I recently went to a Derren Brown show and I hate to admit it, but he got me good (even without getting called on stage). For those who don’t know, Derren Brown has a wide array of world-class skills including sleight-of-hand, hypnosis, magician-ship, psychology, body language expertise and showmanship. He combines these skills into an impressive cacophony which dazzles and shocks audiences. Out of respect for his show, I won’t spoil too many of the details, but I will give an overview of my experience.
The first half featured many people from the audience who were successfully hypnotized by Derren Brown. Oh, what fools! The rest of us onlookers watched with laughter and glee as we saw confused and bewildered audience members struggle to remember how to do basic things. How could they be so silly to fall for these tricks?! It was entertaining to watch.
Little did I know that in the second half, I would be one of (about 70% of) audience members who would have about 1 minute of their memory successfully blanked out! How embarrassing, I became one of those fools which I was previously laughing at!
The first half of the performance had Derren Brown taking the audience through a variety of different tricks and productions. During one of these, he was engaging the audience in a sort of enchantment which was meant to have an effect on the attendees. I remember not fully engaging with his voice, narrative and instruction; I maintained a sort of conscious, 3rd person, skeptical mindset as he spoke – a sense of detachment from what was being spoken. As it turns out, many people did indeed get charmed by his little trick, but I believe my mindset during the narration provided a sort of resistance which prevented me from being hypnotized.
For the second half, unbeknownst to my conscious mind, I let my guard down. I was relaxed, I was enjoying the show, and it was fun to watch people get tricked on stage – at least it wasn’t happening to me! It was exactly in this state of mind that I became susceptible to his expertise: As it turns out, he was able to successfully blank about 1 minute of my memory!
Unbelievable. How did this happen!?
I do recall the moments before my memory got blanked. My mind was not in a state of focus, but rather in a sort of stupor. I was listening, but not fully engaged. Aware of the room but also mind-wandering. Half-dazed, half-observant. Passive, relaxed and enjoying the show. Suddenly, BOOM! I had been hypnotized and tricked – completely subconsciously – with video evidence provided at the end of the show proving that this in fact was the case.
When I got home I had to find out more.
In my brief research of the subject, it appears that even many hypnotists are not exactly sure how and why hypnosis happens. Nonetheless, we do know that there is a sort of compliance which takes place between subject and the hypnotizer. It appears that if you don’tsubconsciously want to be hypnotized, you won’t be.
But how was I complying?! Well, it was a fun night out and we had been given the tickets as a gift… I’m not going to completely disengage my mind from the show as some sort of skeptical, fedora-tipping, party-pooper Grinch who can’t have a good time. By my very nature of me being there and fully engaging with Derren, I was complying; I was becoming sucked into his world; I was becoming influenced by him; and was becoming susceptible to his trickery. And all of this subconsciously. Isn’t that odd how one can comply to something without deliberately complying?!
In order to be successful, a hypnotist must also put the subject in a trance and bypass their critical mind. In hindsight, I can see how the Derren’s entire show is orchestrated to suck you into his world, but in a detached sort of way with your critical capacities not fully functioning. Successful hypnotists will make contact with your unconscious mind in a way without you realizing. Hold your mental ground and stay engaged in your own world, and you should be resistant.
Looking back, if I wanted to resist his hypnosis, I think I would have had to completely disengage with Derren and his words; this could have been accomplished in many ways. For example: distracting myself, thinking of something else entirely, focusing on my body (on my own terms), ignoring him or ‘counter-hypnotizing’ myself with my own narratives. But who wants to go through that mental exertion on a night out at a show? You’re supposed to be having a good time! Nonetheless, having gone through the experience and having seen basically all fellow audience members have the same reaction as myself, I don’t think it’s possible for the majority of people to engage with a hypnotist with such mind-bending skill as Derren Brown and not eventually become enchanted.
Overall, I think there are potent lessons to be gained from the experience. Considering the power of the media and their finely-tuned capacity for influence, it’s never wise to put your guard down. This includes news, movies, headlines, advertisements and beyond. Stay on guard, stay vigilant and don’t sleepwalk through life. Despite your pride telling you otherwise, you are likely far more susceptible to subconscious influence than you realize.