Levitation - The literal meaning of this word is lifting. In the Encyclopedia Britannica, levitation refers to the lifting of a human body into the air without the use of mechanical devices or without contact with anything at all.
The Moscow researcher Yu. V. Roscius. It shows the phenomenon of levitation in a variety of guises - from episodic in vivo diminution of the weight of a human body to the separation of a person from the ground and his ascent to a height of 30-50 meters for up to 3 hours.
Note that in these two cases a person is the object of levitation. However, parapsychologists believe that the object of levitation can be any material body, including the human body. Thus, Professor A. P. Dubrov defines levitation as the ability of some people to create conditions under which objects or a human body are held in the air (using a "biofeedback field").
Note that levitation can be considered in connection with telekinesis, that is, with the ability to cause the movement of objects without touching them. For example, N. S. Kulagina could both move objects on the table without touching them, and hang some of them in the air.
Among those who demonstrated the levitation of inanimate objects, one can name Stanislava Tomchik and our contemporaries - director B. Yermolaev, engineer and doctor E. Rogozhin, teacher I. Dekhtyar. Among the objects suspended in the air are metal scissors, a small-format magazine, a box of matches, a plastic ping-pong ball, a cigarette, etc. The objects are held for quite a long time in order to fix it on photographic or film tape.
No matter how unusual the levitation of inanimate objects is, nevertheless, the levitation of the human body causes even more amazement. One of those who demonstrated the ability to spontaneously, that is, involuntarily levitate, was the famous Scotsman Daniel Dunglas Hume (1833–1866), better known in the old literature as Hume.
Daniel is from Edinburgh, raised in the family of his aunt. At the age of nine, he was brought to the United States. This nervous and sickly boy at times communicated with the "spirits", even saw them and generally caused a lot of trouble for the family who had sheltered him. Her patience finally snapped when, in the presence of the teenager, powerful thuds and loud knocks began to be heard throughout the house. Fearing that Daniel might bring Satan himself into the house, his aunt drove him out into the street altogether.
However, Hume was not lost. Over time, he became a famous medium, that is, in the terminology of that era, a person capable of communicating with "spirits". In the process of this communication, extraordinary physical effects arose - strong knocks, vibrations of chairs, tables, floors and walls, window panes. Something invisible touched the bodies of those present. But the most amazing thing is the levitation of various objects, including Hume himself.
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Hume became world famous. He spoke to both Alexander II and Napoleon III. He preferred to conduct his sessions in bright light. He went to meet all attempts to expose him as a deceiver. I never took money for my demonstrations.
Most scientists ignored this phenomenon. Apparently, they feared for their reputation. With the exception of V. Crookes. He not only personally witnessed the rise of Hume into the air, but also performed a number of instrumental studies. In particular, he showed that Hume was able to change the weight of objects. The measurement results were registered automatically.
The phenomenon of levitation was repeatedly manifested in Hume's sessions. At least 16 cases of table levitation were recorded. Some of them were so heavy that it was physically impossible for anyone to lift them. At times, Hume lifted other people into the air, but more often he soared into the air himself. Sometimes - together with witnesses grabbing his legs! According to V. Crooks's calculations, at least 100 cases of Hume's rise above the ground are known in the presence of the same number of witnesses. On three separate occasions, W. Crookes emphasizes, he himself saw Hume raised high above the floor. On another occasion, Crookes witnessed the rise of a chair with a woman sitting on it in Hume's session.
But Hume is by no means the only such craftsman in the history of mankind. It has long known that some of its representatives are capable of involuntarily or at will to reduce the weight of their body and even get off the ground. For example, in the Indian Puranas there is the Sanskrit equivalent of levitation - "the supernatural ability to become light at will." The same ability is described in the Buddhist Sutras.
Yu. V. Roscius, who devoted a lot of time and effort to studying the phenomenon of levitation, drew attention to one of the differences between this unique phenomenon: in vivo diminution of the weight of the human body. Roscius notes that it was with this phenomenon that the ability of some biblical saints to walk "on water, like on dry land" was apparently connected. Most likely, it was the basis of the tests with water and scales, the history of which goes back to the depths of time. Water testing was known at least as far back as the 24th century BC. e., about testing with scales is said in the sacred ancient Iranian book "Avesta" and in the ancient Indian "Laws of Manu".
In the 12th century, tests with water and scales began to be practiced by the Inquisition. The tests were carried out in order to determine the belonging of the suspect to the hated tribe of sorcerers or witches. This is how, according to Roscius, these procedures went.
During the water tests, the suspect was tied: the thumb of the right hand was tied to the big toe of the left foot, the thumb of the left hand was tied to the big toe of the right foot. Then he was thrown into the water. If the suspect did not surface, then by this he proved the groundlessness of the charges. But if he did not drown, then he became a victim of the Inquisition and was sent to the stake. Eyewitnesses to the water test claimed that some of the suspects swam like a cork, practically not submerging in water.
There is also more recent evidence of the unsinkability of individuals. For example, the German physician Justinus Kerner, in his book "Beyond Death", published in Russian in 1909, described observations of his patient Frederica Hoffe. They lasted from 1826 to 1829. Goffe could not wash: her body, planted in a bath with water, absolutely did not want to plunge!
Balance testing is only a technically complicated version of water testing. When weighing a suspect in witchcraft or witchcraft, his weight should not be below a certain limit. If it is lower, the suspect was burned at the stake. That is, the criterion of guilt was low weight, the lower limit of which was sometimes several kilograms. Among the suspects were those who weighed below the lower limit.
Another, more well-known form of levitation is a person taking off from the ground. Individual representatives of different religious beliefs also possessed this ability. One of the most famous examples is the case of St. Joseph of Cupertino (1603–1663). According to Encyclopedia Britannica, after being admitted to the Franciscan order, St. Joseph “often rose and remained suspended in the air.
Because such phenomena, when they took place in public, caused unrest and embarrassed the community, Joseph was not allowed to visit the kliros for 35 years and a separate chapel was prepared for him. Joseph rose into the air in front of the astonished Pope Urban VIII.
From time to time he took on the flight unwilling "passengers" who tried to keep the Levitant. Hundreds of curious people gathered to watch his takeoffs. Among them was the future mathematician and philosopher Leibniz. But in general, the ability to levitate, because it manifested itself involuntarily, gave Joseph a lot of inconvenience and did not please him at all.
I. Vinokurov