The Disappearing Sun Con

I’ve been really interested in cons, grifts, forgery, and magic tricks recently for some reason, and more and more the subject turns up in my readings and surfing. First BoingBoing linked to an account of neurologist Paul J. Zak recalling the time that he was a victim of the “Pigeon Drop” con. Yesterday, Slashdot linked to it as well.

So, all of this brought me to British television personality Derren Brown. Apparently, his shtick is a type of subliminal psychological manipulation called Neuro-linguistic programming or NLA, wherein he serially and entertainingly manipulates regular Joes into doing outrageous things like accepting paper instead of cash for an expensive platinum ring and having a stranger hand over his wallet and house keys with very little (visible) prompting. It’s pretty riveting stuff and YouTuber MystryBox deftly breaks it down in a play-by-play.

Since I love, you know, creepy shit I was especially taken by this one: The Disappearing Sun.

I would totally fall for that, and probably every other one of these.