Tricks Of The Mind [Hardcover]

Needless to say, anyone in Derren Brown's profession who wrote a book reavealing everything about how they work wouldn't last very long. What is remarkable about this book is that it actually reveals quite a lot. No, he doesn't explain how each trick works (as if!) but there is plenty here to interest the curious among us.

If you want some tips on hypnotism, which he describes as the product of effective suggestion rather than a unique trance-like state, feats of memory or straightforward conjuring (something I suspect he uses much more of in his routines than he'd like you to think), there is a great deal of information provided. If we read it and practise what it reveals (that's the bit most of us are not prepared to do because it takes for ever), any of us could invent some pretty neat tricks of our own. Insofar as anyone will write a 'how to' guide on hypnotising your friends, this is probably as close as we're going to get.

Some may not like the book's mixture of tips, autobiographical anecdotes and polemic about how easily fooled people are and how they really will believe almost anything. Admittedly, these elements don't always come together all that smoothly, but they do all reveal a lot about the man, his view of the world and what he thinks of the whole school of 'you can fool most of the people a lot of the time' opportunists (hucksters, charlatans, salesmen and camp Northern psychics of every stripe).

The book's structure may be flawed, but its honesty is the ace up its sleeve - not bad in a profession based on fooling people.

In which the celebrated TV showman and 'mentalist' reveals (some of) the tricks of his trade, plus a selection of tips and mind hacks that anyone would find useful.

Along the way he gives us a whistle-stop tour of magic, memory techniques (an excellent introduction), hypnosis (with a bit about NLP), unconscious communication and 'cold reading, and pseudo-science and sloppy thinking.

Naturally, being an NLP trainer, it was the bit about NLP I turned to first. Derren attended a large course on which Richard Bandler was one of the trainers (with 'four hundred or so delegates, some of whom were clearly either unbalanced or self-delusory') which he found 'highly evangelical'. He says it was a four-day course so it can't have been Paul McKenna's (unless Derren developed amnesia for some of the days) as this lasts for seven, as far as I know. Nevertheless, he likes NLP enough to include some nifty NLP self-help techniques (subtle mirroring and various submodality interventions including the phobia cure, mapping across and a couple of variations on the swish pattern for motivation and confidence) with step-by-step instructions.

By the way, if you only read one bit of the book, make it the 'Confusion and Self-Defence' section at the end of the hypnosis chapter - not only is it very funny, it could save your life some day.

The underlying attitude running through the book is one of skepticism - particularly about professional psychics and mediums. Given his background - an evangelical Christian in his teens, becoming disillusioned with it as he got into stage hypnotism and magic - it's not surprising that he's a skeptic. Having first-hand experience of how a circular belief system leads to an insistence on one particular interpretation of 'reality' while discounting all others, plus a professional's command of the tools and tricks of mental deception, will do that to you.

The final section of the book, on 'anti-science, pseudo-science, and bad thinking' is excellent - a skewering of alternative medicine, cold-reading tricks used by charlatans, and the 'thinking traps' that seem to be almost hard-wired into our thought processes, leading us to see patterns where there are none in coincidences and making some people a magnet for scamsters.

The writing style is delightful - self-deprecating and very funny. I hadn't actually seen that many of Derren's TV shows (no, I'm not on first-name terms with him, but reading this book will make you feel like he's your mate) but I'm now a confirmed fan.

Buy this book if a) you're interested in the techniques he uses in his stage and TV shows, b) you want to improve your memory and confidence, c) you want to get better at thinking or d) you want a good laugh.

To be honest, I don't think this book needs another review, as much of what makes this title great has already been expressed on here. Work is quiet, however, and so it is too hard not to say something about a book I so thoroughly enjoyed.

As many people have said, Brown's writing style is very entertaining, lines such as "read on you clever sausage, you," give it the light-hearted tone that makes it such an easy read. Obviously, any one who picks up this book will be doing so because they are curious about Brown's techniques, and I really felt that the content did not disappoint in the slightest. Near the start of the book, Brown gives a discourse in the powers of misdirection as he goes through a vanishing coin trick. The general premise is: You do one thing and this provokes a good response from your audience, but how about you add another element to the trick to help build the anticipation; but that's not enough, so you add yet another element near the end that actually makes the audience believe they have discovered how you did the trick, you taunt them with this and then - at the last moment, you dash all their hopes as you reveal that you have misled them and they have completely failed to discover your method. I was learning the delights of showmanship, and this man is obviously a master of that art.

I found the memory section of the book incredible. My memory is awful and so I was amazed to note that within five minutes of starting the chapter, I was memorising lists of twenty words in order, after thirty seconds of looking at them. A couple of days later I got my friends to give me forty words - it took me a couple of minutes but now - about three weeks later, I can remember the list, in order, back to front - no problem. Brown also details methods for learning numbers, scripts or more diverse subjects, such as the Titles of all of Shakespeare's plays, in order. If applied correctly, there really is no limit to what you can remember with these techniques.

The hypnosis section was fascinating and this was always a topic I was very curious about. I thought Brown revealed quite a good deal about this area, and he even gives you the titles of the books that he started his learning from. Nearer the end of the book, Brown goes into the paranormal and we read his well-constructed arguments against supernatural phenomena. I admittedly felt my interest dipping slightly during these later stages of the book, simply because I did not find these topics as interesting as the chapters on psychology, but everyone will pick up this book for different reasons, and the topics Brown covers are too diverse for one not to have strong preferences to certain chapters.

All in all, a very informative read. I'm still bringing this book up in conversation to people. It is by no means comprehensive, but I think it gives a great picture as to the kinds of things Brown was experimenting with in the early stages of his craft - what with all the books he suggests for further reading, Tricks of the mind provides a firm foundation for anybody who is interested in studying Mentalism, Hypnosis or any other psychological trickery. If I wasn't so tight with my stars, I would certainly give this book 5!