Derren Brown, the acclaimed British maestro of mind control, has announced details of a unique partnership with Thorpe Park, to create the world’s first fully immersive psychological attraction for a theme park.

The star, who is best known for his mind blowing TV specials and interactive stage shows, has become synonymous with the art of illusion, misdirection and hypnotism since he first came to prominence with his early Channel 4 shows in 2000.

The award winning mentalist promises that these skills, which allow him to both predict and control human behaviour will be showcased fully at the new themed experience.

Thorpe Park approached Derren Brown in search of the next era of thrill for the park, having identified psychology as an interesting avenue to explore for a new experience they went in search of the perfect creative mind to execute a completely new and unique invention.

The new one-of-a-kind experience will be the world’s only fully immersive psychological attraction, designed to manipulate the human mind. Visitors to the themed experience in 2016 will embark on a 13 minute journey.

Construction of a 2306sqm building to house the unique indoor fully themed atttraction is well underway. It is located on the site of the former Arena and Chief Ranger’s Carousel, between Nemesis Inferno and X. It is codenamed Project Whitechapel, or WC16.

The building will have a warehouse appearance (similar to SAW - The Ride) and contain the main dark ride experience, a pre-show and shop. The plans also include a welcome plaza with themed structures and a covered queue line. The building will be 10m in height, in accordance with the restrictions of the Medium Term Development Plan.

Our edited plan above shows some internal features but details of the ride system and layout remain a closely guarded secret. However, we do know that Scruffy Dog Ltd are working on the theming design and build.

Merlin Entertainments, the owners of Thorpe Park, registered the trademark Automatons in April 2015. An automaton is a self-operating machine often made to resemble a human, sometimes taking the form of a clockwork person.

One such automaton featured in Derren Brown's 2011 tour Svengali, as a mind reading and controlling robot doll, so we're predicting automatons will feature in the experience and that Automatons could even be the name of the attraction.

We started our search for the next era of thrill three years ago, and decided psychology would be an interesting avenue to explore, so we approached Derren Brown to work with us to create something truly exciting. We are delighted to be partnering with Derren Brown to announce the first details of what promises to be the single most exciting launch event of 2016. The creative concept comes entirely from Derren and we have spent the best part of three years working closely with him to bring his unique vision to life. This is our biggest investment to date and over 1,000 members of our creative team and external specialists will be working on the ground to bring the new experience to life. The attraction will be a world first; as such we have invested heavily in next generation cutting edge technology that will quite simply ‘derail people’s minds’ in a way which has never been seen before. This truly is the world’s first ‘smart’ theme park attraction, paving the future for the leisure industry – it is not what you would expect a theme park to deliver.Mike Vallis, Divisional Director of Thorpe Park

The process of creating this new experience has been the most challenging of my career - so much so that it has taken us three years to get the project on track. Now we are actually in production, excitement is mounting and we are making the final tweaks to an idea I have wanted to release for some time. As always, you can look forward to a heady mix of magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship. We are keeping the full details under wraps but I can say that the attraction will take you on a journey like no other, an attraction where no one will have quite the same experience and where the guests will be unable to make the distinction between what is real or imagined! This opportunity with Thorpe Park has enabled me to create a unique Derren Brown experience, for many to enjoy. It takes everything I love from Victoriana to mystery and illusion and wraps it up into a mind blowing journey. Derren Brown

Thorpe Park has now started 'recruiting minds' for its new dark ride in 2016, the website www.mindswanted.co.uk teases that the Island’s dark secret will get inside your head and will distort your reality. It tells you to expect a series of 'brain food' coming your way soon.