Forthcoming Publication The Flying Mystics of Tibetan Buddhism Author: Glenn H. Mullin

Traditional Tibetan literature tells of Buddhist mystics who have taken off in joyful flight. Buddha himself is said to have done so on several occasions, as did Indian masters such as Nagarjuna and Padma Sambhava. The legacy was adopted by Tibetan mystics in the eighth century, with the yogini Yeshey Tsogyal as a prime example, and continued over the centuries. The eleventh century yogi and poet Milarepa is another famous flyer.

This historical anecdotes in Tibetan literature and oral tradition that speak of mystics with powers of levitation and flight find their way into Tibetan art. The book features Tibetan art, many from the Museum's collections, depicting the literary and oral legacy of levitation and flight among Tibetan mystics. - Source

In his book The Bridge to Infinity, Bruce Cathie recounts an amazing story that he says originated in a German magazine. It tells the story of astonishing feats of levitation accomplished by priests in a monastery high in the Tibetan Himalayas. Here, in English translation, are excepts from that German article:

    A Swedish doctor, Dr. Jarl... studied at Oxford. During those times he became friends with a young Tibetan student. A couple of years later, it was 1939, Dr. Jarl made a journey to Egypt for the English Scientific Society. There he was seen by a messenger of his Tibetan friend, and urgently requested to come to Tibet to treat a high Lama. After Dr. Jarl got the leave he followed the messenger and arrived after a long journey by plane and Yak caravans, at the monastery, where the old Lama and his friend who was now holding a high position were now living.

    One day his friend took him to a place in the neighborhood of the monastery and showed him a sloping meadow which was surrounded in the north west by high cliffs. In one of the rock walls, at a height of about 250 metres was a big hole which looked like the entrance to a cave. In front of this hole there was a platform on which the monks were building a rock wall. The only access to this platform was from the top of the cliff and the monks lowered themselves down with the help of ropes.

    In the middle of the meadow. about 250 metres from the cliff, was a polished slab of rock with a bowl like cavity in the center. The bowl had a diameter of one metre and a depth of 15 centimeters. A block of stone was maneuvered into this cavity by Yak oxen. The block was one metre wide and one and one-half metres long. Then 19 musical instruments were set in an arc of 90 degrees at a distance of 63 metres from the stone slab. The radius of 63 metres was measured out accurately. The musical instruments consisted of 13 drums and six trumpets. (Ragdons).

    Behind each instrument was a row of monks. When the stone was in position the monk behind the small drum gave a signal to start the concert. The small drum had a very sharp sound, and could be heard even with the other instruments making a terrible din. All the monks were singing and chanting a prayer, slowly increasing the tempo of this unbelievable noise. During the first four minutes nothing happened, then as the speed of the drumming, and the noise increased, the big stone block started to rock and sway, and suddenly it took off into the air with an increasing speed in the direction of the platform in front of the cave hole 250 metres high. After three minutes of ascent it landed on the platform.

    Continuously they brought new blocks to the meadow, and the monks using this method, transported 5 to 6 blocks per hour on a parabolic flight track approximately 500 metres long and 250 metres high. From time to time a stone split, and the monks moved the split stones away. Quite an unbelievable task. Dr Jarl knew about the hurling of the stones. Tibetan experts like Linaver, Spalding and Huc had spoken about it, but they had never seen it. So Dr Jarl was the first foreigner who had the opportunity to see this remarkable spectacle. Because he had the opinion in the beginning that he was the victim of mass-psychosis he made two films of the incident. The films showed exactly the same things that he had witnessed.

    The English Society for which Dr Jarl was working confiscated the two films and declared them classified. They will not be released until 1990.

Were the films of this fascinating feat released in 1990? Did they ever even exist? Or is this just another tall tale that lends more mystery to the land of Shangri-la?

SOURCE: Unexplained Mysteries

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. 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. 

SOURCE: Unexplained Mysteries