A pickpocket’s tale

[Brian King]

A PICKPOCKET’S TALE
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/01/07/130107fa_fact_green?currentPage=all


The neuroscience behind this work is very interesting. It is always interesting to have the work demonstrated and articulated from the perspectives of different fields of study and experience. The article is long but worth reading thru in my opinion. A few highlights.

“what I’m trying to affect is their minds, their moods, their perceptions,” he told me. “My goal isn’t to hurt them or to bewilder them with a puzzle but to challenge their maps of reality.”

Robbins needs to get close to his victims without setting off alarm bells. “If I come at you head-on, like this,” he said, stepping forward, “I’m going to run into that bubble of your personal space very quickly, and that’s going to make you uncomfortable.” He took a step back. “So, what I do is I give you a point of focus, say a coin. Then I break eye contact by looking down, and I pivot around the point of focus, stepping forward in an arc, or a semicircle, till I’m in your space.” He demonstrated, winding up shoulder to shoulder with me, looking up at me sideways, his head cocked, all innocence. “See how I was able to close the gap?” he said. “I flew in under your radar and I have access to all your pockets.”

But physical technique, Robbins pointed out, is merely a tool. “It’s all about the choreography of people’s attention,” he said. “Attention is like water. It flows. It’s liquid. You create channels to divert it, and you hope that it flows the right way.”

Orchestrating it all is what Robbins, by way of Maurer, calls “grift sense.” “Grift sense is the closest thing to a sixth sense we have,” he told me. “It’s stepping outside yourself and seeing through the other person’s eyes, thinking through the other person’s mind, but it’s happening on a subconscious level.” He went on, “I can analyze how I do things, but the actual doing it—when the synapses just start firing—I can’t explain.”

Robbins grew excited. “That’s what’s called a pattern interrupt,” he said. “It locks up their brain, puts a question mark in there, and after that you can just bust them.’’

Regards
Brian King

 

[Brian King]

The work demonstrated on film for laughs and study-
http://youtu.be/j25qV5RO-nU
Derren Brown robs a guy 1

Regards
Brian King

 

[Steve]

Amazing.