For those of you in the UK, you'll probably be aware of Derren Brown.
He's a psychological illusionist who creates amazing tricks but doesn't put it down to "magic" or being "psychic".
He's a very talented and amazing man who has performed some unbelievable tricks, but now he's started a new show.

The show is called The Events and consists of 4 stunts.
The first of these happened earlier this week in which he correctly predicted all 6 of the UK Lotto numbers.

There was then a show last night where he apparently explained how he did it. Or did he?

Did you watch it and what do you think of it?
Feel free to discuss his other shows and stuff while you're here.

He's a mathematician, basically, and he does a lot of amazing things.

I enjoy his shows, did you see the one about the Horses where it looked too good to be true, and it was?

It's funny how he can get your mind to do things, such as in 2006 or something he had a show where he got someone to guess a newspaper by saying Daily Mail over and over but noone noticed apart from subconsciously.

I'm looking forward to next weeks.

Haha yes, well the guessing lottery number was hardly a trick, more like break-in-bbc-change-balls-and-win. I want to see next weeks where he shows that short film where after you can not stand up.

I was really disappointed with the lottery thing, I watched his explanation for it last night and I thought it was pathetic, all of it could easily have been faked and he was jabbering for most of the hour instead of actually telling us anything interesting. Me and my dad have been watching his lottery prediction over and over again and at one point one of the lottery balls jerks up, which we think proves it was a fake done by using a split screen (this excellent youtube video shows how it could have been done). If you want to watch the prediction, you can see it here on this youtube video with Derren Brown's programme side-by-side with the actual BBC channel showing the numbers being drawn.


Yeah, I really want to see that 'subliminal film' thing too. With the lottery thing none of it could really be proven, whereas with the film at least it will be clear - we'll either be able to get up or not. I really doubt it will work tbh because subliminal films have been proven to be not that effective, and besides I just don't see how it will work. But anyway, we'll see

I don't think he will do anything too drastic to us at home, it could end up going wrong and leaving us all unable to walk or something like that, unlikely I know, but could happen .

Well he did say it was going to be shown to us, I'll be dead miffed if he talks his way out of it as usual

The lottery thing was funny. Loved the thing at the end.

I do think it was a camera trick. The fact that the camera was shaking, there was a clear partition of him and the balls and the way he was writing down the numbers to distract you. Then, if you look closely, you can see the leftmost ball move up at one point. Mathematically, it's impossible to predict the lottery. The first 50 minutes of that show was just complete bullshizzle. I also loved the way he took down the averages of everyones numbers and didn't show it to anyone and quickly legged it.

I've always been a fan of Derren Brown but I've missed this. I'll probably watch it online it looks interesting.

The method he used was total rubbish. It works when averaging out on the weight of a cow as there is a feasible range of values to aim for. Lotteries are just totally random, you can't aim for them at all.

Camera split has to be it.

The wisdom of crowds does exist but not to predict randomness. His example of the bull works as he said as it has a fixed weight but guessing next week's numbers doesn't work as they can take any value independently from previous ones.

It wasn't a camera trick. There was no crowd and everything in the last stage was done by him (he chose the numbers, set everything up, and wrote them on the balls). It was a forgery.

I'm not too fussed about working out or flawed strategy. He makes good TV, it's refreshing in my opinion.

I agree.

Next weeks one looks good. I'll watch it definately. However he won't show the subliminal messaging on tv since it's illegal.

I think this too, but the question I've been wondering this ever since I saw it in a video, why have two Camera Men (and two cameras) for one angle?

Isn't it legal if he explains beforehand that it contains a subliminal message? That's what my dad thought but I don't know

I'm not sure but either way he's going to try and get everyone at home watching to become totally unable to stand up. I'm really excited to watch it and see if it works.

He will show it though. That's what the shows about.

What did you think was going to happen then?

Did anyone watch this weeks one? It didn't work on me although I felt uncomfortable until he showed the blue screen with the noise.

Did it work for anyone? Next weeks instalment looks good too

Didn't work but felt so weird.

Like it sort of wanted to work. I think you need HD

this weeks didnt work for me

kinda weird how it would work anyway

So, uh, what happened? Explain to me, my friends across the pond.

He showed us a load of clips about Perception Without Awareness. One of them was like this:

1) Woman goes into Hamleys, told to select anything she wants but not to pick it up, just to look at it
2) Derren Brown correctly guesses she picked a giraffe, and guesses what name she called it
3) They walk outside and there's this giant toy giraffe (larger than life size) with a name tag on with the exact name she said

Then he replayed the clip highlighting all the 'giraffe' hints that none of us noticed that made her pick one. Like giraffe print patterns on the walls, toy giraffes hanging from the ceiling as they went up the escalator, him slipping the word 'giraffe' into conversation e.t.c.

Anyway there were several like that, then they showed us the film. It was pathetic actually, just this spinning colour thing on the screen with some weird sounds playing, it didn't do anything to me at all. Then there were all these hysterical people ringing up the show saying "omg, I can't stand up!!!!!!!". Yeah, right.

I also felt a bit cheated because he said there would be no flashing images, and I saw at least two. The first one I saw (that was shown at the start of the program) just looked like a white screen flashing onto the screen for a tiny amount of time, but the second one (that was shown after the subliminal film) looked like a black and white cartoon line drawing of a person sitting on a chair. FAIL. Did anyone else notice them?

Yes, but that wasn't the swirly thing on the screen. It was really quite strange, and I suppose that's part of it.

I watched the episode at 9pm and didn't get stuck when the film was played, I was pretty disappointed about it, so I decided to watch the repeat at 11:40pm the same day.

This time I made sure I cut out all other distractions, I turned off all the lights, moved closer to the TV and freed my mind of all other thoughts, and concentrated soley on the film and the sound of it.
After the film was finished, I thought it hadn't worked, but when I went to stand up, my legs just wouldn't move .
I was pretty freaked out, I was stuck to my chair for about 2 minutes and was the most weirdest experience of my life .

Derren brown himself said it wouldn't work for everyone, but I assure you I was genuinely stuck to my chair.

yeah i noticed them, i thought it was like a dead guy/skeleton at first i was scared lol

The picture was of a person tied to a chair. You weren't really meant to notice them, those who did weren't going to get stuck to their chairs.
The video he played was entirely for cementing the effects of the 2 flashing images, the video itself did not solely cause the effect.

Oh wow that seems interesting. I wish I could've watched it.

Lol my mum has epilepsy, I haven't inherited the epilepsy but I have inherited light sensitivity. Derren Brown isn't going to get any flashing images past me without me noticing them

I was so pissed that I missed it, was up in London
Is it worth watching? If it is i'll watch on 4od, but so far everyone is saying it failed .

He said that if you watch it online it won't work (not that it would of worked if you watched it on a tv )

It was pretty good, I can't help but believe its just all done with actors though.

I wanted so badly to be stuck, but it didn't work. The fact that no-one knows of anyone that was stuck reinforces rumours that it was all faked

This weeks one was "Psychic Spy"

Well I guessed right, but only because of White circles in her pupils lol

edit: it was in my Facebook status about 25 minutes before he told everyone

what happened yesterday, i missed it, i was out with my cousins
it was spy or something?

Psychic Spy. It was better than last weeks.

this weeks looks quite promising
roulette!

Derren Brown was cool when he admited that it was just trickery, now hes just another lying love-child.

I liked him when he did subtle mind stuff like the giraffe, but when he tries to use bogus science and maths to justify his bollocks (a la the lottery show) I begin to hate him.

Lottery One - Yeah right as if

Stuck in Chair one - Nope didnt work i kept trying to pause my tv on that picture that popped up of the woman in the chair couldnt pause it lol

Psychic Spy - I drew a dog :|

Casino - Might be something to do with magnets in the wheel and the ball?

it makes interesting television though ive always been a sucker for illusions and tricks of the mind and i think its clever ;P

i just watched the this weeks on 4oD, all the stuff about the cold war and psychic arms race kept me more entertained then the actual drawing board thing tbh.

btw "Special Bra"

lmaoo
funniest moment

want to see what the roulette ones like now

What time is it one this week?

it started at 9:00
halfway through now, its ok so far

Yeah, you've missed part of it now. You can still watch it on 4oD though, or at 10pm on Monday.

omg!

if youre watching it, im just "befuddled" how he got 37 with the green/red ball
confusing!

EDIT: WOOP! It jsut finished, not gonna tell anyone what happened just in case you havent watched it yet.