Yogic Levitation

In India, some Hindu mystics who have achieved a high level of yogic prowess are said to be able to levitate. Yogi Subbayah Pullavar was reported to have levitated into the air for four minutes in front of a crowd of 150 witnesses on June 6, 1936. He was seen suspended horizontally several feet above the ground, in a trance, lightly resting his hand on top of a cloth-covered stick. However, the illusion was created by a simple method in which the person seen to levitate is supported by a cantilevered platform held up by a camouflaged iron rod.

This is not the same as the so-called "Indian rope trick" in which a rope levitates and a yogi or an assistant climbs it into the air. This was apparently an 1890 hoax that involved, of all things, Chicago Tribune journalist John Wilkie (who later became chief of the US Secret Service).

This circa 1981 postcard was drawn by Catalan cartoonist Josep Lluís Martínez Picanol (pen name Picanyol, b. 1948).