The first time I saw Criss Angel on TV, I was absolutely fascinated and completely hooked.  Some of his illusions were so incredible that they truly appeared magical.  I’ve even wondered if he’s tapped into some sort of power that he passes off as illusion.

The one thing I’ve watched him do that utterly amazes me is levitate off the ground.  He’s even levitated between buildings!  On one show, he hypnotized a group of high school kids and had them lift a car.  Now, because he’s an illusionist, most people pass off these amazing feats as nothing more than an illusion, a really clever trick.  But, here’s the thing…I know for a fact that levitation is possible!

It’s no secret that Hindu gurus have been known to levitate off the floor while meditating.  They aren’t using camera tricks or gadgetry and they certainly are not practicing illusions. Spiritualists have also been known to levitate, either themselves or other objects such as tables during seances.  One famous Spiritualist, Daniel D. Home,  became famous for levitating out one window and returning through another!  Although many accused him of trickery, no one could prove him false.  And it wasn’t for lack of trying.  Unfortunately, so much deception was involved during the great Spiritualist movement that everyone fell under suspicion.  The thing is, SOME of them were genuine and some of them actually managed to achieve levitation.  I believe this because little ole me of no special powers managed to do it at the tender age of fourteen!  And if you ask me HOW it was that we managed to defy the law of gravity, I’ll give you an utterly blank stare.  I have no clue.  But it DID happen.

When I was about fourteen (and still living in the haunted house I’ve been blogging about), some of my friends gathered at my place and we decided to give levitation a try.  Don’t ask me where we heard of this clever little “trick”.  It was one of those urban legends that gets passed around but no one knows from where they started.  In any case, we decided to give it a try.  We went out to the field behind my house near the tomb that was located there.  Though I pretty much avoided that area as a rule, we decided it was the best place to try our experiment.

There were five of us gathered.  All girls, all about the same age.  Of the group, I think only two of us believed we could actually do it (me being one of them!).  So, I was designated the “control”.  My friend (whom I shall call Tina…not her real name) laid down on the grass for she was our “subject”.  She lay with her legs together and her hands crossed one over the other on her chest.  The other three girls were placed as follows: one on each side of Tina with their index and middle fingers extended under her hips, and one girl at her feet, her index fingers extended under the heel of each foot.  I sat at her head where I gently massaged her temples to calm her and put her in a meditative state.  After much giggling and silliness, we finally got down to business.

I spoke in a calm quiet voice relaxing Tina and suggesting to her that she was as “light as a cloud”. I then began the same hypnotic speech on the other four girls.  I told them that Tina was as “light as a feather” and that when I counted from ten to one, we would lift her up as if she weighed no more than that feather.  I could feel the calm energy swirl around us for we all were quiet, serious and focused (not an easy feat with five young girls!).  Finally, it was time to lift Tina (she probably weighed about 110 at this time, I was about 5 feet tall and she had several inches on me).  I put two fingers under Tina’s head and then gave the order to lift.  To our utter amazement, we lifted her up as if she weighed no more than a feather!!  There was ZERO resistance.  We probably could have done so with just the tip of ONE finger.  We lifted her about three inches off the ground, maybe a dash more and all four of us (Tina lay still, her eyes closed) widened our eyes in disbelief.  Shock that it worked hit us all at once and someone freaked.  Not sure who broke the hold first but someone dropped her hand away and Tina opened her eyes. Soon as she did that, she dropped back down to the ground, her weight way more than we could handle, especially with just our fingers.  Now, just so you know…we tried to lift Tina off the ground with our hands (rather than just the two fingers)  just to be sure we had something to compare the experiment to if it worked.  We couldn’t do it.  She was too heavy for us.  Besides, Tina’s legs would lift up, and her head, but when we tried to get her whole body off the ground, her hips remained in place.  We just couldn’t balance her body enough to lift her.  But, during those few seconds when we levitated her, she stayed in the same position as she was when laying on the ground.

Soon as Tina hit the ground, she jumped up and ran for her bike then pedaled home before we could stop her.  The four of us watched in surprise, wondering what just happened.  We were excited with this feat and in a state of shock that it actually worked.  Now, we did try the experiment again another time (not Tina, it frightened her.  By the way, she said she felt very calm and didn’t even know we had lifted her off the ground until we dropped her!).  For whatever reason, we just couldn’t make the experiment work again.  I think it’s because we knew it was possible though it SHOULDN’T be and some of us were afraid to make it happen again.  Resistance can stop the flow of energy in any experiment.

Not too long ago, I was talking to someone who said they had achieved what we did but they did it with someone sitting in a chair.  So, one night a bunch of us were gathered together socializing and we decided to give levitation a try.  We had someone sit in a chair and placed one person on each side of her, their two fingers extended under the seat of the chair.  I stood behind her and began the hypnotic speech.  When it was time.  We lifted her as if she weighed nothing. Unfortunately, the response to something this amazing is to be incredulous and then to laugh. Once that happened, the chair slammed down to the floor.

So, how does this work?  Why, when conditions are right, can we make a heavy object become light as air?  I remember reading somewhere the speculation about the pyramids being constructed with levitation involved.  Those humongous blocks, cut and placed so precisely, could it be the workers were placed in a hypnotic trance where they believed the ton weight stones were no heavier than feathers?  Incredible to believe but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.  There are rumors out there that are wilder than that.  This story just goes to show you, there’s more to the mystery of life than what most of us are familiar with.

So, have you tried any experiments that defied natural law?  Honestly, I’m not exaggerating my story or embellishing it in any way.  Events happened as I explained them.  And they boggle my mind today as they did back then.

So, Criss Angel performs a “trick” using the art of illusion.  I use nothing but words.  Which of us is the magician?