Psychics and cats...

Ok, by now, you've all heard about the Kitty of Doom. I was totally going to blog about this story but Rebecca over at Skepchick totally beat me to it, and did a FAR better job!

So, instead, I'm going to blog about Derren Brown, because I happen to be watching his show, Mind Control, which is new on Sci-Fi. I wasn't planning on watching his show but it came on right after Who Wants to Be A Superhero which I was totally watching, because, well, I'm a huge geek and c'mon, it's Stan Lee!

Anywho, I saw the ads for Derren Brown and thought - ugh, another stupid psychic show. But no! It's not! He actually says he's absolutely not a psychic - he's just really good at using psychological tricks to mess with people. He's awesome. I'm not sure what he's doing although he's clearly using some common techniques like cold reading and suggestion. and that's one thing I do wish he was doing more of - telling us how he's doing things like talking to people on the street and having them hand over their valuables, going to stores and buying things with blank paper. I do wish he was doing more of - telling us how he's doing this stuff.

On the show, between every commercial, he says he uses 'suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship to achieve all the results you'll see." But I guess he has to keep his trade secrets.

I also checked Wikipedia and it looks like he's spent a good amount of time convincing people that he has various abilities, including contacting the dead and christian evangelism (he converted atheists!). Awesome. I'm going to have to get his book.