Editorial note: Angelo Stagnaro is the award-winning chief New York correspondent for the Catholic News Service, Holy See liaison, and editorialist for the National Catholic Register. He is also a Third-Order Franciscan and the author of several books on various aspects of Catholic spirituality and theology, all of which carry Nihil Obstats and Imprimaturs from various Catholic dioceses in the US. His most recent book The Pro-Life Apologetics Manual (with Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur from the Archdiocese of New York) has just been released by Hope and Life Press. Stagnaro is a recognized world expert on stage mentalism and cold reading.
I enjoy telling people, both magicians and lay people alike, of how I passed the entrance exam for the Society of American Magicians (SAM)―a prestigious organization of stage and close-up magicians―many years ago. The New York City chapter of the SAM required performances; one close-up and the other on-stage. As I am a mentalist, a stage performer who specializes in stage tricks emulating what non-magicians would call telekinesis, telepathy, ESP and precognition, I concentrated only on those tricks. Continue reading here.
