I went to see the demi-God that is Derren Brown perform his ‘ENIGMA’ show at the Adelph theatre last Thursday night. Having read one of his books and watched endless hours of him perform on you tube I got to see him perform in person and it surpassed all my expectations. The show was amazing with feats of magic, misdirection, suggestion and mental trickery. His cleaver dialogue and stage presence added to the performance and I really enjoyed myself. His simpler tricks involved him guessing a playing card, the number in tinfoil, while other larger stunts involved him attempting to put the entire audience into a catatonic state. The finale of the show left me dumbfounded to say the least and I spent the entire journey home trying to work out how he had done it. However, with my interest in parapsychology, my favourite part of the show was the Victorian spirit cabinet;- three ‘volunteers’ from the audience, who had fallen into a trance state, were placed into the spirit cabinet on stage and they performed several feats which replicated the early Victorian spiritualist séances like writing on concealed slates and throwing objects whilst tied up. I would recommend this show to anyone with any interest in hypnosis, magic, misdirection, parapsychology or those who just want a good old-fashioned night out.
The show really got me thinking about my course (MSc in Parapsychology at Coventry University) which I am starting in September this year. I am really excited about being accepted onto this course and I cannot wait for it to start. The course covers the History, Philosophy and Parapsychology, Anomalous Experiences, transpersonal psychology, survival of bodily death, extrasensory perception and psychokinesis. Doesn’t sound like my kind of thing at all!
