"The Manipulation Game"

[Loss Leader]

I feel I already know the answer to this:

I just watched a very silly show called "The Manipulation Game" with Derren Brown. In it, he purports to program an unsuspeting dupe into confessing to a murder he didn't commit.

The standout moement for me was when he used hypnotism to put the guy on the lawn while he was still asleep.

I've read about Brown, but the internet isn't turning up much on this particular show.

Since convincing someone he'd killed a man seems astonishingly abusive (and a personal injury attorney's paradise), is there anyone here who knows enough about Brown to reassure me that he didn't just scar a guy for life?

 

[anglolawyer]

I feel I already know the answer to this:

I just watched a very silly show called "The Manipulation Game" with Derren Brown. In it, he purports to program an unsuspeting dupe into confessing to a murder he didn't commit.

The standout moement for me was when he used hypnotism to put the guy on the lawn while he was still asleep.

I've read about Brown, but the internet isn't turning up much on this particular show.

Since convincing someone he'd killed a man seems astonishingly abusive (and a personal injury attorney's paradise), is there anyone here who knows enough about Brown to reassure me that he didn't just scar a guy for life?

Not me, but I did once show up to have him perform a trick on me for a TV show he was making. In the end, they didn't use the footage and it was just a very dumb trick anyway.

 

[steenkh]

Since convincing someone he'd killed a man seems astonishingly abusive (and a personal injury attorney's paradise), is there anyone here who knows enough about Brown to reassure me that he didn't just scar a guy for life?

I have seen other shows where it was apparent to me that he was using dupes, i.e. hired actors to act as his 'victims'. In one he jumped out from behind a bush, waved his hands, and the man was in an immediate trance state and was given a posthypnotic command. Real life, and real hypnosis just does not work like this, even with people who are easy to hypnotise.

I doubt that a man hired to act as if he confesses to a murder is feeling abused - depending on his wage, of course.

 

[bluesjnr]

Not me, but I did once show up to have him perform a trick on me for a TV show he was making. In the end, they didn't use the footage and it was just a very dumb trick anyway.

Going to need a bit more meat on dem bones. Do tell......

 

[Senex]

I found this video from your description.



The number of people involved in moving him out of his bedroom clearly shows this is in no way a serious demonstration.

 

[Aepervius]

I feel I already know the answer to this:

I just watched a very silly show called "The Manipulation Game" with Derren Brown. In it, he purports to program an unsuspeting dupe into confessing to a murder he didn't commit.

The standout moement for me was when he used hypnotism to put the guy on the lawn while he was still asleep.

I've read about Brown, but the internet isn't turning up much on this particular show.

Since convincing someone he'd killed a man seems astonishingly abusive (and a personal injury attorney's paradise), is there anyone here who knows enough about Brown to reassure me that he didn't just scar a guy for life?

Isn't the ground bassis of stage hypnothesis that the "victim" is actually a willing participant , out of various reason ? Like not wanting to break the show, fun RP etc... And in reality people are not "hypnotized" against their will, they are just having fun freakout ? ETA: which is why you can't "hypnothyze" somebody into doing something they would morally abhor ?
And thus it is fine ?

 

[Senex]

Isn't the ground bassis of stage hypnothesis that the "victim" is actually a willing participant , out of various reason ? Like not wanting to break the show, fun RP etc... And in reality people are not "hypnotized" against their will, they are just having fun freakout ? ETA: which is why you can't "hypnothyze" somebody into doing something they would morally abhor ?
And thus it is fine ?

There is stage hypnosis and then there is this demonstration we will have to call TV hypnosis. The difference mainly being you really need a hell of a cooperative subject for this TV show to be successful.

In one way it is unfortunate because suggestion has been used to coerce false confessions but not like this. This video misleads not teaches about coercive suggestion methods.

 

[Senex]

What happened to all the Derren Brown defenders?

I miss you guys.

 

[Checkmite]

Maybe they're waiting for me to post first.

I've long said that Brown's feats of putting people into "trances" with nothing but a handwave, a simple sound, a series of special words or "touches", a "specially-programmed video game" and so forth are complete bunkum.

 

[Pixel42]

Everything Derren Brown does is complete bunkum. He's a magician.

 

[Checkmite]

Precisely. Yet the number of people who seem to buy into his explanations of 'hypnosis' and special psychological manipulation of the 'subjects' in his shows is surprisingly high.