Levitation
Levitation can be defined as that phenomenon which a person lifts from earth and stays suspended in air. I never grow tired of the endless variations, drama and beauty of a good levitation. I could watch them for hours and still marvel at the purposefully straight faced composure of the standard magician as they float a basic anti-gravity concept as ancient as magic itself, but still performed sometimes three or four times a night at countless venues in Reno and Las Vegas. Meanwhile in other places not so glittery, people like Padre Pio are given credit for gliding above the ground on a regular basis by his adherents as he takes it all in stride as just another daily occurrence. One of his penitents once asked him: “Father Pio, How did you manage to walk above the heads of the people?” He jokingly responded: “I can assure you, my child, it’s just like walking on the floor… “
Better ask the Davids Copperfield and Blaine about that Padre. Without going into details, falling into the “magic trick giveaway” trap and spoiling the illusion so many have toiled so hard and for so long to delight audiences with, let’s just say that apart from religious ecstasy and the delusions that such a state may generate in Pio’s case, it’s not so easy to experience the vision of full levitation if you’re not observing the effect from the right angles and if you happen to be working in the street for a television spot, you better have a good editor on staff to carefully splice cuts and reactions to make it look seamless. As with all effective “psychic entertainment, ” it’s not about what you do, but rather what people think you can do. I once convinced a inebriated wedding party that I had indeed levitated out and over a 100 foot cliff above the Pacific Ocean. The press those people generated for me after what they thought they saw that day was considerable. Ask me sometime and I’ll be happy to levitate for you too. With exonerated souls like the Padre, this apparent everyday skill is just another occurrence to be accepted along with his other exceptional claims which include bilocation (another favourite subject we might investigate*), healings, apparitions, stigmata and on and on. Of course calling people like Pio or Sai Baba conjurors or implying trickery might be involved with such venerated icons is considered bad form by most lay people because invoking even the suggestion of such impropriety is skirting dangerously close to questioning religious doctrine itself and we don’t want to go there do we?
The history of magic and spiritualism is rife with accounts of levitation. It’s almost a standard expected thing to do. To not levitate at least a few feet above the table at a séance or have furniture, a trumpet or ghostly face float through the room was unthinkable to mediums at the turn of the century. The greatest of these and a personal hero of mine was Daniel Dunglas Home, who in the annuls of magic and spiritualism is credited with never being caught in trickery. There exist numerous fascinating testimonials from “sources beyond reproach, etc.” of heavy furniture, body elongations and the most famous levitation account of them all; where Home became rigid, floated through a foot high space in a open window and entered another window in the next room that was three stories above the street. Home’s levitation stands as a landmark moment in the history of magic and its realtion to mediumship and the things reputations are made of. His legend endures and it surprises me that Hollywood hasn’t tapped into his story as a bio-pic that would tell a powerful story of a little known personality who seems to have had a flawless track record of paranormal activities. We have little to beat that sort of showmanship in our era, but we do have similar claims and believers we could investigate. As long ago and far away as the East Indian Rope Trick and Home’s levitation are from our reality, we have people from as recent as the late great Doug Henning, who quit the magic scene to devote his time to TM and finding “real magic.” To this day he has believers who swear that he spent the last years of his life exploring methods of achieving levitation through meditation and who allegedly levitated before fellow students shortly before his untimely death. I’ll believe it when I see it, but even then I better be able to see it from all angles and with several cameras and recording devices running. Claiments please form a line on the left…
Having only achieved the ability to levitate my dog, I can’t vouch for anything “real” besides putting on a real good illusion. But the folklore, traditions and rumours of people being able to subvert the laws of gravity persist and it’s clear that in our era, such wish fulfilment has now morfed into new conspiracy theories surrounding “anti-gravity” machines, back engineered alien technologies and secret government areas like 51. There’s a lot to look at and I’m anxious to see the evidence.
*How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?” – Firesign Theater (1969)
I’m noticing a pattern with the site: magic and conspiracy.
How about something intellectual, with some brain meat to it?
Everyone is aware that magic is trickery, next.
Mmmmm, brain meat.
Seems I can’t go to a party or staff meeting without somebody doing David Blaine-style ‘secret’ levitation, you know, pushing up on one toe and hiding the effect by controlling the viewing angle.
Yeah can we get some commentary on the parapsychological presentiment experiments or something?
Why is it such a terrible thing to expose who magic tricks like Levitation are done?
I know its simple illusion and careful choosing of the viewing angle, but when watching shows like ‘Chris Angel’s Mindfreak’ and I have friends freak out after his levitation stunts, telling them ‘its just an illusion’ doesn’t exactly get me anywhere in making them more skeptical…
They just ask ‘But HOW can it be an illusion, LOOK!’.
I have to admit that I’m usually at a loss for an explanation.
Exposing magic tricks does promote skeptical thinking in my opinion…
@ar318307@ohio.edu:
I like to figure out on my own how tricks are done (the levitation trick with the rings never fooled me even when I was 8). Part of the fun of watching a magician in action is trying to figure out what they’re doing. My attitude has always been that I know they’re trying to fool me, and if they pull it off well then good on them. Randi slipped up in his video last week so if you look carefully you can see what he’s doing with that tissue paper. That’s 1 magic trick figured out …
Magicians have to earn a living entertaining people with their illusions. If everyone could simply read how things were done then that would spoil the fun for everyone. Coming up with original tricks requires ingenuity, great skill, and a lot of time developing and perfecting the illusion. Even the best magicians probably couldn’t come up with something new every year to replace the previous exposed act, so secrecy is still extremely important to the profession, especially in maintaining the old favorites like levitation.
It’s an no-win situation. I appreciate the need for magicians to protect their trade secrets, and so I don’t think we should go on a rampage of revealing all magic tricks. However, I also think it is insufficient to expose fraudsters by having magicians just state, “It’s a magic trick. Trust me. I know how it’s done.” I would believe them, but true believers could be excused for not taking their word for it, and it also gives them and woo peddlars license to do the same on their side. I can see an alt. med. manufacturers saying, “It cures. Trust us. We can’t reveal our corporate secrets, but it works.” Perhaps the compromise is for magicians to replicate specific claims instead of explaining them. It’s more expensive and involved, but it may be the price they have to pay to maintain their secrets. Mentalists do a good job of this when they expose psychics, but this is admittedly the least costly way to out frauds.
“Perhaps the compromise is for magicians to replicate specific claims instead of explaining them. It’s more expensive and involved, but it may be the price they have to pay to maintain their secrets. Mentalists do a good job of this when they expose psychics, but this is admittedly the least costly way to out frauds.”
I agree. And this is in general the MO of the leading skeptical magicians such as Randi and others.
How about the power of flight? That do anything for ya? That’s levitation, Holmes.
Pffffft. If man were meant to fly, the Flying Spaghetti Monster would have given him wings or, like, big springy things on his feet.
Pffffft. If man were meant to fly, the Flying Spaghetti Monster would have given him wings or, like, big springy things on his feet.
The Cosmic BranMuffin will bestow upon us the power of the midi-chlorians. I am becoming real skeptical about your science knowledge … springy things on the feet, whatever. The Force is the next obvious intelligent design step … wings, pfffft.
Replicating claims instead of explaining them… Sort of like giving fish instead of teaching how to fish. Ensures job security for the fishermen.
The power of flight:
http://www.martinjetpack.com/video-demonstration.aspx
The Flying Spaghetti Monster would kick the Cosmic BranMuffin’s butt.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster would kick the Cosmic BranMuffin’s butt.
Whatever dude, everyone knows that the Cosmic BranMuffin is real, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster is made up. The Cosmic BranMuffin provides fibery goodness for all his believers, now that’s omnipresent love.
But the Flying Spaghetti Monster is believed by lots of people (appeal to popularity), important people (appeal to authority)! They’ve believed in the FSM for months and months, years even (appeal to antiquity)! I just don’t see how anyone could believe in any ‘Cosmic BranMuffin’ (appeal to personal incredulity). You must be some kind of goof to believe in such a thing (ad hominem).
But the Flying Spaghetti Monster is believed by lots of people (appeal to popularity), important people (appeal to authority)! They’ve believed in the FSM for months and months, years even (appeal to antiquity)! I just don’t see how anyone could believe in any ‘Cosmic BranMuffin’ (appeal to personal incredulity). You must be some kind of goof to believe in such a thing (ad hominem).
LOL, I concede, I concede, your argument for the FSM is inherently superior to the CBM, (I fell out of my chair laughing, thanks for that, well played, very well played).
However, the colonic properties of bran DO lend themselves to much better religious slogans……..
Don’t forget the logical falacy of Appeal to base instincts –
Spaghetti is more cool than muffin, nah nah nah nah nah.
Great, now you’ve roused the infidel Muffinista.