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Feats of Human Endurance

  • 28-03-2008 3:05pm
    #1
    6th
    Registered Users Posts: 17,247 ✭✭✭✭


    Time for another poll ala Hypnotism and Ventriloquism - <3 Polls!

    Anyway not magic and not Illusion but walking on hot coals, laying on beds of nails, encasement in blocks of ice etc have been done by magicians for a long time ..... where does it fit in if indeed it fits in at all?

    Do they have a place? 13 votes

    Its Magic Jim, but not as we know it!
    0% 0 votes
    No its totally seperate.
    38% 5 votes
    Depends
    53% 7 votes
    Meh
    7% 1 vote


Comments

  • #2
    6th
    Registered Users Posts: 17,247 ✭✭✭✭6th


    For me its simply a case of mind over matter and a well trained mind is capable of some impressive stuff.

    Blain is probably the first person that jumps into most minds but is what he does to his body related to the magic he preforms?


  • #3
    Sherifu
    Registered Users Posts: 17,727 ✭✭✭✭Sherifu


    6th wrote: »
    For me its simply a case of mind over matter and a well trained mind is capable of some impressive stuff.

    Blain is probably the first person that jumps into most minds but is what he does to his body related to the magic he preforms?
    Indeed. It's not really magic imo anyway.


  • #4
    rubadub
    Registered Users Posts: 32,373 ✭✭✭✭rubadub


    But I expect some of these feats are really tricks or illusions. e.g. it might appear to be impossible to be doing something which is actually easy, staying in ice. Or they could just be blatantly cheating, like eating when they are meant to have no food.

    Have any been exposed like this? be it cheating or just that the feat is not actually that hard. e.g. I was never impressed with a bed of nails, it is dispersed pressure points. I am more impressed if I have tried or can easily try some feat myself.


  • #5
    Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,556 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    walking on hot coals isnt really mind over matter, it's heat versus the ****ty conductivity of human skin divided by the speed you are walking over the coals.


  • #6
    rubadub
    Registered Users Posts: 32,373 ✭✭✭✭rubadub


    Mordeth wrote: »
    walking on hot coals isnt really mind over matter, it's heat versus the ****ty conductivity of human skin divided by the speed you are walking over the coals.
    Yes, they have staff training days using this.

    Nails
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_of_nails

    These are not really illusions or tricks, it is more a misconception of physics, dunno if there is a proper term? People presume something is difficult while it is not that hard. A lot of feats of strength are like this. A guy saying he can lift 1000kg, while he might raise it 2mm, somebody who can lift 200kg might at first be impressed, but having never attempted 1000kg they do not know if it is good or not, a kid might be able to do it.

    I can bend steel bars with my bare hands- coathangers. There are guides online about ripping phone books in half, there is a simple physics combined with a technique that could be called sleight of hand. I can stand barefoot on metal at 600C and not be burned,- tinfoil.


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  • #7
    Voodu Child
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,706 ✭✭✭Voodu Child


    Tbh, i can't recall ANY 'magicians' performing the walking on hot coals or bed of nails, so I don't think the question even needs to be asked. Im sure there have been some, but mostly that stuff is the preserve of mystics, fakirs and religious types...maybe the Shaolin monks, they do some bed of nails things in their act. Not magicians though.

    Act of endurance...well as mentioned, Blaine springs to mind. Some of his stunts have had some trickery involved, some havent. I don't think they would strictly fall under magic or illusion (there is nothing magical about a guy sitting in a box), but having said that, I think discussion of them should be considered 'on topic'. Lets face it, if Blaine does a new stunt and someone want's to have a natter about it, the magic and illusion forum is likely to be the first place they think of.


  • #8
    6th
    Registered Users Posts: 17,247 ✭✭✭✭6th


    voodoo_child wrote: »
    I don't think they would strictly fall under magic or illusion (there is nothing magical about a guy sitting in a box), but having said that, I think discussion of them should be considered 'on topic'. Lets face it, if Blaine does a new stunt and someone want's to have a natter about it, the magic and illusion forum is likely to be the first place they think of.

    Thats pretty much how I'd see it.


  • #9
    rubadub
    Registered Users Posts: 32,373 ✭✭✭✭rubadub


    I hear Blaine is rumoured to be going to try for the longest session of sleep deprivation in May, 11.5 days it the previous record. The guinness book of records refuse to list it as it is dangerous. I remember hearing of a US DJ attempting it, the guy was a really funny DJ but was meant to go a bit mad after a few days, messes your head up big time.

    That would impress me far more than the ice trick, if he can pull it off and there are good controls in place to monitor him.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blaine#Preparing_a_new_show


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