Last night Liz and I watched an episode of Darren Brown’s Mind Control on the SciFi Channel. There were three remarkable segments in this show. In one of them he used his skill in detecting lies to navigate an obstacle course, and (if you believe him) was confident enough in his ability to risk serious injury. Another involved his using “anchoring” techniques of Neuro-linguistic Programming to make a woman colorblind (watch it). A third involved him teaching a student how to play the piano is quite a remarkable way. I won’t spoil it, so just watch.
Browsing around YouTube, I found Derren Brown’s “Instant Conversion” videos where, apparently, he “converts” non-believers into believers (in some kind of religious belief.) Quite impressive, intriguing, and well, creepy! [watch part 1, part 2].
I find what Brown does rather repugnant, but all he is really doing is manipulating the subconscious communication and cooperation that allows civilization to work. What is really objectionable here is our “education” system that teaches absolutely nothing about this, or the occasional necessity for (and techniques of) psychological (or psychic, if you like) defense.
My mother helped me prepare for this when she would say (fairly often, as I was growing up) “never run with a crowd”, but to mentally step aside and ask myself if I would be doing this if I were alone. This takes you out of the subconscious loop and makes you think about your actions.
Specifically, in this video, an effective defense would be to refuse to cooperate physically (after all, the audience was presumably there to listen to Brown talk, not to take orders from him). If he asks to touch you, say no; if he tells you to stand up, ignore him, etc. Under no circumstances do something because people around you are doing it (see my Mother’s advice). If you ever go to a revival meeting (and don’t want to be converted) I strongly recommend this tactic. It will not be comfortable — ignore that and do it anyway. Many people (especially highly educated ones) vastly underestimate the connection between action and thought and assume that they can physically cooperate (to avoid embarrassment) while maintaining private mental reservations. Brown easily leads people who use this ineffective “defense” — it is important not to cooperate in any way at all, even if it makes you look like a jerk. (BTY, this is not a bad way to deal with a pushy car salesman also.)
You are justified in acting this way because Brown is being deceptive — he is pretending to just talk, while he really is trying very hard to manipulate you. He has already violated most of the (unwritten) rules of peer-to-peer dialog, and hence you owe him no respect or courtesy.
It may not be too paranoid to observe that there is a conflict of interest in government-run schools teaching defense against manipulation, when many politicians achieve power with help from such manipulations.
I find what Brown does rather repugnant, but all he is really doing is manipulating the subconscious communication and cooperation that allows civilization to work. What is really objectionable here is our “education” system that teaches absolutely nothing about this, or the occasional necessity for (and techniques of) psychological (or psychic, if you like) defense.
My mother helped me prepare for this when she would say (fairly often, as I was growing up) “never run with a crowd”, but to mentally step aside and ask myself if I would be doing this if I were alone. This takes you out of the subconscious loop and makes you think about your actions.
Specifically, in this video, an effective defense would be to refuse to cooperate physically (after all, the audience was presumably there to listen to Brown talk, not to take orders from him). If he asks to touch you, say no; if he tells you to stand up, ignore him, etc. Under no circumstances do something because people around you are doing it (see my Mother’s advice). If you ever go to a revival meeting (and don’t want to be converted) I strongly recommend this tactic. It will not be comfortable — ignore that and do it anyway. Many people (especially highly educated ones) vastly underestimate the connection between action and thought and assume that they can physically cooperate (to avoid embarrassment) while maintaining private mental reservations. Brown easily leads people who use this ineffective “defense” — it is important not to cooperate in any way at all, even if it makes you look like a jerk. (BTY, this is not a bad way to deal with a pushy car salesman also.)
You are justified in acting this way because Brown is being deceptive — he is pretending to just talk, while he really is trying very hard to manipulate you. He has already violated most of the (unwritten) rules of peer-to-peer dialog, and hence you owe him no respect or courtesy.
It may not be too paranoid to observe that there is a conflict of interest in government-run schools teaching defense against manipulation, when many politicians achieve power with help from such manipulations.
this skill has many uses.it can help you lose weight and even qui smoking
Bob,I completely agree with you! Your logic is so well stated that I couldn't put it better myself!I also wonder how well this belief has served you in life. Your mother's advice to “never run with the crowd”, helped to form a belief in you as a child that may have guided many of your actions as an adult. Imagine for a moment, (or if you can't imagine, simply visualize) that some threatening danger is coming your way. Would you refuse to run with the crowd, simply because of your belief that running with the crowd is wrong? I'm not implying that your belief is limiting your options, I'm simply curious as to whether it's the most effective attitude for your life.When you think about it, Bob, can you see that certain beliefs that give you more options, instead of fewer, could allow you to enjoy greater freedom?I don't know if you're thinking deeply about beliefs, or simply scratching the surface. But, I am willing to bet – that your thoughts have just been guided through NLP, despite all your resistance.
In fact, you may want to push all the things I just said out of your mind, and not let them influence you from this moment on.-Chris.
You are not nearly as clever as you believe, Chris.
The technique of pretending to agree with someone (including praise), then “subtly” leading them is not too original, nor are you very good at it. (“Visualize” yourself acting like a jackass.)
If you would bother to read what I said (I know, you aren’t really interested in what I said, only in your own cleverness) you would see that my mother advised me to think for myself. Doing the opposite of what a crowd does is no more thinking for yourself than going with the crowd. This is obvious, if you would only “think about it”.
For some reason, my daughter once decided to chronicle all the times that I have been nearly killed — after several hours of cross-examination (she is now a lawyer) she came up with a total of 13 times. Whatever my “attitude” is (and it certainly doesn’t resemble your caricature), it appears to have served me well enough.
For some reason, Disqus has decided my user name cannot be my actual name anymore. I’ve no idea why.
Colobob…..lol!!!!!
I wonder if there would be any reasonable cure for color blindness
Color blindness