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Hi there...

To answer this question you'd probably have to watch the first episode of Derren Brown's Trick or Treat Season 2. If you haven't I'll try to explain it a bit to you.

In this episode Derren Brown teaches a guy how to store tons of books in his memory (short-term memory to be exact). All the guy is doing is looking at the pages for a couple seconds. After a week he looked through lots and lots of different books and can recall exact details like places, dates, numbers, etc. from those books.

The method used is not named nor is it explained. One would come to the conclusion that he can somehow "go back" to the image of a page in his head.

I have read a bunch of books on mnemonics, I know and use those system (Linking Images, Memory Palace or Loci System, PEG system, etc.) and they work great, but I'd like to find some information on the exact method used by Derren Brown in the mentioned episode.

Hope someone can help.

Whatever system he used, it may not be the one that you'll get the best out of, and to a very great extent, it's irrelevant. You're not Derren Brown, neither am I, nor is anyone else. No memory system is inherently "better" than the rest. They all have their place. Some are better for applications that require random access, others are better for serial access, for instance. Just pick one that you like and think is applicable to your application, and then it's a case of practicing.

By the way, it's very much frowned upon at Talk Magic to simply ask for information on your first post. Introduce yourself and you'll do a lot better.

I've wondered about this myself, and think possibly that the photoreading aspect of it may be a red herring. In the sequence where Brown tests Glen, the recollection of the answer (Carfax I seem to recall) comes to him as if he were using standard memory techniques - i.e. a car spewing out paper like a fax machine; a way of visually representing an essentially abstract name. I can't see how that would fit in with the notion of photoreading at all. Also, the theme of the entire series is superstition. DB suggests that everything shown in the series effectively works on the same principal demonstrated explicitly in the last episode (of studiously pursuing actions to achieve totally unrelated effects), which further suggests that the photoreading doesn't work. Lastly, in Tricks of the Mind he has a bit of a dig at a photoreading course he went on, which suggests he doesn't believe it's any cop.

I can't recall if Brown says he goes above and beyond the use of the photoreading - something about Glen relaxing and imagining him rummaging around in boxes in the attic of his head, but that's about it.

Oh, and isn't the coffee bean trick wonderful? Taking a method for one effect and employing it in a completely different way. Lovely.

He didn't really teach that man any memory systems. It's just good TV. Derren is never doing exactly what he says he's doing.

Mr_Grue wrote:(...) In the sequence where Brown tests Glen, the recollection of the answer (Carfax I seem to recall) comes to him as if he were using standard memory techniques - i.e. a car spewing out paper like a fax machine; a way of visually representing an essentially abstract name. I can't see how that would fit in with the notion of photoreading at all.

He said something like a fax machine coming out of a car, but yea, exactly my thought. It seems rather unreasonable to believe he (Glen) attached a visual image to every page...

Oh, and isn't the coffee bean trick wonderful? Taking a method for one effect and employing it in a completely different way. Lovely.

It was great indeed, but not as impressive as Glen's ability to recall all that bits of information.

queen of clubs wrote:He didn't really teach that man any memory systems. It's just good TV. Derren is never doing exactly what he says he's doing.

True, but he had to teach/show him something. Just looking for some information on what it could have been.

haha, I love Derren. He fools soo many people

Rather like you shouldn't believe in psychics on the television; nor should you spend lots of your money on trying to learn all the skills Derren says he employs.

The ones he really uses aren't the ones he says he is most of the time.

He's a very naughty man.

queen of clubs wrote:He didn't really teach that man any memory systems. It's just good TV. Derren is never doing exactly what he says he's doing.

Yup. Well, nearly yup. I think Derren did teach him some memory stuff, but nothing other than can be commonly found elsewhere. It had very little (or possibly nothing) to do with Glen's eventually performance in the quiz.

Duplicity wrote:Rather like you shouldn't believe in psychics on the television; nor should you spend lots of your money on trying to learn all the skills Derren says he employs.

The ones he really uses aren't the ones he says he is most of the time.

He's a very naughty man.

Well put. Especially the last sentence.

He's NOT the Messiah!!!

Duplicity wrote:He's a very naughty man.

Well, so most think it was faked and that there is no way that Just Glen could really store those books in his short-term memory?

Interesting...

ShadowXXX wrote:Well, so most think it was faked and that there is no way that Just Glen could really store those books in his short-term memory?

Interesting...

Is this more about working out a Derren effect; or you just wanting a decent memory system? David Berglas and Guy Lyon Playfair wrote a good book on it. You can buy it on amazon.co.uk i believe.

Say wut? Guy Lyon "Enfield Poltergeist" Playfair and David "Berglas Effect" Berglas?

Duplicity wrote:Is this more about working out a Derren effect; or you just wanting a decent memory system? David Berglas and Guy Lyon Playfair wrote a good book on it. You can buy it on amazon.co.uk i believe.

It's only about figuring out the way presented (ehmm... or not presented) in this episode.

Thanks for the book suggestions...

Ah this makes me smile.

I too used to go diving in head first with all things Derren.

I WANNA KNOW HOW HE DOES IT!!!!! TELL ME NOW!!!!!!

Of course like others have said here, whatever you think he's doing he probably isn't, or what you dismiss as being too obvious, may well be what he does.

Whether you think he's simply an entertainer, a mentalist, a hypnotist, a con artist, whatever. The fact is he's a magician above anything else, it's his job to fool you. Enjoy the ride!