10 Epic Lessons Derren Brown Taught Us About Life

“We are all trapped inside our own heads." - Derren Brown

By Nina Cresswell /

Magic isn€™t real. Everyone knows it deep down.

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This notion is ferociously challenged the moment you€™re in a room with Derren Brown. His magic does not appear in the form of a tux and a top hat, nor will he stupefy you with the unexpected presence of white rabbits. The true splendour of this €œmentalist€ is his ability to unlock your brain from its pre-conceived banalities and delightfully throw you into a compelling world of the unknown.

The unknown being your own mind.

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The genius of his showmanship is in his openness: he perpetually reminds his audience that everything he is doing is fake: the beauty of it all is that everyone will still struggle to believe him.

Brown isn't just an entertainer, he€™s an educator. (It€™s also speculated he€™s the human embodiment of the Devil himself, but there is yet to be proof of this.) He can influence women to kill kittens without force or threat and - on a more drastic end of the scale - he can have Stephen Fry assassinated. But does he use his majestic skills for evil, or power? He quite easily could.

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Instead, he's shown us the vast strengths (and even more weaknesses) of the human mind. From the science of scams and how easily penetrable our thoughts can be; to the astonishing things we can achieve with the right attitude.

Let€™s cast our minds back to those times Derren has left us scrubbing brain dribble from our carpets; the €œHow-the-Hell-did-he-do-that?€ moments, and more importantly, what we€™ve learnt from them.

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