Fucking with the mind…

18Jul07

Now, I’m hoping that you’re going indulge me, and that you will read this all the way through. You should see why at the very end.

I’ve been rather inspired by Derren Brown lately, and I’ve been trying out some of his stuff here and there, with varying degrees of success.

Derren Brown, is, of course, incredible. Aside from being British to the core, he is possibly, the number one mentalist in the UK, using a bit of psychology, a bit of NLP, some mentalism, hypnosis and a few other tricks that he’s picked up along the way to create an astounding, scary effect.
One has to wonder, during his shows, if he’s subliminally telling you to do and buy things without you even realising that you are doing just what he wants you do do, and you choose one, of the brands that he is suggesting to you, maybe it’s himself that he’s constantly marketing, maybe not. Who knows? But his techniques are surprisingly powerful and real. We know that similar things already work on us because of advertising. Whether we like it or now, when you’re at a supermarket and there’s a choice of brands, and you get a one in your head, you tend to stick with one, probably that first thing that came into your head and the intrusiveness of marketing can simply bring it to the forefront of your mind when you’re searching for something and make it seem like a choice.
I was in town, with a deck of cards, as one does (as we english say), and stop on one, or two occasions, walking up to people to talk to them. After performing one, maybe two but often not, tricks on them I had them suitably prepared for something that was more along the lines of what Derren Brown would do. I’d sit them down in one of the nearby chairs with a table and do a bit of what some would refer to as mind reading. It’s actually just picking up on visual cues, allowing people to select random cards out of a deck and then letting them lead me to the card they picked. Sometimes they nod, ever so slightly, when they hear their number, sometimes their eyes flicker to one of their accessing cues to show they’ve visually remembered their card as you’ve said it. Lots of different things can lead you there. Sometimes it goes wrong, but when you get it right, it’s worth it just for the reaction you get.
It becomes harder though when you’re trying manipulate people. When you’re trying to tell them something without them realising it. I find when picking a number between one and ten, often people go for 7. So by talking about how people’s minds go blank when you ask them questions you can recreate that blankness, leaving a blank slate to work with, then telling them that luckily you’ve decided on a number for them, people are more likely to go for number 7 because 7 is meant to be a lucky number. Simply, easy manipulation, but it can work. By then holding seven fingers up just out of their peripherals, they unconsciously can pick on that. It’s amazing to get it right.
At this point, you’re probably wondering precisely why I told you that you should really keep reading, and this is the part. You see hopefully, if I ask you to choose a number in this sequence six, eight, one, four, nine and to stick with the first number you feel comfortable with choosing…

….with any luck you’ll find the number one sticks most easily. Now this is text and really this only works if you read this aloud in your head, and then you have to be a suggestible mood anyway, but if you read through the first couple of paragraphs you should probably see why you’re more likely to choose one….

Disguising them as grammatical errors, “Derren Brown is, the number one” notice here that the comma is unnecessary, but by breaking up the sentence and putting the unconscious pause in your mind, it makes “the number one” stick out in your head.

Now notice that it continues “the number one mentalist” and has a double space after the one. Again, the slight break in the pattern makes it stick in your mind.

Next, “what he wants you do do, and you choose one,” is a horribly obvious suggestion. The odd break up in the sentence, the suggestion, it’s all there in all it’s glory. Not even masked really that one. I threw it in in the hope that not knowing what was going on you wouldn’t pick up on it.

The next little bit was “and you get a one in your head, you tend to stick with one, ” what hopefully looked like a stupid error, was actually yet another attempt to just drill that number one into your head.

The last one was “and stop on one” again surrounded by commas.

Maybe it worked. Maybe it didn’t. Maybe you got bored halfway through and gave up. If it worked, leave some feedback. If it didn’t, leave some insults. Hey, maybe I’ll record me doing some stuff and I’ll show you just how powerful this can be.

Apparently, if I include the words fucksex, facefuck and the phrase “hot pussy” it will increase my page views ten fold. I don’t think Derren Brown ever quite occupied that low a level.

P.s. new lighting set up. What do we think?

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