Derren brown / Halloween warm-up:

(Image: Channel4)

Derren Brown is a British mentalist, illusionist and mind control extraordinaire.

Showcasing and appearing to display abilities that allow him to hypnotize people, endure pain and extreme conditions, see the future and talk to the dead, he is mostly known for his impressive mind reading and mind control skills and has been blowing the minds of his live audiences since his college days.

Often presenting his shows to appear psychic, spooky or paranormal in nature, Brown is actually a skeptic, who often showcases to his audience how all that is needed to appear to be a medium, clairvoyant or psychic is a good set of skills, such as those he possesses.

An amazing example of which, can be seen in his recorded live show “Infamous”, wherein he invites onto the stage audience members who would consider visiting a medium  in order to contact a deceased loved one.

He then shows them how easily he can do so, by telling detailed stories and giving information that neither he nor anybody other than the audience member could know, without any psychic ability what so ever.

Derren easily lists off the names; exact ages at times of passing, pet names and stories from the lives of the audience members departed loved ones, much to their shock and disbelief.

He assures them that he has no supernatural abilities what so ever, and that anyone who says they do, are cruel scam artists and charlatans.

If like me, you feel it’s never too early to start warming up for Halloween, why not try watching some of the following videos:

(Image: Channel4)

In one of his TV series “Trick or Treat”, Derren hypnotizes a woman to believe that she has died in a car accident, and is wandering as a spirit who none of the paramedics, who are all actors, can see.

The premise of the show was to either “trick” the shows applicants months after they had applied, or “treat” them. Treats would be pleasurable experiences and tricks would be horror experiences.

Part 1.

Part 2.

In another “Trick” episode, a boy playing a zombie arcade game in a local pub is hypnotized and taken to an abandoned building, where Brown’s team have created a real life simulator of a zombie apocalypse, complete with zombie actors who chase him throughout the building.

The boy is given a prop gun and has to fight his way out.

Endlessly brilliant, chilling and entertaining, Derren brown has an extensive back catalogue of recorded live shows and TV series. From putting his life in his own hands with a game of Russian roulette to training a group of old age pensioners to become London’s best art thieves.  From convincing an innocent man to turn himself over to the police as a murderer to conducting séances and talking to the dead.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown
http://derrenbrown.co.uk/