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Derren Brown is back on our screens again with a new series called “Derren Brown Investigates”. Each week, Derren is going to investigate so called supernatural powers and try to ascertain whether they have some basis for belief, or whether they are simply fabrications.
In the first episode “The Man Who Contacts the Dead”, we see Derren Brown meet so called Psychic medium Joe Power. Joe, better known for his psychic séance where he allegedly spoke to the spirit of John Lennon, is the main focus of episode one.
The episode starts off quite well; Joe appears upbeat, polite and well received. He comes across well in general and seems to have a good working relationship with Derren, despite their glaringly different views.
Firstly we are invited to a Psychic reading that had been organised by Joe Power himself. The reading goes very well indeed, and even I am in awe as to the accuracy of some of him statements. I looked for signs of cold reading, and couldn’t see much. I found it odd that he went to the loo just before the reading though, and it was something I marked mentally to see if it appeared later on.
Derren’s take on events is not shown to the audience at this point, he speaks throughout the show about methods that different psychics use (cold reading, Barnum statements etc) but he doesn’t comment much on what he thought about the first reading.
Next up in the show, Derren took Joe to the set of Hollyoaks where he Joe did a few readings on a few cast members. He had some hits, and some misses and I saw the core use of cold reading in his technique, and Derren did too. In a move of comedy genius, Derren did his own reading that further led me to believe that Derren Brown is fuelled by witchcraft.* One of the hits Joe got was for a cast members car (he asked her if she had or had ever had a mini) to which she replied “yes”. We find out later that apparently he had pulled up and parked next to her at the same time she came into the car park!
The next part of the show focuses on a sold out live show that Joe was doing in a pub. 250 seats at £10 a head – not bad for a nights work. We see many examples of Joe reiterating information (a common fixture amongst cold readers) and a lot of examples of Joe fishing for information, and a lot of misses and how he turns that around to either be the spirits fault or the audiences fault – never his own.
For the next part of the show, Joe had in principle before the show agreed to a scientific test which I was quite looking forward to. Needless to say he changed his mind with an excuse of how the needed their voices to connect.
For the final part, Derren organises a psychic reading himself with someone and takes Joe there (knowing he has no knowledge of where they are going). His reading is a complete failure with almost no correct hits. At this point Joe starts to get visibly angry, and he accuses Derren of interfering. According to Joe, the presence of Derren in the house before hand had somehow affected his ability to channel information. This reading shows completely classic signs of cold reading and throwing out random numbers to try and score an association. Joe power leaves in a huff after arguing with Derren.
They meet a few days later where they talk about his abilities and how he has good readings and bad readings. Derren holds his hands and asks him directly if he is genuinely psychic and if he really contacts the dead. He also asks if he looked up any of the people before he gave them readings. I have no doubt here that Derren was reading his response, and I would love to have known what he read but it was never mentioned after this.
The show ends with a classic Derren Brown twist – you don’t want to read it please skip to below the next paragraph!
It turns out that on the first reading he gave (the one where there was no cold reading and plenty of hits) where he claimed he had never seen or spoken to/met the woman before, he may have been lying. The next door neighbour for the one who had had the reading was Joe’s sister! A classic twist and a fantastic end to the episode.
All in all a fantastic episode here – one that is well worth the watch as it gives a good insight into Psychics and how they work. Do I think Joe Power has genuine psychic ability? Not for a second. The question you have to ask is this: why does his information have to be so vague? If you are genuinely speaking to the dead then the things that should come through should be crystal clear and direct and to the point. Usage of such sentences like “Is anybody connecting with the name Jane” should really be “I have a Jane Smith with me; she was born on 19th December 1954 and died in a car crash. She wants to speak to a Jennifer Smith”.
I look forward to the rest of Derren Brown’s series.
Gavin
I'll look forward to the rest of the series
