posted April 15, 2013 04:43 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Jovian:
Any Criss Angel video is about as good as it gets as far as "paranormal" skills, for my money.

I think he's so beyond talented, beyond what people can fathom is possible, that skeptics assume it is some kind of mundane magic trickery.

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posted April 15, 2013 09:53 AM            

As far as I've read, Criss himself says it is "illusion," which of course it is...of the extreme kind. He is considered a mentalist and hypnotist, in addition to a magician. He had inspiration in the likes of earlier magicians, such as Houdini.

From his wikipedia entry:

"...in a CNN interview about the show he told Larry King 'no one has the ability, that I'm aware of, to do anything supernatural, psychic, talk to the dead. And that was what I said I was going to do with Phenomenon. If somebody goes on that show and claims to have supernatural psychic ability, I'm going to bust [him] live and on television.'"

So, according to Criss, the kind of "illusion" he does is not "supernatural," perhaps because to him it is indeed within the range of normal to be able to do such things. He obviously has developed this ability, perhaps over lifetimes, yet is quite human in other ways in his life.

To him, such things as having predicted 9/11, and therefore saving lives, would be considered "supernatural." And as you can see from his comments, he does not respect those who claim they can communicate with deceased loved ones.

He had a show on cable TV for a few seasons, Criss Angel: Mindfreak, and still performs in Las Vegas, I think.

Here is a video of him cutting off the hand of a man.

You can hear him beforehand, setting up the guy mentally, explaining that he has to remain calm, despite how real the experience may be... That it may sound like it is real, may even feel real...yet it is still an illusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9W_JThXdpg

Here is an earlier video (it was reposted by someone, but I saw this years ago), of him pulling a girl in half. ...It seems he may have learned from such experiences that you have to prepare your subjects mentally, before such shocking "illusions." The girl, and everybody observing, is obviously freaked out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEh8dY_b0OY

Walking on water...