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Levitation |
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Levitation: A term in use among spiritualists to denote the raising in the air of the human body or other objects without visible means, and presumably through the agency of disembodied spirits. Thus the levitation of tables and other more or less weighty objects is a common feat among " physical" mediums, whether or not a supernatural explanation be required. The witches of olden times, too, were popularly supposed to make use of some occult mode of locomotion in their nocturnal travels, being transported through the air by the arts of their master, the Devil. And the poltergeist was also thought to suspend in the air, without visible means of support, the agent through whom he manifested himself. As a spiritualistic phenomenon levitation of the human body became known at an early stage of the movement, being recorded in connection with the medium Gordon so early as 1851. But the most important of levitated mediums was D. D. Home, and many accounts of his feats in this direction are given by witnesses who were themselves convinced of their genuineness. It may be noted, however, that levitations usually
occurred in a darkened seance-room, when the only
indication of any untoward happening was furnished by the
medium's own exclamations, by the fact that his voice
seemed to come from high in the air, and sometimes by his
boots scraping the back of a chair or the hand of one of
the sitters. The Rev. Stainton Moses, who also was
levitated on several occasions, seems to have held his
seances in darkness also, or at most by the light of the
fire. Mrs. Guppy (nee Nicholls) was before her marriage
several times levitated, notwithstanding the fact that she
was extremely stout, and a curious story concerning a
later levitation is told in a letter in the Echo of June
8th, 1871, for whose (anonymous) author's trustworthiness
the editor vouches. About that time the writer attended a
circle with Messrs. Herne and Williams as mediums, the
spirits present being the famous John and Katie King. One
of the sitters jokingly expressed a wish that Mrs. Guppy
(then in her home some three miles distant) might be
brought to the seance-room, and to this Katie King was
heard to assent. While the company were laughing at the
absurdity of the idea, there was a loud bump, followed by
shrieks and exclamations. A match was struck, and there in
the centre of the table stood Mrs. Guppy, an account-book
in one hand, a pen in the other, and apparently in a state
of trance. Less than three minutes elapsed between the
expression of the wish and the appearance of Mrs. Guppy.
The writer adds : " The possibility of her being concealed
in the room is as absurd as the idea of her acting in
collusion with the media." Home | Alternative
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