Derren Brown: Séance (2004 TV Special) User Reviews

Great stuff!

[OJB42 · 8/10 · 4 June 2007]

Its so refreshing to see a TV program which shows how paranormal phenomena really do happen. There are so many credulous, uncritical treatments of ghosts, ESP, and other supernatural events and so few that use skepticism to really examine what's happening.

This could have been even better, because it was made apparent at a couple of points that it was all a trick, but it was still very well done, and people who watched it at the same time as me who are a bit less skeptical than me were totally taken in until the end!

I will recommend this to anyone who believes in superstitious events to finally get a look at the other side of the story, and I want to see more of this sort of thing myself!

Derren Brown: Séance

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 13 July 2005]

Derren Brown is a really weird guy. He is a magician and illusionist, but when he isn't on TV he is a salesman. Anyway, this is one of his special shows just like in 2003 when he played Russian Roulette. This time we at home could join in. Basically he was in a room with many people and they were trying to see if they could speak to spirits in the house. We at home joined in where we could find a spirit in our house. Anyway, on the show they thought Derren was too intense, he got many complaints for it being too scary. The people in the room were screaming, in dark rooms, toppling cup and many terrible happenings. It was number 53 on The 100 Greatest TV Treats 2004. Very good!

Set up to affect their subconscious...

[skodko · 7/10 · 21 June 2008]

Now Derren Brown has shown several time that he has and uncanny ability to plant impressions in people's heads and this time is no different. I might be able to believe it just a bit if it wasn't predetermined that Jane was in fact the one to show up. When told to follow his directions ín regards to the selection of the picture, the pictures were set up in the following way.

Top line: c (color), b (black and white), c, c Middle Line: b, b, b, Jane (c) bottom line: c, c, b, b.

Now the directions where to choose a colored picture, go to the site to the nearest bland and white picture, down or up to the nearest colored picture, diagonal to the nearest black and white picture and then to the side to nearest colored one. If you test this, anyone of the colored pictures will lead to Jane.

This really ruined it for me because if it really was a real spirit, why would he need to plant here in the mind of all the participants?

However he still managed to persuade a lot of people that this was real which I have to give him credit for.

very well done

[Stone_Cold · 10/10 · 25 March 2005]

Derren Brown is a very smart man, good at what he does and he knows how to mentally manipulate someone/people into doing something.

Derren Brown's séance was an entertaining show, well worth watching with some cracking entertainment value. The best thing about the show was the after all is said an done, and the viewer has gotten interested in what has happened, Derren then proceeds to explain that it is all fake. He also explains how it is done. However the students involved didn't seem to know this (well, most of them didn't). Some of the students seemed to be genuinely scared while participating in the programme, some to the point of tears. This added to the tension and great atmosphere that was building up during the programme.

The programme starts with 12 students who have volunteered to be on the show. It is set in an empty building, most of which have darkened rooms in which various things will happen in over the course of the programme. Derren then proceeds to "read peoples minds", ask the students to mentally pick a photograph from a pile on a table (Derren gave instructions on how to find a photo that stood out), sends one person to an empty room by herself for a while (she writes the same things on a piece of paper as the other students in a different room have, and then panics before she leaves) and then finishes up the programme with an "experiment" with the ouija board and a séance.

Some parts of the show were obvious as to how it was done (i.e. the colour/black and white pictures and the instructions on how to pick out a specific picture. The chances are that most people would have picked the same photo) and some parts were really well done (like Derren communicating through the group to one particular member in the séance).

So overall I would advise anyone to watch Derren Brown's séance. It is well done, and very interesting to see how Derren manipulates the students into believing they are possessed.

I believe the whole point to this show (and a lot of Derren Brown's work) is to give another angle on whether or not mediumship is in fact fraudulent. It certainly got me thinking; if Derren can manipulate students into thinking they are possessed, why cant mediums do it? Needless to say, this whole event is set up to show how people can be manipulated through suggestions and conditions around them. I am still in two minds about the truthfulness to mediumship, but this programme certainly gives a very good argument against it.

Well worth watching just for the fear factor!