Levitation

B Premanand

The Godman of this century is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who has exploited thousands of his disciples by offering to teach them levitation. In 1978 he held the first levitation demonstration of his students at New Delhi. The Supreme Court judge Y.R. Krishna Iyer had written an article that he had himself wit­nessed levitation by the students of Mahesh Yogi at Switzerland.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 

They were seated on 12" thick foam beds, and hopped up and down like frogs. According to Mahesh Yogi this was the first step in flying. Even after two decades of practising TM they have not gone beyond this hopping.

As a guru teaching others the art of levitation, it should be possible for him to fly himself. So we asked him to fly from New Delhi to Old Delhi to prove that levitation is possible. He agreed to prove that levitation is possible if we brought Rs.I0000/-. We were ready at his door-step the next day with this amount. His reply then was that his yogic siddhi of levitation was not for demonstration. We wondered why a person who could fly when ever he willed it should need half a dozen helicopters to get from place to place, and why he conducted the hopping demonstrations.

Experiment: 45

Effect: A yogi levitating

A yogi is seen sitting on a stool with his yoga-dand under one arm pit.  When he goes into samadhi his assistant removes the stool and he is seen to be suspended in mid-air.

Props: One three feet square and 6" high platform with a hole in the centre to hold the yoga-dand through it. A stool, a metal base to fit the bottom of the yogi with a rod upto his arm-pit, and a yoga dand.

Method: The platform is in the centre with the yoga dand fixed in it. The yogi sits on a stool with his hand on the yoga dand. He goes into samadhi. The metal base is inside his kaffni with the rod on the right side under the dress up to the arm-pit and fixed to the centre of the yoga-dand. As soon as he goes into samadhi the stool is removed by his assistant and he is levitating. With the back metal base fixed to Yoga Dand, he is hanging on the Yoga Dand.

Experiment: 46

Effect: Levitation using Hockey Sticks!

This is the best levitation trick I have ever seen without any props near the Red Fort in New Delhi. A bed is on the ground. A person comes and lies on it. He is covered with a very big bed sheet stitched like a mosquito net which has a hole for his head to see. Then he levitates slowly one foot up, then two and later to his height inside the bed sheet.

Props: Two hocky sticks hidden in his pyjama, one big bed sheet stitched like a double mosquito net with thick cloth, with a hole for the head to be seen, and a bed to lie down, and pillows.

Two Indian street magicians, Aas Mohammed and Babban Khan, 

performing the trick

Method: The person walks to the bed without anything visible. He lies on the bed and he is covered with the bed sheet after keeping some pillows on his body, his head protruding from the hole. While music and drums play he takes out the hockey sticks from his pyjama in his hands. He slowly raises the hockey stick inside the bed sheet along with raising his head. Then slowly he squats with the hockey sticks rising up along with him, gets to his knees and then stands erect inside the bed sheet with the hockey sticks in his two hands and his head only seen through the hole. He has levitated to his full height. Then he reverses, sitting on his knees, then squatting and then lying down. The hockey sticks are hidden and the bed sheet is removed and he comes out and waves his hands.

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The Levitation "Miracle" at Kamarali Durvesh Dargah

After we uploaded Premanand’s writing on the 'miracle' at Kamarali Durvesh Dargha, Shivapuri, Pune, we came across a very interesting article on the same ‘miracle’. It was published in Skeptical Inquirer in its Spring/Summer 1978 issue (Volume II, No.2). Since this article is not easy to come by, we post it here for the benefit of our readers.

The Leviation "Miracle" At Shivpuri

When Philip Morrison, the book editor of Scientific American magazine, heard about a remarkable demonstration that was said to take place in a temple courtyard near a small town in India, he was curious enough to ask questions of a firm of scientists and engineers located in Bombay. Their director, Mr. R.C.Globe, was familiar with the phenomenon, and replied fully to Morrison's inquiry.

We produce here Mr. Globe's reply to Morrison: 

I thank you for your letter....with reference to the stone lifting at Shivpuri. As requested, herewith details of this supposed and mysterious power which it is said and believed lifts the stone ball.

I give some of the details which you may find interesting.

The mausoleum contains the body of a saint, a Muslim named "Kamarali Darvesh" who died about 700 years ago. There is always a Muslim in attendance to satisfy the curiosity of visitors to witness the "unaccountable and mysterious" lifting of a round stone ball which stands the larger of two on the ground adjacent to the entrance of the "Durgah," the Urdu name for the word "mausoleum."

This ball of basalt (or sand-stone, which is lighter)is about 14 inches in diameter and thus weighs about 140 pounds. Visitors must not attempt to influence the "spirit" which is said to lift it unless there is an odd number of men, i.e., 5, 7, or 11, no women being allowed to join the solemn(?) proceedings. The men gathered round the ball are then instructed by the attendant to touch the ball with one finger and when he gives the signal by voice, the men must shout in a loud voice in unison, the name of the saint, i.e., "KAMARALI DARVESH," but in a drawling tone of voice, when the stone will lift of its own accord; mark you, with the forefinger of each man still touching it.

The mausoleum is outside a small village, Shivpuri, about 16 miles from Poona, in the State of Maharashtra, Western India. I visited the place purposely to see this lifting by a mysterious power which is attributed to a divine entity, but failed to connect it with the "spirit" of the dead saint.

By mathematical calculation the stone weighs about 140 pounds so that 9 men pushing with one finger exert a force of about 15.5 pounds each, sufficient to lift the stone without any exertion or apparent effort. This of course is not believed by any Indian; they insist that it is the Unknown Power which does the lifting. No amount of discussion will move this belief out of their minds.

I don't believe that the joining up of ectoplasm supplied by each member of the group is responsible for lifting up of the stone ball.

To add to Mr.Globe's account may seem superfluous, but some interesting physical facts should be made clear. When the ball is resting on the ground, any force applied as shown (F) will tend to make it roll, unless exactly countered by an opposite and equal force. With a number of persons crowded about the ball, such equal pressure all around seems unlikely. Therefore, the ball will tend to roll in one direction or another.

Now it is not clear from the account given just what instructions are provided by the attendant present to supervise the miracle. If he gives the men reason to believe that their forefingers must maintain firm contact with the ball, conditions for it to begin rolling are optimum. There is no doubt in the minds of the faithful at this manifestation that the ball is now moving by divine force. To keep in touch with the ball is now more difficult, and each pushes harder, so that the small push necessary is delivered readily, and up goes the ball.

As the ball rises, the angle at which each person applies pressure will change, and the ball should accelerate, since the individual pressures are resolved into a much more direct upward push. 

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