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TIBETAN AND INDIAN MONKS STILL PRACTISE LEVITATION her special power. She was asking the Lord to relieve her of that grace. One night, the Almighty finally heard the nun's prayer—and after that, she did not fly again. Josef Desa used to be the most famous "flying man". He was born into a devout family in southern Italy. From the time he was a boy, Josef was a very religious per- son prone to inflicting all kinds of torture upon himself in order to experience a state of religious ecstasy. Later he joined the Franciscans. He would get really ecstatic at times and rise in the air. On a visit to Rome, Josef was granted an audience with Pope Urban VIII. Josef got as excited as one could be, and could not help rising in the air. He floated right before the pope's eyes. The head of the Order of St Francis eventually brought Josef back to earth. Scientists observed more than a hundred cases of Josef's levitation and put down their comments in the official records. However, the Catholics were thought to be embarrassed by Josef's flights. As a result, in 1653 Josef was sent to an out-of-the-way monastery. Three months later, he was transferred to another monastery, and then to another one... Wherever he appeared, the news about the "miracle man" spread like wildfire. People from the neighbour- ing towns and vil- lages stood out- side the monastery walls waiting for a mir- acle. Finally, Josef was trans- ferred to a lifting off and all the people in the room got completely surprised. I could see his legs floating about a foot above the ground. Home apparently could not speak as he had a twinge going from top to toe after the clash of fear and rapture in his mind. He went down some time later, and rose up again. He went up to the ceiling during a third ascent." Home learned to levitate of his own free will later on. He showed his outstanding ability to thousands of spectators including such celebrities as William Makepeace Thackeray and Mark Twain, Napoleon III, politicians, doctors and scientists of note. Home has never been accused of hoaxing an audience. There is a lot of controversy regarding the physical nature of levitation. Some researchers say that it is a product of the biogravitational field created by a special kind of mental energy emitted by the human brain. Doctor of biological sciences Alexander Dubrov is a supporter of this hypothesis. Dr Dubrov points out that the biogravitational field is deliberately created by a levitator and therefore the latter can control the field and change the direction of a flight. oo (Source: Pravda, November 9, 2005, http://english.pravda.ru/science/ 19/94/378/16433_levitation.html) ods in oriental mythology had a special ability: they could fly. Legends and records say that ancient levitators were able to rise above the ground up to 90 centimetres. However, ordinary mortals could master the unique art of flying, too. For example, Indian Brahmans, yogis, hermits and fakirs could rise and float in the air. There is a chapter in the Vedas on levitation—guidelines of sorts on how to reach a state required for taking off the ground. Unfortunately, the meaning of many ancient Indic words and concepts has been irretrievably lost over the last few centuries and therefore the invaluable instructions cannot be translated into modern languages. As regards the ancient levitators, records at hand say they did not lift off to impress onlookers; they simply wanted to assume the most suitable position for performing religious rites. The art of levitation is still practised in India and Tibet, and many scholars engaged in oriental studies have mentioned the phenomenon of "flying lamas". British explorer Alexandra David-Néel one day witnessed the flight of a Buddhist monk a few dozen metres above the alpine plateau of Chang Tang. He was bouncing off the ground like a tennis ball to rise in the air again and again. The monk kept his eyes on some guiding star hanging some- where in the distance, and he was the only person who could see the star in broad day- light. Europeans have long been aware of levi- tation, too. However, there was one big difference between Eastern and Western mediaeval levitators. Unlike the Brahmans, yogis and lamas, the monks in Europe never took any special training for levitational purposes. They would just rise in the air after reaching a state of ultimate religious ecstasy. to ferred to a =" A monastery in Osimo, where he (a died in the _O* ah autumn of 1663. He was canonised vy rte ae four year later. (far Daniel Douglas “of Home [pro- nounced Hume] was the most famous levitator of the 19th centu- ry. His first flight was described by the editor of an American news- paper: Famous Levitators in the West According to trustworthy records, Saint Teresa, a Carmelite nun, was one of the first levitators of the Middle Ages. Her flight was seen by 230 Catholic priests. The nun wrote about her unusual "gift" in her autobiography dated 1565. It is quite noteworthy that Saint Teresa herself did not want to fly. She spent long hours pray- ing desperately, in an attempt to get rid of paper: "All of a sud- den Home began NEXUS +65 "That's my personal GPS ... my God Pointing System." FEBRUARY — MARCH 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com