Tricks Of The Mind
£9.50
Derren Brown’s television and stage performances have entranced and dumbfounded millions. His baffling illusions and stunning set pieces – such as The Seance, Russian Roulette and The Heist – have set new standards of what’s possible, as well as causing more than their fair share of controversy. Now, for the first time, he reveals the secrets behind his craft, what makes him tick and just why he grew that beard.
Tricks of the Mind takes you on a journey into the structure and pyschology of magic. Derren teaches you how to read clues in people’s behaviour and spot liars. He discusses the whys and wherefores of hypnosis and shows how to do it. And he investigates the power of suggestion and how you can massively improve your memory. He also takes a long hard look at the paranormal industry and why some of us feel the need to believe in it in the first place. Alternately hilarious, controversial and challenging, Tricks of the Mind is essential reading for Derren’s legions of fans, and pretty bloody irresistible even if you don’t like him that much…
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Additional information
| Publisher | Channel 4, Reprint edition (8 Oct. 2007) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 416 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1905026358 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1905026357 |
| Dimensions | 12.7 x 2.6 x 19.8 cm |
by Michael Kelly
This book is phenomenal and works on several levels.
It’s an introduction to the kind of mind trickery that Derren specialises in. It introduces basic concepts of magic, teaching a simple disappearing coin trick and a card trick. It teaches a variety of mnemonic techniques, together with practical demonstration exercises, which prove to be extremely effective if you can be bothered to put them to the test. It moves on to discuss subjects such as hypnosis and NLP, the curing of phobias and pain control, placebos, and culminates with cold reading techniques, exposing the tricks of fake mediums and psychics and the dangers of bad thinking and snake oil merchants in general.
It is, as I say, an introduction to these subjects, because you surely didn’t expect to learn all there is to know about these skills and deep topics from a single paperback, did you? But it’s also just about the BEST introduction you could get, exposing the woolly thinking and smoke screens that make a lot of the literature on such things of limited value at best. This book prepares you to think properly and clearly if you wish to study the ‘tricks of the mind’ further; also, how to train yourself to recognise the tricks levelled against you by others.
On another level, it’s simply a delightful and hugely entertaining read, just like one of Derren’s shows. It’s an absolute pleasure to turn the pages and I often laughed out loud. Derren’s wit and sarcasm are often very subtle and I’m sure a lot of the most hilarious gags will go right over the heads of many people. I recall one section where he was railing against pretentiousness and then proceeded to explain what pretentious meant for people who might not know. Utter comedy gold, sir.
And on a yet further level, if you really stop to think about what you’ve just read, all of the core principles are actually revealed here very clearly indeed. Just don’t expect to find them in bullet points.
A charming, conversational, controversial and enormously satisfying read.
by Moaks
I bought this book while stuck in traffic waiting for Tower Bridge to be fixed. I was bored listening to replays of the current UK number 1 single, Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran, on the radio. The news was all about Greta Thunberg covering Vogue and the issues with the fashion industry. Tyson Fury had become a father for the sixth time; a daughter called Athena with wife, Paris.
Depressed about the effects of Brexit and the announced return of roaming charges in the EU by Vodafone, I needed a distraction; so what better way to celebrate National Book Lovers Day than to buy a new book, even if the date is a US observance (although I expect what with it being the 2nd Monday in August many Americans in Rhodes Island would have been celebrating Victory Day, commemorating the end of second world war due to Japan’s surrender)?
Anyway, fingers crossed, (for luck, not in an attempt to implore the Christian god for protection), that the advice in this book improves my dreadful memory.
by Paul S. Jenkins
One thing any book needs to be to win me over, whatever its subject, is well written. A few years ago I read several articles by Sam Harris on the web, and regardless of his message, his prose delighted me. I wanted to read more of his writing, so I bought a copy of “The End of Faith” and wasn’t disappointed.
Derren Brown’s “Tricks of the Mind” isn’t quite in Harris’s class, but it is well written, its scope is definitely wider(!) plus there are more jokes. Brown relishes the literary trick (likely beloved of conjurors) of setting up a paragraph clearly pointing in one direction then entirely undermining it in the final sentence.
Wry humour and amusing tricks aside, this is a serious book from a master illusionist, mentalist and showman. Brown not only tells how a trick is performed, but goes on to analyse its underlying psychology, explaining not just how it works, but why. Don’t expect him to reveal the intricacies of more complicated tricks, but his discussion of the psychology of conjuring is revealing in itself. He includes personal anecdotes throughout the book, though how much of the “real” Derren Brown these truly reveal is impossible to know, considering the man’s profession.
Later on Brown explains memory systems, with many practical exercises that demonstrate they do actually work. He also covers hypnotism in depth, even inviting the reader to try it out. I’ve had my suspicions about the true nature of hypnotism, and was pleased to see them confirmed (though I appreciate that’s hardly conclusive proof of what I suspected). After a diversion into self-help motivational techniques he moves on to unconscious communication and lie-detection, describing how it is possible for a skilled, practised and perceptive operator to tell whether or not someone is speaking the truth.
In the last part of the book he looks at pseudo-science, alternative medicine and scepticism in general, including critical thinking, statistics and probability. From there he moves on to comprehensive and passionate coverage of psychic mediums and cold-reading — laced, however, with irony and wit that make these serious chapters a pleasure to read. Finally we have a generously annotated reading list, plus references and an alphabetical index.
My recommendation? Read it – you’ll be entertained as well as informed.