Magic - I'm curious what everyone thinks about these guys. This isn't the magic I grew up with. But is it still only "a trick"?

not sure if all of that is "real" or not, but MAGICK definitely is!  hard to know once a camera has been involved as well...  at least if one is there on the street one can cross-check other senses.  but, whether it is "true" or not, if it gets people to believe more is out there to experience and they can't necessarily rationalize it away, more power to them!  why, we're in the midst of a very large and very elaborate magic "trick" right now!  ;)

the kingdom of the elementals has many levels of interface and artifice.  devas, demons, djinn, faeries and the like...  so many stories.  check out threads along the lines of Dr. John Dee and King Solomon and his ring for more shady areas in our history and current world drama/dilemma...  and beware of mirrors and looking glasses!  Dr. Dee had a lens of polished obsidian whereby he made contact...

   YOU GOT THAT RIGHT BROTHER!

just what i've been thinking lately.  "real", "not real", "truth", "fiction"...  it's all lies!  some are better constructed than others...

doesn't really matter WHAT it is, it's how we deal with it.  i agree to the point of belief systems and their inherent fallacy.  EXCEPT to the believer.  but to everyone else, useful only as a reflection or insight.  not something to be adopted.

and, yes, even angels/demons, aliens, THE HIERARCHY, devas/faeiries, etc., etc., etc...  the ideas and imaginings of specific people in specific places reflected through their beliefs/superstitions.  the ideal balanced and fully functioning HUMAN BEING would embody all of those things.  wouldn't need to "project" them.  but it's fun to have friends and company, so why not?  ;)

has been filmed, leaving footprints in rock, shoving his staff into a cliff face to release a spring near a monestary and village which were in a drought. He often has been photographed with rainbows around him...his life has been dedicated to benefiting his thousands of students whom he's taken responsibility for feeding and housing; he's a feminist commited to the education of girls and women, etc.

I suppose there are two sides to "powers."

In a universe where matter is essentially space (science says) and consciousness is THE universal element out of which all else is created (quantum physics and mystics throughout the ages say), why is it hard to conceive of events that violate the currently accepted "laws" of physics? 

A note to Chris and Brian: Careful when you call something "lies" or "imaginings,"   That presumes that you know something.  Try out the possibility that you know nothing in terms of baseline reality (if there even is such a "thing.")  IMO, we'll navigate this raging and mysterious river of flux much more successfully with a modus operandi of not knowing (i.e, staying open to possibilities that we can't even imagine). 

Try out the possibility that you know nothing ...I'm with you on that one Bob.  The older I get the more convinced I am that there is soooo much we don't understand.  The challenge for me is letting that be ok.  Being accepting of the idea that everything changes, nothing is 'stable' in this physical/material realm, and that change is something to embrace.  The more I can do that, the more 'in flow' I become. It gets really hard when you are always fighting invisible currents upstream. Be the change you want to see in the world (I know it's become cliche', but it rings true to me).

    has always been in seeing someone do the "impossible",to be amazed! So, our mind is already in an altered state going in.

   I go along with the idea that "we know nothing". To me that makes the magic show unexciting, and the tricks just simple examples of what we are truly capable of. Assuming nothing makes it much easier to "go with the flow", and increases the chance of observing what is really going on, based on how much attention your "observer" thinks is focusing on it. In the "skewer the arm trick", I would only note that, I haven't seen a magician let someone run it all the way through the arm. He does let them make the final push to exit the other side, which of course enhances the effect for the audience. He often lets them pull it out, as it has already been guided through properly,so extraction is simple and not dangerous. I would think that, if guided between the muscles,along the layers of fasciae that it is doable. I saw a man who took a six foot, tapered pinch bar through his head, exiting his frontal lobe survive,as it ran right down  the valley between the lobes of his brain, and this was a flying pinch bar,,,not a carefully guided barbecue skewer!

    As Noa said, as time goes on, people keep expecting to be wowed more and more,so what's next, a live crucifixion? ha! I think it is a good example of our "evolution". As we grow to believe that more and more is possible, more and more "becomes" possible!

Since you really want some feedback, Gary, I'll give you my opinions, though clearly none of us, but those privy to the "trick" will know for sure.

Magic shows began with tricks, distractions, suggestions, hypnosis, and slight of hand.  These progressed to more advanced illusions as the true mark of the magician's talent is his increasing ability to entertain the audience with more and more miraculous stunts.  I think it's safe to say that today's magic has progressed in quantum leaps from the dog and pony shows of our childhoods.  If it hadn't, magic shows would have died the same death that vaudeville did and magicians would be a dying breed.

Some people say that some of today's top musicians would not be where they are if they had not pledged their allegiance to the Illuminati, or otherwise "sold their souls" to the dark occult forces.  It's not a big stretch of the imagination then to think that magicians/illusionists may have done likewise.

While I do not pretend to know the secrets of how the feats in these videos were done, I will note my observations here in hopes that this will lead to further interesting discussion.

Are such feats demonic in nature?  By definition, to be demonic, the acts would have to be cruel and evil.  I don't see any evidence of that here.  Some fundamental religions would argue that any miraculous feat that doesn't come by way of Jesus or one of the saints is demonic.  I don't believe that.  In any case, it would be difficult for the "second coming of Christ" to make its appearance on Earth if we  attribute all seemingly magical acts to demons.

I believe that the individuals in these videos have managed to cultivate an energy (chi?) passing through their hands that facilitates their magic.  A possible clue to this phenomena may be when the hands of two of the magicians became too hot to touch.  It's also interesting to note that in both cases, it was the magician's left hand that was used -- the side at which chi enters our bodies.

There is a lot about human bodies and the universe that we just don't know.  How was it possible for humans to build the pyramids?  Or in modern times, for Edward Leedskalnin to build Coral Castle?  Much ancient knowledge has been suppressed and is only now becoming known through such works at the recently uncovered Gnostic gospels.  There is at least as much mystery surrounding the purported properties of the Philospher's Stone.  Perhaps these magicians, by whatever means, have unearthed some secrets that are unknown to the rest of us.

In the end, we just don't know what we don't know.  So for me the best tact, is to keep an open mind and learn all I can.

      He had me convinced,,,until I went back and saw him tap her on the  back...but, unless the people he used were not strangers,,,he was believable...Cutting the energy lines, or meridians of someone,,,even from a great distance is definitely possible,,,and repairing them, so the things he's doing aren't so far fetched to me, andhe is fun to watch....