You've found one person that is absolutely fascinated by his work right here!
Anyway, from my understanding most of Darran Brown's work involves psychological trickery, mentalism (a branch of magic that focuses on the illusion that you're a psychic), and some elements of stage magic.
I've never heard of these contractions you speak of, nor have I heard of him actually reading a persons "blood pulse". But there is a certain power to suggestion that can be used in mentalist routines, powers of
probability, reading body language, LEM, etc., it can be quite effective, You'll never have total control over someones mind or be able to read their thoughts, definitely know their emotions, etc. though.
I have a few books that attempt to explain some of his work (which weren't written by him, don't have much crediability, but
do explain techniques that seem to produce the same or similar result (ie; being able to know someones PIN #, knowing what playing card someone is going to pick, etc.), and most of it is trickory. Stuff you probably wouldn't find all that different from magic tricks.
That is not to say, however, that the results can't be
amazing. They can!
Mentalism is a very, very powerful branch of magic. I think some tricks can be turned into wonderful routines. If you'd like,
I can point you in the right direction in getting started with mentalism. It's quite a bit of fun, but takes practice.
My thoughts,
-- JasonD
Oh and speaking of making a HB think there's a connection between you and her...
youtube.c o m / watch?v=k_oUDev1rME

. I think that really hit it on the nail.
GOOD LUCK!