Flying in the Air and Levitation

Is Levitation Worth Working For?

"Daedalus and Icarus" by Charles Landon. Oil on canvas. 1799.

To find out first-hand may take a life-time and be in vain

First, levitation is a pervasive belief around the world.

Second, several records of it are found in the Catholic Church. And there are also others than believers who have eye-witnessed levitation.

Third, there are many explanations of how it may possibly come about.

Fourth, levitation can be brought about by good meditation, tells Patanjali. Maharishi also incorporated Patanjali's method for levitation in his program. It is called Yogic Flying.

Fifth, Daniel Goleman has written a book on meditative experiences - mainly based on how Buddhism has mapped the strides or victories - a scheme to compare with and possibly unify good teachings. He recounts how, during rapture, waves shower through the body as the sensation of levitation, or as immersion in thrilling happiness [Yy 14, 27]

Cases of levitation are hotly disputed and attributed by many to trickery, illusion, auto-suggestion, unseen natural causes, or are denied. But religious communities tend to interpret levitation as the result of some supernatural action, maybe psychokinesis. Spiritualists or yogis tell that levitation happens in some altered state of mind.

Some are born to fly; others train for it without having wings.

Carefully controlled testing of the phenomenon is limited, but for some single cases, such as that of Daniel Dunglas Home, eye-witnesses told he levitated.

In Hinduism, it is believed that some who have got paranormal powers have the siddhi (power) of being able to levitate. For example, Yogi Subbayah Pullavar was reported to have levitated into the air for four minutes in front of a crowd of 150 witnesses, June 6th, 1936.

It was claimed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that those who assiduously practiced transcendental meditation could gain the ability to levitate by a technique called yogic flying. However, practitioners report that the supposed "levitation" is actually a kind of bouncing while meditating on rubbery cushions. Here is the theory: In the first stage of Yogic Flying the body lifts off the ground through a subtle intention and then comes back down. As more and more coordination is established between mind and body, the time spent in the air becomes longer and longer until the second state is attained - hovering, and then the third - flying. So the TM way of yogic flying actually is of three stages:

(1) Bouncing on cushions, feeling happy. (2) Hovering; and (3) Flying, as Milarepa is said to have done. At the Maharishi University in Iowa, where they train in yogic flying, there may be none who have gone past the first stage, the bouncer stage.

Yogic flying (hopping, bouncing on elastic mats)

A recently published book on Yogic Flying goes into the Maharishi way of training. I make do with referring to it here.

Yogic flying on YouTube - take a look:

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHwhGUo90jw]

Birds fly. Who else?

"A journey of 500 kilometres begins with the first step," says the Tao Te Ching, ch 64. With flyers it may be different. Can bats fly? Yes, and almost all extant birds too. And certain squirrels and snakes can glide through the air one way or another. Men and women fairly often dream of flying, in sexually tinged dreams.

Daniel Dunglas Home was once observed levitating out of a building through a third story window and back into the building via a different window, in front of three witnesses. He was never found out to be a fraud by hundreds of witnesses and tests. Physicist William Crookes claimed to have observed more than fifty occasions in which Home levitated, many of these at least five to seven feet above the floor, "in good light." (Compare Yoga Sutras 3:39 and 3:42)

Among Catholic saints, Joseph of Cupertino (1603-63) reportedly levitated high in the air, for extended periods of more than an hour, on many occasions. Teresa of Avila (1515-82) claimed to have levitated, and many others. Many mediums are said to have levitated during séances, although some were proven to be frauds using wires and stage magic tricks.

St. Joseph levitating. He is the patron of test-taking and of students, and of pilots and air passengers.

Here are highlights from the deeds of a patron saint of pilots and air passengers: Joseph of Copertino (1603-63). This son of a poor carpenter was made a friar that became famed for prolonged suspensions in the air and high flights, often reaching the ceilings of cathedrals and the tops of trees. Seventy of his flights or levitations are officially recorded in the acts of his beatification. One of his biographers adds that this number does not count those which occurred daily at Holy Mass and generally lasted two hours.

[www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4083"]

[antigravitypower.tripod.com/StJoseph/]

In general it helps to inspect competently and well. In not a few cases it involves inspecting first-hand, in other cases by set-up experiments and the like. But note what happens to eye-witnesses of UFOs: many get scoffed, not believed, no matter how eye-witnessing they are. "Forewarned is forearmed (British)." This does not rule out possible gains from a successful endeavour to inspect or try out claims of Patanjali nicely.

Is levitation in meditation worth working for? For some, I think. General principle: If it is true, it may be tested. Further, it may pay to be pragmatic in some settings, but not in all others. Here it is well dispense with grave risks and dangers to our ability. Also, it might pay to elevate the art of living - by clarifying some things and finding time for lots of good living too.

Literature  

Yy: Goleman, David. The Varieties of the Meditative Experience. London: Rider, 1975.



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