Learn Magic Tricks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTgHkuE9Q_8&feature=related

Derren Brown: … or they can be viewed as an opportunity for evangelism.

Curt Nordheim: My understanding of evangelism is that it’s done in relationships. So in other words, I’m not going to leave the building here tonight and when I go to the hotel start talking immediately to the person behind the desk and say; “do you know Jesus Christ?” or something like that, I’m not going to do that. I try to form relationships of… through whatever means that I can – joining a racquetball club, playing tennis, inviting them home for dinner, that type of thing.

DB: Will Curt believe in my gift and will he endorse me? My name’s James Lawrence, um… none of you know me. You wouldn’t know me if you were British either… um, lets uh…

The people you see here responded to an advertisement to come to a discussion on spirituality. They’re almost all atheists or non-believers. I shall convert them with just a touch.

You don’t believe in anything? I mean, do you, kind of… like when I was…

Woman01: I don’t believe in God, I don’t believe in angels… I don’t believe in, you know, guardian angels and fairy godmother, you know, ghosts, you know all of this coming back from, you know, the dead to give you some, you know, special messages to make you feel better.

DB: Yeah. I actually don’t believe in those things either. Yeah…

Woman02: Everyone in my family was a different sort of religion. My grandmother was a devout catholic, you know, my grandfather was protestant, you know, my mother was Mormon, you know and all those things tried to get forced on me and I just never… I don’t know.

DB: Well then just be honest, okay?

Woman02: Uh-huh.

DB: As skeptical, you honest?

Woman02: I… I guess I can kind of understand the feeling that they were talking about.

DB: Yeah, in what way?

Woman02: That… my grandma always used to tell me that um, when she was praying before she went to bed, when she got up in the morning she always felt like she got um, she called it her inner hug. And uh, she said it just kind of felt like [IB] was wrapping itself around your heart, around your lungs just like an inner hug and uh, I guess I kind of understand a little of what she was talking about.

DB: Some of the people have left because they were uncomfortable with the instant conversion and I’m just going to go back in a minute to see if anyone’s left because I want to carry on, I want to see if I can do this. But for the moment, it’s a bit of drama.

Um, we had a bit of an interruption there; I think some people got a little bit uncomfortable with that and they’ve left so, if it’s all right we’ll just carry on with you guys, thank you for staying, that’s fair enough. So just want to carry on what I’m talking about what we were… what we were talking about. You feeling all right? You still…

Woman02: Yeah it’s like I said it’s just kind of a weird feeling.

DB: Um, do you believe in God? Do you think this… be a good thing to do or do you think it’s just self deception?

Man01: I think if it works for them then I’ll… I’m not going to discourage people from their beliefs but how could you believe or worship any higher being, you know, that takes using to call God that’s supposed to be loving, that’s supposed to be merciful and kind but yet, you know… and then they talk about free will and this and that, well… it wasn’t a three year olds free will to die of, you know, leukemia and things of that nature. That’s what makes me just don’t buy it.

DB: Okay, all right. Um, [IB] to try this with you too.

Man01: Yeah I am.

DB: Yeah? Can you just come around here for me? Now if you just stand there for me but face uh… let me just put you there like that. Just put your feet together for me. Now I want you to know, you’re not going to hurt yourself or anything like that all right? I will catch you when this happens. I just want you to face that way and uh… you know just let whatever happens, happens. I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do. You okay? Stay there for a minute. Sit up for a second. Thought you were very skeptical for a moment ago about any kind of belief in God… you said as though, you couldn’t believe in that at all. How do you feel now about that? Be honest. Are you honest?

Man01: I think that um, I would be… I don’t want to call myself ignorant but I would be um… I wouldn’t be doing the right thing due to what just happened it occurred to me if I didn’t, you know think that there was a possibility that maybe my belief and maybe my opinions um… aren’t correct.

DB: Okay. So, you’re saying you are now ready to accept the idea that there is a God but you wouldn’t be prepared to accept beforehand? I’m not putting words in your mouth but I just want you to…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnaG35Ed1TU&feature=fvw

Derren Brown: There’s no screens or anything out that could be giving me any information. I’m not wearing any earpieces or anything like that, forgive me. Forgive me, this is very important. The people… the people might ask.

Woman01: There’s no dimensional objects that we can see.

DB: Yeah. Absolutely, okay uh… Abby, can you hear me?

Abby: Yeah.

DB: Excellent, all right. Whenever you’re ready I’d like you to draw a picture. Please make it nice and large and clear on one whole sheet of paper if you please.

Abby: I’m starting to concentrate on it now.

DB: okay. I would say… it’s really simple. It is essentially quite a simple shape. It feels quite abstract; it doesn’t feel like person or a thing or anything recognizable. I think it’s quite abstract. Just give me a minute.

Abby: Okay.

DB: I would say it’s a… [IB] it feels like a religious thing, like a cross, a tree or a shrub or something like that. So yes, something more organic in there too, so the cross I think and the tree I think, tree or shrub on there, okay so that’s the first one. Okay, all right um… do a second one.

Abby: Okay.

DB: This is a curving… like a banana. I got it… banana. All right, um… Okay, so again you just let different images sail through your mind. Don’t go overboard on detail, please keep it simple. All right, it’s on water… it’s that rocking… a rocking motion on water, another one. It feels like a warm face, maybe… it maybe the sun or… Yeah okay, I think we’re done. All right, excellent. Just sit down where you were before. This is what we got for number one, simple abstract, I got a cross and then I put a tree or a shrub.

Abby: Yeah, right. Okay.

Woman01: It’s a tree and a shrub.

DB: Here’s the next one. A banana, let’s have a look.

Abby: Yes, a big banana. A banana.

Woman01: Great!

Abby: Because I was thinking banana and then as you’ll see what comes out after I draw it is another thing but um…

DB: Okay, here’s the next one I put… what did you… water…

Woman01: Something moving on water.

DB: Water… moving on water. Ah! It’s a boat.

Abby: That I could draw.

DB: Okay, next one. Yeah. Face, personal, sun, warm.

Abby: That’s incredible.

Woman01: That’s amazing.

Abby: He’s going to take my job.

Man01: Well the first thing I did when I looked in his eyes when I met him, as a professional and what I saw was sincerity.

Abby: I think he is qualified. He does have ability um… I would recommend him to someplace because you know, you kind of witnessed that he does have ability.

Man01: As a person who trains psychics I would have them watch that film and say this is how you do it.

DB: Well my first endorsement from some leading professionals. They seem really happy to accept me as qualified. Now it was time to head east. People’s beliefs are not the issue. It’s the way we relate to those beliefs and certainly the people out there who have the beliefs, people who are getting that information and forming those beliefs and living those lives they’re not the people to have a go at. They’re not the people to laugh at you know. It is the people who are putting the beliefs out there it’s the industries behind them that are worth just taking a look at.

Coming up, I’ll be James Lawrence who can bring about Christian conversion through a touch and Robert Frowley who’s built a miraculous dream capture which runs on crystal energy. It’s been a successful start, but will I convince a sharp businesswoman and an evangelical pastor that I’m real and will they endorse me?

The journey in America continues as I fictional identities to respected and influential figures behind powerful belief systems and see how easily they’ll endorse me as the real thing. I used to be a full-on happy, clappy Christian until my mid 20’s and then I realized that my belief is just as prone to secular logic and self-fulfillment as all the new age nonsense which bug me and then reading the New Testament as a historical document finally rid me of any religious belief. But if I can convert people through non-spiritual methods, how many people are out there doing the same thing in their own way?

This isn’t about criticizing anyone’s belief but I’m amazed at how quickly and easily we can be made to adopt a belief that we’re told as universally true and part of our identity. Religions tend to encourage either high-energy crowd activity or candlelit monotony to invoke a suggestible state amongst the congregation. Many revivalist preachers seem to have a magical touch that brings the power of the lord into a person. People are reported to suddenly fall back as if they’ve been swept off their feet by the holy spirit.

I’ve come to Rhode Island as James Lawrence who after a dramatic religious awakening has been left with the ability to convert people with a touch. I’m feeling a little bit anxious about this one but it makes it more exciting. But it’s great, you know, will they say to me… even with all of that, will they say is this just a trick? If they say “is it a trick?” I will say yes, and I will thank them so much for actually asking that question.

So I’m here to meet a guy called Curt Nordheim. He’s a very successful, very affable professional minister and author here in New England and he’s specialty is in evangelizing to immigrant communities. Let me read you here a quote from the ministry; “the huge influx of foreign people groups into this can be viewed in two ways, they can be seen as a threat to our way of life both spiritually and culturally…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ02I6QyagM&feature=related

Derren Brown: So despite the beard and the aura of smugness I don’t actually have any messianic pretentions. I’ve never forgiven anyone for anything in my life but I’m on my way to Heathrow to fly to America to make a one hour special about why we believe things.

I’m not known in America so I can use five different fictional names to approach five different influential people who promote various paranormal belief systems and using my skills of magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship I want to see if I can convince them that I have special abilities in those particular fields. And the idea is to see how easy or hard it will be to get them to endorse me.

Whether we believe in psychic ability, crystal energy, alien abduction, talking to the dead or Christianity, we are rightly or wrongly buying into a very powerful belief system. Now, I’m not interested into attacking anyone’s beliefs but as intelligent human beings we should be prepared to question our beliefs and the people who encourage us to make life decisions based on the information they give us and that’s what this show is about.

In this show, you’ll see me pose as Daniel Owen the psychic who can see what you’re drawing when in you’re a different room. James Lawrence, who can convert you to Christianity with a touch; Robert Frowley, a new age entrepreneur with a machine which records your dreams; Richard Collins, the alien abductee who was left with an ability to  sense your medical history and Frasier Sherwell who talks to the dead. I’ll meet a high profile expert in each of those five areas and I’ll try to get each to endorse me as the real thing. If at any point they ask me if it’s a trick I’ll say yes and I’ll own up. But the question is; will they ask?

You’re sharp enough to question what I do because you know I deal in illusions. It’s all about questioning. But there are beliefs that do not encourage to question and these are often the beliefs upon which we’re asked to make important life decisions. These are the areas where we should test and look for misinformation and where the big names in those field should apply the same rigor. Because often we make those life decisions based on the information we get from those people.

The psychics are the first people I’ll have to try and convince. It is making me a bit nervous because I know I can’t give them performances I normally would. It feels like someone who’s learned some sleight of hand magic going into cheat at a game of poker with top poker players. And again, if the psychics ask me if its real I will tell them no and I will come clean.

Sedona is a whole town based on psychic belief systems. A quarter of the people here think they’re psychics and four million people a year come to visit this self-proclaimed spiritual Mecca and sample its energies and its [IB] and its other quite possibly imaginary constructs. The town is a mixture of undeniable beauty, tackiness and big business.

This is the Sedona Creative Life Center. This is where you come to be taught psychic abilities. It has a massive profile. People come from all over the world to attend its famous workshops and seminars. We’re going to talk to a woman called Abbey Hayden, she’s a very well-respected and published teacher here and she’ll be accompanied by some other people from this very successful center who also teaches such abilities. These are the people who encourage you to be psychic and transform your life.

These respected psychics have been told that I, Daniel Owen, developed psychic abilities after being struck by lightning ten years ago. The remote viewing test is a classic psychic demonstration and this is what I’m going to replicate, except I don’t have any psychic abilities.

There is a lot of teaching… a lot of people from all over the world. Now, how do you begin to go about teaching, something like developing a psychic ability? How does it… how do you do that?

Woman01: It’s basically reminding people they already have these gifts and they kind of wake it up within them. To help them see their own inner gifts.

DB: What I imagine if you’re giving advice to people that they may make life changing decisions based on the information that you’re giving them. Now for me that’s quite frightening responsibility. I don’t know how I’m going to ha… how would you know that that’s authentic?

Abby Haydon: My motto is if someone comes and asks me to do something that means I can do it whether I’ve ever done it or not. So… so that… and having that attitude, just being open and knowing that this person was guided to me I must be able to give him right information. It’s really helped me to develop a lot of things.

DB: For my demonstration of remote viewing, Abby will draw pictures in another room without anyone seeing her, and I’ll try and pick up what she’s drawing. When psychics do this as a test the results pretty poor, it’s roughly what you get for guessing.

Abby: Yeah, what is it that you want me to draw?

DB: Now I’m to get you to draw a… I’d like you to draw a picture.

Abby: Okay.

DB: All right. All I say is keep it relatively simple please don’t make it too detailed because it might get messed up.

Abby: Right, right.

DB: You shout ready when you’re done. Focus on the picture. Step into it a little bit and imagine that it’s vivid and real. That really helps me and I will try, again, I’ll get these guys to write down whatever impressions I get.

Abby’s isolated in the other room and no one can see whatever she decides to draw. She hasn’t been prepared for this and she can draw whatever she likes. Yet I will try and tell what she draws from the next room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-0kTUOygM&feature=related

Derren Brown: Khadisha has put up money she cannot afford, on a race that cannot be predicted.

Khadisha: Oh no.

DB: But if it doesn’t win…

Khadisha: I will [IB] in here, and then I’ll cry until I die. God… I don’t know I feel sick, I feel faint.

DB: Remember it’s “Moon Over Miami” and the green and white checks.

Man Over P.A.: They’re off…  There they go. Marradima from [IB]…  Benny Blaze back in third Moon Over Miami, the green and white jacket pretty little bit behind them. Heading down the side of the course, downhill… Marradima. Five or six steps over to Moon Over Miami.

Khadisha: It’s raining, it could slip… oh my stomach… unbelievable, absolutely unbelieveable.

Man Over P.A.: Moon Over Miami who’s about seven steps off the leader now as the clear the next one.

Khadisha: Four grand is at the bag.

Man Over P.A.: Moon Over Miami in fourth place at the moment, the other joint favorite with the leader as they head towards the water jump halfway down the bend straight.

DB: He’s not doing well, is he, at the moment?

Khadisha: No. He’s like [IB] and they could all slip or oh my god!

Man Over P.A.: Moon Over Miami on the right there the green and white jacket.

Khadisha: Oh my gosh!

DB: Whoa!

Man Over P.A.: Back with the leaders… It is Marridima who’s made all the running so far and tackled in second by Mahogany Blaze on the right. Back in third it’s the Big White Face of All Pancake and Moon Over Miami now coming under a bit of pressure in fourth place.

Khadisha: Oh my god! He’s last one [IB]…  he should be first.

Man Over P.A.: Moon Over Miami is very disappointing, looks beat as they run around the final turn.

Khadisha: I put four grand on a horse that’s lost.

Man Over P.A: Marradima’s holding on for Mahogany Blaze who’s getting very leg weary in their climb to the line.

Khadisha: Oh man! Four grand!

Man Over P.A.: Marradima with a fluent display of jumping. Wins the Henry the 8^th [IB] Chase from Mahogany Blaze in second, Pancake back in third then Moon Over Miami…

Khadisha: It didn’t win, that’s four grand gone. How can I not win if I won five times already?

DB: Marradima won. Number three.

Khadisha: Why am I still holding on to a ticket that I have not even won? I could cry now… I could cry but it’s all because you’re bloody recording while waiting for [IB], four thousand pounds… I can’t believe I’ve lost four grand. I’ve been lucky all this time and now it’s all gone wrong. I came here broke and now I’m even more broke. My dad’s going to kill me.

DB: I know how hard it was for you to get hold of that money.

Khadisha: Believe it.

DB: Do you really think that I would just gamble your money on a [IB]…

Khadisha: No I can’t believe you’ve done that.

DB: Have you got the slip? So I told you, Moon Over Miami would win…

Khadisha: Yes and it lost.

DB: When I walked off to the office to place the bet, when I left you, when I went off to place the bet. I thought to myself, Moon Over Miami isn’t going to win this race and if you look at what I actually placed the bet on, that’s four thousand to win on… on Marradima.

Khadisha: Marradima….

DB: Which means?

Khadisha: You’re a [IB]…

DB: That’s thirteen grand that you’ve just won.

Khadisha: Oh, I definitely love you! That’s sure a fright… doing that!

DB: Come on, let’s go get your cash before the next race.

Khadisha: Oh my god!! I did hate you a minute ago. I did. I hated you. I was… oh my god! I don’t know what to do. I don’t know! He’s fantastic. Because I’m debt free. I’m debt free the first time in [IB] years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlajL_bkMgs&feature=related

Derren Brown: Okay, all right. Lily or Lucy or something like that, yeah? No?

Woman01: Say it again?

DB: Lily or Lucy or…

Woman01: Lucy.

DB: Pardon me?

Woman01: Lucy.

DB: Lucy. She’s saying something about a hat that you used to like or something with a hat. Yeah? This isn’t a hat that you like this is one of her hats or something that she had a lot of hats and it was something that you liked. In fact she had loads of hats. She was the hat lady? Yeah? Yeah. Um, okay, she’s asking about, I want to say Charlie? Charles? Yeah? Someone she left behind? Or…

Woman01: It was her ex-husband.

DB: It was her ex-husband again? All right. She’s given me an image what she’s given you, I think this is something that she’s tried to give you a picture. All right? So I’m going to describe what this is and just be honest all right? Okay, she’s been trying to let you see that she’s still connected to you and the way she’s shown that is through a lift, an elevator. Yeah?

Woman01: Uh-huh.

DB: Okay? And it’s her passing. It’s her passing away… she didn’t… she didn’t die in an elevator I’m sure but this is what she’s… this is the image that she’s trying to give you. Okay?

Woman01: Uh-huh.

DB: Um, what is that by the way? You can tell me I’m not…

Woman01: It’s a dream I had, where she died in the elevator. About a year or so ago, I had a dream of her passing. Um, and… and I wasn’t with her when she died and I put her in an elevator I was trying to take her up, you know. Uh, and I was worried about that dream for a long time not knowing what it meant and so I guess she wanted me to know that it was all good. It was okay.

DB: Okay. This is a lady who is trying to connect with the front end. I’m just taking a moment to decide. This is a lady but the name I’m giving you isn’t the lady’s name it’s Paul… Paul… Paula… Paulette… Yeah? Your mother, okay. This is somebody you didn’t connect with very well. You didn’t connect too well with her when you were younger and growing up and this is about finding that connection. Now does that sort of kind of make sense? All right. No older than sixty I would say sort of fifties, sort of something like that when she passed. Is that about right? Not… not an old lay, okay. And there’s a… there’s a… the connection here with you is I think, a sense of here is… her being quite an artistic and creative woman. Very style… very well kempt, very well presented, she looks very elegant. There’s guilt on her part. I mean, it’s good… its… its… It’s happy but it’s like there’s a feeling of guilt. I think your father passed when you were very young as well is that right? And there’s a feeling that she left early and that she didn’t connect in the way that she should’ve connected and that’s what… is the.. quite a strong feeling here of things undone and things unsaid. And the connection that got broken too early. I think she [IB] passed when you were very young, a teenager, I think very young. In a happy way, it’s an apology. In a happy way I think this is uh… this is uh… a wanting to reach out and connect and just, you know, make that connection.

Woman02: No other spiritualist has ever really given me what he’s given me today. Having never met him before it was absolutely just astounding. I’ve never experienced that before.

Janet: People really do want to hear from people passed over, so he brought through some lovely evidence. There’s no doubt that there is a gift there. But I think to move it to another level will be incredible. I think it would be a whole new level, particularly since Frazier readily admits he’s not sure about this himself.

DB: That felt horrible, but Janet thought I was real and as with each of the influential figures I’ve met. No one questioned if it was real or not. My time in America had come to an end and what has started out as a series of exciting challenges has grown into a slightly depressing feeling that when you step back all of these beliefs work in similar ways. Whether it’s religion or my own skepticism we all notice what support our belief and we disregard the rest.

Woman04: He’s going to take my job!

Man01: As a person who train psychics, I would have them watch that film and say this is how you do it.

Man02: I do know people who’ve come to Christ with a radical conversion but nothing quite like James.

DB: Binoculars?

Woman05: Yes.

DB: Yeah?

Woman05: My private secret dream and he saw them.

DB: Is that remotely?

Woman06: It’s exactly. This should go into the most respectable publications you can find.

Janet: he brought through some lovely evidence. There’s no doubt that there is a gift there.

DB: I left thinking that any of these beliefs might absolutely be true but it’s passion not knowledge that teaches us to be certain of them and that the ability to question these things is part of what makes us truly human.

Man03: I think God is a hoax and a scam but it works. It’s actually a good one. I mean how much money is given to something you can’t see, can’t smell, can’t taste but it’s got to be there and you’ve got like a hundred and eighty religions going up, but we’re the chosen ones. We are special, we are different, you’re all else f…d. But we are going to get through because we’ve got a swipe card. The Mormons and the Jews and the Muslims and I’m like going… good business. I want to get in on this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD-duHTeilY&feature=related

Derren Brown: I have been able to conclusively demonstrate them. Please remember, I don’t really have this ability. The question is will this demonstration be enough to have this prominent investigator endorse me to her public. Now I’ve… I know who you are because I’ve read your books. Perhaps the people at home who don’t know, perhaps you can tell us your credentials.

Ann Druffel: Well, Vince and I are part of a group of UFO researchers. It’s been together for about 35 years. I started 1957 with the National Investigations Committee on aerial phenomena which is called “Nightcap.” And then when… in 1965 when the first abductee, you know, claim… came in, I investigated that together with other members of Nightcap.

DB: So you both have quite a high profile in this area and you’ve written… how many books have you written now?

Ann: I’ve written five books.

DB: And the… this is the one that I’ve… I first came across here was “How to Defend Yourself Against Alien Abduction.” A lot of these stories involve these bedroom visitors, these entities that come in at night.

Ann: Most of them do.

DB: Yes.

Ann: Most of them involve, a like uh… altered states like the dream state. The abduction scenario starts in the dream state.

DB: Uh-huh. If somebody said, um… that the altered state is an altered state because people are dreaming or because they think they’re awake and they’re not and they’re just sort of having a very lucid or vivid dream, do you disregard that? Is that… just not hold up with the evidence or is that possible or…

Vince: You decide for yourself I guess.

DB: Yeah.

Vince: There’s not very much black and white in you mi… most of it is in the gray area.

DB: Okay. That’s good. I suppose I should talk about my own experience. After my abduction… essentially what it is that I seem to be able to tell people their medical background and their medical history sometimes their current medical state. I tell you the medical impressions that I get, if I get nothing at all I’ll be honest and say so and I will. And If I do say things I’ll try and be very accurate because I know part of this journey for me as well is seeing whether it is real or whether it’s nothing to it. I’ll stand up and face over there so you can… If one of you touches me in the back, it might be interesting also if you don’t even let me know which one of you is touching me.

Ann: Okay. Uh-huh.

DB: Okay? Just… it might make it more interesting and if you just place your hands on the small of my back and just be patient because sometimes it takes a little while. It’s different with different people. I’ll also have my eyes closed in doing it so um, I won’t be able to see. Please don’t say anything out loud so I don’t know who’s coming up, um… I’ve got my eyes closed so. Okay… Okay, you’re having real difficulty sleeping at the moment and I don’t know if this is Vince or Ann but you’re having real difficulty sleeping. Uh, there’s something in your throat or that has been in your throat, a tumor or something that was in your throat. I don’t… my actual anatomical knowledge is not great but a gland or something in the throat there that was… this would have been ages ago. There’s something up there, and there’s, um… I’m going to turn around and look at you if that’s all right. Ann, okay. Um, I think you ha… um, I think you don’t take or really try not to take a dr… um, a chemical prescripted drugs. I think that maybe you use more sort of herbal or you know, non drug based remedies because there’s a real almost as if I’m shaking. But a real sense of purity almost and I think that you’ve had some minor heart problems, but again nothing. I think you’re in very good health actually but uh, yeah. But that was very clear here in the throat and that you’ve been having real difficulty sleeping for some time. But the thin in the throat was years ago, I mean literally decades ago it’s not recent. It’s that remotely…

Ann: Remotely? It’s exactly.

DB: Really? Did you have something in your throat?

Ann: I had a thyroidectomy in the 1960’s for a benign tumor. I had a low thyroid.

DB: Right.

Ann: Was about the only surgery I ever had up there. I do have trouble sleeping and the other thing you said, that I do not take pharmaceuticals.

DB: Yeah. Is that true?

Ann: Yes, I’m almost exclusively alternative medicine.

DB: Okay.

Ann:  I don’t trust western medicine or pharmaceuticals.

DB: Well you seem to be in good health so that’s…

Ann: I am. I’m in excellent health. Wow. I find it amazing; I mean the accuracy was astounding. He was accurate to 100%. I’ve written for the scientific… the o… the Journal of Scientific Exploration, I think possibly this would be the best… the best place for Richard because that’s a refereed scientific journal. I mean this should go to the very highest, most respectable publication you can find. At the next board meeting of [IB], I’ll bring up the idea of that Richard would make a most remarkable speaker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsnpIGwqHC0&feature=related

Shaun: Due to, especially just what occurred with me. Yeah there is… there is reason to explore.

Derren Brown: Excellent. Okay, thank you.  Okay, just sit back down for me Shaun, thank you very much. Um, in fact, tell you what, could you all just stand up for me. All right, hands up if you believe in God at this moment. Apart from the people I’ve just spoken to, put your hands up if you believe in God. Be honest. Okay. That’s one of you, great. Thank you. Apart from the people I just spoke to, so yeah, all right. Thank you.  Now put your feet together. Just all of you just close your eyes for me. So there is something here in this room, there’s something here. And as I talk to you now I want you… whatever you imagine that whatever that spirit is, just to feel it, in this room. Feel it like a pressure moving into you. Moving into around your heart, chest, shoulders, against your face and your eyes. As I talk to you I want you to feel that moving into you and not defy it but to welcome it, and to embrace it and to allow it to move you in whatever way.

As it talk to you let that get stronger… let that feeling get stronger and stronger and really feel it now just moving into you, moving into you. One at a time just feeling it right… just embrace it, just let it fall in. Good. Do you believe in God now?

Woman 01: Yes.

DB: Yes? Yes? Nicely played. Do you believe in God? Be honest.

Man01: Yes I do.

DB: Do you believe in God?

Man02: Yes I do.

DB: Do you believe in God?

Man03: Yes.

DB: Yes?

Man03: Yes.

DB: Be honest with me all right? Be honest with me. Do you believe in God?

Man04: Yes I do.

DB: Do you believe in God?

Man05: Yes, very much so.

DB: Do you believe in God?

Woman02: There is something.

DB: There is something… Do you believe in God?

Woman03: I do believe in God.

DB: And you?

Man06: Yeah, definitely.

DB: Yes. Thank you. Curt, left with half the group after the first conversion but he’s still impressed.

Curt: I wondered if there’s not something just in his… in his body and energy… electrical impulse that doesn’t zap people. I cannot explain the warm hug that one young woman experienced except that maybe that is God speaking to her that He loves her. So I do know people who’ve come to Christ with a radical conversion that is very different from most conversions um… but nothing quite like James.

DB: He was impressed, but to his credit, wanted to meet again before he’d offer a full public endorsement. Yeah endorsements are important because the ability to show that even as a charlatan you can quite easily integrate yourself into that world and be part of that fiction – if it is fiction. My next stop is Las Vegas; a city based on false hopes. I’m here as Robert Frowley a man who has the power to tell people’s dreams. There are no clocks in the casinos, no sense inside of whether its day or night and all the hotel rooms are really bare, so there’s nothing to do but to keep on gambling. It’s a hypnotic scam. But Vegas is the place to come and try and capture dreams. And in a way a lot of these new age industries are similar… um, a lot of pretty colors and saccharine that hides really nothing but false hope. In a way it looks a bit like this. Looks like it does something but it doesn’t. All it does is it just turns the green light on and off, that’s all it does. This is my new electronic dream catcher.

Despite the fact it’s just a battery in pretty box can I convince this next lady that it records her dreams and then replays them to me? So we’re going to go and visit a lady called Lorraine DeFelice who is very successful in the new age industries. She’s a magazine proprietor, an author and she owns some of the top new age websites. She’s very sweet, but she is massively influential. I’m going to present her with a miracle. How skeptical will she be? And if she asks me if it’s real I will tell her no. Lorraine has been using the dream catcher now for five days. She believes I’m developing it as a product and I’m after feedback and publicity for it. Will she believe it’s real and endorse me to her public?

Tell us a bit about your background about Lisa [IB] that you looked after around…  give us a little history of who you are.

Lorraine DeFelice: 1979 I decided to start the Esoteric World, it was a newspaper. Eventually it became a magazine and um, I printed thousands a month. I had thousands of members. Each member got a copy of what the other sent in. Now we have the internet, which we didn’t have ten years ago.

DB: Yeah and it’s doing very well isn’t it?

Lorraine: We’ve got thousands of pages on the internet, every metaphysical subject. I think probably the best, biggest metaphysical site on the net.

DB: Do you feel influential in that position?

Lorraine: Yes. I changed the lives of a lot of people.

DB: Um, I’d like to talk about the dream machine that you have and just so that people have understand what’s happened previously we delivered to you, one of these machines and you’ve been given instructions to use it for… you’ve had it for five nights I think. Is that right?

Lorraine: Right.

DB: There’s the machine itself and this is the pillowcase which plugs into the dream catcher and you’ve been sleeping on this. So I’ll ask you to remember, whatever dreams that you’ve had…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DUOXdIVQAI&feature=related

Derren Brown: … during the night. We do tend to forget [IB]… and obviously for the record there’s nothing that you’ve been asked to talked about… you haven’t told any of us or anything.

Lorraine DeFelice: No.

DB: Like that because that quite [IB]… I’ll try and do this now, I’m thinking actually if possible perhaps we could swap chairs. Would it be all right if I use your chair for five minutes because I’d be more comfortable in there.

Lorraine: Okay.

DB: I tell Lorraine that the box contains new age crystalline technology. But as you know the box contains just an ordinary battery, and does nothing more than turn the light off and on for the switch. What I’m about to do works through words and imagination not crystals or the ridiculous pads I’m about to put on. It’s perfectly safe to use I mean… there wouldn’t have been any… any… there are a couple of not side effects but unusual things that I’ve noted when people use this. One is that… because of the way the dreams are stored; you may be unaware of actually dreaming less than you normally would.

Lorraine: When I was in a deep sleep, that’s what happened.

DB: Right.

Lorraine: But in the late sleep I started dreaming…

DB: You may have noticed some sorts of flashes…

Lorraine: The minute I laid down.

DB: That right. That’s very common and that’s great. The other… the other side um, is that you may find… it tends to take the color out of the dreams.

Lorraine: I’ve always heard of people who dreamed in black and white and I never did that. I had two nights where they were black and white. So promising then… let’s try this. So… so these are four pads that I’m going to attach to my temples and forehead. Do feel free to talk or respond but, just maybe don’t ask me any questions if that’s all right. I’ll… Okay so there’s movement something um… things moving across a field… there’s wheels of some sort. Yeah, like… like large wheels a cartwheel or something like that. Okay, so a quite [IB] dressed black man.

Lorraine: Uh-huh.

DB: I’m also going to put white woman. I’m going to say a black man a little with that outfit it can be a white woman as well which is odd but black man and he’s… there’s quite a life around him. Quite [IB] dressed, there’s life around him, animals even. Quite large animals like big dogs or something like that or some animals around him. Binoculars?

Lorraine: Yes.

DB: Yes. A bird of some sort, yeah?

Lorraine: Uh-huh.

DB: But a large bird?

Lorraine: Uh-huh.

DB: Quite piercing eyes, or at least one eye very piercing, very clear.

Lorraine: Yes.

DB: Is that… is there…

Lorraine: That was another dream…

DB: Some white buildings? Black sky white buildings?

Lorraine: Yes. Exactly.

DB: Yeah? Very strong…

Lorraine: It was one of the black and white dreams, yes.

DB: Yeah?

Lorraine: And I’ve never seen black and white dreams…

DB: And that was maybe… that’s why that’s come last. Okay, I don’t think there’s anything else I think that’s it.

Lorraine: Now that was amazing what he did. I’m just… I’m amazed you know. That was my private secret dreams and he saw them. Yeah I really would like Robert to come on the radio program. I’d like to interview him. I think the people around the world should know about this anything you want to say about the dream machine, you can… or Robert can write it and we’d publish it off. In print and it will still be on the web too.

DB: Lorraine is convinced. The next day I got a call from the radio station asking me to come on and talk about the machine. I declined. After the break, I shall be Richard Collins an alien abductee who can sense your medical history and Frasier Sherwell who talks to the dead. Will the final two professionals believe in my fictitious abilities and will they endorse me?

The Journey continues as I visit influential figures behind modern belief systems and seek their endorsement. We’re on our way to see Ann Druffel who is a very prolific writer and speaker on the whole UFO alien abduction area. Her last book she wrote was called “How to Defend Yourself Against Alien Abduction” which I’ve been reading quite avidly. She is very old but we have to put that to one side. Remember that she spent the last 50 years writing and speaking on the subject.

She’s been told that Richard Collins, that’s me, was abducted by aliens ten years ago and was given an ability to sense people’s medical history. Many people do claim to have been left with similar abilities after abductions…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q2qR7PJQnQ&feature=related

Derren Brown: … and has offered me an impressive endorsement there. I turned down an offer she made for me to speak at a meeting that evening and I left her came to write about me. Now I’m getting ready to talk to the dead.

If spiritualists have really been talking to the dead all these years then that is a wonderful and important thing. If on the other hand it’s not true, then it could be seen as a very ugly and manipulative lie. Now, that’s not to say anything about Janet who we’re going to meet later. She could be of course, be genuine. But it’s truly worth having information that help you make better decisions. Now one piece of information worth knowing is that there is a skill called cold reading which dates back to the first psychics and mediums which is a way of talking to people as if you know everything about them and people make your statements fit their situation.

Since the mid-1800’s spiritualists have been talking to the dead, apparently delivering messages from beyond the grave which seems so specific that they must be real. I’m going to use every trick in the book and there are books if you care to look for them. Written by openly fraudulent mediums teaching their techniques but of all the tasks facing me for this special, this one makes me feel the most uncomfortable. I personally believe, given my knowledge of the psychic industry that I’m using techniques here, used by pretty much any successful medium. But you’re going to watch this knowing that I’m fake and if that makes you feel uncomfortable then that is kind of my point.

I’m here as Frasier Sherwell. Well I’ve come to meet the respected medium Janet Nohavec to convince her of my abilities.

Janet Nohavec: I have a spiritualist church here in America and also a school for mediumship. We believe in mediumship that’s very evidential, so we take this quite seriously. So we train people who can give very good detail.

DB: And you are bringing in people I suppose into a belief system or religion system as well do you find that normally happens? They’re also entering into a church perhaps?

Janet: It affects them spiritually. It sets their spiritual path…

DB: Yeah?

Janet: It affects at what they look at the world like. It affects, for many people, what they believe about religion. It touches them on a very many levels.

DB: The people attending this event are fairly skeptical New Yorkers who have responded to an advertisement to come along and have a reading. Okay so I’m going to go in now and give a demonstration to Janet and a group of people who I’ve genuinely not met before. But using medium skills and my own skills, I’ll give a more accurate reading than mediums tend to ever give and I’m interested to see how Janet takes it. We’ll see. Okay, there’s somebody who passed on a day that was either a birthday or an anniversary or something like that. You’re laughing is that…

Woman01: Yes.

DB: Yeah? Um, this is a young chap, this isn’t an old man, this is a young chap. I think you got very close. I think this is a real. I think you parted before he passed on though. Is that right?

Woman01: Yes.

DB: Yeah. Um, it’s not my forthcoming… held a lot of things back. Yeah? For all I know quite good natured, he’s got quite a dimply face when he smiles is that right?

Woman01: Yes.

DB: Yeah? Pecans?

Woman01: Yes.

DB: Yeah? This is uh… all right hang on. I’m getting a name which I don’t think is his, all right, but he’s given me a couple of names. And there’s Charles or Charley it’s his name and Tom or Thomas, two different names that he’s given me, Charles or Charley or Tom or Thomas.

Woman01: Can I tell you who that is?

DB: Is it something?

Woman01: Yes, that’s my ex husband.

DB: Is it another relationship? Sorry?

Woman01: That’s my ex-husbands name. But he’s not passed on.

DB: No, no, no, no. I’ve said that this isn’t him; this is a name that he’s given me about something. Okay, um, you’ve got some issue with this guy and I don’t know what that is. All right… but…

Woman01: He’s my ex that why I think.

DB: Yeah. I thi… This is him just looking out for you. All right?

Woman01: Yeah I appreciate it.

DB: Um, he says you’ve been feeling lonely and you’ve got a silly pet which he finds funny. Um, you’ve got a silly pet?

Woman01: Yes.

DB: Okay? Um, I think that’s what that’s about I think it’s just him being… looking out for you and just kind of being there and you know, just…  just… just making that connection.

Woman01: Frazier mentioned things that only I knew about. The one that passed away and he just mentioned specific things like uh, him passing away on our anniversary. The fact that we we’re very close because we we’re engaged to be married and it was very revealing and he said I had silly pets, which is true. I have two aquariums so, it was a great read.

DB: Coming up after the break, find out if a very respected medium will be able to tell if I’m really speaking to the dead and what her reaction will be.  This is the final part of the journey I want to see if a highly respected medium and teacher of mediums will be able if I’m really talking to the dead. I have to give convincing messages to a group of people I haven’t met and know nothing about. Now in a way I hope you’ll find in this is unpleasing as I found it to perform.  Okay, all right. Old lady, but with black hair, tied back. Yep?

Woman02: Uh-huh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bnUBRMFi0s&feature=channel

David Blaine: Take out of all the cards. Take one out. Don’t let me see them, let them and you should see it. You all saw it? Okay, so watch what I do. He’s going to put it in the middle of the deck. You’re going to say the card; I’m going to control it to the top instantly. Here I’ll show you. Put it in, all the way so I can’t get it. Perfect. Say your card out loud.

Guest01: Eight of hearts.

DB: So look if I just do that move, the eight. Eight of hearts you said?

G01: Eight.

DB: Oh you said eight? I thought “A” was weird.

Audience: (Laughing)

DB: I was like what’s an “A” of hearts. All right, you know what. We’ll go with the ace of hearts. For eight and ace it’s a similarity. Now look, we use the ace of hearts right? You squeeze… squeeze it nice and tight. Yeah… yeah, but so I can see? Good. Squeeze tight. Good. And keep squeezing. Now red ink is better and this might work and you have a thumb print. So that’s good. When it’ll… Keep tight, keep tight. Squeeze tight. You’ll feel it start to get warm. That’s friction from the pressure of your thumb against the paper and then the red ink. Is it… tell me when it starts to get actually warm. Squeeze tighter if it’s not getting warm. Is it getting warm?

Guest02: Uh, n… yeah its warm.

DB: Yeah okay. I mean it should, that’s just friction. Now what happens is when it starts to get warm… give me pressure. If this works right… I just give it… yeah, yeah… see I give it a twist, and you can see your print. Your thumb print starting to come on there. Lift your thumb directly off. Yes now, now it’s an 8 of hearts.

Audience: (Laughing)