Quigong practitioner, don't know how he does it

jakesteele said:
There are no Tesla Coils that I could see so that is a moot point unless you could find one hidden off camera.
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Indeed, which is why I wrote that I wasn't implying that that was how he did it... :confused:

They also, generally, require a corded power supply and are quite noisy. I was making a comparison between similar physical effects and what I saw in the video. Surely there are other simple means of concealing an object on one's person that could shock another person using similar means. Heck, an electric joy buzzer would do the job...
 
jasonpatterson said:
Indeed, which is why I wrote that I wasn't implying that that was how he did it... :confused:

They also, generally, require a corded power supply and are quite noisy. I was making a comparison between similar physical effects and what I saw in the video. Surely there are other simple means of concealing an object on one's person that could shock another person using similar means. Heck, an electric joy buzzer would do the job...
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LOL, at 'electric joy buzzer'. That's sounds as good as any an explanation because magicians tricks while appearing amazing and baffling on the surface more often than not are some very simple thing like that. That's why I never watch that show 'Magician's Tricks Revealed', it really bums me out to have the 'magic' taken away.
 
jakesteele said:
LOL, at 'electric joy buzzer'. That's sounds as good as any an explanation because magicians tricks while appearing amazing and baffling on the surface more often than not are some very simple thing like that. That's why I never watch that show 'Magician's Tricks Revealed', it really bums me out to have the 'magic' taken away.
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From House:

(The magician/patient dazzles House with a trick he can't explain. House wants to know how he did it but the patient refuses.}

Magician: "Oh, if I explain it becomes mundane, and you lose the actual magic.

House: "What do you mean the actual magic? Think you're actually sawing woman in half? ...Magic is cool. Actual magic is oxymoronic. Might not even be oxy...."

Magician: "The fun is in not knowing."

House: "The fun is in knowing...." (House demonstrates a little magic while saying this and then later demonstrates his own abilities,) "You eat a lot of beets, you have an electric toothbrush, and you sleep less than six hours a night."

Magician: "That's impressive."

House: "The red betamine from the beets stains the plaque deposits on your teeth, which are then swirled by your spinning toothbrush. Your heavy lids and your prematurely aging skin tell me that you're carrying a major sleep debt."

Magician: "That was way cooler before you explained it."

House: "It was meaningless until I explained it."

Magician: "People come to my show because they want a sense of wonder. They want to experience something that they can't explain."

House: "If the wonder's gone when the truth is known, there never was any wonder. You have tularaemia from your rabbits. I've put you on antibiotics, you'll be better in a couple of days. Sorry to spoil the mystery."
 
I remember that same video that KingMerv00 mentioned: Randi debunked a guy JUST like this on a show. It was that Korean show that had Randi on as an expert. They did the ground work themselves.

I couldn't find it at first, but a little digging turned it up. Sorry, all the narration is in Korean:



It turned out he has a gadget in his shoe that supplies an electric charge through his feet. He manipulated it by moving his foot at appropriate moments. I think it precisely explains what is happening in the OP video. It doesn't take much voltage at all to cause muscle movements, especially if it is being directed to precise locations using acupuncture needles or other means.

The gun trick is pure sleight of hand, doesn't impress me at all.

Yes, this video is another reminder that one should always have a conjurer present when investigating people of this sort.
 
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KingMerv00 said:
From House:

(The magician/patient dazzles House with a trick he can't explain. House wants to know how he did it but the patient refuses.}

Magician: "Oh, if I explain it becomes mundane, and you lose the actual magic.

House: "What do you mean the actual magic? Think you're actually sawing woman in half? ...Magic is cool. Actual magic is oxymoronic. Might not even be oxy...."

Magician: "The fun is in not knowing."

House: "The fun is in knowing...." (House demonstrates a little magic while saying this and then later demonstrates his own abilities,) "You eat a lot of beets, you have an electric toothbrush, and you sleep less than six hours a night."

Magician: "That's impressive."

House: "The red betamine from the beets stains the plaque deposits on your teeth, which are then swirled by your spinning toothbrush. Your heavy lids and your prematurely aging skin tell me that you're carrying a major sleep debt."

Magician: "That was way cooler before you explained it."

House: "It was meaningless until I explained it."

Magician: "People come to my show because they want a sense of wonder. They want to experience something that they can't explain."

House: "If the wonder's gone when the truth is known, there never was any wonder. You have tularaemia from your rabbits. I've put you on antibiotics, you'll be better in a couple of days. Sorry to spoil the mystery."
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:D

I've asked this question before on another site but never really got an answer. The question is, how did Randi bend the spoon and make it break into two pieces when he did the thing with Uri Geller on the Johnny Carson show. I've seen Michael Shermer do it but only with optical angles that make it appear that the spoon is bent; it did not break into two distinct pieces. I want to know how Randi did it, his was way cooler.

The only thing I can think of is like when you take a piece of wire and bend it in the middle and with hands on either end you bend it back and forth quickly, the metal gets hot and malleable. The only problem is that the metal is too hot to touch. So, how's it done, if you know?
 
jakesteele said:
The only thing I can think of is like when you take a piece of wire and bend it in the middle and with hands on either end you bend it back and forth quickly, the metal gets hot and malleable. The only problem is that the metal is too hot to touch. So, how's it done, if you know?
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It's done like that. The heat doesn't make it break, the weakening of the metal does.
 
krelnik said:
I remember that same video that KingMerv00 mentioned: Randi debunked a guy JUST like this on a show. It was that Korean show that had Randi on as an expert. They did the ground work themselves.

I couldn't find it at first, but a little digging turned it up. Sorry, all the narration is in Korean:



It turned out he has a gadget in his shoe that supplies an electric charge through his feet. He manipulated it by moving his foot at appropriate moments. I think it precisely explains what is happening in the OP video. It doesn't take much voltage at all to cause muscle movements, especially if it is being directed to precise locations using acupuncture needles or other means.

The gun trick is pure sleight of hand, doesn't impress me at all.

Yes, this video is another reminder that one should always have a conjurer present when investigating people of this sort.
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Ah, this one is ABR -- Already Been Randi'd. I didn't know such devices existed. Thanks for the footwork, Krelnik! Now I'll have something to tell my buddies about this.

I looked at the original video again. It looks like the "chi master" pulls his stomach back before shocking the sound man, which would break the ground and cause just the kind of shock Randi mentions. Nobody is injured by feeling the "chi." It looks more like a reaction to a static electricity shock.

Ok, I'm pretty satisfied that this one is done. Yay for reason!
 
jakesteele said:
:D

I've asked this question before on another site but never really got an answer. The question is, how did Randi bend the spoon and make it break into two pieces when he did the thing with Uri Geller on the Johnny Carson show. I've seen Michael Shermer do it but only with optical angles that make it appear that the spoon is bent; it did not break into two distinct pieces. I want to know how Randi did it, his was way cooler.
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Heh...I'm pretty familiar with this. At TAM6 we did a world record spoon bend:



I was lucky enough to help with the prep work along with Teek and about 4 others. To prep the spoons, we pre-bent them all until a stress fracture appeared at the part where the bowl meets the handle. By the time they got into the hands of the audience, the spoons we quite fragile.

(Randi has a forum rule against revealing how magic tricks are done but this is a special case. He has debunked Uri Gellar so many times, I'm sure he won't mind.)
 
Odd also that they didn't look under the table at what he was actually passing the chopstick through.

Odd that they claimed to be leading an investigation of his electrical properties, but they misdescribed LEDs as color-changing, something anyone with very basic exposure would catch.

Odd that they spent all their time on parlor tricks and didn't seriously investigate his "healing" powers with any real scrutiny.
 
CelticRose said:
The first part of the video just looked like he knew acupunture and acupressure very well. If you know the right pressure points to stimulate, you can get a physical reaction.
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But then acupuncture would have to actually work wouldn't it?
 
jakesteele said:
I've asked this question before on another site but never really got an answer. The question is, how did Randi bend the spoon and make it break into two pieces when he did the thing with Uri Geller on the Johnny Carson show. I've seen Michael Shermer do it but only with optical angles that make it appear that the spoon is bent; it did not break into two distinct pieces. I want to know how Randi did it, his was way cooler.
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I got in massive trouble for bending and breaking spoons when I was about 8 (1986 or so) because I learned how it was done and wanted to try for myself. I went through about a dozen spoons and forks and attempted to 'bend' butter knife handles as well. Let's just say that the parents were not amused with my attempts.

In the famous Uri Geller on Carson episode, they took great care to make sure that he had no prior contact with the spoons, so that he couldn't prep them. If you take a normal, undamaged spoon and attempt the same thing with it, you're going to be wiggling it for an awfully long time. If you are overly zealous in your preparation, the fracture is obvious (or it just falls apart), if you don't do it enough, the trick doesn't work.
 
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