The basic routine goes something like this. Most people are pretty habitual and ritualistic in their daily behaviour. Everything works by pattern recognition, based on the prevailing social norms and the individual’s catalogue of personal experience. Critical thinking is rarely required. Aware of the rigidity of these behavioural mechanisms, the Jedi* Mind Trick operates by unexpectedly interrupting the customary train tracks of consciousness and diverting the subject to an alternative destination, subtly implanted in the subject’s unconscious mind.
A good contemporary practitioner of the Jedi Mind Trick is illusionist Derren Brown, probably best known in the UK, where he is the undisputed heavyweight of ‘mind magic.’ His mental, physical and psychic abilities seemingly reach way beyond the limits of normal human experience. His TV shows are major events and get regularly dissected and pored over in excited office banter the next day. What is interesting to me is how a study of Brown’s craft can provide us with a deeper insight into the manipulation techniques pouring out of our TV; and thus reduce the likelihood of being programmed.Derren Brown’s most beguiling performances centre around his apparent control over the minds of his guests. He reads their thoughts, controls their behaviour, spontaneously hypnotizes them, makes himself invisible to a chosen subject etc. Pretty compelling stuff that leaves the viewer wondering how on earth he achieves this strange wizardry.
His mind tricks use a slick combination of psychological techniques such as mirroring, NLP, eye accessing cues, cold reading etc. But the real focus is on exploiting the subject’s ignorance of their own subconscious/unconscious processes.
The Unconscious Observer
Only a tiny fraction of the stuff that the senses take in is processed as ‘consciously’ perceived information and events. That is, 99% of the perceived world is soaked up into our minds and sits there, largely unprocessed, separated out from our ordinary conscious ruminations. And the unconscious observer sees all. Everything goes in - every gesture, thought, image, word, smell, touch, feeling. Everything is permanently recorded. Whether the conscious mind has access to it or not, is immaterial. And this colossal torrent of information doesn’t go into the regular filing system. Instead, it goes into a mysterious storage facility (that we don’t have convenient access to) from where it exerts a profound influence over our daily behaviour.
Derren Brown is no doubt aware of the works of Milton H. Erickson, the American psychiatrist who specialized, amongst other things, in medical hypnosis. Erickson’s unconventional use of hypnotic technique, coupled with his radical theories on the subconscious, provide an intriguing range of practical possibilities for the eager illusionist.
One of Erickson’s trademark procedures was the confusion technique (aka the Jedi Mind Trick). When a person is confused, their conscious mind is busy and occupied, and is very much inclined to draw upon unconscious learnings (or instructions) to make sense of things. A confused person is in a trance of their own making and therefore goes readily into that trance without resistance. Confusion might be created by ambiguous words, complex or endless sentences, pattern interruption or a myriad other techniques to incite transderivational searches.
A transderivational search (often abbreviated to TDS) is a psychological and cybernetics term, meaning when a search is being conducted for a fuzzy match across a broad field.
TDS is a fundamental, automatic and unconscious part of human language and cognitive processing. Arguably, every word or utterance a person hears, and everything they see or feel and take note of, results in a very brief trance while TDS is carried out to establish a contextual meaning for it. The skilled illusionist can utilize this process to create or deepen a trance.
Examples
Leading statements:
“And those thoughts you had yesterday...” The human mind cannot process hearing this phrase, without at some level searching internally for some thoughts or other that it had yesterday, to make the subject of the sentence.
“The many colours that fruit can be." Starts the human mind considering even if briefly, different fruit sorted by colour.
Textual ambiguity:
"Do you remember line dancing on the steps?" Without sufficient context, some statements may trigger TDS in order to resolve inherent ambiguity in the interpretation of a posed question. Do I remember a bygone fad called "line dancing on the steps"? Do I remember personally engaging in dancing in the past? Do I remember my routine practice dancing by focusing on the steps of the dance? Do I tend to forget about dancing when I am standing on steps?
“Penny-wise and pound the table dance to the beat of a different drummer.” The mixing of cliché and stock phrases may trigger TDS in order to reconcile the discrepancies between expected and actual utterances in sequence.
The Hypnotic Handshake
Erickson's ‘hypnotic handshake’** is a technique that leaves the other person performing TDS in search of meaning to a deliberately ambiguous use of touch.
Many actions are learned and operate as a single ‘chunk’ of behaviour: shaking hands and tying shoelaces being two good examples. If the behaviour is diverted or frozen midway, the person literally has no mental space for this - he is stopped in the middle of unconsciously executing a behaviour without a corresponding pattern. The mind crashes, suspending itself in trance until either something happens to give a new direction, or it reboots itself. A skilled hypnotist can use that momentary confusion and suspension of normal processes to induce trance quickly and easily.
By interrupting the pattern of a normal handshake in some way, the hypnotist causes the subject to wonder what is going on. If the handshake continues to develop in a way which is out-of-keeping with expectations, a simple, non-verbal trance is created, which may then be reinforced or utilized by the hypnotist. All these responses happen naturally and automatically without telling the subject to consciously focus on an idea.
Summary
Confusion is a tool used by hypnotists to put the subject into an altered state. The slumbering brain state induced by watching TV is the same thing. This is how the NWO implants its messages deep into the minds of the masses. To the unconscious observer, the messages are not properly perceived at the point of entry. Nevertheless, they are permanently recorded in precise detail and affect the conscious mind emotionally, intellectually and physically with their hidden meanings.
For this to have impact on a mass scale, people need to also believe they are finite, separate, the world happens ‘out there’ and they’re essentially powerless (all hogwash of course). Once this is achieved, the subconscious suggestions are much more readily absorbed. The finite, separate human seeks solace, comfort and reassurance - wherever he can find it. If the mind is suitably controlled, the thrill of a new gadget, or a new snack food, or a new TV drama, can be all the comfort and reassurance that is required.
Here's a better image to end on. Imagine your mind is a Stradivarius violin. Imagine the TV is an unsavoury market trader desperate to issue you with his cheesy musical scores. Without judgement, you end up playing his stuff, including the base and the vile, on your highly refined and exquisite instrument. We must turn away from the peddler of dubious goods - and play only the beautiful and majestic music of our own choosing.
Notes
Derren Brown Vid. Checkout this recording of Derren Brown executing a very smart Jedi Mind Trick to render himself completely invisible to his subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2DJomsxK8A
Watch for his use of hypnotic hand manipulation (on the table). Also listen to the nonsense he babbles to the subject to underpin the confusion he’s creating in his subject and the powerful use of eye contact.
*The Jedi Order was a noble order of protectors unified by their belief and observance of the universal energy matrix known as the ‘Force’. The Jedi hearken back to a more civilized, classical time in galactic history. To become a Jedi requires the deepest commitment and most serious mind. It is not a venture to be undertaken lightly. As such, Jedi instruction is rigidly structured and codified to enforce discipline and hinder transgression. Sadly, these guys are in short supply today.
**The hypnotic handshake. The various descriptions of Erickson's hypnotic handshake, including his own very detailed accounts, indicate that a certain amount of improvisation is involved, and that watching and acting upon the subject's responses is key to a successful outcome. The most important thing is that the 'normal' handshake is subverted in such a way to cause puzzlement, which may then be built upon.
- Initiation: When I begin by shaking hands, I do so normally. The "hypnotic touch" then begins when I let loose. The letting loose becomes transformed from a firm grip into a gentle touch by the thumb, a lingering drawing away of the little finger, a faint brushing of the subject's hand with the middle finger - just enough vague sensation to attract the attention. As the subject gives attention to the touch of your thumb, you shift to a touch with your little finger. As your subject's attention follows that, you shift to a touch with your middle finger and then again to the thumb.
- This arousal of attention is merely an arousal without constituting a stimulus for a response.
- The subject's withdrawal from the handshake is arrested by this attention arousal, which establishes a waiting set, and expectancy.
- Then almost, but not quite simultaneously (to ensure separate neural recognition), you touch the undersurface of the hand (wrist) so gently that it barely suggests an upward push. This is followed by a similar utterly slight downward touch, and then I sever contact so gently that the subject does not know exactly when - and the subject's hand is left going neither up nor down, but cataleptic.
- Termination: If you don't want your subject to know what you are doing, you simply distract their attention, usually by some appropriate remark, and casually terminate. Sometimes they remark, "What did you say? I got absentminded there for moment and wasn't paying attention to anything." This is slightly distressing to the subjects and indicative of the fact that their attention was so focused and fixated on the peculiar hand stimuli that they were momentarily entranced so they did not hear what was said.
- Utilisation: Any utilisation leads to increasing trance depth. All utilisation should proceed as a continuation of extension of the initial procedure. Much can be done nonverbally; for example, if any subjects are just looking blankly at me, I may slowly shift my gaze downward, causing them to look at their hand, which I touch and say "look at this spot.". This intensifies the trance state. Then, whether the subjects are looking at you or at their hand or just staring blankly, you can use your left hand to touch their elevated right hand from above or the side - so long as you merely give the suggestion of downward movement. Occasionally a downward nudge or push is required. If a strong push or nudge is required, check for anaesthesia. (Erickson & Rossi - Hypnotic Realities)
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