SUPERNATURAL SCIENCE (S01-E11) - Secrets of Levitation (1999)

DVD-234

Program 4: SUPERNATURAL SCIENCE (S01-E11) - Secrets of Levitation (1999).

Overview: This BBC documentary is in two overlapping parts: one part examines historical cases of levitation and such things as the Indian rope trick. The other looks at the reality of it using magnets, but as ever the big question is can we get out of it more energy than we put in, regardless of the law of the conservation of energy? The Indian rope trick is exposed for what it is, a very terrestrial kind of magic, and often nothing more than film-flam; even one of the most celebrated cases, performed before a large audience of apparently credulous British soldiers in Imperial India, turns out to be massive hoax involving a cast of perhaps a hundred, every single one of them in on the scam. We see "evidence" of levitation by saints, and hear rational explanations from the likes of acclaimed skeptic Joe Nickell. The claims of the "yogic flyers" are too silly to comment on, as are the pronouncements of their pet scientist who explains how the human mind can change the curvature of space – film-flam by any other name. Levitation is far from a myth though, and the way to achieve it - with magnets for sure, and with gyroscopes, maybe – is explored in some depth, including the ideas of Eric Laithwaite, the father of maglev transport. In a world where energy is in increasingly short supply, and where some still aspire to conquer not only space but to reach the stars, we should forget the film-flam and tomfoolery in order to focus on the ideas expounded herein that show true promise.