An english buddy of mine told about Darren Brown, who is a magician/"mind control" entertainer, and mentioned that Joseph Smith is covered his book (I think I have the title right) as one of the great charlatan's of history. In fact, my friend seemed to think that Brown actually admires JS for being so talented at pulling the wool over people's eyes and tricking 'em. Here's a link to his videos to show that he's an expert at misdirestion and that sort o' mind game, so he oughta know what JS could pull off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=befugtgikMg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOEKdaXIEHc&feature=related

Derren Brown. Yes, I have the book,

Brown, he's da man... I have followed him, on stage and TV, for several years.
He is an atheist.
He has little time for con artists.
He is personal friends with James Randi and Penn and Teller.
but he is fascinated with how and why people get conned by people like Smith.

After reading "tricks" I learned a lot more about how psychology pushes/keeps people in a religion

Thanks for mentioning his book. I did not know he had written one. I'm going to get.

One of the coolest videos I saw him do was ask people for directions. Here it is.

"You can be fooled no matter how smart you think you are. Don't think you can be fooled? Just watch this video"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBPG_OBgTWg



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2010 02:21PM by libby.

I cant see the video, as I am in the UK.

however, if you ever want to see a real example of how *physically* strong belief can be, do a search for "derren brown video voodoo doll"

He's incredible. I'm glad to see he has succeeded so well. I watched his conversion series from a few years back, and it was really eye opening.

I saw the below video of Darren Brown some time back and it made me think about the time my best friend and I read each others "blessings" from the same patriarch.

take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haP7Ys9ocTk

I have "Tricks of the Mind" in front of me, and there doesn't seem to be any mention of Smith. However, it's a really funny and well-written book. The first part of the book is about how Brown had once been a believing Christian and how his interest in illusion helped him to realize that he had been duped.

The rest of the book is about the art of magic, memory tricks, hypnosis and suggestibility, unconscious communication and then he brings it all together with a discussion of pseudoscience.