Heavy Carriage My Ass

Watched that Derren Brown lottery thing.



I know it was a long time ago but I haven't really got around to it. I can't believe the number of people fell for the explanations he gave. The answer was just sitting there right before your eyes LITERALLY.

1, There's no way he could guess the combination and the footage has been analyzed for camera trickery and there is none. The whole group guessing thing made me laugh too. I'll get to that in a minute but it is suffice to say he definitely didn't guess the numbers in any way shape or form. The answer is far simpler than that.

2, He definitely didn't rig the game, despite the whole heavy carriage fiasco that send our people into a frenzy. He would have been caught very easily if he had, especially when he even suggested he might have.

No, he made the mass guess seem plausible and rigged game seem a fallacy so it would distract us from the other possibility. The final possibility being that he never guessed the results at all but in fact put the numbered balls there after they were read out. And since the balls didn't move and there's no trick photography at play then I can only guess that the numbers on the balls changed and not the balls themselves.

When you put it that way it makes more sense, especially with the way he repeatedly touched the balls before turning them around. He used stickers with numbers on for the numbers on the balls, which he applied/switched when he approached them. He didn't need to change every sticker as he can assume there's gonna be a thirty something and so on so he would have it prepared that way.

For a start, the whole heavy carriage thing is dumb. Even if he put heavy balls in there's no guarantee that the exact result would be as he planned and, even though one guy supposedly suggested that the ball carriage was heavier before setting it up, the difference would have been so slight he wouldn't feel it anyway, because if they were heavy you would have definitely heard a difference when the balls smacked into the sides of the cage.

Derren Brown is one of the most laughable bullshitters I have ever seen and I can't believe how many people fall for it. Now for the explanation of how he got the group to answer what he wanted.

For a start, they could have been subject to any number of suggestion methods that weren't shown but that aside let's look at what we do know. Automatic writing has been used constantly to make people write whilst influenced by suggestion. He could have easily suggested words to them while they were in that more receptive state.

The problem is that with an audience that large he would never get them all to add up to the exact numbers because of the fact that people are going to chose with some random element. That's why they were 1 off one number and the other was completely wrong.

The team building was to make them less aware and to make them more receptive to social cues. My favorite bit is where he's speaking numbers over the shoulder of the guy adding up. Timed right and he'll add them up to whatever number he wants, say...the number multiplied by 23 for example.

The fact that only he knew the final numbers was crucial. That way he could say they were whatever he wanted them to be. The group is already under the illusion that they are getting close so why not.

Then when they are read out, he writes them down so he knows what to change the numbers on the balls to. Simple really, much simpler than every fucker else's explanation anyway.