merudanda said in a previous post: > The paranormal has fascinated believers and > irritated sceptics for decades. Over the > centuries, Indian gurus, Christian saints, > psychics and others have been reputed to > possess the ability to levitate.
One of the things that I find curious about this fascination is that I don't quite get it. WHY are people fascinated by levitation? WHAT, if they witnessed it themselves, would be the "payoff" for them in levitation? If it were proved by science to be possible, on a physical level, WHAT would that "prove" for them with regard to their own beliefs? Again, what would be the "payoff" that people imagine at the end of this fascination with levitation? I ask because I've been there, done that. I've witnessed what appeared to be real levitation, one dude hanging in mid-air in exactly the way that a brick doesn't, long enough to deliver whole dharma talks while perched there. No bouncy-bouncy, just stepping up off of the sand in the desert and hanging there in mid-air, so effortlessly that whatever energy may have been required to perform the levitation didn't even distract him from giving a pretty good lecture. Did it really happen, on a physical level? Can't tell you. I think it's safe to assume that I saw *something*, because 1) I saw it repeatedly, dozens of times over a 14-year period, 2) I wasn't alone in seeing it, because literally thousands of others witnessed and attested to having seen exactly the same thing, in the same circumstances. So as far as I'm concerned, I actually witnessed levitation. But would a video camera have recorded what I saw, or would scales on which the levitator was standing before lifting off suddenly flatline *as* he lifted off? I honestly don't know, but my suspicion is No. My personal theory is that what I saw took place on an alternate plane of reality, one that is not perceived by most people. I base this theory on the fact that 1) not everybody in the group saw him levitate every time I did, and vice-versa, 2) I have experienced alternate realities in other contexts (none of which involved drugs), and 3) this theory preserves what I saw while accounting for the "energy field" I experienced while witnessing levitation. That energy field was intense, and IMO would be as likely to take place when opening a consciousness window into a parallel reality as it would be if physical levitation had taken place. But enough about my experience; what about yours? If you suddenly witnessed full, no-question-about-it levitation, what would that "prove" to you? I've witnessed it, and it doesn't prove diddley-squat to me. It was Just Another Experience. Although a pleasant experience, as far as I can tell having the experience changed nothing in me. It *certainly* didn't "prove" anything. The vast majority of you reading this don't believe that I ever witnessed anything of the kind, and you wouldn't believe it if I brought in several thousand of Rama's students to say the same thing. You'd find some way to disbelieve it, because it didn't happen according to the ways you think it can happen (or not happen). If I were able to show you videotapes, you'd believe the same thing. But suppose it happened the way *you* would like to see it happen. A long-time TMer, hopefully one who is still On The Program, gently lifts off the foam and hangs ten in mid-air for some minutes. Not only do others see this, he demonstrates the ability to do it repeatedly, so scientists (both "TM scientists" and real scientists) rush in, measure the dude, and declare, "Yup. He's levitating. We can't explain it, but we have measured it by objective means enough to be able to say it's happening." So what would that DO for you? What do you think it would "prove," about TM, about your belief system, or about you? Do you think most people in the world would accept it, or even care? My bet is that most would find a way to dismiss it entirely, just as you guys have written off my experiences. The Randis would cry "Fraud!" and the skeptics would find a way to discredit the scientists, and the vast majority would just say, "Big deal. So what?" I think the reason that they would feel this way is that they have nothing *invested* in the idea of levitation, or in the idea that its existence would "prove" anything. The people who would care would be people who were *heavily* invested in some belief system, in which the "truth" of levitation has been presented as "proving" the "truth" of their whole belief system. Some TMers would probably react to levitation being "proved" by believing *everything else* that the TMO told them, including bullshit like it matters which way you enter a building or that the Indian caste system is a good thing. They're *that* invested in the belief system. "Prove" one thing about it "true," and in their minds everything about it becomes true. They'd react to levitation being "proved" with a loud inner (and probably outer as well) cry of, "Take that, you skeptics. Eat Crow. We were RIGHT and you were WRONG. We rule." Thing is, it's not true. If levitation were "proved," all that would be proven is the existence of levitation. That says NOTHING about your belief system, except that it maybe got one thing right. It says nothing about *you*, except that you invested heavily in a belief system that got one thing right. You're still terrified to enter a building from the wrong direction and you still make excuses for the caste system. Get real.
