Apocalypse- Derren Brown

Has been mentioned in here but not specifically about the show more about hypnosis https://www.hitched.co.uk/chat/forums/t/349146.aspx

I watched it and I agree with everything you have said, especially this:

At the end when they just strolled back into the compound- he had a stick but they seemed pretty cool just walking back out- I know they had CCTV but what if some of the buggars where hiding?

It was too edited to convince me it was real.

Http://www.grumpymiddleagedman.co.uk/

Read the bit about Apocalypse and check out the pics. Sadly I don't think itd real.

For someone that was so liniked in to the internet I feel I would ahev found a larger footpribt for him IYSWIM?

I thought it was all really scripted and fake. Especially on the coach when Derren just put his hand over the guys eyes and magically put him to sleep. I'm not sure what I believe generally about hypnosis but surely its not that easy?

And he didn't even look that scared to me, if i woke up in a land filled with zombies i would be screaming my head off.

The girl was also a terrible actress.

this is exactly what I said to H! then that table witht he phone on! when I heard it ringing I thought it would be in the grass somewhere not on a nice table!!

Ooooh just looked at that link and the guy wen to the school my friends mum is head of. Ive asked her for some gossip.

Urgh that video at the end with the pot noodle actor is infuriating!

Currently a teacher Steven Brosnan? He must have got his PGCE really quickly! (if thats the right qualification..)

Apparently he has also been in a Pot Noodle ad! I read an article where Derren Brown was really hurt by the accusations that it was fake

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/derren-brown-apocalypse-frustrated-star-1412695

I watched it and really enjoyed it (loved the previous one where DB convinced a man to confess to a murder he hadn't committed) but H was convinced from the start that Steve was an actor.

I googled it the next day and there were loads of suggestions that it was scripted and that DB was hurt by the accusations.

I also wasn't sure how he managed to hypnotise him on the bus, or through the phone, but there must have been something else going on. I heard somewhere that they can't show the full hypnosis process on TV.

My H thought they must have done something during the fake auditions back in january, but they wouldnt have picked him then!

the link added is interesting as they talk about the bit when they are first in the ambulance. I noticed steve suddenly had a bottle of water in his hand and was trying to work out where that had come from!

again, 'Ian' could have given it to him but that bit was edited out, its things like that that are putting doubt in my mind though!

Well apparently his friends on Facebook have all said he is an actor, not sure that proves anything but within about 10 minutes of watching I did think he was acting.

But I don't really believe anything I see, hear, read anywhere, people are always being told what to say by someone with an agenda.

I've never understood how they get away with these things without permission. You can't even do a simple psychology test on memory etc without informed consent so how come he's allowed to convince someone they're being attacked by zombies.

I don't see why it would be fake when Darren Brown has proven that he can hypnotize people in this way in a lot of his other shows, It's just the same as what he's done before just on a larger scale.

I agree with Knees that it looked far too easy for him to be hypnotised on the show, but that they obviously didn't show the whole hypnotising/conditioning process. After I watched it I didn't think it was real and I heard the rumours that he had a profile on an acting site, but apparently he set it up a while ago and never got any work from it. Also I read what Derren Brown said afterwards that if he was an actor it would be far too difficult to keep it under wraps, you could get his close friends and family to keep quiet but any old acquaintance could easily go to the press.

he must have signed something when he went to the fake auditions that had some major small print that said "if you dont get picked for this show we can at any time throw you, un aware into another one"

or something with more legal jargon! :-)

Eclair - a research psychologist would get struck off if they did half of what he does, but I guess on TV people sign away any right to informed consent and there's no laws to say they have to.

Until yesterday, I had mostly the same opinion as you guys. I thought he behaved too normally, compared to how I imagined myself behaving (swearing uncontrollably, fainting, puking etc).

However, just last night, I read a chapter of a psychology book which talks about something called "normality bias".

Basically, the human mind, when confronted with events far beyond its capacity to process, simply pretends that everything is OK i.e. bias to normality. Studies show that around 75 % of people in disaster situations simply ignore the fact that what's happening is a dangerous event. It's not a conscious process, it's the brain coping. It explains why people stay in their houses when a tsunami is approaching and why passengers surviving a plane crash simply sit there, waiting for the next thing to happen.

Apparently, 15 % of us become super-human, with focussed, quick and accurate thought processes/decisions/actions. The remaining 10-15 % become panicked, gibbering wrecks. But those in the middle just float along, apparently unperturbed.

Kind of puts the kibosh on "fight or flight" instincts!

Anyway, the second reason (although I thought of it first) as to why I don't think it's faked rests with the integrity of Derren Brown. He has built a career based on exposing fraud, on revealing how his tricks work, on how ordinary people can behave in strange ways. He is a very vocal and widely-regarded skeptic who actively tries to bring down the institutes designed to fool us (e.g. mediums). I simply don't see that he would fake this. It would ruin him, it would ruin everything he's worked for. Perhaps I'm being naive but I'm OK with that.

Ah I suppose. If I'd signed something like that I'd probably be on the look out for something happening. Maybe he didn't know beforehand but realised pretty quickly and decided to play along. That would explain why he didn't appear to be too scared. I'm not sure the fact that he's an actor necessarily means it's fake. He could have appeared in a few adverts etc and just decided to play along with the zombie thing when he realised what was going on.

Agreed. It is equally plausible that actor types are more susceptible to hypnosis. So with any pre-audition process where people's susceptibilities are tested, you get a higher than normal number of actors popping through.

100% agree with Footlong. Also the Pot Noodle thing - that's not true, Derren Brown did a video with Steve Brosnan and the Pot Noodle actor to prove its not the same person.

His trick he did with the loaded gun was found to be fake though. Just read that on one of the links. He claimed to know where the live bullet was in a gun and fired it at his head but the police exposed it as a blank.

This 100%.

i completelly agree with this! and the normality bias stuff does make sense!

I think there are a lot of people who want it to be fake and are looking for anything to prove that it is.

i know it will never happen but Id love to see the un edited version!

But it would have killed him anyway.

I suppose it could be a long con.

Base a career on being truthful, then fool an entire country with a cheap, clearly-faked scenario that has people arguing about how real it must be. Maybe we're all undergoing some kind of mass hypnosis.....

I was told at uni it was fight, flight, flock or freeze ratehr than just two types of reactions.

And you can't just tease us with an interesting piece of information about a book without telling us the title so that we can read it too.

There are so many books like 'Do you know what you think you know?' and 'The Gorilla Illusion' and lots of others that show we don't actually know anythign and can't remember anything.

I still think it is odd that I can't find much about him on the internet though, maybe it is all being blocked out by the current web stories.

As much as I like DB why should eh really care what the general public think of him if he is still successful. I think it ahs been well put together and cleverly thought out, I would still watch more even if it was based on usign na actor.

The book is called "You Are Not So Smart" by David McRaney. The whole premise is that we fool ourselves into thinking we are rational, thoughtful creatures, making justified decisions and creating a coherent life narrative. When in fact, most of what we "know" is a fictional account invented entirely after the action.

True, but I think the article was using it to point out that he's lied before. If using a blank is still dangerous why not admit that's what he used? What's the point in using a blank in the first place?

Maybe a blank is safer all round for the cast and crew (for example if it got fired by accident)? That's just a guess though.

I don't think the police on Jersey allow members of the public to fire live ammunition for fun?

Spoil sports. I suppose a live one might have been messier. ?

The more I think about it the more I hate everything he does. I find it so frustrating that I don't know how he does it. I know in theory it's all suggestion etc but how could he possibly know some of the stuff he does? Even the one where he guesses how many fingers the guy is holding up in his pocket gives me the heeby jeebies.

Agree with this. His whole career is based on exposing and manipulating the psychological loopholes (for wont of a better term) within people to demonstrate how easily we can be influenced.

OH took me to see the last live show and he was brilliant, much better than i thought he would be actually.

His books are really interesting too.

Ive just been discussing this over lunch with my husband and a friend.

She is firmly of the opinion that he was an actor and it was all scripted. she wants to know what they did until 4pm the day the helecopter came? why they didnt bond or if so when? and after seeing the screen shot of his twitter page that says he has run 2 marathons, she says someone who trains and competes 2 marathons is not the character of Steve!

My H on the other hand is a firm believer that he wasnt an actor and it was real. the bits we didnt see are when they chat and bond but it didnt make it to the final cut.

Im so in the middle. i spent all my lunch swaying between agreeing with each of them!

I think that they should have done it as a series rather than just 2 hours!