''Messiah'' is a
Derren Brown
Derren Brown (born 27 February 1971) is an English mentalist, illusionist, painter, and author. He began performing in 1992, making his television debut with ''Derren Brown: Mind Control'' in 2000, and has since produced several more shows fo ...
special originally shown on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
on 7 January 2005 at 21:00. In the episode, Brown travels to the United States to try to convince five influential figures that he has special abilities in their particular field of expertise:
psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...
powers,
Christian evangelism
In Christianity, evangelism (or witnessing) is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ.
Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are i ...
,
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
theories,
alien abduction
Alien abduction (also called abduction phenomenon, alien abduction syndrome, or UFO abduction) refers to the phenomenon of people reporting their experience of being kidnapped by extraterrestrial beings and subjected to physical and psychological ...
and
contacting the dead, with the objective of getting them to endorse him as a practitioner in their field.
The concept of the show is to highlight the power of suggestion with regard to beliefs and people's abilities, and failure to question them. Brown makes it quite clear that if any of the subjects accused him of trickery he would immediately come clean about the whole thing, a rule similar to one of the self-imposed rules of the perpetrators of the
Project Alpha hoax. Using a false name each time, he succeeds in convincing four "experts" that he has powers, who openly endorsed him as a true practitioner. The fifth expert, the Christian evangelist Curt Nordheilm, is reserved in his response; whilst impressed by Brown's performance, he does not agree to a public endorsement without at least meeting him again. Brown concludes with his impressions of the experience and summary of how belief systems work.
Psychic Powers
Derren Brown asked a leading figure at a psychic training school in
Sedona, Arizona
Sedona is a city that straddles the county line between Coconino and Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 census, its population was 10,031. It is within the Coconino National Fo ...
to go into another room and draw a number of simple pictures on any topic she wished. After each picture had been completed, Brown would have his prediction of what the picture was of written down by the other members of the training school in the room with him. He was mostly correct, the one slight error being a cross instead of a
Star of David
The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.
A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
(though he did state it was some kind of religious imagery - ''maybe'' a cross?). On one occasion when Brown was telling the participant to draw the next picture, he instructed the lady to "let some ideas sail into your mind" and not to go "overboard on detail". She drew a boat on water.
UFO Abductee
Derren Brown contacted a leading proponent of UFO abductions, claiming, under his pseudonym, to have been abducted. He further claimed that, since his abduction, he was able to sense a person's medical history and current medical state by touch alone. He invited the lady, and her husband, to decide between them which one he should 'read'. Turning his back and closing his eyes, he waited while one of them made physical contact with him. At this point he stated that the person touching him had or was having trouble sleeping, and had some problem with their heart or throat. Turning around, he further informed the lady that she had had something serious with her throat but that it had been 'decades' ago. He asked if he was close, to which she replied he was exactly correct. She further characterised his reading as 100% accurate. She very sincerely endorsed him to camera, and invited him to speak at a meeting of her group. He declined the invitation.
New-Age Theories
Derren Brown instructed a leading new-age theorist to sleep with a machine attached to her pillow for five days. She was told that this machine used crystal technology to record her dreams. In fact it was simply a box with a switch which turned a
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
on and off. Brown recalled the dreams correctly, including the fact that some were in black-and-white instead of colour. (Twelve per cent of people dream only in black and white
). The participant was so impressed that she invited Brown to appear on her radio show the next day, which he declined.
Evangelism
Brown performed seemingly 'instant
conversions' on a group consisting of members of the public, almost all of whom were atheists and non-believers. After the first 'instant conversion' many of the group reportedly chose to leave, concerned by what they had just witnessed. Brown then attempted to 'convert' another individual and then the remainder of the group at once. After this, participants were questioned and most declared a belief in, or openness to the idea of, God or "something". At the end of the segment, a notice on screen announced that the participants had all been "de-converted" before they left. In conclusion, the pastor neither endorsed Brown's abilities as genuine nor denied them, but noted this was an unfamiliar form of conversion experience to him. Instead, he asked for another meeting with Brown before any public endorsement could be considered, which Brown turned down.
Contacting the Dead
Brown explained that many
mediums
Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...
use a technique called
cold reading. To illustrate this he arranged a clairvoyant demonstration with ''"fairly sceptical
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
ers"''. During the
séance
A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spe ...
Brown convinced three women into believing that he was in contact with deceased loved ones and during the performance many tears were shed. Afterwards it was explained to the participants that it was a trick, and those appearing agreed to broadcasting the event.
Conclusion
Derren Brown ends the episode with a monologue, describing his impressions of the experience. His conclusion is that belief systems work in similar ways: that people tend to hear only things that support their own ideas and ignore contradictory evidence; this principle is known in psychology as
confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring ...
. More subtly Brown leaves viewers questioning whether, by not achieving his stated objective, he is cleverly demonstrating this principle himself: Brown admits his own scepticism is also subject to this principle and claims success because none of his subjects asked him if the experience was real, however he makes no further reference to his goal of convincing all his subjects to agree to a public endorsement.
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, 0442663, Messiah
Channel 4 original programming
2005 television specials
Derren Brown
British television magic shows
Television series by All3Media
British television specials