Derren Brown – The so called Messiah 2 of 8

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…