Derren brown - Dowsing?

[ledgehammer]

Hi,

I just watched a clip on Derren Browns show "trick of the mind", he's in the desert with a water diviner and hes buried something in a jar, the guy is asked to find water and he is given a spade and he uses L rods and finds it, you see the rods cross and digs it up. In the jar was a piece of paper depicting parts of a conversation he was having with him, at the end of the note it thanked him for being a good dowser. This was not negative for me because he still found it using dowsing: the rods moved.

I know I will be shot down in this thread but I speak my mind, to try and gain better understanding.

Some of the techniques he uses are a mystery and some (not all or most) have not been explained.

The one that stands out for me is when he is with a book writer (cannot remember his name), he has five of his books out in front of him, and Derren asks him to pick a book then a page then a sentance then a word, the word is POP, and Derren opens an envelope with the word written on a piece of paper. Logic defies this, the amount of times the word "pop" can appear in his books cannot be that high: I have no idea other than physically controlling him and knowing the exact page and word, because he selects the word from the first sentance he reads on that page. Or dowsing, or some other spiritual connection.

I know he is a skeptic, and on the most part he demonstrates old tricks done by mediums e.t.c, and puts them down, and to this I do not agree. But to be a performer he has to be skeptical, but Maybe his skeptisim is a smoke screen?

Tom

[ledgehammer]

I cannot view vids right now, so I cannot tell if its the one, but it looks pretty bang on.


(mod - original link replaced with working video - GG)

Tom

[Ian Pegler]

I haven't watched the video. For one thing all Derren's shows are produced by Objective Productions, whose programmes I refuse to watch.

Derren's skepticism is not a smokescreen, he is a strong supporter of the skeptical movement - although he does annoy them sometimes!

Ian

[Grahame]

Derren uses a combination of techniques ranging from auto-suggestion, subliminal prompting and NLP through psychology to stage conjuring sleight of hand, and illusionism. all highly entertaining and I think he's a great performer, but there's nothing psychic involved.

[ledgehammer]

Derren uses a combination of techniques ranging from auto-suggestion, subliminal prompting and NLP through psychology to stage conjuring sleight of hand, and illusionism. all highly entertaining and I think he's a great performer, but there's nothing psychic involved.

Graham,

Perhaps.

This is what he says, but there are some of his tricks I have seen that I dont believe are explainable by these means. The main themes of his live shows are a series of tricks, that utimatly lead to the whole show being a barrage of subliminal messages which at the end come to a climax. It is misdirection in the structure in the show, after the climax, thats it. I still found myself needing answers to some of the previous tricks, others I know just got took in by the finale and said wow! I have researched online and I believe there to be a gap in explanations, which is odd, but doesnt proove anything.

I didnt think the clip was debunking dowsing, and Derren may use this line in the media and so forth that is just they way it is done: but surely if the rods crossed, even if Derren used misdirection would this make the rods cross?

Any ideas how he did this if dowsing was not used (I need to know!)?

I don't mean to be "dowsers advocate", I know dowsing works but this really did intrigue me and I hold the opinion of the members of this forum in the highest regard.

Tom

[Ian Pegler]

I have researched online and I believe there to be a gap in explanations, which is odd, but doesnt proove anything.

An example of this, as previously cited on this very forum:
Derren Brown claims are "rubbish" say academics

I believe Derren Brown delights in being a controversial figure and something of a confuser, but he's still a skeptic.

Ian

[ledgehammer]

Ian,

Thanks, I confess I had not searched the forum

It seems the misdirection is a "way of life" for Derren...

Tom

[Ian Pegler]

Hi ledgehammer

Thanks, I confess I had not searched the forum

Ah, well there you go. Sometimes searching the forum is best done with Google. e.g. you might google

britishdowsing.net: derren brown

Sometimes the forum's own search-facility doesn't find everything.

It seems the misdirection is a "way of life" for Derren...

When David Nixon used to say "we don't use camera tricks" you knew he was telling the truth. One feels that level of trust has gone now.

I only have to mention the phrase "Russian Roulette".

Ian

[ledgehammer]

I only have to mention the phrase "Russian Roulette".

Nice