Derren Brown Investigates – tonight at 10pm on Channel 4
Tonight at 10pm on Ch4 – the second episode of Derren Brown Investigates.
Many modern day forms of spiritualism, life skills and self-help systems have taken on ‘pure science’ motif. They claim to have discovered unique techniques, based on scientific methods that deliver actual results, but only when you attend their 6 week course at a special introductory rate.
Scientology focuses on the nature of personal development at the core of it’s spiritual message, NLP claims to give you life tools to help improve yourself or rid yourself of phobias and many new age spiritual gurus like Deepak Chopra will commonly feature their own slant of quantum physics in conjunction with enhanced human capability.
In this show Derren visits Europe where he engages with the Bronnikov Centre, a school that claims it has managed to create a bio-computer you can install programming on, to achieve incredible results. From blindfolded reading to diagnosing illness without the use of any equipment – Derren Brown Investigates.
Derren enjoyed last night tv, but am a little concerned, I teach mediumship , I see things and so do the people I teach are you saying that we are producing this ourselves, cos if that is the case wonder what the hell I am doing teaching. I have seen spirit, and have had many experiences especially nde’s (twice) would love you to see an honest person who is trying hard to bridge the worlds maybe even if It cannot be proved, please see us ordinary folk who charge nothing for people to experience for themselves and gain a higher expectation of life and understand why we are here -hope this makes sense. I am an honest person and would not for the life of me try and influence people into believing something was not real and charge them for the privilege. Would love you to visit.
Oh come on everyone, what was inside the box, it’s quite obvious, it is a cat – a cat that is in a state of flux between alive and dead!*
*Please don’t go all animal rights on me folks, it’s a physics joke.
That was a great episode Derren.
Using the URO-GENITAL SYSTEM to create a psycho-bio-computer ! How did the guy manage to come up with this ? And the “spitting” bit is absolutely hilarious.
WHAT *WAS* IN THE BOX by the way ??
Ohhhhhh, let me think, …. taking deep breath … moving energy from uro-genitals to eyes …. *spit* … ahhh I’m in psycho-bio mode now …. I see … I see … hmmm … was that an empty box ?
Derren, thanks so much for a great episode! Those people make me absolutely sick, exploiting desperate people….Well done for putting them on blast!! And exposing them for the complete frauds that they are!!!
A great job. People often shed their prejudices, reservations, doubts, scepticism once they have paid a lot of money. The theory of Cognitive Dissonance explains this behaviour. Both the ‘pud psychic and Bronno use similar techniques of aggressively suspending the subjects’ disbelief by weird behaviour and statements. The psychic also used awful clothing and builder’s bum to elicit prejudice which the subject then suppresses. The antics of Bronno jnr would get him arrested if it were recognized as a snake charmers effort to fleece gulls. Observe how often a stage psychic will say “can you understand it (luv)?..” it’s blatant manipulation. Agressive and hostile, because it’s fraud, an effort to rob someone without their direct knowledge; a con.
@KC
if you are rich enough, then go and earn the million and donate it to a worthy cause. I know you wont because deep down you know you cant.
@Lesley Croft
it is quite possible that you are being sincere, and that you believe you are being honest, but that doesnt mean that you are right.
if you are being sincere then all evidence would point to you also being somewhere on the scale between fully fledged delusional to just a bit naive.
either that or you are knowingly dishonest, or to be blunt, a fraud.
Enjoyed tonights show, for all you unlucky people that don’t live in the UK the easiest way to watch it is go on a Bollockov course costing £700 and then using your extra sensory genital powers to see the show on your psycho bio desiel minds eye computermescreen.
It’s a shame tho we need people like Derren to tell most sensible people what we already know that things like this are a money making scam. Would have been good if during the investigates Derren becomes unsure on whether it is a scam or is in fact genuine.
THANKYOU DERREN
That was a great ep, how did you not punch the guy at the end?!
PLEASE PLEASE Derren and all who saw the episode, please let us stop this method (and the guy on last weeks show) from doing what they are doing, making money out of the ill and bereaved.
Thankyou Derren for exposing these con artists.
I cannot belive the Bronikovs, moaning at you because you are not a ‘scientist’ when you are more of a scientist that they will ever be.
I am a final year medical student, obviously interested in the human body, and these methods are disgraceful. By all means, market it as bull**** but don’t target the ill and the blind! (and then say it is for the healthy),
Sorry, I had to rant. I am disgusted.
Derren you are a legend
Did anyone else notice a slight similarity to Gurdjieff’s system for the harmonious development of man? Both systems are pseudo scientific crap which take enormous sums of money from affluent gullible people. and blame the same people for not understanding the system or not having a mind advanced enough to benefit from the teaching. A bit like cold reading techniques, if they fail its the fault of other people. Heads I win, tails you lose! I would love to see an episode on homeopathic medicine as this is still a hot topic.
A great episope! However, I have one small comment – this group displayed very many cult-like characteristics and it might have been beneficial to point this out, rather than simply look at them and say this isn’t scientific/rational. For example: revered leader-figure; confusing aims and methods; social and financial pressure to “get it”; ever increasing partication; breaking down someone emotionally and then giving them a path to get better (“you’re only 55%, if you practice every day you will get to 100%). For there are many other cultic groups operating on similar principles, and not all of them are so obvious, e.g. certain self-improvement & “philosophy” courses.
From memory, the Bronnikov method appears to have similarities to a brilliant fictional short story by Roald Dahl called The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, in which a shallow man (Henry Sugar) gains the supernatural ability to see through solid objects. It takes him a great deal of effort in an attempt to see through playing cards and gain an unfair advantage in casinos. It’s really worth reading.
If the Bronnikovs are able to see through solid objects and want money, why are they bothering with the effort needed to run these courses when they could simply visit Vegas? Their potential winnings would dwarf Randi’s million dollar prize. If their purpose is to help people advance spiritually surely this would still be possible as the courses could then be subsidised from their winnings?
Interesting show, but I wonder how much of the scepticism is knee jerk, I sensed Derren was uncomfortable dealing with Bronnikov, and I didn’t think it was purely because he thought him a charlatan.
Away from the cameras and the “appropriate” attitude required for his audience, I wonder what was going on in Derren’s head. Bronnikov has quite a business. Patents, customers, international programmes. Seems to me Derren thought scepticism was the easy and unsatisfactory choice. It also stopped him properly participating!!
Agree. When watching, it reminded me of a scientology place in Amsterdam i went to in my younger days before i seen sense
Great episode Derren, you did well. It is quite obvious these guys are a bunch of jokes, ripping people off with a deceiving self-improvement program, they are misdirecting their customers. Misleading everything, and Derren went there to prove it. The big man himself could only insult Derren with all he had rather than prove anything, because he knew he couldn’t prove himself, and that he in fact had no power and his teaching was full of ….
I doubt this will make it far anyway, people will just know when there’s no effects, but for the people who have been scammed already, I feel sorry for them, they’re wasting so much money on simply comfort and suggestion.
Businesses like this should cease to survive, hopefully the media gets onto this and exposes them as no one official can do that.
By half way you could not agree more with Derren, with the final show down, it had been plain evidence to Derren that the founder himself was a circus clown, it was a matter of time before Derren subtly asked if the entity was doing the right thing, and how it makes false claims and misleading points. This guy obviously knows nothing about Derren, and is just trying to insult Derren in order to protect his name/fraud methods. This is concluded to be an insult to certain beings, I’m not sure how this clown sleeps at night, I mean scamming a general audience is one thing, scamming a targeted audience through sly and deceiving exploits is another.
The Methods official site, I quote “Work with the global essences of the Earth, Heaven and Holy Spirit.” its clear that theyve created a religion of their own, talking absolute bull for wads of cash from the desperate/disabled by giving out false hope, to make them believe one day they will be better.
The whole blindfold exercise was laughable, with the energy “jump” at the end to see out of a gap! lol
Its was quite funny that the founder became so p*ssed off (unable to answer the straight questions that he was being given by Derren) for Bronnicough himself to start ironically stating that the docu must be being made for uk television to give the company a bad reputation, and that “the method” is NOT a real cure after all-the exact opposite of the Bronnikov methods advertising.
in the first episode of the current series i didn’t really dig the hint at a wavering position, when Derren said something like “well, this is what these people want to hear so maybe it’s not so bad afterall…” that frustrated me.
in episode two there was never really the feeling that the charade was OK, and it was abundantly clear that Brown was only playing along as a means to unveil the scene and score that sit down in the end. a style i preferred, but perhaps the situation as a whole lent itself to that particular sort of performance.
my guess as to what was in the box? prosthetic eyeballs, or something similar.
How about the Lightening Process?
The former UK Health Minister was apparently keen on it, and the NHS is now planning to fund a study of children using it. It sounds like a marginally less barmy version of the Bronikov techniques with the same emphasis on self-belief and personal development. They claim to cure people, but you also have to agree that “I understand that the lightning process is a training program and not a therapy or treatment”
They seem to have the same fear of scepticism as a lot of woo too.
From their site:
“We consider you are probably not ready yet to take the training if:
1 You are cynical about the process.”
It would be great if Derren were to look at some of the quackery that is on the edge of mainstream medicine – Seeing With No Eyes is a bit too easy.
Doh – Lightning, not Lightening