Why You Should Follow Your Dream

       I'm getting addicted to the game show, Deal or No Deal (Australia) on Channel 10, and have only just watched Episode 34, which aired on Wednesday 13 March 2024. For those unfamiliar with the game, there are 22 boxes, each of which denotes a prize ranging from 50c to $100,000. First of all, you will be asked to pick a box, which you hope will denote the $100,000. It remains unopened until the end of the show. If you make no deals, you get the prize. You then get to pick one box after another, and you see various prizes disappear from the screen. At intervals, the banker will offer you a "deal" ie an amount of money less than the maximum. Most people eventually accept a deal, because the choice is between money in the hand, and the possibility of winning a lot or winning very little. For example, last week there were only two boxes left on the screen. One denoted 50c and the other $100,000. The contestant accepted a deal of $50,001. He would have been a fool not to.

        Well, on Episode 34 a woman called Kim Boucher picked box 17, because she said she had dreamed about that number. Eventually, when there were still four boxes in play, she accepted a deal of $11,890. Guess what! No 17 denoted $100,000. She should have followed her dream.

        Update 9 April 2024. It happened again. The contestant chose box 14 because his adult daughter had dreamed of it, although she could not remember how the dream ended. Remember, people put their names down as contestants, and it is only on the night that one of them is chosen. She must have dreamed of the game when her father told her he had entered the draw. Anyhow, on the night it came down to the wire, with only two prizes left in play: $75 and $100,000. He accepted the deal of $47,277 as a compromise; he would have been a fool not to. Just the same, it turned out box 14 denoted $100,000. His daughter's dream was correct.

        Update 5 July 2024. It happened yet again. The contestant also chose box 17, this time because her husband had dreamed it. And although she accepted a deal for $33,333, it turned out box 17 really did denote $100,000.

         Update 16 September 2024. This time the contestant's mother announced that she had had a premonition that the contest would come down to a final choice between $50 and $100,000 and that is exactly how it turned out. This show is becoming a real time natural experiment in clairvoyance.