In addition to suggestion he also reads his subjects by obtaining information from small "tells" and visual cues. Some feats of mentalism also involve reading tiny muscle movements. A common feat is to simply hold the subject's wrist and use tiny cues in muscle tone to get the subject to lead the "reader" to a hidden object. One famous mentalist actually used this wrist holding technique to drive a car blidfolded, using only the tiny muscle ques from his passenger who obviously responded with horror when a bend or other obstale appeared. It wasn't a trick, the blindfold was real. The technique is described in this book, the classic gold standard introduction to this topic:
http://www.wizmomagic.co.uk/steps-mentalism-corinda-hardback-p-85.htmlhttp://www.magicbox.uk.com/shop.php/shop/books-and-dvds/magic-books/13-steps-to-mentalism/p_23.htmlSo where do muscle reading and face reading stop being "intuition" and start to become "ESP". I don't know, but Derren Brown is adamant that he's no psychic.
Derren is great. Sometimes I can figure out how he does his stuff and I can see that it's pure trickery. Other times I'm mystified, so I reckon he's using some intuitive "reading" tecnique. The line between intuition and ESP is fine. I do wonder therefore, whether he is actually a psychic in denial.