Halloween Week! Seance, Part 1

Halloween is a fantastic time of year. Its the one day where we are culturally sanctioned to indulge in our dark, exotic, heretical sides. Almost as if admitting to ourselves that they exist makes us able to control and repress then for 364 more days.

My husband is a magician (among other things.) He hates it when I talk about him on my blog which is why I avoid it religiously (heh) but Halloween is his favorite day of the year and therefore I thought it appropriate to invoke him in regards to what I'm about to show you.

I'm guessing that most of my American readers have never heard of Derren Brown. He's a British magician, mentalist and hypnotist who's had a variety of successful BBC shows over the last few years. He's a fascinating guy (check out his tweets) but what I want to introduce you to this week is his Channel 4 special from 2004 titled Seance.

It's in six parts, and I'm going to post a section via YouTube every day this week. Embedding has been disabled for these clips and though I know you can YouTube it to jump ahead, it might be more fun to stick with me. And of course, I'd love your comments on each section.

I can't tell you much about how Derren accomplishes this special (though I'm not a magician, I keep my acquired knowledge secret, adhering to the Magician's Code) but I can tell you this: trust me when I say that none of the participants in this special have been planted or signed non-disclosure agreements. What Derren shows you is 100% authentic, as you will see if you stick with me for six episodes.

Enjoy.

Derren Brown's Seance, Part 1