levitation ... huh

[unhappy]

I was wondering if any of you guys have any info whatsoever on how do ppl like David Blain and Chris Angel levitate in front of ppl on the street. I know it's impossible but how the hell do they do it.

Sub-question: Do you think that US millitary investigates this sort-a thing

[The Duck]

It's an optical illusian, I used to be able to do it when I was interested in magic, though not as good as blain... You stand in a way where your audiance is at a certain angle... it's hard to explain, if you go to blain's website he tells you how he does it and it works, though you need a lot of practice to do it like he does... Though I don't know if he still has the secret on his site... If you must absolutly know I guess I will type out the explination later... but before you want me to do that try searching his site.

[©opy®ight]

You stand in a way where your audiance is at a certain angle..

What if theres somebody all around you....can you make it appear in a certain angle to everyone ?

[Egaladeist]

http://www.ellusionist.com/david-blaine.htm
David Blaine Street Magic — Levitation Technique

[Spyder32]

There's something a tad crazy about that.. I think it's all an illusion, BUT.. I don't care WHAT angle your looking at all that from. If you see a man's feet leave the ground and he isn't touching anything, it doesn't matter WHAT angle your looking at it from.

What if theres somebody all around you....can you make it appear in a certain angle to everyone ?

Exactly. It doesn't matter the angle your looking at it from: the man's feet are off the ground.

[Cache]

What you see on TV is fake. I can't remember where I read it, but what he does is use the technique where he leaves one foot on the ground. The camera records the peoples' reactions because they really think he is levitating. Then, he is hooked up to a crain and lifted farther up. They plug in the people being suprised, and bam! You have yourself an instant "magic" trick.

[nihil]

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/philadelphia.html

In answer to:

Sub-question: Do you think that US millitary investigates this sort-a thing

I think that they investigate all sorts of stuff. Some of the published works make interesting reading. Optical illusions, camoflage, psychology & auto-suggestion..................

[Spyder32]

Cache: Are you sure they do that? I highly doubt it.. there have been live people see David Blaine do it LIVE in NYC and yeah.. Maybe with the TV Show Criss Angel dude.. but David Blaine has done it LIVE.

[HTRegz]

Hey Hey,

My roommate and I used to be huge into magic... I've also worked back-stage on a few magic shows... While I've signed waivers on the tricks used in those... there are others that I haven't.

The way the trick works is to get the person back and to one side of you.. The better you are at the trick the more variance you have in how you do it. The idea is to have great balance and as sad as it sounds strength in your toes with a flexible piece of footwear. You lift one foot completely (the one closest to the onlookers) and the other foot is lifted in the back, the foot is bent and you balance on one toe... That's why at times you can see that it looks like David is falling... he's lost his balance. When the tricks are performed on stage, there are other aspects (similar to theatre performances where people fly with rigging and "flies").. As for the scenes that are cut in where you see both of his feet off the ground, those are usually edited in afterwards. A friend of mine once made a video of himself levitating... He filmed himself jumping in the air and then slowed it down and duplicated frames while dubbing sound over top.

Remember there's no such thing as magic.. it's all illusions that rely on misdirection of some sort or another.

Peace,
HT

[The Duck]

What if theres somebody all around you....can you make it appear in a certain angle to everyone ?

Exactly. It doesn't matter the angle your looking at it from: the man's feet are off the ground

Yes it does matter which angle the audiance is looking from, not once in his shows do you see the audiance behind him, to the side of him, etc. It's always from the same general angle... But if you want to argue and keep suggesting that he's this magical man that can fly, then there's something wrong with you.

And I wouldn't doubt what cache has to say either... magic is definitly not magic... It's cleverness.

HTRegz explained the technique perfectly, that's how he does it, I was just to lazy to type it all out...