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It’s good that Brown readily admits he himself has no psychic powers. Anyone who’s ever seen him on TV before will know of his impressive abilities of persuasion and showmanship. In fact, when given the opportunity to pretend to do a psychic reading, I thought he did a better job than the “professional” Powers!
During the week that Brown spent with the Liverpudlian “psychic”, Powers had a mix of good and bad readings. In his worst, he basically got no hits at all. And in his best, he really seemed to have all the facts. It’s evident though that all of what he was doing could be explained by a little research and a look into ‘cold reading’.
If you’re a sceptic like me, you’ll already know what cold reading is. The technique of convincing someone you’ve just met that you know them extremely well is something Derren Brown is an expert at. And when Powers’ techniques are put under even just a little scrutiny, it’s clear that he could easily be using cold reading to achieve his results.
It was interesting to see a breakdown of just how cold reading is done, but as I just said, most sceptics will know this already. If you’re a believer, it won’t matter to you; all the evidence isn’t going to change your mind. This is shown by the fact that Claire Cooper (from Hollyoaks and Coronation Street - she sits for a pretend reading from Brown) is convinced that Brown has psychic abilities despite his own insistence that he has NO clairvoyant abilities of any kind.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter that I think people can’t talk to the dead. It’s never been my agenda to change anybody’s views. But, even if they could, do you really think they’d be throwing out numbers and letters to psychics in some sort of beyond-the-grave guessing game?
At the end of the day, this documentary is full of obvious observations. And most of you will have got the gist of things by the end of the first part. I have to admit that I feel disappointed by it because it will have provided a platform for Powers’ awful business. This seedy man relies on other people’s misery and grief for his living - I wonder how he sleeps at night.
When Brown said that the whole thing made him feel “sad and uncomfortable”, I agreed. The main positive from the documentary is that it neatly gives clear proof that this particular psychic is a fraud. But my overriding feeling is still of anger; I hate that lying psychics are able to get away with manipulating people in this way. Because, in my opinion, it’s just plain wrong.
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