I am a magician myself, and when someone cannot "offer a possible method" to how a trick is done, you know you are doing your job.

Chris angel's methods are an accumulation of others' methods i shan't go into here... but if you want a starting place, try looking at: Banachek, and luke jermay.
You can buy ONE of his levitations features on the show, from a dvd priced $100. You can read quite a few magic books and buy other dvd's from other magicians, at high prices and you'll find the impossible much more possible.
None of these people are really magic, they are "magicians" - big difference.

Not being able to explain a trick doesn't make it real magic. It just means that someone doesn't know the secret to the trick yet. There are hunderds of examples where magicians buy a trick from someone else because they can't figure it out on their own, do you think they would pay for it otherwise?

I agree in that much of the act of a magician is sleight of hand, distraction, smoke and mirrors, etc. I know that not knowing how doesn't make it magic, but it is also the case that if one trick is not magic, it does not prove that another one is not as well. Whether one believes or not is not my concern, I believe. My reasons for that are far more than attending shows, though.

Of course not. But what never ceases to amaze me that if someone can show or explain a way in which a certain trick can be performed as well -just as a trick-. Doesn't stop some persons to insist that the case in which they saw the exact same performace couldn't still have been real magic. Why assume that something can be real magic if the accomplishment can be the same with a simple trick?

It is true that a cake could have been transported by an alien to earth. But as long as a local bakery can bake the same cake, it isn't very reasonable to assume so.


Could you give an example? I'm honestly interested in your experiences.

A few months ago, while I was visiting my fiance in hospital, where she was still rehabbing from a severe brain injury, she looked at me with wide eyes, and said "See the ducks in the park.", i said when you get better, we can do that, she shook her head, wide eyes, trying to make her point, "see the ducks in the park." she said it at least three times, and then dropped it. I replied the same way as the first each time, but knew I was missing something. This was at a time when 3 word sentences were rare for her. the norm was one word. Pudding, More, Hi, etc. I went online after I got home about four hours later and checked out the posts at a webgroup that I had requested prayers for her from, and had been blessed to receive many. A woman who I had been in contact with from Portland Oregon (250 miles south of here), had a message for me. "K., did E. mention seeing the ducks in the park, cuz she really enjoyed it?" This friend
wrote that on her lunch break when she went across the street to the park and fed the ducks, my fiances spirit visited her and enjoyed the visit. I wouldn't have believed that, except for the fact that she did mention it, three times. I replied to her question. 'yes, she did.'
I did not see any rational way this could have happened, but it did.

Well, I respect your experience and you should value it. My rational mind however forces me to think about a possibility of chance here. May sound far fetched, but a non-rational explanation is at least equally far fetched.

mod edit: shortened quote

[edit on 31-1-2006 by sanctum]

The 'ducks in the park' thing is too specific in time and detail for me to see as coincidence. Others may choose to, of course, though they weren't there so it does not concern them as it does me. Here is another coincidence that I feel the same way about, though both are possibly just coincidences.
I used to work with a fellow who's wife died of lung cancer, though she was a nurse who never smoked. After she passed on, he raised their two daughters as a single dad. It was about a year from her diagnosis until she was gone. Around a month before she passed on she told him that she was going to send him some kind of a sign. He is a very honest, family-oriented, devout Catholic, and I honestly cannot see him lying about something this serious. Then, from her hospital bed a week before she passed on, she told him she knew what the sign would be....lightning.
I have only been to one funeral in my life, and it was scheduled for 1 P.M., one Saturday, at a local Catholic Church. As we arrived it was pouring rain out, really hard, the sky was completely filled by very thick, very low overcast clouds, and it made midday as dark as if it was dusk. We sat down, got settled in, and then boom, thunder, and the lights in the church went out for a couple of minutes. My friend told me that when the thunder struck, he immediately looked at his watch and, by coincidence, it was 1 o'clock on the dot. After the funeral was over we came out to find there wasn't a cloud in the sky; I looked in every direction.

Most of Criss Angel's tricks are illusions, but the real tricks require a lot of concentration and mind power which I dare anyone to say they know about. Do your research, look at history and which I guarantee you will find massive amount of supernatural cases even fake audience and wires couldn't fit in.


[edit on 31-1-2006 by sanctum]

I agree that things such as a saint levitating in front of 60 000+ people can be found in the books. But, I have a more tactile method. I have seen David Copperfield live three times, once from the seventh row. When he does that stuff twenty feet away, it is much more impressive than when it's on tv. I have seen him get cut in half, make himself and the motorbike he was on vanish and reappear in the middle of the audience, and last time, fly around. No camera trick or paid audience answer works for me.

That is great, I totally understand. But I have come to a different conclusion. It is not my purpose to try to convince anyone of anything. You could be right. If I were to list all the reasons for my choice, they would number in the dozens. I have a hard time with the 'one-off, anecdotal evidence' solution, when the one-off's become so numerous.
I may be a fool, so be it.

Hi I m french and I saw the Criss Angel s videos...

Well first I think there is no magic (like Merlin or Gandalf) in the world.Only science.If you can go in the XII century with a Mp3 recorder, it s magic for the peoples who lives in this century.

Now, the illusions of Criss (but can be applied to the other illusionnists) :

Some of levitations tricks are explained in the dvds : Criss Angels Mastermind Vol 2 (the levitaions tricks in the 2nd ep of mindfreak).
You will understand why almost all tricks are made by seeing criss s back only).

You can do this with science only.How ? take a look about the Hutchinson effect here : The Hutchinson Effect on Wikipedia

This effect can generate some paranormal phenomena like :

" the levitation of heavy objects, the fusion of dissimilar materials such as metal and wood, the anomalous heating of metals without burning adjacent material, the spontaneous fracturing of metals, and creating both temporary and permanent changes in the crystalline structure and physical properties of metals"

You can see videos about those phenomenas here : Hutchinson Effect s videos

Amazing no ?

Mayby it s this explanation, mayby not, but ,for me, I think it s the start point of an answer.


[edit on 18-3-2006 by maided]

i have seen a commercial about a new season of angel's show, "mindfreak"...

i am not sure when the new season will begin (i think the end of may), but the show airs on wednesdays at 10pm EST on A&E...

there will definitely be things to discuss here when the new season starts...

www.crissangel.com...

I just watched the David Blaine drowned alive special, where he tried to hold his breath for 9 minutes. He only did 7, which is still pretty good, but it is the first time I have seen someone of his caliber (Angel, Copperfield)miss their goal. I used to be open to the chance that cameras and paid audiences were a possible answer to the more outrageous illusions... but having seen it in person, now I know it is not any kind of camera trickery. I wish all of you could have been there to see Copperfield fly around our local hockey arena... It was pretty cool. I have found some sites where you can watch streaming video of Angel, Copperfield, and Blaine do their stuff. I watched Angel walk up and back down a wall, and climb through a solid sheet of window glass without breaking it. Maybe its the application of some little known universal force or energy that allows these guys to do this, I don't know. Sure cool though.

thanks for sharing blackguardXIII

those were really great stories

you are very lucky to have seen that stunt in person...

there is magic (paranormal) and magic (illusion), based on wikipeida.com...

here are some still-frame pictures of angel doing some of his work...

maybe they can assist us in some way...

there is another fansite that has great pics aswell...

and, as an aside, if one types in criss angel discussion into google, this thread is the first result...

thanks to all who made this thread great

please, continue to use this thread for discussion on criss angel...




[edit on 9-5-2006 by they see ALL]

hutchinson effect=old news.read the article. end of story

[edit on 10-5-2006 by jimmy1200]

i didn't know about this "hutchinson effect" until i did a google search...

i then realized that i was taught this back in junior year...

for those of you that are not aware of the hutchinson effect, please check out this link:

The Hutchison Effect -- An Explanation



or check out this:

Hutchison effect (wikipedia)...

so, jimmy1200, are you saying that criss angel is using the hutchinson effect to produce some of his tricks???

if this is the case, he is an illusionist

what about his other (he has a huge archive) of "tricks"???

magic or illusion, the million dollar question

i dont know what to believe. im more inclined to believe what most of what he does, aside from the stuff he shows you is false, is true, but my opinion is biased, because im more inclined to give the "paranormal" a chance, then just toss it to the side and laugh at it.
in reality though. its still entertainment and although it seems real, and maybe it is and magicians like criss angel, cyril, and blaine are just tryin to let you know through their magic, but honestly its not like any of them have come out and gone under the harsh scientific eye, to prove that hey, "some of these are tricks, but you can honestly levitate or walk up a wall, or through glass".
that is where the problem is. although they could be doin the real deal. its hard to say yay or nay, because as of right now, its just entertainment, and none have actually gone out of their way to change the consciousness of mankind, by proving such things are possible.
but just because you can levitate, doesnt mean you have to prove it. we just want them to, so from our point of view, we can shove it down the skeptics throat, and from the other point of view, so the skeptics can try to prove us wrong and shove it down our throats.
in all honestly. i would do a lot, but the last thing i would be concerned about, especially living in this world, is using any abnormal ability i have, just to prove someone that its real. yeah thats the cliche response from the community, but its true. if i could punch through brick walls and float through the air like crouching tiger hidden dragon. i would be on a mountain or in a forest enjoying my freedom and enjoying life from a new point of view. rather than waste time being tested and proving whether im the real deal or not.
just my opinion though

that is a great way of describing it all

i have never seen it that way...

i must agree with you on this point...

"mindfreak" is on tonight at 9:00pm ET on "A&E"...

just a reminder...