Derren Brown

I find it so hard to give Derren Brown an elevated status over the greats and the influential, such as the previously mentioned Houdini, James Randi, or Penn & Teller, but Derren Brown has been able to utilize modern media unlike the others, and all the while performing feats which never cease to stun.

The most stunning thing, however,  is the relative ignorance of this man throughout The United States. A Briton born and raised, he has made TV shows for many UK Stations, primarily on Channel 4, and yet briefly appearing on such American channels as Sci-fi... oh well.

SO WHAT has he done to earn him such admiration?  Mr. Brown is an illusionist, mentalist, hypnotist, a painter, a writer, but above all, a skeptic. At the beginning of every show, he states that he achieves his results via a combination of "magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection, and showmanship."

According to Wikipedia, "Using his knowledge as skill, he appears to be able to predict and influence people's thoughts with subtle suggestion, manipulate the decision making process and read the subtle physical and psychological signs or body language that indicate what a person is thinking."

Just a few, if I has to narrow it down, of things to watch would be:

The series, Trick of the Mind, an episodic look at his street performing abilities, showing you everything from how to defeat 13 grand chess masters at the same time, to how to pay for things with blank paper, as well as how to influence people using subliminal messaging.

The special, The Heist, in which he takes a group of your average, law-abiding citizens and actually programs them into robbing a bank.

I might also suggest watching any of his live shows, such as Something Wicked This Way Comes...

The best reason I could have for obsessively watching this man's performances, is that I have learned so much about what it means to be human, as well as our mental and cognitive limits from seeing how easy it is to fool the mind with well practiced and timed trickery.

The cream of the crop, and so closely tied to this blog, is his massively impressive works with the mystical, the spiritual, and the religious. Throughout his shows, he explains how numerous spiritual and mystical claims have been performed in history, as well as effectively debunking numerous fraudsters. It is his work on the psychology of religion I find to be immensely interesting...

In this TV special, Messiah, he sets off to the States to persuade five leader that he has special powers in their respective fields: Christian Evangelism, alien abduction, psychic powers, New Age theories, and contacting the dead. All are impressively convincing.

Another special, Miracles for Sale, Derren teaches people to performs faith healing to the followers of a church in Texas, demonstrating how easy it is to deceive when the mind is willing.

And finally, Mr. Brown's most recent special, Fear and Faith, a two part series demonstrating in the first part the power of the placebo effect, and it's possible applications, and in the second part, he demonstrates he can induce a powerful religious experience in the most ardent of religious skeptics and atheists. The main effect he demonstrates on a card-carrying atheist, a stem-cell scientist. Most importantly, he never, for even a moment, strays from the explanations, and is very careful to detail the natural processes, and not any supernatural elements.

Derren Brown is a hero among skeptics, and if he did not make the decision to be honest about his claims, it is no short leap of the imagination that he might be the leader of a religious cult, or perhaps even the messiah reborn in the eyes of believers. So many with lesser talent have been convincingly portrayed as such. It make me thankful he is on the side of reason.