Magic (illusion): Would any Atheist fall for what was presented on Derren Brown's show? Derren Brown - How To Convert An Atheist

I'd love to say flat out that no, I'm not susceptible to manipulation and trickery of these kinds. But I'm skeptical enough to to doubt even my own ability to resist being manipulated. I'd say that I'm probably a few standard deviations to the right of your average in terms of resistance to this kind of trickery but that doesn't make me invulnerable to it. Edit: Having finished watching the program now, I'll admit I liked watching it. I'd never heard of Derren Brown before and I went in expecting him to try to pull the wool over my eyes. But he didn't pull the usual stage magician schtick, he explained his tricks afterwards. I was already familiar with a lot of the psychological principals he was exploiting, but seeing him use them on a whole crowd like that was really entertaining. This is exactly what I talk about in my answers all the time about not trusting my subjective experiences. Our perceptions are totally fallible. Still, I found the part where the girl started sobbing and praying a little difficult to watch. It seems like she went through a few days of discomfort and cognitive dissonance based on his tricks, which wasn't very nice. In my own defense... I didn't fall for the mint thing. I'm skeptical enough to spot the obvious attempts at suggestion. Would I stand up to the bigger process the girl on the show went through. Maybe. I think his leading emotional questions would probably set off red flags for manipulation. But maybe not... she had a lot of things helping keep her guard down, one of which is the excitement of being on a TV program in the first place.

Certain personality types are ridiculously easy to hypnotise. I taught myself hypnosis using a couple of books and youtube. I tried it on a couple of friends and I was ultimately never surprised those that it worked on and those that it didn't. The key to successful hypnosis/manipulation, particularly in those that are more sceptical, is tapping in to the subject's desires. If you can spin spirituality, or any other topic in a way that appeals to the individual you are trying to hypnotise, it's far more likely that you will achieve success in hypnotising them. I cannot however comment on how long those effects will continue to influence the subject after the first session.

It depends entirely upon what is meant by 'fall for'? I'm an atheist. I'm immensely impressed by Derren Brown's skills and frequently baffled by how he achieves what he does. Do I believe he has supernatural powers? - Of course not. Does he believe he has supernatural powers? - Again, of course not. He takes great pains to specify this in every show. So what do you mean by 'fall for'?

They do all the time.  In fact, I'd say the majority of people who fall for Derren Brown's illusions are non-believers given that (a) Derren Brown is a British performer and (b) The majority of Brits are Atheist or Agnostic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism#United_Kingdom In fact, people who are staunchly dogmatic in their thinking, including dogmatic atheists, are among the easiest in general to fool. What atheists probably wouldn't do is ascribe the astounding experience to super-natural causes.

It makes no difference if you are atheist or not. Derren Brown doesn't have supernatural powers, he plays mind tricks, which work (or don't) regardless of whether or not you believe in a god. I went to his show with my gf at the time. He made the audience put out their hand and after he used his words to suggest to my brain that my fingers where stuck together, they were. Everyone is always like "yeah that won't happen to me!", do you know how stupid that makes you look? Yes, it will happen to you. (Probably) Infact, those that believe strongly that they will be unaffected, are usually the ones who it works on best. I've read a few of his books, watched everything he's put on TV, seen him live and spoken to him. (I caught the 'hoop' during one of his audience based tricks) It's not magic. He knows this too. Its very clever and scientific infact, and very real. When I was a kid, there was this trick, you would clasp your hands together with both index fingers pointing out, like a gun, but with an inch and a half gap between each fingers. After applying pressure to the fingers, your mind feels the missing resistance after and acts as it feels it should. Your friend would pretend to 'wind' some sort of imaginary 'winder' next to your hands and your fingers would close together. Some of DBs tricks are very very very complex version of this. Which to me, is even more impressive than most magicians. I know it's hard to believe it, go to one of his shows if you get the chance and see for yourself. I fell for his tricks. But I'm glad I did. It was so fun!

Not every Atheist but most would because as Derren Brown uses linguistic patterns and other linguistic techniques.If you watch The Messiah by Derren Brown he takes an Atheist out of the group and has him facing with his back to Derren. Derren pulls his own hand back the guy falls back. He then asks the guy if he still believes that god doesn’t exist by taking in consideration what just took place.See this snippet…(you can forward to about 3:20)If you were an Atheist and can’t figure out how he did this then you’d probably fall as well. Watch that part again but listen carefully to the choice of words Derren uses.If you didn’t figure it out here’s some clues.DERREN: I want you to know that you wont hurt yourself...I WILL CATCH YOU WHEN THIS HAPPENS.... I'M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU WHAT I'M GOING TO DO"Watch carefully how Derren places his hand. The shadow of Derren’s hand is out of the shot but it looks like the shadow falls in the another guy’s peripheral vision meaning it’s out of focus and slightly out of conscious awareness.If you study the wording you’ll see Derren tells him exactly what will happen but indirectly. This is a common linguistic trick used in sales letter. I will catch you when this happens means that you will fall. I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do means I’m going to be doing something to you.So it’s just linguistic trickery and if you haven’t done any training in it then it’s easy to fall for it. I’ve done some basic training so it’s easier for me to spot when people use this type of linguistic gymnastics and there’s many to be found in TV advertisements. I experimented with some like asking someone do you want coffee, nooo (shaking no with your head subtly whilst pulling you face with a frown)? More than 80% people will say no as you just suggested to them to say no. Your body, language and subtle emotional expression is all saying no. We have evolved to detect these unconscious signals and respond to them. This is similar to lifting your eyebrows when you greet someone most people will response by lighting their eyebrows as well. This is an evolutionary response before language was created to signal mutual partnership from allied clans. So just linguistic tricks.

Now I know who Derren Brown is & how he does some of this psychological stuff no but before I had seen it I was 'into' some New Age stuff about half of which was mumbo-jumbo. Much of the mumbo-jumbo used similar techniques to Derren's but not really consciously. It's sort of built into religious practices like contemplation & deepities like respect for 'faith'.