Derren Brown The so called Messiah 1 of 8

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.