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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'>Criss Angel: A Person of Interest <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>������ </span>In the top suite of the Luxor Hotel in </span><st1:City><st1:place><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Las Vegas</span></st1:place></st1:City><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'> lives a 43 year old man named <span
class=apple-style-span><span style='color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Christopher
Nicholas Sarantakos:</span></span> aka, Criss Angel. Criss performs magic
tricks in public places in broad daylight before live audiences - tricks that
defy logic and draw stunned expressions of disbelief from the onlookers. Here
are a few examples of what I have seen him do on video.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Walking on Water<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Criss walks across a swimming
pool full of people while holding a camcorder pointed at his feet. Halfway
across the pool he kicks off his shoes and videotapes the shoes as they make
their way to the bottom. This shows the viewers there is nothing beneath him
but water.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�</span>Just to make sure it�s for real, a girl with
another camcorder swims underneath him and records the image of the bottom of
his feet as he walks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>� </span>In another demonstration of this unique gift,
he walks from the edge of </span><st1:place><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Lake
Mead</span></st1:place><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> out to the center of
the lake. A helicopter and speedboat circle around him as he walks. Swimmers,
up to their necks in the water, follow his progress with camcorders. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Transforming Matter <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Criss sits at a table with
two children who watch him as he pours orange juice from a pitcher into a
glass. When the glass is full he turns it upside down. My experience with
liquids and gravity tells me the orange juice should fall out of the glass and
splash all over the table. Instead, it stays inside the glass and solidifies
into a gel. As the children watch in amazement, it changes into an orange
canary that flies out of the glass and lands on his shoulder.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Right.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Passing Through Glass<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Criss attaches a cloth to the
outside of a storefront window then goes inside the store as a small group of
volunteers watch from outside. A moment later they can see the cloth begin to
move as his hand slips through the glass. Slowly he slides his entire body
through the glass until he is standing outside the storefront. Once he is all
the way through he removes the cloth so that the onlookers can that glass
window is still intact.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�</span>In another demonstration he enters the lobby
of the Luxor Hotel and approaches a young lady who is putting coins into a
vending machine. As he stands in front of the machine the machine suddenly jams
and leaves the package stuck inside. Criss offers to retrieve her snack and
begins by placing a cloth over the glass. He then slides his hand beneath the
cloth, grabs the package and pulls it through the glass. He removes the cloth
and shows the onlookers the glass is solid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Teleportation:</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Criss drops a cloth bandana
tied in a knot over the side of a ten story building. Seconds later he appears
on the street below and catches it before it hits the sidewalk. Later he
materializes an 800 lb elephant on a rooftop before a hundred eyewitnesses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Levitation:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>After nightfall, a helicopter
lifts Criss to the top of the Luxor Hotel and drops him off in the center of
its 800 degree halogen spotlight. From inside the beam he rises one hundred
feet into the sky as a crowd of people gathered around the hotel watch and take
pictures from below. There are no props visible anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>� </span>In another performance he slowly floats from
the rooftop of one building to the rooftop of a second building in broad
daylight as a crowd below watches in amazement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�</span>Inside the lobby of the Luxor Hotel he climbs
up on the handrail of the tenth floor balcony and steps out into space. He
slowly descends all the way to the floor of the lobby before a crowd of stunned
onlookers. There are no wire or supports visible anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>� </span>Listen to this: He gathers a crowd of fifty
people inside a large room and asks them to close their eyes and visualize the
happiest and most peaceful moment in their lives. As they do this Criss counts
down to zero and shouts �NOW!� at which point everyone appears to fall asleep.
Very quietly he walks around the room and touches certain people, who, one by
one, begin to float upward. One girl rose twenty feet off the floor, where she
hung in mid air, sound asleep.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>***<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�� </span>I know that raw video can be edited in the
post production stage to provide the audience with virtually anything the human
imagination can conjure up. It is called �CGI� or computer generated imagery. Critical
details can be added, altered or deleted to change what you see when working
with pixels and green screens. Remember the phony �Alien Autopsy� a few years
ago and how many of us believed it was real? I did.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>I could be wrong</span></b><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'> but it looks like Criss Angel was born with the ability to manipulate
the flow of sensory data through the brain that makes us see what we see. He
appears to have accomplished this through persistent mental effort, and
discovered that his gift could be experienced by others. Does this suggest we
are all hooked together in a shared activity called perception?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>� </span>You could label Criss� performance magic,
illusion, hypnosis, mind control, or energy manipulation. You may call it a
scam, a fraud, a hoax or something more sinister. I prefer to call it <b
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>entertainment</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�� </span>Criss� magic does make me think of the
biblical character, Jesus, who, according to believers, was the only person in
recorded history who could perform the kind of �miracles� that made him an
object of mass worship. So why is a kid from </span><st1:State><st1:place><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>New York</span></st1:place></st1:State><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'> with a baseball cap, black t-shirt labeled
�Mindfreak� and monogrammed jeans with holes in the knees performing many of
the same impossible tricks?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>��� </span>I recently read some angry blogs attacking
Criss as a scammer, a fraud, and a satanic character, but all I saw was a hard
working guy who discovered that he had a gift for magic and worked hard to
develop it to make himself a lot of money and have fun entertaining folks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>��� </span>The feeble explanations put forth by those
who know nothing about the workings of the brain � how the human brain converts
energy into experience - only deepens the mystery. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�� </span>The real magic that remains for Criss Angel
to perform are the ones that go beyond merely manipulating human attention. How
about ending human suffering. How about ending war and famine, curing the sick
and raising the dead.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�</span>How about it Criss?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�� </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>� </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�� </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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