African shaman performing levitation

Why do they have to wait until night?

Its rather obvious that he is being pulled by wires rather than floating. His body gets jerked when he goes up. Something that would happen if he were held by wires, not floating.

David Copperfield is better.
 
insidespace said:
Yeah but what "caused" your "motor cortex" to will your arm up? No body even thinks something caused every thing you decide to do. That is why people have "free will."

Or, don't you believe people have "free will?"
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I don't "believe" you're for real, but I'll "play along" anyway.

What has this "question" about the "motor cortex" have to do with your claim that "nothing" makes the arm go up?

We could discuss the current state of "neuroscience" and mention "emergent" properties at various levels of "organization", but it's really "not" the same topic.

BTW, what's up with the quotation marks?
 
Enlighten said:
Why do they have to wait until night?

Its rather obvious that he is being pulled by wires rather than floating. His body gets jerked when he goes up. Something that would happen if he were held by wires, not floating.

David Copperfield is better.
Click to expand...

It doesn't look like wires to me. The way he moves up, and the fact that the middle part of his body stays pretty much immobile while he moves his legs a bit from side to side, suggests that he is being raised on the end of a lever. He probably has a rigid harness around the middle part of his body, which is attached at his back to the end of the lever. The lever (a simple pole, maybe painted black) goes behind him into the bushes and rests on a pivot. At the other end of the lever the assistant pushes down to make the shaman go up.

This is just like a simple seesaw: if you're not familiar with them, go to the nearest children's playground and have a look. Imagine a bigger version of the seesaw, long enough to reach to the centre of the circle of fire and have the pivot hidden in the bushes.

This technique is older, simpler and much cheaper than Copperfield's. But as we see, it can still fool some suckers!
 
I'm leaning towards lever as the mechanism of lift also. It's obvious he's almost surprised as he's rising, and he's having a little trouble balancing. Would a real, levitating shaman have trouble balancing if he was in total control of the 'vibrations'? :rolleyes:

Clearly the camera man nearest him is in on it, and we'll never see the actual footage that camera took unless the makers of the film are generous enough to show the world the entire ordeal was FAKE.

The only thing I can't figure out is, if he was attached to a type of lever, how did they disconnect him from the lever and remove the device fast enough for us to have not seen it when he 'falls'? I suppose it was simply editing.

I really wish the jerks that filmed this would step forward.
 
When he falls at the end, either it's editing or there's a release mechanism that uncouples him from the end of the lever. Maybe the release mechanism is operated by the assistant by means of a cable, so the shaman really does fall.
 
cloudshipsrule said:
(snip)
The only thing I can't figure out is, if he was attached to a type of lever, how did they disconnect him from the lever and remove the device fast enough for us to have not seen it when he 'falls'? I suppose it was simply editing.

I really wish the jerks that filmed this would step forward.
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I think you answered your own question--editing. The side shot where he begins to fall doesn't seem to match the head-on shot. I'll bet that the mechanism simply began to lower him fast (side shot); then he got off the seesaw. The front camera began to shoot--and he jumped up as high as he could, landed, and pretended to fall backward. The tape was edited so that we see only him coming down, not jumping up.
 
Lots of name calling hereabouts. I am either this Dejan person, or Sylvia rocks, or a "troll" or all of those. None of it means anything to me, honestly.

I think the interesting thing hit on above was the stuff about the "motor cortex." Like the elephant said, its turtles all the way down. How does referring to the "motor cortex" explain why your arm goes up? What caused your motor cortex to "will" your arm up? Another electrical thing in another cortex? What caused that? And what caused that?

So, if the motor cortex is the "first cause" of something, doesn't your center of gravity change when the motor cortex does its thing? Or do you think that "thoughts" don't weigh anything? If so, do you think that thoughts are not part of the body at all? Hmmm?

Well, so, if the "center of gravity" can change by thought, why can't it change in a bigger way, like levitating the African Shaman before your very eyes. Maybe his will is strong enough to change his center of gravity more than yours ha ha.

You know, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Get it?
 
insidespace said:
So, if the motor cortex is the "first cause" of something, doesn't your center of gravity change when the motor cortex does its thing? Or do you think that "thoughts" don't weigh anything? If so, do you think that thoughts are not part of the body at all? Hmmm?
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Definitely a troll...
 
insidespace said:
Lots of name calling hereabouts. I am either this Dejan person, or Sylvia rocks, or a "troll" or all of those. None of it means anything to me, honestly.

I think the interesting thing hit on above was the stuff about the "motor cortex." Like the elephant said, its turtles all the way down. How does referring to the "motor cortex" explain why your arm goes up? What caused your motor cortex to "will" your arm up? Another electrical thing in another cortex? What caused that? And what caused that?

So, if the motor cortex is the "first cause" of something, doesn't your center of gravity change when the motor cortex does its thing? Or do you think that "thoughts" don't weigh anything? If so, do you think that thoughts are not part of the body at all? Hmmm?

Well, so, if the "center of gravity" can change by thought, why can't it change in a bigger way, like levitating the African Shaman before your very eyes. Maybe his will is strong enough to change his center of gravity more than yours ha ha.

You know, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Get it?
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Wow...talking elephants, motor cortex controlling gravity.... :seroflmao:
 
I think most everyone agreed they can make themselves heavier. The dispute was over how they did it and whether it could me measured on a scale.
 
insidespace said:
I think most everyone agreed they can make themselves heavier. The dispute was over how they did it and whether it could me measured on a scale.
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Most everyone??? Perhpas the talking elephant you referenced in a previous post?

I must say...your grasp of reality is...umm....er....grasping for the right words....lets say non-existant. Please tell me you don't drive a vehicle or own any guns.....
 
insidespace said:
Lots of name calling hereabouts. I am either this Dejan person, or Sylvia rocks, or a "troll" or all of those. None of it means anything to me, honestly.

I think the interesting thing hit on above was the stuff about the "motor cortex." Like the elephant said, its turtles all the way down. How does referring to the "motor cortex" explain why your arm goes up? What caused your motor cortex to "will" your arm up? Another electrical thing in another cortex? What caused that? And what caused that?

So, if the motor cortex is the "first cause" of something, doesn't your center of gravity change when the motor cortex does its thing? Or do you think that "thoughts" don't weigh anything? If so, do you think that thoughts are not part of the body at all? Hmmm?

Well, so, if the "center of gravity" can change by thought, why can't it change in a bigger way, like levitating the African Shaman before your very eyes. Maybe his will is strong enough to change his center of gravity more than yours ha ha.

You know, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Get it?
Click to expand...
Your center of gravity doesn't change by thought alone, action must be taken for it to change. In additon changing your center of gravity doesn't change gravity or your weight.

insidespace said:
I think most everyone agreed they can make themselves heavier. The dispute was over how they did it and whether it could me measured on a scale.
Click to expand...


Sometimes I wonder if you are talking to someone else half the time since I have no idea where this came from. Certainly on this forum there has been no such consensus and in fact if anything you are the only one making any such claims.
 
Don't forget, dogs can make themselves heavier for a reason.
Apparently during the Neolithic period, running and biting wasn't enough to
keep dogs from being stolen, so they evolved the 'getting heavier' ability,
which now has become vestigial, as biting works better. :D
 
Who's the fattest member on this forum?
Make him sit on insidespace.

It's now obvious that insidespace is a troll (why is it when someone's bothering the forum he's called a troll? they look harmless enough).


He's just toying with you guys now making outrageous claims about everything he can just to see when we'll all break and give up on this thread.

Regards,
Yair
 
Wow! Just finished this thread. Fortunately, my head did not explode.

Anyway, a little derail... One of inside's links about Amedee Zuccarini got me thinking. Is he the medium who claimed he could levitate, but only had one photograph of himself doing the trick? I think I remember the photo, but my google skills were not up to the task of finding it.

Does anyone else know the photo? As I recall, it has been debunked - something about inconsistencies in the wallpaper, I believe. Anyone?
 
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