Witnessing Levitation

by John R. SedivycloseAuthor: John R. Sedivy Name: John R. Sedivy
Email: john@capecodbranding.com
Site: http://www.capecodbranding.com
About: See Authors Posts (216)

Progressing further through Carl Jung’s “Psychology and the Occult” I encountered an interesting story concerning the levitation of a person. What is most fascinating about this story is that it came from a credible witness, a renowned English physicist by the name of William Crookes. Risking his reputation he had published an account of his experience in the “Quarterly Journal Of Science.” The following is an excerpt from that article and encompasses his experience during the years of 1870-73 and reported by Carl Jung.

The Levitation Of Human Beings

“This has occurred in my presence on four occasions in darkness.. The test conditions under which they took place were quite satisfactory, so far as the judgment was concerned; but ocular demonstration of such a fact is so necessary to disturb our preformed opinions as to ‘the naturally possible and impossible,’ that I will here only mention cases in which the deductions of reason were confirmed by the sense of sight.”

“On one occasion I witnessed a chair, with a lady sitting on it, rise several inches from the ground. On another occasion, to avoid the suspicion of this being in some way performed by herself, the lady knelt on the chair in such manner that its four feet were visible to us. It then rose about three inches, remained suspended for about ten seconds, and then slowly descended. At another time two children, on separate occasions, rose from the floor with their chars, in full daylight, under (to me) most satisfactory conditions, for I was kneeling and keeping close watch upon the feet of the chair, and observing that no one might touch them.”

“The most striking case of levitation which I have witnessed have been with Mr. Home. On three separate occasions have I seen him raised completely from the floor of the room. Once sitting in an easy chair, once kneeling on his chair, and once standing up. On each occasion I had full opportunity of watching the occurrence as it was taking place.”

“There are at least a hundred recorded instances of Mr. Home’s rising from the ground, in the presence of as many separate persons, and I have heard from the lips of the three witnesses to the most striking occurrence of this kind–the Earl of Dunraven, Lord Lindsay,  and Captain C. Wynne–their own most minute accounts of what took place. To reject the recorded evidence on this subeject is to reject all human testimony whatever; for no fact is sacred or profane history is supported by a stronger array of proofs.”

“The accumulated testimony establishing Mr. Home’s levitations is overwhelming. It is greatly to be desired that some person, whose evidence would be accepted as conclusive by the scientific world–if indeed there lives a person whose testimony in favour of such phenomena would be taken–would seriously and patiently examine these alleged facts. Most of the eye-witnesses to these levitations are now living, and would, doubtless, be willing to give their evidence. But, in a few years, such direct evidence will be difficult, if not impossible, to be obtained.”

A Brave Position

What is most interesting is how highly accomplished William Crookes was and his position in society at the time. Among others he had made important discoveries in chemistry and physics and possessed a Fellowship Of The Royal Society, which he almost lost due to going public with his views on spirituality.  Crooke was certainly not your average person telling stories. In addition, his experiments in the field were conducted with rigor and discipline having outlined the following conditions -  “It must be at my own house, and my own selection of friends and spectators, under my own conditions, and I may do whatever I like as regards apparatus” as referenced by Wikipedia.

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding

Filed under Books, John's Articles, Psychology | Comment (0)