A new series started for Derren on E4 last night.  It was a good show and I'm pleased to say that I could see what he was doing with one of the 'digital viewing' segments and the present routine.

But he is good.  Check it out on Friday Channel 4 if you didn't catch it last night.

Dan

It was a nice start to the series. I got the bike, and that it was a BMX, particularly towards the end of the sequence when he said 'a BM or an X box', it was brilliant. I was explaining to my other half what he was doing to influence, and I think he was a bit baffled when I started talking about syntactic ambiguity and all that. Mmm... keep it simple when trying to explain to non NLP'ers what's going on.

Did you notice Derren anchoring the initial state when the guy just has to have something, and then constantly reinforce the anchor as he pumped up the state? Neat.

I must have missed the wallet thing, or was that when he was guessing the amount of cash people were carrying. That was good, if that's the trick you meant. No idea how he did it, but brilliant nonetheless!

If you want to know how the card and wallet illusions are done, I'd suggest you have a look at Kenton Knepper's material as they are both variations of routines he writes about. Also, Kreskin covers the wallet routine in his books. Other than that, confusional and pattern interrupts neatly demonstrated.

What other site are you talking about Simon? Can you let me have the address if it's something interesting.

John

Hi there,

On the BMX skit and some others.....

I was just passing by this forum and dropped in to say that not all things Derren does that appears to be nlp are nlp.

nlp'ers will read into what they want to believe. He says, .... this is how I did it......using these words...subliminal ... marking out language....blah, blah etc when in fact this was not the real way at all. This is all misdirection in the form of a plausible explanation to the viewer.

I have used the same rouse myself when performing a straightforward magic trick. Dual reality routines can be very powerful when staged properly and TV does help that with editing. You may wantto look at some of Kenton Kneppers or Luke Jermays routines.

Derren is a superb showman and entertainer but dont fall for his explanations and claim it upon nlp. here was a lot more to that BMX skit than you ever saw on TV. Remember the man saying.... thats my writing but I never wrote that.... ask how could that be?

It was a great trick though extremely well presented and thought through. Top mentalist, yes.... top blagger, yes. NlP explanation... no

Ian 

Master Pract. NLP, Hypnotist and Therapist (who also happens to love magic and mentalism!)

Hi Ian,

thanks for your perspective.  Would you care to say how you think it was done if you think it wasn't NLP?

Dan

I'm with Dan on this, since I know little about mentalism, but am learning more about NLP everyday. I had picked out the language patterns and determined it would be a bike and a BMX bike before Derren had 'revealed' how he did it. I've no doubt that there were some elements in his routine that I have no knowledge or understanding of, but there was plenty of classic NLP - pattern interrupt, anchoring, and use of language patterns to persuade.

So, what else was going on that you could let us in on?

John

I thought it was somewhat near the knuckle.  Thinking of Mike's example of how it was unethical to make someone feel like they were going to the die (the 'bee sting' scenario) I though that this was similar in so much as they were forcing a man to shoot people dead.  The only justification I could think of was that since they had created the reality of being in a game and shooting zombies this would act as an emotional crash barrier for his actions.

Other than that, it was brilliant!

Dan