Derren Brown: Miracles for Sale

This is our third and final post in our series on the British illusionist Derren Brown we follow him into the world of fraudulent faith healers.

True skepticism reexamines even cherished long-accepted beliefs, if shown to be questionable.

The following video is different than most made by people who make their living claiming to be skeptics. They make fun of what they are campaigning against, use unfounded innuendo, and even try to influence the outcome of scientific examination. This is not true of Derren Brown.

Energy workers, faith healers, and practitioners of “primitive” traditions use their talents and knowledge in  assisting those in need to return to health. Many will claim they do not heal. Energy workers may say they are merely a conduit or channel and the one seeking healing has as much (or more) to do with the process as the healer. Those using plants and herbs do have a knowledge that can guide a person to health, though even there, we are looking at an internal process. 

True skepticism requires a hunger for information and humility. It’s worth reminding the reader that throughout history virtually everything science held true was either acknowledged as false, or incomplete. In matters of the paranormal and faith healing used in this example, the ability to give up previously held opinions, like a good scientist letting go of a disproved theory, is essential.

   Even in a world where energy workers improve the health of those they work with and a person’s own intention (faith and belief) to become whole and well works to clear out cancer, one must be skeptical of claims “to be able to heal you”. Duplicitous faith healing can injure believers while creating wealth for the scammers.

This is why we feel it is important to present this information to you. A program showing how fake faith healers operate.

The Editor

Demonstrating how some faith healers dupe believers

Miracles for Sale is not as much fun to watch as the previous videos provided in Derren Brown – The Experiments: The Secret of Luck and Enigma, nor does the content as easy to produce. It is, however, an important message.

Derren Brown takes the issue of duping the masses very seriously. He takes on the challenge to expose such activities to both entertain and enlighten us. He has no sympathy for “wickedness in the world of faith healing.”

In this episode, Derren selects an ordinary man, trains him in the art of fraudulent faith healing, and takes him to Texas to see if he can convince people that he possesses the genuine ability to heal .

The moral and ethical dilemmas of duping support staff, publicity organizations, and the local population are not hidden from the camera. The exercise of deception does not come cheaply to those who wish to be honest. Derren and the film crew wrestle with these issues throughout the project.

Derren Brown: Miracles for Sale

In the world of the paranormal, we must be willing to test our convictions, to put them on the line as it were. Without the openness to admit that we may be in error, we leave ourselves vulnerable to the attacks of those less kind than Derren Brown.

I thank you, Sir.

To the examined life,

– Jeffrey A. Limpert

__________________

References:

http://derrenbrown.co.uk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown
https://unfoldingseries.com/human-potential/the-experiments-the-secret-of-luck/

Image Information:

The images and video in this post are used with
permission of http://derrenbrown.co.uk