General Chat

How did he do that?? I got the name jane when i was only half watching while i was chatting on msn??

My hubby who doesn't believe in ghosts or the afterlife or anything like that got Jane and was real freaked out by it. I like to keep an open mind but do lean towards believing. On the piece of paper I should have done the automatic writing on I wrote 'he's made the whole thing up' Jeanette

Hi Karen A brief overview! Missed the first 5mins but he got a dozen people to go with him to a hall were 12 students had died (a suicide pact I think). He asked his voluteers to do a bit of automatic writing to see if they could say were the students came from. The 2 volunteers that did the writing both wrote London. 2 of the students had lived in London. He then showed them photos of the dead students and by following his instructions they 'chose' a photo with the name of the student underneath but they had to keep the name to themselves. They then had a seance and the glass spelt out the name JANE which 10 of the 12 voluteers had picked from the photo. Turned out that Jane was alive and kicking and it had all been auto suggestion. I wonder if some people are more suseptable (sp?) to auto suggestion than others. Jeanette

Hi Karen Me too! My hubby - who is a brilliant salesman himself - always falls for other salesmens patter. I, on the other hand, am always very suspicious. He fell for the Derren Brown thing and I didn't. I wonder if it's a bit like hypnotism, where some people are easier to hypnotise than others. Jeanette

Hi I watched it, and it was auto suggestion, i got jane to by the photo trickery the coloured and black and white photos, were laid to get to jane . i guessed it was a set up as soon as the photos came out. whenever i have been to a medium this hasn't been done, it was interesting though, and i still believe it hasn't changed my thoughts at all sandra

Jeanette I have yet to see the programme - recorded it for future viewing and analysis. Wish you would get hubby to read some of my arguments, in favour of an immortal soul, on Tracy Blackburn's thread "Life after Death - does anyone believe" and put up a reasoned argument dismissing my concepts so that I may be converted to his way of thinking and not be bothered by it all. Len

Sandra Funny you should say that! I already had my suspicions when the photos came out but that really seemed to confirm for it me and that's what prompted me to write down that it was all made up. Thus I picked Dave cos Jane was so obvious! I would have liked to have seen what went on behind that 'mediums curtain' when that bloke freaked out. Len I must admit to not having read all of that thread but what I have read I have found very interesting. I'm afraid my other half wouldn't even look at it. 'There's no such thing - end of story' according to him. He loves Derren Brown but wasn't even going to watch the programme until I told him that he was going to try and discredit what mediums did. Jeanette

Hi, I agree about the auto suggestion thing and he more or less told you that that was how he did it. All the same he is very clever and subtle and it's more scary that someone can read people so well and be able to control their choices. It was still quite creepy though.

hi Sheila when was the programme on i love watching things like that had a busy weekend it seems i missed a really good show

Absolutely not Kathryn! lol I was told beforehand that he was going to try and discredit mediums and he didn't actually believe in the afterlife himself. He based most of the show on old Victorian type mediumship. I think he just proved how some people can be easily sucked in by fakes.

Ray If we all shared your philosophy, there would be no TV or warm rooms in which to sit. No cars, pcs, or other comforts of modern living, The average life-span would be about 25 to 30 years, short and brutal. We would be cave dellers. Life without electricity would be unthinkable but that's exactly what it was a couple of hundred years ago. Even in the 20th century, I remember my grandmother pleading, in much the same way as you , "to leave well alone" when my father decided to update her oil-lit cottage and lay on mains electricity. She felt this unknown, unseen power would escape from the light socket and kill her whilst she slept. Man has to explore the unknown. Have courage. I forget quite how Professor Stephen Hawkins put it but roughly it went: "When science has the complete theory of everything, then we will know God" Len

I have not yet seen my recording of the programme but, having once figured in a documentary, I am very cynical about anything made by TV. I accidently saw a make-over programme recently in which a house was refurbished - "made over" - in 60 minutes. It all looked very convincing but no one explained why the presenter (Claire Sweeny ) had 3 changes of clothing during those 60 minutes yet appeared to be present all of the time. They set out to fool all of the people all of the time, with one thing in mind - ratings. Len

Here, here, Len. (Or is it "Hear, hear"?) In ignorance lies fear. On the other hand, I missed the prog. Pity, I love to watch programmes that explore the paranormal. Rob

I was worried about the effect it was having on the students themselves, and the fact he encouraged viewers to try it at home. There are a great deal of vunerable people out there and that did concerned me. It became even more obvious to me that it was a set up the way the photos were laid out, that you would always come back to Jane. The students that picked the others were probably either not following his instructions or just picked at random. I found it interesting and it was certainly food for thought!! Not sure where harry the cat came from or the fact that Jane's father did in fct show as a builder on her file, maybe I missed something, anyone got any ideas????? Lynda

I actually picked Dave, not Jane. Am I weird? No, don't answer that. lol. I also know how they did the 'trick' with the bell, ball and cup ... very old Victorian seance trick that one but as for the rest of it, I've no idea. I recon some of them were stooges but that's probably wrong. How do we know, for example, there was only ONE room 7 that the girl walked into at the start? And there may have been A7, B7, C7 etc. He only asked her for the NUMBER, right?! :) Oh well, made interesting viewing even if I only watched a recording next day. BCNU Nick

I still have not yet viewed it. Started to this evening but was interrupted and had to switch off. However, the opening was not impressive. The blue lighting, the presenter striding along endless corridors, to the exagerated sound of his own footfalls....... The episode with the young lady and the flying tambourine was obviously a set-up. I have studied and used hypnotism and am aware that a quarter of the population is easily hypnotised and a quarter not susceptible. The rest fall somewhere in between. Stage hypnotists therefore select a dozen or so people (more if they need plenty of good subjects) and test them for suitability. The young lady had been pre-hypnotised, off-screen, and at a given signal, which may have been verbal or manual, was seen to go into a typical hypnotic trance. In the booth, she carried out implanted instructions, without any later memory of of having done so The placement of her hands on her lap before and after each incident was obviously different even though she claimed not to have moved. Watching it in slow-motion makes this clearer. So far I am not impressed but will watch the rest when I can. Len

i myself am usually not a sceptic (in fact generally a firm believer) but i was left very unimpressed by this show there were a few things that many people picked up on - ie. the picking of the name jane through photo placement. but no-one has said anything about the girl in the room on her own. according to the show, she was in a completely dark room with a night vision camera. however (from watching big brother) you will notice that night vision DOES NOT cast a shadow - and that girl had a glaring shadow falling on the wall behind her! that fact alone made me doubt the whole PERFORMANCE. also - if he could make the two students at the beginning do things involuntarily whilst completely denying all knowledge of it, why are we expected to believe the others when they swear to not moving the glass?? i think derren brown is making a mockery of an ability people have and it was wrong of him to broadcast this as an actual event rather than a documentary. let us hope more people realise what he has done and he in turn apologises. regards, from a usually placid, lianne xx

Who knows the truth? I believe in God, but have kept an open mind about such things. I believe that Derren Brown is very clever at the way he does his trickery. I have been to see a spritrulist. I took off all jewellery and wore black all over even my undies! Most was alot of rubbish and guessing on her part I sat there didnt move, no eye contact, trying to catch her out, I didnt even speak my name! She told me that I was 3 months pregnant and it would be a boy, even though I would be told it was a girl. I burst out laughing as it was my monthly time! She told me not to laugh and to see a doctor a.s.a.p. Sure enough that night, I got pain so bad I went to the hospital, threatned miscarriage, confirmed 3 months pregnant (still had a monthly, sometimes it happens, so I was told!) 5 months scan 'a girl' on birthday out popped a boy. I still find it hard to believe that she could have known as I didnt even know! My gran says to this day. It is mostly guess work, but when a spirt knows of danger it will come thats why only one thing she said was right! I dont know what to believe about the situation, I put it into context like this. God was watching over me and so he sent the message, had I have been doing something different I would have got the message another way! Thats my story x

nudge