Video: A Levitating Monk

A video about a levitating monk in Nepal.

Short version:

Full version:

What do you think, is this real or not?

If this message gets more than 17 responses, it shows enough interest
and I will share the process for deciding something like this.

Ok! Thanks for all the comments… what can I say… wow!
Great, I promised to give my take on this demonstration.
I think it is a good opportunity to take this as a case study
or practical example.
You notice some people think it is real, others think it is a
magic trick.

The short story is, when considering all the elements in
the complete movie, there are many elements indicating
that this is a trick, fake.
How do I get to this conclusion?

1. Experience:
At the start I recognized myself in the young man searching
for real magic. I spend a lot of my time travelling in order to
discover the real human potential.

Soon the resemblance stopped. During the past years
I learned by doing what is the best approach and how
one best behaves oneself in order to increase the
likelihood of actually discovering something and
having a chance to learn it.

What you see in this movie is, in many cases,
just the opposite of that:

 – at the moment where he does the apple trick,
you notice he pushes the arm of the shopkeeper,
with words in the sense of ‘hey look at me’,
while the shopkeeper didn’t ask him anything.
Basically he is pushing his magic performance.
The only reason for this being that they had to shoot
an image with a local guy for this show.
– the man in the movie, who is a professional magician,
talks to someone walking on the street with the same
type of arrogance: Hey why won’t you talk with me?
Like every person on earth has to understand English,
like to be on camera or wants to be stopped in the
streets.

In Eastern countries they often label Western people
as arrogant. This is mostly due there being a
difference in the way people interact with each other
in both cultures.

In some cases Westerners, Americans even more so,
 are even being considered barbarians, because they
often don’t know all the subtle unwritten rules and modes
of interacting.

In  the movie you can see for example, that the guy
touches the head of a child, while this is being
considered very impolite and insulting.

One of the keys I discovered through experience
during my travels over the years, is that you can
gain much more by adapting to the local habits
and rules of social interaction.
Many doors which remained closed for others, have
opened for me, because of this.

Another prejudice that Westerners often get, is
that they are spiritually ignorant.

During my youth I studied magic tricks a little. From
this experience I learned that a lot of supernatural
phenomena, or at least the physical effects thereof,
can be replicated by magic tricks.

It is important to note though that even though
the effect that something has at the material plane
can be replicated by a magic trick, in and by itself

Doesn’t mean that the phenomena which has been
replicated is not possible.

While it is good to keep a critical eye, a lot of
sceptics go to far by taking on a wishy washy
logic:
I fit in my jacket, my jacket fits in my bag, so
I fit into my bag!
(When doing magic trick X, you can witness
effect Y at the external plane, so every time
effect Y occurs it is caused by magic trick X!).

The knowledge of how psychic or supernatural
phenomena can be replicated through tricks,
is essential for a sincere spiritual searcher or
researcher of the human potential.

Without that knowledge, a Westerner, can be
fooled easily when his spiritual search is based
mostly on external phenomena, without wanting
to gain insight in the underlying mechanisms.

Up to this day there are still Indian gurus,
having thousands of Western followers because
of some magic tricks.

During my travels, I noticed pretty quick the
need for knowledge about magic tricks, in order
to be able to gauche the quality of certain teachings.

In Asia there are a lot of ‘spiritual’ schools that
are using magic tricks instead of real supernatural
powers. For someone not in the know, it can
sometimes be VERY hard to spot the difference.

I have been lucky enough to have spend some
time studying with a teacher who knew about
a lot of these tricks, and passed them on to me
in order for me not to be fooled by them. My
own experience or at least the insights I gained
from it, allowed me more than once to catch
spiritual teachers when they were doing tricks.

 2. Contents:
The question here is: are we shown a demonstration
of levitation or is it a magic trick?

The thing is, levitation does exist and is a skill that
can be learned. I personally know a couple of people
who are able to do it at will any time.

The thing is that demonstrations of this are traditionally
only for their students.

The man in the movie is magician, an illusionist.
His goal is to gain money through the act  of making
something appear as real which is not real.

In the movie there are several magic tricks which
require a set up in advance. This means the viewer
is being mislead at least a couple of times.

These days magicians also use new media to present
their acts, their illusions (to make something appear as
real while it is not).

Chris Angel for example is a famous American illusionist
who is not afraid of using camera angles, hired actors
and smart editing of shots in order to produce an illusion.
Including for the illusion of levitation.

 This has a strange side effect too. A lot of people in
the East think for example that David Coperfield has
huge psychic or supernatural powers.

One of the keys to illusionism is the preface during
which the spectator is forced into a certain way of
thinking.

In  this movie everything which is shown before
the levitation is precisely that: forcing the viewer
in a certain ay of thinking.

 The movie uses a monk as actor a couple of times
while illustrating a story.
How likely is it that the levitating monk is a hired
actor too?

How likely is it that the monk is not the one doing
the trick but the illusionist, the magician, is
using the monk as variation of the beautiful
assistant who has to draw the eye of the spectator?

Well, let’s find out by looking at the context…

3. Context:
The man doing the levitation is being presented
as being a monk, a Tibetan Buddhist monk.

I remember a story from while I was in Thailand,
about a monk leading a group of monks back to
their temple after their meditation in the mountain.

They were walking on foot and he noticed that
all of them were pretty tired, while the still had
to cover a fair distance.

The monk, out of compassion, decided to use
his supernatural powers in order to transport
the whole group more quick in time.

When he arrived at the temple with the monks,
he went to the abbot of the temple and confessed
that he had used his supernatural power in
a public area.

The abbot answered that it was all right, that he
already knew of the monk his actions, but only wanted
to know if the monk would confess them.

There are monks with paranormal powers.
I was taught a specific method to develop
clairvoyance in a Buddhist temple.

The technique was tested by using telepathy,
where the monk required correct answers on
his questions before he would teach the next step.

When a person couldn’t successfully use his
clairvoyance, he would not be taught the next
step.

This teaching took place behind closed doors,
and after putting up a few traditional obstacles
to test the sincere interest, motivation  and
level of accomplishment of me and a friend who
came along.

In the Buddhist monastic code, the temple law,
it is written that showing supernatural powers
to people who aren’t monks, can be punished.

Buddha was pretty clear about this in a
conversation with one of his disciples: “Just like
a woman can show her vagina in return for a
mere coin, you have shown a superior human
state, a supernatural power, for a mere wooden
bowl.”

In the movie, the ‘monk’ is wearing the monks
clothes, which would imply he would have to
follow these rules.

That means he wouldn’t be allowed to show
levitation to people who are not monks…
especially not in return for seeing a simple
magic trick.

So it seems more likely that this monk is
a hired actor.

The trick itself…

The body language as well as intonation
indicate that the magician changes his
state compared to earlier on in the movie:
he is acting.

Also notice that the set is already prepared.
The candles are put into place and have been
burning for a while, precisely in front of the
small area in which the other one is doing his
performance.

All of these small things is of course not
proof that it couldn’t be real, yet in the
whole context they do play their role.

The trick is a dressed up version of one
of the most impressive magic tricks:
levitation.

If you are interested, you can order all
the needed equipment at this site, where
you can learn about some more revealing
things of which every serious seeker should
know their existence.
http://www.hightrick.com/store/Scripts/default.asp

4. Complete picture:

By looking at the external things, you can
only get so far.

People who have studied Ultra Dynamic Mind:
You know that when you are operating at that
level of mind, there is no limit in time
and space…

You can mentally project the set at the time
of the recording. There you can take hold
of the monk and view what is behind or
under him.
Or you use your hand to observe the
construction/constriction around him.

People who haven’t studied Ultra Dynamic
Mind yet

hmmm…
those can click HERE