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 Review of
Persuasion, psychology, conjuring
Derren Brown: Tricks of the Mind (2006) + Sacrifice ('Netflix' 2018)
Entertaining and (with luck) helpful discussions about the brain and its quirks...Interesting biographical material from Derren Brown (if that's his real name—see later). He says he studied German and law at Bristol; English law is a vast mass of material, and wrestling with this caused him to be introduced to mnemonic techniques. Then (a plausible guess is he wasn't 100% interested in law) he saw a stage hypnotist... I'm a bit sceptical about Brown's name and age: his references to Scarfe and Steadman (cartoonists—flourished from about 1970) and Bertrand Russell (flourished a lot earlier) suggest to me that 1971 was year he adopted a stage name. This would explain his jokey remark to have been born when his mother was miles away. He mentions Kajagoogoo at Bristol Union building—and their peak year was 1983. He claims to have been at primary school after decimalisation, which was in 1971. But never mind. This book has chapters of rather similar length, apart from two double-length ones, and looks to me as though it was written with different book(s) in mind. It's indexed quite helpfully. It has facsimile emails at the end, from people of the sort you might be well advised to avoid. ('Dear Bertrand Russell' has facsimile letters - possibly Brown copied and updated this idea). The ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS list lots of luvvies, including a 'writing partner' called Andy Nyman. (The writing style has very amusing self-referential bits in it, including fussy spellings - things like the plural of octopus, and singular of dice; page 134 has a spectacular parenthesis. However 'diaphanous' is surely used wrongly somewhere). Brown in addition to a huge cast of helpers has an agent, who got him into TV—apparently for 20%. There's some description of MAGIC, including choreography of a simple trick, including misdirection, misleading comments, 'accidental' things which look as though they might be mistakes, false endings so the punters relax, etc. It has the same effect—at least on me—as seeing a detailed film script, forcing the reader to realise how artificial and carefully-planned these things are. And material on MEMORY, none being original. Brown states, in effect, no doubt rightly, that in times when paper was expensive, memory was more valued; the methods in principle are straightforward enough. I can remember making mental notes based on gun - glue - tree - door - hive when I wanted to remember a few things. Brown explains in some detail. He has the link system—where one memory leads to the next; and the simple number system; and also the elaborate system with code consonants replacing individual digits, so that (e.g.) pin numbers can be converted into words by inserting vowels. Brown emphasises striking, surreal, and generally odd images, which are of course relatively memorable. I'm tempted to compare the methods to indexed sequential computer disk storage, random access, etc. He misses the opportunity to point out that 1, 2, 3, 4.. themselves are mnemonics, which allow anything countable in the universe to be counted—quite amazing when you think of it. Ditto with alphabet(s). All this is widely known; I can't be the only person to use "I'm a dinner jacket" to help memorise Ahmadinejad's name. George Orwell pointed out that whacking kids helps imprint memory too. The idea of using a familiar building and putting things 'in the first place', 'in the second place'.. gets an explanation—Brown memorised the conventional (wrong) dates of Shakespeare plays in this way. There's a theory that Greek mythology was a complicated mnemonic to memorise the stars (including periodic stars). However, this is not in the book. The long chapter on HYPNOSIS/ SUGGESTIBILITY... Its it just a fake?—Brown has pages on how hard it is to be sure. Suggestibility seems to have several meanings: the short-term memory principle as when Brown 'forces' things on people, by not giving them time to collect their thoughts. As examples, think of the 'Do It Now' poster in his 'Heist' programme, and the volcano-style diagram with the word 'zoo' pre-positioned at great expense in shop windows and on t-shirts, which professional 'creative' advertisers absorbed and then duplicated. There's also a supposedly formal meaning, as in psychology textbooks, and by people like Milgram of the electrical killing experiment. (Which may well be a fake—see links below). This chapter includes stuff that doesn't really fit—self-image, phobias, lack of confidence. Brown recommends adjusting a self-image by visualising an old scratchy faded monochrome film, replacing it by a new improved brightly-coloured sharp film. (This technique alone was claimed to be worth the price of the book by an Amazonian reviewer). Brown comes across as surprisingly unconfident and also very concerned re others' attitudes—he's clearly not brought up in a Jewish or Muslim background. He turned down some BBC contract because he wasn't sure he could handle being famous, BBC-style. There's are several rather agonising passages in his book, where he apologises for seeming to behave in a disagreeable way. He must I think have problems from people who think he has genuine 'psychic' gifts—can I suggest a tip from Bob Dylan, who, at live performers, gets all the stragglers and latecomers from the end of the queue, the people who couldn't be bothered to plan to get tickets etc, and moves them to the front rows. UNCONSCIOUS COMMUNICATION; ANTI-SCIENCE, PSEUDO-SCIENCE, BAD THINKING is a long chapter including common mistakes and fallacies. This is the chapter which has annoyed many Amazonian critics, because of Brown's anti-religion stance (or rather anti-Christian—like Dawkins, he leaves other cults, however unpleasant, alone). There are some common mistakes in probability, which are sound, and well worth understanding, though none is original to Brown. (As with optical illusions, there are a few standard ones). I think most of them hinge on words being used in unexpected ways—for example the 34 people in a room who 'share the same birthday' (meaning day and month; and any pair, not necessarily the listener). In my view, Brown is overharsh on fake psychics. We're in a world where the populations of entire regions have been burnt to death. On an evilness index of say -100 to +100 (allowing for 'good' as well as 'bad') some chap in a northern club who says "Aye luv, appen your dear departed usband ad a red cufflink" barely registers. Incidentally, Brown is surely correct in quoting a book on police interrogation, to the effect that people telling the truth get things in the wrong order and introduce loads of irrelevancies. I always wonder why people in audiences accept the rather confrontational mode in which the 'psychic' in contact with the deceased is expected to say things for confirmation, or not. Why doesn't the psychic just come out with a torrent of trivial information about friends, old clothes, pets, neighbours..? The whole world of media 'brainwashing', propaganda, biased information put out by quangoes and special interests is omitted, apart from a few mentions of politicians firing irrelevant statistics. In fact he doesn't examine 'brainwashing' at all. (My personal theory is it's a fraud, invented historically to cover American atrocities in Korea). As far as I remember, there's not much on perception, for example using the border of the visual field to present a word to a subject told to concentrate on some far-off object. FURTHER READING includes a book called Blink (already I'd guess out of date; I wrote an unflattering review of it). Brown recommends a book on facial expressions, something made possible by cheap video recorders. There are about 20 facial muscles (I consulted Gray's Anatomy - I'm excluding some small ones). If you assume each can have 3 positions - relaxed, fully tensed, and midway, we have 3^20 facial expressions - about a thousand million, which would tax even Mr Brown's Ceaucescu-sized 'memory palace'. TV PROGRAMMES aren't mentioned, but while I'm typing this I may as well add: Phony psychology by Jews: Milgram, Zimbardo, Brainwashing as evasion of US war crimes Click for Milgram & fake psychology Some of Brown's material is in this category. Apocalypse (2012), though amusing entertainment, has a definitive Jewish-style in vs outgroup feel, with 'the infected', modelled on Michael Jackson 'zombies', being definitely 'out'. The science is pitiful, but this befits dumbed-down audiences. In fact quite possibly Brown is a Jew—or believes he is—the possible name-change, the homosexuality, the messages against whites, the use of race, the entree to theatre and TV, the interest in deception, all point that way. Click for 'mind control', 'programming' etc discussion Sacrifice (Netflix 2018). Netflix is of course a Jewish-controlled Internet media outlet, presumably translated into numerous languages mainly by voiceovers. This 'special feature' explicitly has a cast, leads listed as Megan Affonso & Bob Cable, and screenplay (claimed to be Stephen Long—no other info—with Derren Brown). Without inside knowledge it's impossible to know if Brown is basically honest, or just revealing his previously-muffled agenda. I note he appeared on TED, July 2019, but it's impossible to guess if this is careerism or support for propaganda. Anyway, here is part of a critical comment on Sacrifice by WotW, Way of the World, at present on Bitchute. (removed from Youtube after a copyright claim by AuxiliaryMode). Note: compare the Jewish material with supposed Christianity; in fact there was a large component of violence in the forcing of Christianity into the Mediterranean. And note the complete immersion: in Sacrifice ALL the people are actors, and behave in the same way—like the actors in the 'Asch Conformity Experiment'. (These things are always given Jewish names).
DERREN BROWN'S ANTI-WHITE AGENDA
[Mohave desert setting; bar completely filled with actors, including Mexican vandals damaging bikers' bikes, then coming in for a drink!]
.... and, wouldn't you know, the biker has only one bullet. Watching from the car in horror, Phil is then played his trigger sound through the car radio and jumps into action.
Messiah (2005). Five groups of Americans appear in this programme. 1 A woman author of an 'alien abduction' book; 2 A woman publisher in Las Vegas reviewing his 'dream catching machine'; 3 New Yorkers in a crypt, where Brown 'contacted the dead'; 4 A group being persuaded that God exists; 5 ESP types with Derren predicting drawings. These are quite impressive, although of course one can only guess what was omitted. The only one I confidently saw through was the psychic drawing; Derren said something like "Draw one of the images which sail through your mind. Don't go overboard—keep it simple." Sure enough, a 'sailboat' appeared. I tried this myself, and found it's all rather tricky—the person drawing has to be confident enough at drawing to produce a variety of images, and yet not skilful with an abundance of images. In fact, the sheer amount of verbal work must be enormous, as with a salesman in full flood. |