Book review - Tricks Of The Mind by Derren Brown
In
which the celebrated TV showman and 'mentalist' reveals (some of) the
tricks of his trade, plus a selection of tips and mind hacks that
anyone would find useful.
Along the way he gives us a whistle-stop tour of magic, memory
techniques (an excellent introduction), hypnosis (with a bit about
NLP), unconscious communication and 'cold reading, and pseudo-science
and sloppy thinking.
Naturally, being an NLP trainer, it was the bit about NLP I turned to
first. Derren attended a large course on which Richard Bandler was one
of the trainers (with 'four hundred or so delegates, some of whom were
clearly either unbalanced or self-delusory') which he found 'highly
evangelical'. He says it was a four-day course so it can't have been
Paul McKenna's (unless Derren developed amnesia for some of the days)
as this lasts for seven, as far as I know. Nevertheless, he likes NLP
enough to include some nifty NLP self-help techniques (subtle mirroring
and various submodality interventions including the phobia cure,
mapping across and a couple of variations on the swish pattern for
motivation and confidence) with step-by-step instructions.
By the way, if you only read one bit of the book, make it the
'Confusion and Self-Defence' section at the end of the hypnosis chapter
- not only is it very funny, it could save your life some day.
The underlying attitude running through the book is one of skepticism -
particularly about professional psychics and mediums. Given his
background - an evangelical Christian in his teens, becoming
disillusioned with it as he got into stage hypnotism and magic - it's
not surprising that he's a skeptic. Having first-hand experience of how
a circular belief system leads to an insistence on one particular
interpretation of 'reality' while discounting all others, plus a
professional's command of the tools and tricks of mental deception,
will do that to you.
The final section of the book, on 'anti-science, pseudo-science, and
bad thinking' is excellent - a skewering of alternative medicine,
cold-reading tricks used by charlatans, and the 'thinking traps' that
seem to be almost hard-wired into our thought processes, leading us to
see patterns where there are none in coincidences and making some
people a magnet for scamsters.
The writing style is delightful - self-deprecating and very funny. I
hadn't actually seen that many of Derren's
TV shows
Buy
this book if a) you're interested in the techniques
he uses in his
stage and TV shows, b) you want to improve your memory and confidence,
c) you want to get better at thinking or d) you want a good laugh.
I have seen several of Derren Brown's TV Shows, and I have to tell you that I have found some of what is shown hard to believe.
Never the less, I am intrigued by the book most specifically because of his NLP references.
Thank for putting me on the trail of it. Although your link was UK and I am USA, I hope you still get credit for the referral.
Posted by: John NLP Derrick | February 21, 2008 at 07:53 PM