How did Derren Brown really predict the lottery numbers?
In one of the most gripping live spectacles on UK television, popular illusionist and magician Derren Brown accurately predicted the lottery numbers in an unprecedented act of foresight. His 2009 stunt quickly became somewhat controversial, however, with many people complaining about his method, and some even saying it was rigged.
You know what we’re like here at Winzum, always trying to find out about cool new things, and it’s what led us to investigate this further Derren Brown trick even further.
Can you imagine actually being able to accurately predict the lottery numbers? It would be quite useful to say the least! We explored this in a previous blog here [is it possible to accurately predict the lottery numbers], but now let’s take a look at how Derren Brown predicted the lottery numbers…
Who is Derren Brown?
Derren Brown is an absolutely fascinating person who seems to have a brain that works a million miles per hour faster than anyone else’s. He first burst into popularity in 2000 with the show Mind Control, where he used a cunning blend of "magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection, and showmanship" to read people’s minds on live television.
Since then Brown has had countless TV specials, as well as numerous sold-out tours across the UK and rest of the world. He’s played a real game of Russian roulette live on air, attempted to hypnotize millions of UK citizens at once, and convinced a bunch of normal citizens to taking part in a real life heist. Put simply, Derren Brown is a pretty outrageous dude.
A summary of that time he tried to predict the lottery numbers…
There have been many controversial stunts pulled by Derren Brown, but we’re not sure any of them were quite as publicly shaking as the time he tried to accurately predict the lottery numbers. To everybody’s amazement, on Wednesday the 9th of September 2009 he managed to guess all 6 winning lottery numbers, only skimping out on the bonus ball!
But here’s the thing: Derren Brown didn’t actually unveil the lottery numbers that he guessed until after they were called in real life. They were written on the back of 6 balls that had been in the studio the whole time mind you, however people were understandably still a little suspicious of it.
… And the controversy that followed
After Derren Brown amazingly accurately predicted the lottery numbers he then set about explaining how he did it, and this is where the controversy started. He allegedly used a combination of so-called “deep maths” and something called “the Wisdom of Crowds”, asking a group of 24 people to study previous lottery numbers and then use automatic writing to guess their own.
Derren Brown then used this to deduce the winning lottery numbers for that week by himself, but a lot of people found this difficult to believe. All sorts of conspiracy theories were drawn up, with claims of a split screen or false wall.
How did Derren Brown really predict the lottery numbers?
Derren Brown’s explanation of how he predicted the lottery numbers was certainly hard to believe, but it is also worth remembering that he has a history with complex mathematics, and does similar things in his live theatre performances.
Ultimately, however, nobody really knows how Derren Brown really predicted the lottery numbers. A recent poll suggested that most people thought he used a split screen, but in reality we don’t think we’ll ever know for sure!