Criss Angel and David Blaine- Lesson on skepticism

[Apollo]

This is something that I posted in an email and I thought it would be good here. Here is a copy and paste:

Ok, I see that there is a lot of contreversy on if
they are real or not. My point of view is that they
are illusionists. That means they do magic tricks to
appease the audience. Not only do i believe that,
they also call themselves that. They have shown
others how they do their tricks and they have admitted
that it is not real. Are they fun to watch? Of
course! Might they be real? More than likely not.
There is about .001% that they are. If someone
emailed you and claimed that they could levetate a
chair, hopefully you would be highly skeptical. It is
the same case here. When you see Criss Angel
levetate, I hope to God that you dont think it is real
right away. If you do, then please rethink your life.
I am not trying to be mean but if you believe
everything you see/hear, you will get spam email from
real-estate (i get it) and believe that they actually
DO have the lowest rates. Skepticism is good. Its
great, in fact. The world would not run without
skeptics. That is how democracy is. Someone is
skeptical if John Kerry would be a good leader and
they vote for the other guy (no arguements about
politics here). So please, be skeptical. Do research
before you lay claim that they are real. You need
proof to win arguements. Notice that the people
saying they are fake use proof; and the people who
believe they are real use the phrase "I still believe
they are real". Please please please please....from
the bottom of my heart (?)......PLEASE research and be
skeptical before hand. If, after a lot of research,
still believe that they are real, you are allowed to
have that view. When you argue, use proof. No more
of this "believing" crap. Its not a religion.

[vanish]

Thats some good reading. kriss angel is a good entertainer but thats it. you cant levitate that quickly like he does. although frauds are annoying because they force psychokinesis etc into automatic skepticism.

[JediKaren]

yes and then I must fight newbies with this idea that it's real.

[Apollo]

just me and another fight against fluff

[meep]

*starts eating fluff*

[GEOvanne]

how did this thing from september 8 get back up to here and nobody posted till meep

[leethal]

hey, fluff tastes good!

[Dumplins]

Lol good one leethal

[jasonator]

Any magician should know he's not real. I have recently got into magic tricks because of Criss Angel. I watch every episode of Mindfreak. Most of Angels tricks can be explained. Self levitation, coin through can, self vanish, arm through spectator, walk on water, matrix lean, and some others.

[Amodia]

I've been wondering how he are able to levitate like that, I would guess that it has something to do with mirrors.. But I'm not sure.

~Amodia

[meep]

Mwahaha! I have dug up this pile of anti- fluff and now its got a pin- thingy! Yay!

*starts eating more fluff*

[Darin Rosewood]

Actually, the walking-on-water thing that Criss Angel did was an exercise involving chi practiced by Chinese (and some Korean) sages. So's that thing where people get run over by cars. It's not quite psi, it's a mind-over-matter thing, but it's pretty darn close.

[JediKaren]

For the last time, what he does has NOTHING to do with chi, psi, ki or anything. It's ALL fake. Chris has admitted this himself. Sorry, but stop denying it!

[Darin Rosewood]

He said it was all fake? I heard him quoted as saying most of the stuff he did was fake. ^_^ Anyway, that walking-on-water thing isn't fake, even if the version he did was.

[elvakiel]

No his walking on water is a trick...Hes an illusionist. To walk on water you have to be extremely skilled at psi like some shaoling monks...He walks on a sheet of plexy glass across the water.