how an illusionist targets your unconscious mind | Derren Brown | Big Think

This is how an illusionist targets your unconscious mind
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Magicians are actually very effective applied psychologists. They're familiar with the workings of both the conscious and unconscious mind.

During his act, renowned psychological illusionist Derren Brown uses the technique of bafflement to bypass participants' conscious filters and get a maximum response to the trick.

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DERREN BROWN:

Derren Brown began his UK television career in December 2000 with a series of specials called Mind Control. In the UK, his name is now pretty much synonymous with the art of psychological manipulation. Amongst a varied and notorious TV career, Derren has played Russian Roulette live, convinced middle-managers to commit armed robbery, led the nation in a séance, stuck viewers at home to their sofas, successfully predicted the National Lottery, motivated a shy man to land a packed passenger plane at 30,000 feet, hypnotised a man to assassinate Stephen Fry, and created a zombie apocalypse for an unsuspecting participant after seemingly ending the world. He has also written several best-selling books and has toured with eight sell-out one-man stage shows.

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TRANSCRIPT:

When you work I think with any sort of magic you become a very good applied psychologist just in a very niche area, which is why it’s generally magicians that are brought in to kind of test for psychic claims and that kind of thing to sort of debunk or look for that kind of evidence because scientists get fooled very easily like the rest of us, magicians are just very good at understanding how that sort of thing can work and be fooling. So, you’re working with conscious and non-conscious processes, so for example, to take an idea of just a card trick, say you start a card trick and the deck has to be in a special order in order for the trick to work, but there’s a point halfway through the trick where it’s safe for the person to shuffle the cards, but if they shuffle at the beginning it would ruin the whole trick. So, maybe at the beginning you shuffle yourself as the magician but it’s a false shuffle you’re not really shuffling the cards but it looks like you are, but halfway through the trick you hand them the deck and you say to the spectator, who so far has not shuffled the cards, you say to them, “Shuffle the cards again but this time do it under the table.”

Now, that doesn’t make any sense because they haven’t shuffled the cards before, but in as much as they’re now taking the cards and shuffling them under the table and following that instruction you’re starting to play with the memory of what actually happened in the trick. So, now you’re essentially planting a false memory that they had shuffled the deck before. It’s not a guaranteed thing, but when they start to narrate the trick afterwards you start to see how these false memories are fitting into play. So, a big part of performing any sort of magic is controlling that narrative afterwards by playing with things like false memories so any magician becomes very good at doing that sort of thing.

My tool kit is the ongoing experience of both the audience and the people that come up on stage so I use rapid hypnotic induction techniques with people that come up on stage and they vary in efficacy from night to night, but generally they work. So there, for example, I would be using an unconscious process there of using bafflement and bewilderment to my advantage. So, if you imagine that somebody comes up to you in the street and says it’s not 7:30, your reaction isn’t to go oh yes I know it’s 20 to two, your reaction is normally would be to feel baffled and thrown by that like you’ve sort of missed something. And when we are baffled we become hyper suggestible because we’re looking for a way out, we’re looking for a clear steer, a clear direction out of that towards information that makes sense so I use that a lot. Politicians use it a lot so they give you a bunch of statistics that you can barely follow and then they say so therefore… And you’re much more likely to then accept that information than if they’ve started off with that information because it’s relief from the sort of the bafflement of the figures that they’ve just given you...

[anthonypc]

This guy renews my "faith" in the human capacity for reason. No other magic/mentalist shows have had me as thoroughly engaged, intellectually and emotionally.

a bit on edge about the ethics of some of his psychological experiments on Netflix... lol but valuable to know what kinds of pressures can influence a real person to attempt murder in cold blood...
And great stage presence too !

[Geep]

his voice is intentionally hypnotic w how he stresses the deep ness of his voice on certain words that are descriptive as well as using the pace of each sentence to ease you into the trance. Trance sounds heavy and complicated but we go in and out of them all day and actually it’s quite relaxing when you get into them. For example... driving a route you take every week is done almost wo paying attention. Ever finish a trip and end up home like whoa i’m here already?! or how did I get here.. Also beware of NLP and those skilled in using them. look that up! it might save you from a future manipulation by an unsavory character

[KatlegoMasego]

Magic is about what's happening inside the head. It's about how magicians manipulate the attention. It's about how [the unconscious mind] can be taken advantage of … to take people on a journey.

[MrMichaelrichards]

I find this type of explaining 100x more entertaining than his shows, and I absolutely love his shows.

[j.e.]

I can listen every day to Derren's podcasts - so good :)

[DSDMovies]

When I was younger I don't think any of this would have worked on me but now I fully appreciate how disorientating situations can be, where you look back and wonder why you weren't able to process something properly, why you did or didn't do X, Y, Z. I believe I used to not be suggestable but have become increasingly suggestable. It's almost as if part of my personality has gone away, I'm not as actively bothered about keeping track of things any more. I used to be very anxious but as that has subsisded other 'sharpness' has also subsided. It's not worrying, it's just strange.

[colshell]

Seen deren brown at a show in Sunderland on friday.
Absolutely brilliant show.

[jimmyko]

3:10 Derren’s talking

3:15 he’s realised he’s set himself up for a naughty joke.

3:16 he remembers where he is and what type of video it is and chooses to leave the joke unsaid, that why he pauses before saying position.

Because it sounds potentially dirty, but in this context people will take it at face value instead of seeing double entendres.

[ZER--]

The one thing I want to know about this wizard man is what happens when a handshake induction doesn't work? He's obviously got one. I just haven't come up with a good reason.

[mtumasz]

Great Reveal - well worth watching, Thnx Man🙏🏻

[robertmelia]

Dear Mr Derren, don't know if you'll ever read this, but please, if you have time, do "a bit of a Russell Brand" and upload more of these vids. Your books have inspired me and brought me great comfort over the years.
The shiz you know is pure gold Sir, so let's be having more of it. 🌹

[PetarStamenkovic]

I'd like to hear his thoughts on Christianity. With that depth of understanding of psychology, his insight would be fascinating to hear.

[alynius]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

00:05 🎩 *Magicians, skilled in applied psychology, are often called upon to test psychic claims due to their understanding of how deception works.*
00:32 🔄 *Magicians manipulate conscious and non-conscious processes, using techniques like false shuffling to control the outcome of tricks.*
01:00 🧠 *Magicians can implant false memories during tricks, influencing the narrative and perception of the audience.*
01:52 🌀 *Magicians utilize rapid hypnotic induction techniques, capitalizing on audience bafflement to enhance suggestibility.*
02:21 🗣️ *Bafflement makes individuals hyper-suggestible; magicians, like politicians, leverage this to guide perceptions.*
03:13 💤 *Magicians exploit their powerful position on stage to induce hypnosis, using techniques like interrupting handshakes to bypass conscious filters.*
04:12 🤹 *Magicians continuously balance conscious and unconscious elements, filtering for suggestibility to shape the audience's experience.*

Made with HARPA AI

[PotSmokeGuy]

I wonder what he does with his fingers at the end when he talks about guiding people with unconscious things...it's at 4:24. He definitely spells something out.

[CyberBeep_kenshi]

One of the most fascinating people i know.

[Emmabruceofficial]

3:18 there’s the sound like a tut from Derren but it doesn’t come into context with what he’s saying - I’m baffled!

[Tactical_Hotdog]

Magicians nightmare when a friend comes up tp you saying "Do that trick where you do A B C D E and F"!


When you only ever actually did A B and C :|

[islandsedition]

Really gutted. I contacted Derren's writing partner, Andy Nyman several years ago to ask if I could engage Darren in a PhD I wanted to pursue on the use of mentalism techniques used in politics. Sadly Nyman said Derren would not be interested. Would have probably made a good study.

[LifeOfLeeofficial]

I din't get the chance to meet Michael Jackson but I would like to meet the next big thing of my life :)
Third is 50 cent

[KingDragonBoyTV]

Deren Brown did in The Trailer of Little Nightmares 2