Posted on 10/25/2004 6:40:05 PM PDT by dukeman
Ashland, Oregon-- Andre Kole wowed an audience of 400 Thursday night when he floated into the air - apparently unaided by wires or any other visible means of support. The world-renowned magician came to Southern Oregon University's Stevenson Union with a mission: to show his viewers the difference between illusion and the supernatural. "I try to create wonder and keep the wonder alive in people," said Kole. "With so many problems in the world today, people enjoy fantasy because, if only for a little while, it turns their attention away from all that's wrong. They love to be entertained. They love to be fooled."
Kole started practicing legerdemain at the age of seven, when his mother gave him a magic set for Christmas. "Then, when I was eight I met a magician who taught me a few more tricks," he said. "That's what really got me started." After that he developed a passion for magic and devoted much of his childhood to learning new techniques. By the time he reached adulthood, he was very proficient at prestidigitation and the transition from amateur to professional magician was just another one of his smooth moves.
"He has traveled in all 50 states and 79 countries," said Robert Dorsch, director of operations at Andre Kole productions in Tempe, Arizona. "Millions of people all over the world have seen his performances, and the world's seven greatest magicians - including David Copperfield - have used his inventions."
In fact, Kole has invented more than 1,000 magic tricks. The Society of American Magicians and The Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood have both given him their highest awards, and The International Magicians Society unanimously choose him to receive the highly coveted MERLIN AWARD for Magic Inventor of the Decade.
That would come as no surprise to the Ashland audience. They knew he was great. After all, hadn't they, with their own eyes, seen Kole pass a Guillotine blade through a man's neck without injuring him? Hadn't they seen him cut off a woman's head and put it back on without harming her? Hadn't they seen Kole pass through a giant spinning fan without getting ground into hamburger meat?
Kole did all those things and many more, including materializing coins and filling a bucket with them, recreating a séance, and causing water to flow from a faucet that was attached to nothing but a young boy's head. He saved the levitation for his grand finale.
Before he got to that though, he shocked and mystified some in the crowd with the things he said during a ten-minute oral presentation. "Years ago, I was challenged, as a skeptic and as a magician, to investigate the miracles of Christ from the point of view of a magician," he said. "At that time, I took great pride in the fact that I had never been fooled by any other magician, so I had no intention of being deceived by any form of first-century trickster, if that is all Jesus was."
Kole noted that after painstakingly reading accounts in the Bible, and other historical documents describing eyewitness accounts of the miracles performed by Jesus, he came to the conclusion that the miracles were truly supernatural feats.
Kole told the audience, "Recently in a worldwide television program, David Copperfield made this statement: 'The miracles of the Bible go beyond anything that any magician or illusionist could ever perform, but greater than any physical miracle was the ability of a man named Jesus to bring purpose and meaning to the lives of millions of people throughout the centuries.'" Kole noted that he wholeheartedly agreed with Copperfield.
He added that soon after researching the miracles of Christ, he (Kole) asked Him to come into his heart and take control of his life. "In one of the stories in the Bible, Jesus told Nicodemus, 'Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God,'" said Kole. "When I asked Jesus to come into my heart, for the first time I was able to see things pertaining to the spiritual dimension - God's Kingdom."
Not content to tell the audience that Jesus performed authentic miracles, Kole spoke of the Million Dollar Challenge http://www.randi.org/research/index.html
sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation. "This organization offers a one million dollar reward to anyone who can demonstrate a true paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event under proper viewing conditions," he explained. "So far nobody has been able to claim the prize money; in fact no one has even passed the relatively simple preliminary test of their supernatural powers."
Kole acknowledged that his magic tricks were illusions - carefully planned, and carefully executed maneuvers designed to fool viewers not trained in the field of magic. "There's nothing supernatural about anything that I do," he said.
But that didn't stop the audience from gasping in amazement when, from a sitting position, he floated into the air and remained suspended for several minutes while his assistants passed a steel hoop in front of, underneath, behind, on both sides, and above the magician.
After the Grand Finale, Cole went to a display table at the back of the auditorium to meet his admirers and autograph the books he has authored and videos he has produced. These included Mind Games, an expose on today's psychics and other prognosticators of false spiritual phenomena, Miracles of Deception, and Illusion or Reality. Posters and Andre Kole Magic Sets were on sale there too.
"I love to provide people with fantasy," said Kole. "Magic appeals to everyone; it goes beyond language, and beyond culture. A magician is one who uses natural means to create what looks like a supernatural effect. Any eight-year-old child can do the things I do...with 15 years of practice."
For more information on Kole, his shows, and publications, click on www.andrekole.org
I think the jet trick was a variation of the rotating platform, but I might be wrong on that. I think most of the times they do a "really big thing disappears" trick it is some variation on the rotating platform. I'm not an expert on magic, maybe some Freeper/magician can offer more.
Oergon? like washington - a bunch of flaming ignorant leftist jerks who will fall for any and all eastern lies - like the muslim extremists they elect to office.
Why are you paging someone who is specifically mentioned in the article?
Doncha worry when the anti Christ gets puts his act on the road there will be great signs and wonders..mind blowing extravaganzas....
Many will be fooled....and believe...
The bible says these will be so astounding that if not for the grace of God even the very elect
will be fooled..
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do
these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto
diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do." (Deuteronomy 18:10-14)
"Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times . . . Regard not them that have familiar spirits,
neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God." (Lev. 19:26, 31) "And the soul that turneth after such as have
familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people
. . . A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their
blood shall be upon them." (Lev. 20:6, 27)
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal. 5:19-21)
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exo. 22:18)
Notice that God doesn't make any distinction between good witches and evil witches. Every witch, every wizard, and every sorcerer in the Bible
is evil in the sight of God! Notice Acts 13:8-10:
"But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, (who
also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou
enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?"
"Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts." (Rev. 9:21) "And the light of a candle
shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were
the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." (Rev. 18:23)
I thought so, too. I never tire of stories about people who seek to disprove the claims of Christ, only to come to believe. God invented irony and He loves to display it in this way!
He's my hero for snagging both Josie Maran:
and Manon Von Gerkan:
snuffy,
I agree. A lot of stuff that is thought highly of and
harmless in this generation is harmful to us more than
people might think. The aspect of being thought of as
"ignorant" influences a lot of people to indulge in things
that aren't necessarily pleasing to God.
I had this type of reaction to the wildly popular book, The Da Vinci Code. I felt it would grieve God for me to read such a thing. My wife and I discussed this and we disagreed. I told her I wouldn't read the book for the same reason I don't go out to candlelit dinners with old girlfriends now that I'm married. It just wasn't right.
Don't lump all of us in that category. Some of us still live free, with the same laws of the Old West that have been here for centuries. Not all, but there are still Americans out here.
I just shot a bear last night in my yard (~400 pound black bear). Does that sound like Berkeley or Seattle to you?
Too Cool! That was the Oregon that I grew up in.
Awesome, (I hope I can still visit)
Why would they need to.. he debunks himself
Kole acknowledged that his magic tricks were illusions - carefully planned, and carefully executed maneuvers designed to fool viewers not trained in the field of magic. "There's nothing supernatural about anything that I do," he said.
I have so little time for reading myself that I have to
be sure that I'm choosing something that is true and
edifying to spend my time reading. I more recently did
read the Mitford series by Jan Karon which is just fiction
without the filth, try to read something from the Bible
pretty much every day. From what I read later, the
Da Vinci code thing was the flight of someone's fancy and
was debunked. At any rate, getting tangled up in a maze
is not something my head needs.
Morning bump
I want my million bucks:
Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano
The Tilma of Guadalupe
Incorrupt bodies of the saints
Fatima
Shroud of Turin
Sudarium of Oviedo
Go for it!
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