Derren Brown: Miracles for Sale – Tonight 9pm
With the cameras in hot pursuit, Derren faces his toughest project yet, going in search of an unsuspecting member of the British public prepared to adopt the guise of a pastor and miracle worker.
His chosen one then has six months to learn the trade and flourish across the pond as a convincing pastor.
The final phase of the volunteer’s extraordinary challenge sees them attempt to perform faith healing miracles live in Texas, but will Derren’s new recruit be accepted as a faith healer or cast away as fake healer?
The show will air tonight at 9pm on Ch4, 10pm on Ch4+1 and will be available on 4oD here.
Feel free to leave comments below.
Whilst we’re on the subject, here is a news report about a South African faith healer who “healed ” two female members of his congregation by inserting his fingers up their vaginas….no further comment needed methinks –
http://freethinker.co.uk/2011/04/27/south-african-healer-inserted-his-fingers-into-women%E2%80%99s-vaginas-to-cast-out-demons/
I enjoyed the program very much. Sadly, it won’t make the slightest difference. What seems often to go unnoticed is that the sort of people who attend these faith-based events revel in their delusions to such an extent that they do not want to be relieved of them. You can’t reason with the religious!
Someone above just said: God is the healer . He is still healing today. The bible is true and when Jesus came to earth as a man, he healed many of their diseases and he said greater works, we will also do.
How can you say the bible is true? it is so man made its ridiculous as is ALL religion. yes, YOURS TOO.
Religion is a RELIC of a time of IGNORANCE and SUPERSTITION. The Bible a book thrown together, COBBLED together many many years after the “fact”. The bible, writt
en by the illiterate and uneducated and yet the unalterable word of God? Jesus said: “I do not come to bring peace, i come to turn son against father, daughter against mother” Well he sure did that!
Mat 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Mat 24:12 And because iniquity [lawlessness] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
2 Pet 2:1 [NIV] But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2 Pet 2:2 [NIV] Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
2 Pet 2:3 [NIV] In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
The trouble is, we think that our doctors are so clever. I know a woman who was told, after the difficult birth of her first child, that she would never have any more children…So she went on to have FOUR more! Likewise, I know another woman who was told that there was no chance of her ever walking again. What happened? Yep, she’s up and walking! It’s genuine ‘miraculous’ (but rare) events like this that encourage people to believe in these fake faith healers. Who’s to say it has anything to do with them, or somehting ‘supernatural’ for that matter? We don’t know everything. I firmly believe that the human body, and a person’s own energy, are sometimes even capable of doing something as amazing as curing cancer over night (as sometimes happens.) Just because it’s amazing, doesn’t mean >
> it’s not human, or done by some cheap, money-grabbing guy in a bad suit, who claims he’s special and better than you because he’s ‘channelling the Holy Spirit.’
P.s. Great show, Derren! 🙂
P.p.s If I’ve left a double comment, sorry about that. Wasn’t sure if my first one went through.
Derren, I have profound respect for what you are dong in your ungodly ministry, but this event greatly disappoints.
With all the fine training of ‘pastor James’, and the ton of personal money you dumped into this project (which could have purchased several Lamborghini for friends), WHY did you not trust your audience more????? With such a powerful message, Why did you not use the services of the promotional agency to create a packed audience, invited the crows to send friends back for additional performances.
I think you started thinking like a damn Bristol lawyer considering the legal downside instead of focusing on your earlier days as an evangelical.
I expect considerably more courage and trust from you next time, you’re not in the ‘Little League’ any more.
Bill in Hampton
Loved the show. How much did you regret picking England’s biggest prima donna to be the main man? I couldn’t believe what a c*ck he was.
What was the significance of the ‘Dolce&Gabbana’ shoe bit at the end?
Was there a note left in Derren’s shoe, that the snake oil salesman was reading?
Loved this program. These shows clearly aren’t designed to attack anybodys beliefs but in fact prove that it is these supposed “faith healers” that are treating people’s faith as a joke so that they can fleece every penny out of often helpless and desperate people. It wasn’t about bashing Christianity, but about dishonesty and fraud and how charlatans can in fact ruin people’s lives with fake hope.
I was absolutely amazed, to the point off laughing when that guy did the shoe trick on Derren…a well deserved smack in the face that he picked Derren Brown of all people to try and trick. Think he was eyeing up your Dolce and Gabbana shoes n all so be careful…
Well Done, you’ve done a good thing. Its disgusting what these fakes are doing.
P.s Saw Svengali in Sunderland. It was just EPIC.
I was born in Texas and I currently work at a radio station (in another southern state) where preachers pay to be on the air and they do all sorts of crazy stuff. I really wish we had BBC America would start airing these specials. I did get to see it and the way it was handled was very professional and I was impressed by the preacher who clapped his hands at the end. I was afraid he would take it as a slap to the face and start screaming at Nathan. Thankfully, he didn’t do it.
As preachers are preaching on the air, people call into the studio and I deliver their requests. They ask for the preachers to pray for their illnesses so many times it’s depressing. However, I think some of these preachers actually believe in the power of prayer. Thank you for a great episode.
* I really wish BBC America would start airing these specials (sorry about the grammar).
P.S. If you’re ever in the States again let me know!
Yeah, same Rob, I didn’t get the Dolce & Gabbana thing at the end?
Can someone explain, please 😀
Hi Derren,
Great show on Monday.
Good luck for your shows in Edinburgh.
Hope you pick a nicer Hotel than Mal Leith!
You should have checked out their dubious website before booking!
Anyway, hope to see you in town.
Dawn xx
P.S.S. Keith Chopping (sp?) has a great idea. While I do believe positive thinking does lead to discovering more opportunities, there are some spiritual gurus who are taking this way too far by playing the “blame the victim” game and asking for tons of money. Also, some of them claim they are channeling other spirits.
to Ellie Austin, why you having a go against me, I’ve read books by many atheist writers, just thought I’d mention one of them so not to confuse these tossers.
Miracles for sale was incredible! Great job exposing the sick industry
‘God is not mocked,’ Gal 6:7
As a sincere fan from Dallas, I’m gutted that Derren came through Texas but without his mesmerizing act, though I guess I can’t say he did not do “a show.” Loved the special, great work as usual. Thanks for doing this.
It also occurred to me that you can add the final monologue at the end of your spectacular mentalism shows and it would likely impact as much. I find that an overwhelming number of people exposed to your work honestly believe in your powers of manipulation (and I can not get over the sheer genius of tapping into that very aspect with Something Wicked). Though I imagine that at this point in time, you would have a lot more trouble convincing those believing in Derren Brown “THE OMNIPOTENT” that you are a mere human, and perhaps that’s why Nathan was at all necessary.
Bravo!
Sorry, only just been able to watch miracles for sale! As a christian, I was concerned about how you would deal with healing sensitively. I think Nathans speech was very well written and explained the point to christians and non christians very well. Everything about money in faith healing is completely against the Christian faith. Not that you need me to say it but well done to the whole team. A devastating issue tackled extremely well. Really enjoying and being inspired by your work. 🙂 A bit late now but I was in a pretty nasty part of my mind when I watched hero at 30000 feet and it really pulled me together, reminding me the wonder of life and that I can be whoever I choose to be. Thanks
Just watched the programme and I thought it was excellent. I think that what “Pastor James” managed to do – on a personal level was fantastic. I think he was true to himself and shows his strong moral and ethical beliefs under great stress. Well done to him, I hope he is very proud of what he had achieved. And well done to Derren – who can at times be a bit sensationalist but this time for a good reason. Congratulations to you all and if this has helped show even one person the sham and deceit that is Faith Healing it was time very well spent.
PS if @Ed is quoting from the bible against what you did these quotes could just as easily be interpreted as negative feedback towards Faith Healing… interesting that…
Hi Derren,
Im a long time fan – enjoyed your book – tricks of the mind. I just wanted to invite you to HTB – the alpha course is just starting – I think you would enjoy it.
@Robin
If you do a bit of research into Derren’s religious beliefs (or lack of), you’ll understand why he won’t be attending the Alpha course.
It feels strange to speak for him, but so many posters to this blog seem to think Derren is
a) Actually psychic
b) Religious
A good start is the six part interview with RIchard Dawkins (hint hint) which can be found on the RDF website.
Derren, not sure if you will ever read this but wanted to post it anyway! Hugely enjoyed your show miracles for sale. Found it surprisingly balanced as you made it very obvious this was not an attack on religion but merely on the con men who abuse religions power for their own greed and gain. I found nathans concluding speech very powerful and would have loved to hear it in full. Nathan’s temperament was a little irritating at times, but who knows how any of us would cope in such a situation. I would like to gear your opinion on reiki, which has been mentioned by some of your other posters/followers. My mum is a reiki practitioner and whilst I may be slightly biased, she is as far away from the greedy, cheating men in the show, as it is possible to be! Whilst I am no expert reiki claims to channel the energy forces around us to help heal. Now I’m sure none of this is scientifically proven but perhaps it does help merely by it’s meditative properties? Or maybe science just simply doesn’t quite understand everything yet? Who knows? Anyway I hope you read my thoughts and look forward to seeing your show in 20 days time!! Jamie
Was directed to watch by a member of our church who is a nurse. Was a great programme – thoughtful and scary – and reminded how vulnerable we all are to vile manipulation. Many (most) Christians find the whole healing ministry thing simply odd and do not base their faith on these “miracles”. Do Miracles (that is, the rationally inexplicable) happen. Yes. Are they the grounds on which to pitch our whole lives? I don’t think so. The “sermon” by Nathan at the end spoke to the heart of what the Christian would call the “Gospel”; about love, kindness, generosity, forgiveness and hope. Not power, wealth, instant gratification or self.
Jesus said2 1church. Ur neither hot nor cold & I am ’bout 2vomit U out of my mouth. Wld hate 2c wot he’ll do2 these fraudsters.Christians stay silent&hide bhind verse ‘do not touch God’s annointed’. Wake-up! They R not God’s annointed.Check out yr churches.Speak out. Rollin ’bout on floor,laughing hystercally 4instance Wld God really want us to be humiliated like this? He is a God of order.I worry 4new Christians who know little of Bible.They can eventually lose their faith. We must speak up, even if it costs us.It happens iin UK, as do mor subtle deceptions.I don’t want 2stand b4 God &him ask why I didnt speakup.God truly hates this & we’ll be accountable If we stay silent.He found no one2 ‘stand in gap’ so chose Darren 2do so.Shame on us.Christians here who moan shld bware! Speak Out!
Hi Derren
It’s your number one fan here, you met me last year outside the Birmingham Alex. Thanks for a brilliant special the other night. I actually forgot you were on until my father phoned and reminded me.
Whilst we are on the subject any possibility of putting on a few more dates at the Birmingham Alex again this year all of the tickets seem to have gone already and I want to come and see you again.
Your unofficial number one fan
John
.
I loved the show. Well done, great work. I’m pleased that it wasn’t a direct attack on faith, as I would imagine it allowed the whole message on faith healing to be received and acknowledged by more people.
I am not entirely sure whether the ends justified the means when it came to deceiving quite a few people under the pretense of “Pastor James” (how necessary was it, really?) but I suppose it adequately proved that it doesn’t take special training to learn a set of essentially psychological tricks and techniques in order to fool masses of people under the guise of God.
Well done!
Dear Darren whilst I am grateful that you exposed some false faith healers, there have been and still are some genuine. Please read the following:
When it was pointed out to the Pastor Stephen Jeffreys that he seemed alone in being able to exercise a special gift of healing, he replied that there were many others throughout the world doing the same thing. “Some of us are more prominent than others,” he said, but he also pointed out that not all the Apostles of Christ were equally well equipped to perform miracles.
“Do you regard these as miracles, then,” he was asked. “I do regard them as miracles,” he answered. “There is healing by faith and healing by faith recorded in the Word of God.” “You explain it purely on Gospel lines?”
“Yes,” replied Pastor Jeffreys, and referred his interviewer to Mark XVI., which says, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name they will cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
“It is not animal magnetism or hypnotism which causes the cures,” he was asked. “I don’t know anything about those things at all,” replied the Pastor. “I only know the Lord Jesus Christ equipped me with power to preach the Gospel. I remember His word and expect Him to fulfill it, and He does it.”
http://www.vision.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/revival/sjefref1.html
Well done for exposing another misinformation scam… Seemed quite hard especially having to do it through a third person, who didn’t seem to fully grasp the concept of “make believe = make it real†too well… even though on stage performed it quite well…
I am sure Randi is proud… Your approach is much more entertaining and will go much further…
I would love to get involve with your war against misinformation – you got my email… : )
Keep on the good work…
Niss
busiest week of my year thus far. can’t wait til i’ve got some free time to watch this.
@Peter
You are ofcourse welcome to believe what you like. But do you know that the quoted passage from Mark XVI is believed by all serious scholars to be a later addition, probably an invention by some scribe?
In all the earliest manuscripts Marks ends rather abruptly, and none includes these words.
Funny (or rather sad) that these few words actually is the background for snakehandling christian sects … People will believe nearly anything …
Bedst regards (excuse my english, im Danish)
I saw some on youtube, nicely done, and I as a Cristian did not feel insulted. it was vary clear you were not mocking god…only the con men / healers. loved the “you can not fill that god shape hole..” line, I am siting in my room going ‘that is so spot on’
I found the ustream video of Derren and crew at that faith healer service, I thought the useful part were nicely included in ‘miracles for sale’ but i would have loved the bit with the healer asking Derren what he did for a living to been slipped in. “I -uh- work with children…in London.” that and “I got the power in my hand”. Also it left my asking how did no one became suspicious of Derren. If some one started acting likes that at my church, i would wonder what he was up to. Maybe i could just see it because i know what he was doing.
only a fool says there is no god, every human being has an intuitive knowledge within them that there is a god which they are seperated from and need salvation . the whole of heaven and this world declares that a god exist …. try looking at http://www.bethlehemstar.net only a fool says that con men shouldnt be exposed, and i apologize to any one who has been tricked by these ‘ fraud christians’ If god exist then there is also the dark side and one is fighting against the other .if they both exist then they have to be supernatural by nature, which by definition means there is a spiritual side to life, eg mobile phone signals cant see them but you can put yourself in the way of hearing them so open up the eyes of your heart and the ears of your understanding to this truth
Loved the show. Hate the comments section here though – far too many religious nutjobs for my taste.
Dave, I must be a fool then — when I looked to religion (Christianity, Buddhism, various flavours of paganism) as a child and young adult, what I was really looking for was a sense of belonging and the beauty of ritual. I saw that beauty, but what kept gnawing at me was the feeling, deep down (an intuitive knowledge, as you call it) that all this was just something we created together, a collective game we played to feel secure. The saying goes that magicians guard an empty safe; equally, the religious pray to an empty sky. I decided to stop playing the latter of those games.
By the way, mobile phone signals aren’t supernatural, nor can we hear them without the aid of a phone. They’re radio waves, which code for sound which is then decoded by the phone (or re-encoded when sending).
Another worthy contribution in the service of reason and compassion — our only real hope and salvation. I think the moral debates and decisions along the way were as intriguing and valuable as the healing expose’.
While this episode did not go after the broader ” faith over reason” thing, publicly easing Nathan’s religious conscience, there surely was a time when he understood that Derren’s larger goal is exactly that (praise the Lord). I’d love to hear Nathan discuss this.
berber anna , why do all humans where ever in the world have this deep down gnawing feeling,longing to belong to something thats beyond the natural frame….the program highlighted the god shaped hole that is within all of us,every group of peoples that have ever existed on the planet earth all have left evidence of a need to worship something divine………….we all want to feel whole and complete…..when you see a building you know it was built by a builder,when you see a painting it was painted by a painter,when you see the whole of creation you know there is a creator …………..i agree phone signals are not supernatural but compared to the first telegram it would have appeared to be supernatural, an empty sky syndrome but it doesnt change the fact that there is a god……..
Oh, yes… I’m guessing that since their reactions were mostly omitted, the warm-up healer and the worship leader/singer in the final show were unhappy?
So curious to hear from them too .
Too bad, hopefully one day they’ll overcome any resentment and be glad to have contributed, however unwittingly, to something so beneficial.
to all the people who “believe” in this god healing, why is it so ambigious and evasive on scientific scrutiny? why do so many good christians die too young? proof is a wonderful thing, and yet this amazing godly power seems to lack any (i refer to real proof instead of vague testimonies)… and surely if it is real, the would be many more converted christians due to this seeming proof for god. and why does the power of prayer not have healing properties (please don’t name some poorly done funded study as “proof”, it has clearly been shown not to work by the majority, especially the most extensive and including one mostly funded by the templeton foundation http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html?pagewanted=2).
@Rebekah, can you post a link to the healing service on ustream, please? I’d like to see it.
I’m an American who has been living in Japan for 13 years. As you know, things are very strange here at the moment. I was very relieved that I haven’t felt any aftershocks from the March 11 earthquake in 3 days. Then, in right in the middle of watching “Miracles for sale” we had a pretty good (or bad) one. I know it has nothing to do with the show but I have to admit it did startle me enough to turn it off for a few minutes. It was a great show and very well done. I grew up in the USA going to tent revivals and seeing faith healers and, even at a young age, they would do things that made me wonder what their true motives were. Thanks for doing such an enlightening, and thought provoking show.
I am a big fan of Derren’s. The Joe Power show was superb and I had hoped for a programme of similar potency. I am a committed skeptic and regular listener to podcasts such as the SGU and regularly attend skeptics in the pub events. Having said that, this programme was a great disappointment to me. If anything it did more harm than good to the skeptical cause because it culminated in a spectacular fail – namely an event consisting of perhaps ten members in the audience. Also, too much was made of the selection process. Derren himself should have done it (in disguise obviously).
My main problem with this programme however, was the fact that the person selected was religious. His heart wasn’t in it and the resulting tension quite obviously encumbered the plan, which to be fair, wasn’t good
Dave: Why do all humans want to belong? Because we are a social species. Religion is a bonding mechanism that was beneficial to our ancestors (kept the group together and would unite them against a common enemy, as well as having an external source to attribute hardship to instead of placing the blame on one another). That’s why a taste for religion has genetically survived. Simple natural selection, not proof of a creator.
Your train of thought is too anthropocentric. Because humans make things, you assume that all things are made. But humans are really only one species in a vast universe, and chaos and randomness governed only by natural laws are far more prevalent than a tool-making, pattern-seeking primate that likes to adapt its environment.
Was a great show – I’d never seen street healing before LOL.
http://www.hotsbath.org/FulllVideo.html
See this geniune leg-lenthening – from angle is taken you can see no fraud
http://www.hotsbath.org/Genral_Marketing_brochure.pdf
And from this you see they go willing to hospital without asking monies.
Hi Derren,
I recorded the Miracles on Sale show and have just watched it. One thing that struck me – the cult of faith healers seems to be the sole preserve of the more radical Protestant denominations, which seems odd considering the theological basis of the Reformation which emphasises personal communion with God through holy scripture and refutes the necessity for an intermediary between God’s grace (i.e the agent of healing/miracles) and the layman. Similarly, the practice of fiscal “sowing” directly proportional to the reward which one reaps is simply another form of the indulgences which provided much of the impetus for Luther’s split with Rome. I know that the programme wasn’t intended to examine theological issues but the responses to such questions would have been interesting.
Great show!
Derren, if you add cognitive biases to the hypnotic manipulation of the poor believers you will get a much more gloomy picture..Church in general is a perfect enterprise for “skimming” the cream ($). If interested, please see my paper on it.
Thanks!
RS.
Shestakov, Roman (2010) “Black Swans in Churches: Tails and Biases in Religious Giving.,” Journal of Religion and Business Ethics: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 3.
Available at: http://via.library.depaul.edu/jrbe/vol2/iss1/3