HINDU LEVITATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 April 1924, Page 6

HINDU LEVITATION

A FRENCH REPORT.

Significant of the growing interest in all matters phychic is the local revival of the age old discussion as to whether the fakirism of India, with its phenomena of levitation, is fact or hallucination. Henry de Charbogne, who has travelled extensively in Hindustan, believes the subject should oe studied carefully ip the light of recent scientific achievement, as “there are so many things to-day whose existence would have been doubted half a century ago.’’ M. de Charbogne tells of a visit, accompanied by a French physician of reputation, to the cabin of a Hindu Yogi, who was requested to prove his talents. “Immediately he began to croon a few mantras, or native prayer formulae,’’ says M. de Charbogne, “and spontaneously entered a hypnotic state, which was evidenced by frightful convulsions of his pupils. Then "his body became absolutely rigid, and respiration seemed to cease entirely.’’ A few minutes later, while “fascinated by the spectacle of an apparent corpse standing vertical before us,” it was noticed that the Yogi began to move toward the ceiling, the ascent continuing “till he had been elevated nearly thirty inches from the ground. The doctor measured the distance with his cane and declared himself convinced at last—but a few months later, fearing public ridicule for his faith in such an impossible event, he refused to discuss the incident beyond suggesting that there “might have been some sort if collaboration,” which the two visitors, in their astonishment, had overlooked