Famous Levitation Cases and Theories on The Phenomena

Introduction to Levitation

In the year 1852, a woman named Miss Cheney who lived in Massachusetts, was at a spiritual Seance when her right hand began to rise off the table.  It floated upward and as is it rose upward, it pulled Mrs. Cheney out of her chair into the air. As people at the event witnessed it, they were shocked. It’s not completely evident why or how she was able to do it, but one thing is clear, human levitation is one of the most difficult powers to explain as it violates the law of gravity.

In this post, we will examine human Levitation and several famous cases. 

Daniel Home’s Levitation Story

A few years after Miss Cheney levitated, a famous medium in London named Daniel Home performed one of the most incredible departures from a theater perhaps ever. According to reports, Mr. Home was able to harness his energy and levitate from the floor of the Theater and disappear through an open third floor window. Mr. Home then hung outside for several seconds in midair and then floated back down through the same open window landing feet first. 

Both incidents mentioned were observed by numerous independent witnesses and despite numerous attempts have never been discredited.

Religion and Levitation

Not only are mediums said to possess the ability to levitate, but many religious figures are said to have performed the feat as well.  Padre Pio, widely regarded as the last individual to receive the stigmata, is said to have been seen levitating while in deep prayer (Read more about Padre Pio here). 

Sister Jean Des Agnes was another religious figure who many witnessed to levitate by many. This French nun lived in the 1600s and it is said by many, including skeptics, she levitated while in deep prayer. 

It’s well documented as well that many exorcisms as well have experienced the phenomena. Victims of possession who must undergo an exorcism have been seen levitating and sometimes even tied down. 

Read About the exorcism of Clara Germana Cele here

Frances Naylor

One fascinating, little known human levitation case concerns Frances Taylor. 

Frances Naylor, who went by Franny, was an Indvidual alleged to have levitated for some time and then lost the ability. 

Franny was born in 1905 in Evanston, Illinois. Several years after she was born, she developed health problems in her legs and unfortunately her legs had to be amputated. Franny would try to regain the ability to walk but was unsuccessful. 

Sometime when she 13, Franny began having very vivid dreams of walking. Then one day, Franny got out of bed and to her surprise was able to levitate around the room. She screamed to her parents and when her parents came in the room, they were shocked as her mother even passed out. 

In time, she began to be able to levitate down the stairs and move all around her home. Her mother was worried though and thought she might have been possessed by something evil. Not knowing how the public would treat Franny, the family decided to not allow Franny to levitate outside the home. 

Then one day, around a month later, inexplicably, Franny lost her ability to levitate. Things would go from bad to worse for Franny as she would perform worse in school and her father would lose his job. 

Sometime later, Franny became severely depressed and eventually was institutionalized falling into a catatonic state. 

Can Levitation be learned?

Still perhaps one of the most interesting things concerning levitation is some believe it is a power that can actually be learned. Years ago, in Tibet a technique was taught to a class known as lung or trance walking.

These students trained for 2 to 3 years Learning breathing exercises and extreme intense mental concentration. As the students sat in a cross-legged meditation, they were able to float off the ground and meditate in the air.

In 1936 the illustrated London News Took a series of pictures in southern India. The pictures showed a yogi levitating in front of about 150 people. As he levitated to the peak point the yogi floated horizontally in the air for around four minutes. He was able to balance only by one hand. Skeptical Europeans walked closely around him ensuring that there is no deception at play. Even the most doubtful people, left that day believing that this individual had defied the walls of gravity. 

There are different theories on how human levitation is possible 

Some say human levitation is derived from psychic powers. There are number of psychic powers including remote viewing and telepathy. Individuals who support this theory, believe that some people are just born with the ability to levitate and it cannot be learned. 

Another theory is that it’s possible to somehow cancel or weaken gravity.  It is said gravity is caused by the mass of the planet and distance. If you went to another planet, with less mass than the gravity would be lower, all else equal. That said gravity is still not understood well to this day. We know how Gravity works, but we still don’t know why gravity works. That leads to many questions concerning how the laws of gravity could be broken. 

Perhaps when one enters higher levels of consciousness or a deep meditative state, it begins to cancel out or weaken the effects of gravity? 

Or do some individuals possess the ability to lessen gravitational effects? 

Many believe that levitation is simply fake or an illusion. It is true that many people who have alleged to levitate, have been proven to be fraud. However, there’s many multiple cases throughout history of levitation occurring with multiple witnesses. Still, most will want photo or video evidence. Even that though can be faked. 

It’s hard to imagine so many people have lied and have been tricked in these levitation cases. We have only covered several cases in this post. 

In conclusion, the debate rages on whether human levitation is possible and how it might occur. It involves defying gravity, which breaks the law of physics and to date, no one, most notably scientists has been able to explain the human levitation phenomena.