Has anyone figured out how "Mindfreak" Chris Angel levitates"?

Question

I think he is one of the best in this time. Have you tried to levitate?

Answer 1

I FOUND THIS ON THE WEB. LINK INCLUDED....

Explanation of the Illusion

Although the illusion of levitation is a very convincing one, you are actually just taking advantage of angles and the positioning of your body.. In reality, you are raising up on the tip toes of the foot furthest from the view of the spectator as shown below.
The audience can not see the supporting foot because it is hidden by your pants, the angle of the trick and your closest shoe. You may only rise a few inches off the floor, but when performed correctly, this is an absolute miracle! You will want to slowly rise off of the ground. Pause for only a moment and decend. Practice until you have the angles right and can do it effectively.

(The two small illustrations show the trick during performance. The one on the left is the start of the illusion and the illustration on the right show the performer in mid flight.)

Performance Notes: Don't just walk up to people and say, "want to see me levitate?" Start out by showing them some other tricks. This will let you know if they are a good audience for the levitation or not. If they tend to grab at your hands or seem to go out of their way to try to spoil the magic. Then you do not waste this trick on them. They will blow the trick for you, and everyone else. This levitation requires a polite and responsive audience - people that enjoy being entertained.

After a few other tricks, simply have your audience gather together and then set up for the illusion. "Can everyone see my feet?" is something good to say at this point.

Practice in front of a mirror, or better yet, in front of a video camera. Set the camera at eye level where your audience would be and perform the trick several times. This will help you learn the angles faster. Better yet, let a friend in on the trick and have him/her videotape the performance.

This trick is best performed for small groups, or better yet.. Individual people. Once you have mastered this illusion, you have a real miracle at your disposal. Have Fun!

Closing Comments: If you saw David Blaine do this on tv and are wondering why he seemed to fly so high, the unfortunate reality is.. David Blaine is the first magician to resort to camera tricks to improve his performance.

For the television special, Blaine performed this levitation in front of several different groups of people, and the camera was there to catch their reaction. He used the same method described on this website.

But after the show.. the producers had these same people hang around for another taping of the illusion but this time the camera was positioned behind the audience members to get a clear view of Blaine in action. The audience members were told that the second performance was to show them how a magician could use wires to float. And that is exactly what he did. A small harness and wire rig was set up and Blaine performed a standard wire levitation.

What Blaine did was a camera trick known as post production editing. The audience at home watched the faked levitation performance, with the audience reaction of the real levitation edited in. During the special they mentioned no strings or wires were used to perform Blaine's levitation. . Unfortunately, we never got to see Blaine's real levitation - we saw a camera trick. It is very sad that a magician would resort to such tactics to try to make themselves look talented

Answer 2

I've been wondering that same thing. I love watching his show...the guy is amazing! He makes everything look so real and believeable.

Although I don't know the answer, I share your curiosity.

Answer 3

yupz...he is fantastic..i think even betta den david blaine...
nope i haf neva tried..but i heard dat some yoga gurus are able to levitate after meditating and freeing their mind...

Answer 4

It's an optical illusion... camera angles. You can find the info on the net if you search.