African shaman performing levitation

[dejan]

A german film crew captures a levitation performance by African shaman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW6pVFOpE6Q
since it is against all laws of physics, it should be analysed and debunked - where are now all those scientists - those shamans are levitating before their eyes
thanks

 

[magi]

Dejan,

What is your relationship to the uploader of this video on youtube, TheRion616?

Is it your intention to post links to videos which are so obviously fraudulent they auto-debunk?

I am of the opinion that all you are here for is to promote these videos. However, I am open to being proven wrong. If you support a theory as to how these "shamen" "levitate", post it. Include how you think the law of gravity is overcome/negated. Explain why you think it is not a hoax.

Note that I say "you". Please don't do the "but a lot of people are looking at it" excuse. A lot of people look at Pamela Anderson's breastworks, but they are also fake.

If you have no theory, then this is a waste of time. If you do, I'm interested in hearing it.

 

[Locknar]

Dejan,

What is your relationship to the uploader of this video on youtube, TheRion616?

Is it your intention to post links to videos which are so obviously fraudulent they auto-debunk?

I am of the opinion that all you are here for is to promote these videos. However, I am open to being proven wrong. If you support a theory as to how these "shamen" "levitate", post it. Include how you think the law of gravity is overcome/negated. Explain why you think it is not a hoax.

Note that I say "you". Please don't do the "but a lot of people are looking at it" excuse. A lot of people look at Pamela Anderson's breastworks, but they are also fake.

If you have no theory, then this is a waste of time. If you do, I'm interested in hearing it.

I'd have to agree with Magi; perhaps you (Dejan) misunderstand the point of this site?

What is your claim? Do you believe this video to be factual evidence and if so why? This site is really geared towards the debate of claims....not as a bastion of all truth, righting falsehoods and hoaxes the world over.

I also think the question wrt your relationship to TheRion616 is valid.

 

[magi]

Follow up --

I beleive you lifted this from David Icke's forum, where it is quoted:

hagbard_celine27-04-2007, 01:44 AM
African shaman performing levitation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW6pVFOpE6Q

So where's the boom and pulley, eh James Randi?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Icke sells a lot of snake oil. The happiest thing I read on his website is:

This is real serious and David's work is in imminent danger of ceasing without your help. Donate system now working.


Or send to this address:

David Icke Legal Defence Fund,
<snip>

Another one bites the dust?

 

[Psi Baba]

Funny you never see the guy's back. Funny that. Even though a camerman is supposedly filming the shaman from the side we never see more than his hands, his head, and his feet. Certainly there aren't accomplices in the bushes with a see-saw. No way.

 

[madurobob]

Oh Puhlease. No need for any scientists here, its nothing more than a trick and the camera crew is in on the ruse. The second camera man has a very professional looking camera.. with the light turned off! When we do see video from that camera it is very dark and very unstable shots of the man's feet and hands. Where are the well lit shots from various angles in front and behind? Of course they are not there - the video producer has no interest in exposing the fraud.

I spose you think Chris Angel really flies over rooftops without the aid of wires, too, huh?

 

[ohp]

It's also jolly handy that it's dark as well, what with eyes not working so well at night.

 

[madurobob]

Dejan,
Note that I say "you". Please don't do the "but a lot of people are looking at it" excuse. A lot of people look at Pamela Anderson's breastworks, but they are also fake.

I assure you those breastworks are no illusion; not fake!

 

[JonWhite]

David Icke sells a lot of snake oil.... ....Another one bites the dust?

We can hope.

I hadn't realised his "work" was in trouble, thanks for the good news.

As if the "levitation" isn't laughable enough in itself, having David Icke's endorsement truly nails it!

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Wait--this is a joke, isn't it?

Listen to the narrator:

The images which this film has recorded are scarcely to be credited. There are no hidden supports or pulleys to be seen.
<snip>
There's no question that this is a trick or an illusion.

As for the video itself: it makes me want to pursue my claim as being the world's greatest magician. . . as long as I'm allowed to perform in a cavern in absolute darkness.

Edit: emphasis added in the quote. I haven't seen anything invisible or hidden from view all day long.

 

[magi]

I assure you those breastworks are no illusion; not fake!

Oh, they exist(ed). But, like the video in question, they have been "enhanced" with "artificial ingredients".

Ok, that's probably as far down that path as I'm going...

 

[Normal Dude]

Oh, they exist(ed). But, like the video in question, they have been "enhanced" with "artificial ingredients".

Ok, that's probably as far down that path as I'm going...

I'm not prepared to acknowledge that these have existed. I require photographic proof. Preferably close up.

 

[Beady]

A german film crew captures a levitation performance by African shaman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW6pVFOpE6Q

Am I the only one who noticed, right alongside the video in the "related videos" section, all the professional magicians demonstrating and explaining various techniques of levitation?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Magic fraud is alive and sadly still well in more countries than just the Western ones. But India has it's own James Randi and JREF like organization and even a skeptical movement.

Gurubuster Prabir Ghosh

Prabir Ghosh is the 59-year-old chief of The Science and Rationalists' Association of India and the scourge of every guru, godman, fakir, faith-healer and fat swami for a hundred miles of his home in Calcutta. He is the author of 13 Bengali-language best sellers, among them such classics as 'Nothing Supernatural' and 'Why I Don’t Believe In God'. Despite nine assassination attempts, including a hit-and-run attack by a man on an Enfield motorbike that left Ghosh with four broken ribs, he has waged a lifelong campaign to expose Indian gurus for what he believes they are: charlatans. ‘There was a time when there were a lot of godmen in Kolkata,’ says Ghosh with a schoolboy grin. ‘Not any more.’

The Science and Rationalists’ Association of India

The RATIONALIST MOVEMENT in the Indian context; Prabir Ghosh

Here's another article on the topic that has a pretty comprehensive discussion of the situation: Using basic conjuring tricks to simulate unearthly powers, India's fake gurus command legions of followers while creating business empires that are worth millions. But the country's rationalists are fighting back.

 

[Drummer]

Oh Puhlease. No need for any scientists here, its nothing more than a trick and the camera crew is in on the ruse. The second camera man has a very professional looking camera.. with the light turned off! When we do see video from that camera it is very dark and very unstable shots of the man's feet and hands. Where are the well lit shots from various angles in front and behind? Of course they are not there - the video producer has no interest in exposing the fraud.

I also notice that the second cameraman, while he is in view of camera 1, at 1:30 moves his camera up and down and left and right like he is searching for any wires or pulleys and so behind the guys back. That's clearly for show only. Even if there was anything and he was filming, he's moving so fast that with that light his camera couldn't focus anyway. I totally agree - it's a trick and the camera crew is in on it.

 

[insidespace]

The film is impressive. His body lifts as one. There are no stresses or attachment points for wires. Look with your whole mind (unfocused) and you will see. This is a holy man. I am surprised he allowed himself to be filmed (reference: Native Americans).

Levitation is an ancient art, though it has never yet been fully explained by modern science. Even now physicists try to understand how anti-gravity waves vs. particles interact. They say there is now matter that is not like ours (ref: dark matter). How it works we do not know, but we know very certain people after much study and concentration can do it.

Of course there will always be doubting thomases. These are people who would doubt for the sake of doubting. They doubted Edison and Einstein, remember?

I am *NOT* claiming that this holy man is communicating with G-D. There are mysterious methods that do not involve Him. The cosmos is full of surprises. Maybe there is a link to a transmitter on another planet that he can access, which pulls him up! Can you disprove that? It could be a totally "natural" process. Or, as we have seen in the past, our understandings are simply too limited. Only by sleeping on a cold floor in the high mountains for a hundred years could you understand.

Now, I have heard that only people who have descended from certain bloodlines can do levitation. Much has been said about this, but I am a skeptic about it. I just cannot except it without evidence. If someone says Jesus left children whose bloodline was the holy grail, well, I say, "prove it mister!"

Returning to the levitation at issue, I note the general looseness and lack of stress on the shaman. It is just like he is floating, not being pulled up by a cord. A cord would put pressure on him, but he does not seem to have any pressure. So, he floats on a sea of air (?), buoyed up by his belief. Did Archimedes measure how much lighter one can get if one tries? Have you ever tried to make yourself "heavier" so that someone can't pick you up? Dogs can do this too. It is just the reverse of levitation, so don't say it is impossible. Remember, they said that to all great scientists.

Thanks

 

[madurobob]

The film is impressive. His body lifts as one. There are no stresses or attachment points for wires. Look with your whole mind (unfocused) and you will see. This is a holy man. I am surprised he allowed himself to be filmed (reference: Native Americans).

Thanks for the laugh - I needed it!

Levitation is an ancient art...

yes, it is exactly as old as the "art" of defrauding gullible people of their hard earned wealth/land/power

...but we know very certain people after much study and concentration can do it.

Could be worth a million bucks to you if you could prove it. Don't tell me, I already know.. that would bespoil the magic. Convenient, that.

Returning to the levitation at issue, I note the general looseness and lack of stress on the shaman. It is just like he is floating, not being pulled up by a cord. A cord would put pressure on him, but he does not seem to have any pressure. So, he floats on a sea of air (?), buoyed up by his belief. Did Archimedes measure how much lighter one can get if one tries? Have you ever tried to make yourself "heavier" so that someone can't pick you up? Dogs can do this too. It is just the reverse of levitation, so don't say it is impossible. Remember, they said that to all great scientists.

Thats one amazing dog you have! Just how does he manage to make himself heavier? I had a hell of a time just teaching my dog to "stay".

And yes, the man in the video definitely appears to be suspended just below his shoulder blades, maybe a bit lower. Note the convenient stand of small trees behind him. Wonder why he chose this spot?

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Much has been said about this, but I am a skeptic about it.

No--you're certainly not a skeptic about the bloodlines or anything else. Not if you're willing to "except" this as an actual levitation or even an impressive trick.

A skeptic is someone who doubts extraordinary claims without commensurate evidence.

Edit: I've seen Peter Pan "flying" around in a theater with flowing clothes and the entire body moving as a unit. (What would the alternative be? Having him hoisted up by one arm or something?) The clothes go over the apparatus. The looser and more flowing, the easier it is to hide where the body might be in tension.

 

[magi]

The film is impressive. His body lifts as one. There are no stresses or attachment points for wires. Look with your whole mind (unfocused) and you will see. This is a holy man. I am surprised he allowed himself to be filmed (reference: Native Americans).

Levitation is an ancient art, though it has never yet been fully explained by modern science. Even now physicists try to understand how anti-gravity waves vs. particles interact. They say there is now matter that is not like ours (ref: dark matter). How it works we do not know, but we know very certain people after much study and concentration can do it.

Of course there will always be doubting thomases. These are people who would doubt for the sake of doubting. They doubted Edison and Einstein, remember?

I am *NOT* claiming that this holy man is communicating with G-D. There are mysterious methods that do not involve Him. The cosmos is full of surprises. Maybe there is a link to a transmitter on another planet that he can access, which pulls him up! Can you disprove that? It could be a totally "natural" process. Or, as we have seen in the past, our understandings are simply too limited. Only by sleeping on a cold floor in the high mountains for a hundred years could you understand.

Now, I have heard that only people who have descended from certain bloodlines can do levitation. Much has been said about this, but I am a skeptic about it. I just cannot except it without evidence. If someone says Jesus left children whose bloodline was the holy grail, well, I say, "prove it mister!"

Returning to the levitation at issue, I note the general looseness and lack of stress on the shaman. It is just like he is floating, not being pulled up by a cord. A cord would put pressure on him, but he does not seem to have any pressure. So, he floats on a sea of air (?), buoyed up by his belief. Did Archimedes measure how much lighter one can get if one tries? Have you ever tried to make yourself "heavier" so that someone can't pick you up? Dogs can do this too. It is just the reverse of levitation, so don't say it is impossible. Remember, they said that to all great scientists.

Thanks

It is my honor, insidespace, to be the first to welcome you, as this looks like it was your first post.

Having said that.... What?

If you would, please, lay out your theory on how levitation occurs. Can you do it? Do you know anyone who can? Ever seen it happen, live?

I, for one, am not here to disprove everything, or even anything. I'm here to discuss and debate specific claims that people make, such as levitation. I hope to be here when one of these abilities is proven beyond the dado of a shout. But I strongly suspect that's not going to happen.

 

[Monza]

Of course there will always be doubting thomases. These are people who would doubt for the sake of doubting. They doubted Edison and Einstein, remember?

So? People doubted Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann. People doubted David Rorvik. People doubted the Steorn scientists. The difference with Edison and Einstein is that their claims stood on their own. Doubt doesn't affect whether someting is true or not. Being doubted is not a badge of honor or a measurement of validity.

The film is impressive. His body lifts as one. There are no stresses or attachment points for wires....I note the general looseness and lack of stress on the shaman. It is just like he is floating, not being pulled up by a cord. A cord would put pressure on him, but he does not seem to have any pressure. So, he floats on a sea of air (?), buoyed up by his belief.

This video is even more impressive! I don't see any cords or wires and he floats much more freely than the guy in the other video. I don't think he is communicating with G-D, but he did get a super model to marry him...so he did something right.