In the special, Brown purports to use the cover of a motivational seminar and documentary to see if he can persuade four members of a group of thirteen businessmen and businesswomen to steal £100,000 in what they believe is a genuine "armed robbery" of a bank's security guard (using a realistic-looking toy gun).
The special was filmed over two weeks, during which Brown tells the viewer he has used various psychological tools, including conditioning, anchoring and suggestion, to get the group into a mental state in which they would willingly try to rob a security guard, without ever directly being told to do so.
Thirteen delegates are invited to an intimate seminar in a hotel in Hertfordshire apparently to learn some of Brown’s skills, after responding to adverts in the press.
They had to be open responsive types who would respond well to his techniques; have no criminal record; fall into a typical middle-management income bracket or above; and be deemed psychologically robust enough by an independent psychologist to take part in the show.
During the actual seminar, he starts to focus them unconsciously on the idea of stealing while convincing them that they are learning real skills to keep them responsive and hungry.
Brown also uses suggestive language, such as describing the participants as "thought criminals", titling a slide in the presentation "Things to take away", and using the acronym "K.A.S.H."
The participants are given realistic toy guns, to encourage the feeling of criminality; they are also given a CD, which Brown says contains subliminal messages that they should listen to every day.
The seminar ends with a group visualization shifting the focus towards motivation and an attitude of "just do it" while Brown reiterates the language of criminality.
The subjects are then persuaded to go across to a shop in Codicote High Street, Hertfordshire, and steal sweets, to reclaim a childhood attitude which is at the heart of the message.
Purely because an authority figure has told them to, all but two of the delegates make the decision to walk into a shop, steal goods, and frame it as a positive experience for themselves.
They are organised to take part in what they think is a piece of unfilmed academic research at a university, supposedly looking into the effects of punishment on learning.
The teacher is shown the generator in the other room, which ranges from 15V all the way up to a lethal 450V and then are shocked at a moderate 45V, to show the effects of this reasonably low voltage.
However, responses were played by a pre-recorded CD which the teacher could hear coming from the other room, apparently showing the learner to be in agonising pain and pleading for the experiment to stop.