You’ve seen them on street corners and even on the stages of large Las
Vegas showrooms. Magicians who practice
their “art” in front of small groups of individuals or perhaps hundreds in a
showroom or literally millions if the performance is televised. And often part of their “act” includes a
performance of levitation! What really
is levitation?
Levitation (from
Latin levitas
"lightness") is the process by which an object is held aloft, without
mechanical support, in a stable position.
Levitation is accomplished by
providing an upward
force that counteracts the pull of
gravity (in relation to gravity on earth),
plus a smaller stabilizing force that pushes the object toward a home position
whenever it is a small distance away from that home position. The force can be
a fundamental force such as magnetic or electrostatic, or it can be a reactive
force such as optical, buoyant, aerodynamic, or hydrodynamic.
Levitation
excludes floating at the surface of a liquid because
the liquid provides direct mechanical support. Levitation excludes hovering
flight by insects, hummingbirds, helicopters, rockets, and balloons because the
object provides its own counter-gravity force.
Levitation techniques are useful
tools in physics research. For example, levitation methods are useful for
high-temperature melt property studies because they eliminate the problem of
reaction with containers and allow deep undercooling of melts. The
containerless conditions may be obtained by opposing gravity with a levitation
force instead of allowing an entire experiment to freefall.
But, outside of physics, is levitation an actual act that can be
performed by “normal” people? That is
the important question. Perhaps it isn’t
the “normal” persons’ activity, but could such an ability exist today or has it
become a “lost art?”
Did ancient civilizations possess
knowledge that has since been lost to science? Were amazing technologies
available to the ancient Egyptians that enabled them to construct the pyramids
-- technologies that have somehow been forgotten?
The ruins of several ancient civilizations -- from Stonehenge to the pyramids -- show that they used massive
stones to construct their monuments. A basic question is why?
Why use stone pieces of such enormous size and weight when the same
structures could have been constructed with more easily managed smaller blocks
-- much like we use bricks and cinderblocks today?
Could part of the answer be that these ancients had a method of lifting
and moving these massive stones -- some weighing several tons -- that made the
task as easy and manageable as lifting a two-pound brick? The ancients, some
researchers suggest, may have mastered the art of levitation, through sonics or
some other obscure method, which allowed them to defy gravity and manipulate
massive objects with ease.
How the great pyramids of Egypt were
built has been the subject of debate for millennia. The fact is, no one really
knows for certain exactly how they were constructed. The current estimates
of mainstream science contends that it took a workforce
of 4,000 to 5,000 men 20 years to build the Great Pyramid using ropes, pulleys,
ramps, ingenuity and brute force.
And that very well may have been the case. But there is an intriguing
passage in a history text by the 10th century Arab historian, Abul Hasan Ali
Al-Masudi, known as the Herodotus of the Arabs. Al-Masudi had traveled much of
the known world in his day before settling in Egypt, and he had written a
30-volume history of the world. He too was
struck by the magnificence of the Egyptian pyramids and wrote about how their
great stone blocks were transported.
First, he said, a "magic papyrus" (paper) was placed under the
stone to be moved. Then the stone was struck with a metal rod that caused the
stone to levitate and move along a path paved with stones and fenced on either
side by metal poles. The stone would travel along the path, wrote Al-Masudi,
for a distance of about 50 meters and then settle to the ground. The process
would then be repeated until the builders had the stone where they wanted it.
The Egyptian pyramids are not the only ancient structures constructed of
huge blocks of stone. Far from it. Great temples and monuments around the world
contain stone components of incredible size, yet little is known about their
means of construction.
- The Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek.
Lebanon has a foundation that contains
the three largest stone blocks ever used in a man-made structure. Each
block is estimated to weigh as much as 1,000 tons! No super crane in
existence today could lift one, yet they are positioned together with such
precision that not even a needle could fit between them. Nearby is an even
bigger stone. Known as Hajar el Hibla -- the Stone of the Pregnant Woman
-- it lies abandoned in its quarry, never used. But the giant rectangular
block is the largest piece of stone ever cut by humans, weighing an
incredible 1,200 tons. It is estimated that it would require the strength
of 16,000 men to even budge it, and represents a formidable challenge to
20th century machines and technology.
- On
an isolated plateau at Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, 13,000 feet above sea level, stands an impressive
monument called Puerta del Sol, or Sun Gate. The elaborately carved gate
weighs an estimated 10 tons, and how it arrived at its present location is
a mystery.
- Nan
Madol, sometimes called "the
Machu Pichu of the Pacific," is a great ruins on the island of
Pohnpei, capital of the Federated States of Micronesia. This lost city,
constructed around 200 B.C., is made up of hundreds of stacked stone logs,
each about 18-feet-long and several feet in diameter. The logs, stacked
like cordwood, constitute walls that are 40 feet high and 18 feet thick.
Each stone log is estimated to weigh about 2.5 tons. How they were moved
and lifted into position is unknown.
What was the secret these diverse and ancient cultures possessed to
manipulate these great stone blocks? A massive supply of slave labor straining
human muscle and ingenuity to their limits? Or was there another more
mysterious way? It's remarkable that these cultures leave no record of how
these structures were constructed. However, "in almost every culture where
megaliths exist," according to 432:Cosmic Key, "a legend also exists
that the huge stones were moved by acoustic means -- either by the chanted
spells of magicians, by song, by striking with a magic wand or rod (to produce
acoustic resonance), or by trumpets, gongs, lyres, cymbals or whistles."
How unfortunate that these secrets
of levitation - if they ever existed - are lost to antiquity or the remoteness
of the Himalayas. They seem to be forever elusive to modern Western man. Or are
they?
Beginning in 1920, Edward Leedskalnin, a 5-ft. tall, 100-lb. Latvian
immigrant, began to build a remarkable structure in Homestead, Florida. Over a
20-year period, Leedskalnin single-handedly build a home he originally called
"Rock Gate Park," but has since been named Coral Castle. [Note: You can
get more information and arrange a visit to the museum by visiting www.coralcastle.com.] Working in secret - often at night -
Leedskalnin was somehow able to quarry, fashion, transport and constructed the
impressive edifices and sculptures of his unique home from large blocks of
heavy coral rock.
It's estimated that 1,000 tons of coral rock were used in construction
of the walls and towers, and an additional 100 tons of it were carved into
furniture and art objects:
- An obelisk he raised weighs 28 tons.
- The wall surrounding Coral Castle
stands 8 ft. tall and consists of large blocks each weighing several tons.
- Large stone crescents are perched atop 20-ft.-high
walls.
- A 9-ton swinging gate that moves at the touch of a
finger guards the eastern wall.
- The largest rock on the property weighs an estimated 35
tons.
- Some stones are twice the weight of the largest blocks
in the Great Pyramid at Giza.
All this he did alone and without heavy machinery. No one was ever
witness to how Leedskalnin was able to move and lift such enormous objects,
although it is claimed that some spying teenagers saw him "float coral
blocks through the air like hydrogen balloons."
Leedskalnin was highly secretive about his methods, saying only at one
point, "I have discovered the secrets of the pyramids. I have found out
how the Egyptians and the ancient builders in Peru, Yucatan and Asia, with only
primitive tools, raised and set in place blocks of stone weighing many
tons." If Leedskalnin had indeed
rediscovered the ancient secrets of levitation, he took them with him to his
grave.
So, outside the “trickery” of modern day “magicians” could the secret of
this art still be hidden in the archives of history? We may never know, but there are times when I
let my mind wonder and I think my body begins to “rise” from its stationary
position. At least in my mind!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"Those who teach have a lot to offer,
if those who need to learn would only listen!"
