# Yogi Levitation, What physics need bent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501 "2014-12-06T15:39:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/21 "2014-12-07T07:36:34Z")
I knew a family that was heavily into this crap. They touted the health benefits of TM. Of course, anything that made you stop and do mind-numbing mental exercises to forget about the stress of your life for a half hour or more a day has to have some benefit. For flying, the yogi-wannabees start by assuming that joint-hurting folded-leg position, then they start bouncing on a mat. (That’s gotta hurt) Doug Henning the magician IIIRC was one of these, claimed to have seen the truly advanced yogis graduate from the bouncing phase to zooming around the room. Nothing like that is on Youtube, of course. The skeptic types claim that in the few actual demonstrations, these guys have learned to “jump” pretty well in this pose and are just bouncing around the room like they were working a bouncy castle. > [@](#): > > In the mid 1980s, Henning retired from the stage and had an increasing interest in Transcendental Meditation.[1] He received a Ph.D in the Science of Creative Intelligence from the Maharishi University in Switzerland.[18] > > In 1992, Henning and Transcendental Meditation founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi drafted plans for a $1.5 billion-dollar project called “Maharishi Veda Land” near Niagara Falls, Ontario[1] that would “combine astonishing, unique visual and sensory effects, state-of-the-art 3D imagery, and ultra high-tech entertainment technology with his best and most original magic illusion secrets”.[19] Attractions were to include a building suspended above water and a journey into the heart of a rose but as of 2000 the project’s status was uncertain.[1] As for the power of enlightenment… > [@](#): > > Henning died aged 52 in February 2000 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles five months after being diagnosed with liver cancer.[1] His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean off Redondo Beach, California.[4] > > James Randi, a fellow Canadian magician and prominent skeptic, was critical of Henning’s involvement with Transcendental Meditation ™.[25] In 2008, Randi asserted in his blog, SWIFT, that TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had “caused the death of my friend Doug Henning”.[26] He claimed that Henning had immersed himself so thoroughly in TM that he “abandoned regular medical treatment for liver cancer, continued to pursue his diet of nuts and berries, and died of the disease.”[26] ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/22 "2014-12-07T08:57:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That depends on how they’re supposedly doing it. There are many ways, even ones allowed by the known laws of physics, to make something fly. None of them are accessible to a human without tools, but that’s a problem of biology, not physics. Well, let us put our minds to this, and propose various alternative theories about how yogis _might_ be doing this, and then investigate what physics (or biology) would need to be adjusted to make it work. That is, we should first suspend disbelief in order to suspend a yogi. I propose that it’s biology, as **Chronos** suggests. There is a certain small amount of naturally helium in the air, and I think yogis develop the skill to selectively inhale relatively larger concentrations of this and less of the other gases. After a certain number of minutes of doing this (depending on their skill), they will have accumulated enough helium in their lungs to float. With sufficient practice and skill, they can control their altitude precisely, so that they can remain suspended just a foot or two above the floor, rather than floating up to the ceiling or (if outdoors) out into space. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/23 "2014-12-07T09:12:37Z")
Nice, but the volume of helium required to lift a person is [just a little more](http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/mythbusters-database/fly-with-balloons/) than will fit in the lungs. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/24 "2014-12-07T09:14:41Z")
Or they could have expanded their lungs to fill almost all of their bodies. You can fill your lungs with helium, and you will just weigh a few grams lighter than when you fill them with air. To float you’d need to be nearly hollow. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/25 "2014-12-07T09:22:21Z")
That might work, even without the helium - turn yourself into a very thin film balloon representation of a human and you could push off from the floor and appear to float for multiple seconds at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/26 "2014-12-07T12:52:13Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > I do not see the connection here. Most hindus know and acknowledge that a lot of sadhus/yogis/holy-people are bogus. Many also believe the same of religious scriptures and books - that much of it is creative liberty of an imaginative mind anyways. Some hindus are atheists too. > > In general reasoning / logic / religious beliefs of the Abrahamic religions are not congruent with eastern religions. It seems like the same thing to me. The yogis are supposed to have… what, focus? spirituality? anyway, some quality that lets them defy gravity. In the case of Jesus and Peter, it is faith that causes them to defy gravity to walk on water. In both cases we gotta say, “nah, it doesn’t work that way. Good ethics/karma doesn’t ever counteract gravity”. It would be awesome if deep meditation could give you enough insight into reality to reverse gravity though, or if your religious beliefs could persuade God to suspend the attraction between the Earth and your mass. A little hokum makes for a provocative story. Advanced Buddhists are supposed to gain the power of levitation too (but they aren’t supposed to use it :)) ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/27 "2014-12-07T15:59:02Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > It seems like the same thing to me. The yogis are supposed to have… what, focus? spirituality? anyway, some quality that lets them defy gravity. In the case of Jesus and Peter, it is faith that causes them to defy gravity to walk on water. In both cases we gotta say, “nah, it doesn’t work that way. Good ethics/karma doesn’t ever counteract gravity”. The observation was not about Yogis/Jesus/Peter - the observation was around how most people inside the faith approached the claims. In Abrahamic religions - the holy book/religious leaders or founders are all absolute and correct. In Eastern religions ,especially Hinduism, there is general acceptance among followers is that there is a fair amount of hokum and embellishment in the holy books and tales. Its not a deterrence to their faith. Yogi is also a very loose term - literally it means a practitioner of Yoga. In most cases it means an enlightened person - the female yogi is called Yogini. Not trying to threadcrap and make this into a dissertation but yoga itself does not mean doing stretching exercises etc. A carpenter putting his heart and soul into her work is also an yogi - its equivalent to the concept of [Flow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29). So in short - a person in Flow could be called a yogi. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/28 "2014-12-07T16:05:30Z")
Ninety percent of levitation is half mental. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/29 "2014-12-07T16:15:40Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > It seems like the same thing to me. The yogis are supposed to have… what, focus? spirituality? anyway, some quality that lets them defy gravity. In the case of Jesus and Peter, it is faith that causes them to defy gravity to walk on water. Walking on water wouldn’t becessarily require defying gravity, though it might require some other “physics-bending.” There are insects that can do it. ---
**Author:** ![Section\_Maker\_Jupe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/section_maker_jupe/32/1424_2.png) [@Section\_Maker\_Jupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Section_Maker_Jupe)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/30 "2014-12-07T16:58:43Z")
Those “yogic” bouncing video clips around are pretty silly…they have contests for speed around the room etc…good workout I suppose! I once got a free test many years ago, of those flotation tanks…extremely high salt content in the water gave you much more buoyancy…you felt like you were lying on TOP of the water, rather than in it…I’ve heard the Salton Sea feels the same… When I was a kid we would try and run across partially frozen shallow lakes, with the ice bowing under our feet…kinda like walking on water:cool: Someone almost always broke through, filled up the boots, and home we went. Probably not a good idea with deeper water…:smack: ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/31 "2014-12-07T17:06:52Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Walking on water wouldn’t becessarily require defying gravity, though it might require some other “physics-bending.” Or the simple expedient of freezing the water first. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/32 "2014-12-07T17:19:03Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > a person in Flow could be called a yogi. Ah, the state of walking on sunshine. Also physically impossible, but works great as a metaphor. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/33 "2014-12-07T17:54:09Z")
Assuming they somehow need to de-gravitize their component matter, they could maintain stability in their levitated space by de-gravitizing only as much of their mass as would equalize the weight of the atmosphere that they displace,and distributing their weight distribution. They would then become a body in the air that was at equilibrium, like a hot air balloon. If the fluid atmosphere remain free of drafts, they could learn to hover. That would solve the problems of flying off into space or bobbing unceremoniously. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/34 "2014-12-07T18:48:52Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Ah, the state of walking on sunshine. Great, now you’ve got that song stuck in my head. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/35 "2014-12-07T18:59:16Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > Ninety percent of levitation is half mental. Speaking of Yogi… ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/36 "2014-12-07T19:59:30Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Ah, the state of walking on sunshine. Also physically impossible, but works great as a metaphor. Just as some animals can walk on water, some things can be supported by the pressure of sunshine, although you’d have to redefine “walking.”. Gotta page a physicist on this one. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/37 "2014-12-08T01:01:01Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > Ninety percent of levitation is half mental. > [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Speaking of Yogi… “I’ll believe it when I believe it.” - Yogi Berra. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/38 "2014-12-08T01:16:10Z")
If levitation is done through manipulation of physical forces, then a scientific explanation would be required. If your waterwalking depends on Divine forces (especially since Jesus is infinitely powerful [in the Bible ar least]), then bending/cancelling such physical forces is done through extraphysical means and science could not help us understand them. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/39 "2014-12-08T01:16:27Z")
To walk on water, you just need to add custard powder first. 🆒 I can’t prove it, but could you levitate by continually releasing enormous farts?! :eek::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501/40 "2014-12-08T01:31:05Z")
Sure, in principle, but then the problem is that humans are too heavy and insufficiently flatulent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yogi-levitation-what-physics-need-bent/706501.md?page=3)