Buddhist Monk Levitation

[Skep B]

Yeah boyeeeeee

Sherlock'd

[Frank Merton]

There are dozens of professional magicians who could do it better and keep the camera on the subject constantly.

[Frank Merton]

I want to say one other thing: this does not appear to be either Hindu or Buddhist. The colors of the covering and the man's dress are all wrong. I can't be sure about Hinduism but this is not a Buddhist event.

[Skep B]

I think that what it is

is a bald old man who was hired to wear robes, sit on the floor and look sagely

[ShadowSot]

There are dozens of professional magicians who could do it better and keep the camera on the subject constantly.

And that's the thing, they didn't have the old fellow come to them and demonstrate his abilities, they went to him. To his stage, where he performs, where he is in control of the setup.

[seeder]

here is a candid camera show, showing 'jesus' walkjing on water (as per Criss Angel and Dynamo), and levitating. Pay attention to the levitation.

Remember this is a PRANK show, as if you needed reminding, but the point I make is about the previously discussed levitations and stuff being - well- explainable

watch it all!!

[Frank Merton]

I would hope most people have gotten past the point where they are impressionable by miracles and wonders.

[AlienDan]

Watch: Buddhist Monk Levitation – Full Video

Fake. The whole scene is fake actually. Why is there camera cuts? Why do they show behind him before he levitates, but not while he levitates? Because he is sitting on a teeter totter like contraption, and someone behind the curtain is just lifting him up slowly. Classic stage levitation trick.

[Skep B]

I read Seeder's video's title as

"Jesus Is Black"

was POed that someone stole my standup routine

[oslove]

I have not read the whole thread, but I like to contribute this question: all such feats, what useful purposes do they serve for everyday life and concerns, like how to get upstairs without climbing the stairs?

Take notice that if they don't serve any everyday purposes and concerns, then at least they are good entertainment or amusement.

[The Necromancer]

I want to say one other thing: this does not appear to be either Hindu or Buddhist. The colors of the covering and the man's dress are all wrong. I can't be sure about Hinduism but this is not a Buddhist event.

It is neither.

While I believe that levitation may be possible (it is one of the 'siddhis' in my religion) siddhi = a 'power' achieved after many years of meditation, I have never seen a single, unexplained case of it.

My skepticism was further fueled by the 'Brahma Kumaris' and the 'India Syndrome':

http://www.brahmakum...php?f=11&t=3094

I watched many videos of these guys 'claiming' levitation, but all I saw was a room full of them, all sitting around in lotus position and being very skilled at jumping around and jumping very highly whilst doing so...I can't seem to find any videos of that now though.

Then, there was an Australian comedian (Judith Lucy) who went over to India and Tibet to find this out for herself. She traveled all around, asking many Hindu and Buddhist monks (of high and well renown and repute) if levitation was actually real or not, and all replied with an emphatic 'nope'.

Still, I wouldn't put it past a real guru/teacher to be able to do this (although he probably would never demonstrate it unless he had to), but there are so many 'fake gurus' out there, that one may never know these things.

Personally, I like to keep an open mind, because once when I was in Bali, I actually saw a man boil tap water at room temperature, in a metal mug, which was only being held in his hands (I examined the mug and his hands afterwards and this was about 30 years before we got those mugs that 'self boil')...there's no explanation for that!

Is it any wonder I believe in some of this stuff? The human mind/body is an amazing thing we know absolutely nothing about, besides the biology of it.

Edited November 9, 2015 by The Necromancer

[The Necromancer]

Here we go, I just found one...these are the 'Transcendental Meditation' guys:

As for 'fake gurus'...the one at the very top of my list is 'Swami Nithyananda'.

Here he is, talking about celibacy and 'the science of levitation'

...and here he is having sex with one of his 'harem of women devotees'

I better stop now, before I get into total 'guru debunking mode'...

[Tatetopa]

Greetings. Consider this. If you were one searching for enlightenment, to free yourself from the bonds of illusion and achieve oneness or satori would not entertaining strangers with demonstrations of levitation be a detour and distraction from your true purpose? Does a enlightened master need to show off or cage coins from impoverished citizens? Assuming such people exist, don't you think they have something better to do? I do not know if such people exist or not but levitation displays are the province of charlatans and pretenders. To steal a thought from LaoTzu, the levitation you see is not the levitation you seek.

[White Crane Feather]

People with deeply held spiritual beleifs and living a meditative life are usually not concerned with floating a few feet above the ground to dazle people. Even the act of trying to levitate would be oposite a typical monks training and dscipline.

Edited December 2, 2015 by White Crane Feather

[Frank Merton]

People with deeply held spiritual beleifs and living a meditative life are usually not concerned with floating a few feet above the ground to dazle people. Even the act of trying to levitate would be oposite a typical monks training and dscpline.

Yea.

[Frank Merton]

"The magician knows the trick, you don't."

I remember this teaching when I see something like someone bringing water to a boil holding a cup in their hands. Probably even more to the point is what good would such a skill be to someone seeking enlightenment?

Such a thing is entertaining, and that is good. Laugh and applaud and give him a coin.

[Alaric]

I don't know about the levitation bit... but here's good a scientifically documented example of what certainly qualifies as "strange abilities":

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/04.18/09-tummo.html

When I was 17 years old I met a guy who's Kung fu was spooky good... in the almost 30 years since then, I've practiced with Judo players who were Olympians, trained Shooto under a guy that trained BJ Penn and been in the ring myself a couple of times... I've never seen anything like him.

Most unassuming guy you could ever meet. If you looked at me and him, you would say that I could easily take him in a fight. Turns out he had trained martial arts from a very early age and had been on some kind of scholarship for three years at an old school Kung fu academy in Hong Kong. He had numerous scars from sparring with real weapons (his specialty was the Sais).

At 17, I was probably as fast as I ever was... he was like a ghost, could never really land anything substantial. He would be right there... then he wasn't... he would spend so little energy that in no time you would be huffing and puffing and he would just be standing there smiling. To my (not inconsiderable) level of skill, he was Neo from the Matrix. He dismissed a lot of my fanciful ideas of 'Kung fu magic", but some of the things he told me about and showed me make me tend to keep an open mind.

[Jeff kirk]

On 8/7/2013 at 6:09 AM, seeder said:

sorry but NO-ONE, ever, can levitate! If it was at all do-able, id have invested in the training/knowledge years ago. But its all some form of trickery, and as has been said already here, take away any props and the levitater is screwed. Heres some more

Those people levitating in the pictures above are fake from what ive read.

levitation is very real though. It is extremely rare, through extreme love of god. Only a few people in the world have ever levitated, mostly saints you can look them up if you want. 

Im not a saint but i levitated in an elevator about a year ago. 

Heres the events that led up to my levitation.

Over a year ago i quite my job because i was misplacing tools and it made me frustrated, i was an electrician at farber specialty vehicles. After i quit i started watching alot of youtube videos eventually i started watching videos about heaven and hell, i didnt believe in god heaven and hell at the time. I started watching people experiences when they were unconcience they would go to heaven or hell, then i came across the video "They drilled into hell ! WHAT !!! shocking sounds from beneath the earth" it turns out to be a fake from what i researched (i hate liars) but that video made me a believer in hell. Eventually i stumbled upon prophet tom deckards youtube videos, he claims to have predicted many events and they came true. Today i realized he was a liar. Heres one of his videos saying to flee america "Jewish Prophet Warns Christians to Flee America Now!!!" After watching that video and many others i started praying and getting ride of things that i thought was evil like dragon ball z etc. The prophet didnt say to do this i just thought it was right you know to follow god all the way. It took about a month before i got ride of everything though, i also started eating only clean foods as it says in the bible this is true you should eat only clean foods that means no pork. I also began fasting from time to time. I prayed alot at the time, i though god was gonna destroy america because thats what the prophet said. The prophet said gods name is yahweh and that hes your elohim meaning your god. I would always chant yahweh my elohim yahweh my god in my head for some reason. I tryed to convince my family we needed to go to israel they didnt listen. I would also keep the ten commandments and i kept 2 of the sabbaths. I gave beggers on the street food.

A couple of days before i levitated i burnt some frankincense on the stove and prayed to god. (forget what the prayer was). A couple days later i ended up wanting to stay a hotel because i wanted to read my bible somewhere quite  i got an expensive hotel because i thought it would be more quite i took my bible with me and i was holding it with 2 hands in front of me(it was a heavy bible) i treated and acted like it was holy, which it is. I also said i forsake my family a while back, and that day i said i forsake myself and follow you god. I dont remeber if i beleived in jesus, i think it was just yahweh the creator of everything like most jews believe. That night when i went to go to bed i got in the elevator (my room was on the second floor) i pushed it to go up and the doors closed i was the only one to witness the levitation but i levitated around 10 inches of the floor. There were 1 foot by 1 foot square tiles on the floor in the elevator that i was standing, i think they use grout or something to glue them to the floor and i doubt there easy to get up but when i levitated my left leg was standing on one square and my right leg on one and they both tore up from the grout (they didnt break or anything they just tore from the cement grout) the squares were like 5 inches off the floor and i was 5 inches above hovering over the floor tiles. So i was not touching the tiles. And this isnt like thise fake photos or the monk where they set down i was standing on the ground and levitated. The elevator im pretty sure stopped a second and acted kinda strange. And if i can remember right i think there was like a light blue smoke below my feet when i was levitating. Levitating defies the laws of physics because it is man made and just a law they made, god dont have to follow it. Anyway the levitation id say lasted about 6 or 7 seconds because i got scared and i moved and i think it stopped after that i was really scared. I didnt tell anyone i levitated i got real paranoid, i remeber taking the elevator back down and setting in the lobby or whatever you call it and transformers was on i started watching it and i saw the scene where a decepticon landed on the moon and that there was life on the moon that the government covered up anyway i thought that they would posses me because i was saying yahweh my elohim and i thought there planet was coming here. I was really paranoid i eventually ended up in the 1a for some reasons i dont want to mention but i thought every one in the 1a was out to get me or eather aleins or demons or that some of them would eat me. 

Finally i got over my paranoia and i kinda forgot all about the levitation. one day i went back to the hotel to make sure it really happened and there it was i could lift up both tiles they were unstuck from there cement material. I left the hotel very happy, i knew there was a god i told my parents but they didnt want to see it. Later i went back wanting to take a picture of the tiles but the lady i talked to said they told there manager and their getting it fixed and im not allowed back there. I definately wish i could have posted a picture of it.

Today i believe in god and the spirit realm and i sure hope it was god who levitated me and not a demonic force because i burnt the incense and i think it has to be a special mixture and also your not suppose to try to reach salvation by works its through faith in jesus that you earn salvation by loving one another as yourself you fulfill the law.

[seeder]

wow a thread revival from 3 years ago!  I find it odd reading my own old posts as had totally forgot about them!!

To the latest poster...sorry but I dont believe anyone can levitate in the proper sense....without props and trickery/foolery

[Mark56]

I heard or read something years ago that when Marco Polo was on is Far-East adventures into China that he wrote in his journals about he himself witnessing the  levitation of Buddhist monks

[seeder]

David Blaine does a levitation trick too

 

[Frank Merton]

As Seeder says, it is interesting to read over an old thread, and see messages I posted a long time ago and have forgotten.  Did I really post that?  Oh, well, we all change.

I suppose the confusion between Buddhism and Hinduism can't be avoided, as they both stem from a common earlier tradition and share much the same world view and religious vocabulary.  I repeat, though, that they are different.  Hinduism is polytheistic, Buddhism is agnostic if not atheist.  Hindus want to try to improve themselves in their next life, Buddhists would prefer to put an end to the rebirth cycle.

Magic shows are fun, and we all like to try to guess the trick, although if the magician is any good we will not succeed.  When done, however, to support a belief-set, one can assume pious fraud.  Truth is established with reason and evidence, not by irrelevant show.

[Midnight619]

So I will say this not all mysteries can be explained and while there are a lot of charletens. I did meet one person in a bar no less that was doing magic for the women in the bar. And as creepy as this dude looked the women loved him. He looked like a freaking vampire. And he made claims of being able to levitate a short way off the ground on call. No props not being able to touch walls and no way to set anything up in advance. And he had said it in front me a few times. Now I'm a professional civilian security contractor with a short fuse for bull**** so I told him one night if your gonna talk about it be about it. Nobody had seen him do it yet and I told him if you can't do what say right now in front of me I'll open hand slap you into the parking lot and you won't come back here again. And I **** you not he smiled at me walked into the bar and I set a clear pint glass upside down behind this guy's feet and told him I want you to clear that glass and I want make sure you can't touch either side of the walls. And ill be damned if he didn't do it flat footed, not that **** you see where people lift up off their toes, both hands out no walls near his fingers, and moved backward above the glass and set down with just the inside edges of his shoes resting on the glass. He then stepped off the glass and walked away. There was no way to explain it. I will tell you this though his magic couldn't help his physical weakness and a week later some ladies old man caught him macking on her drunk self and beat his ass, I never saw him again after that. A shame he was good at what he did.

Edited January 27, 2020 by Midnight619
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