The subjective sensation of rising in the air or moving through the air unsupported. It occurs in dreams, altered states of consciousness, and certain mental disorders.
Raising the human body or any object into the air without mechanical aids, apparently defying gravity. History is full of levitation reports. Mystics of many religions have been said to have the power to levitate themselves. Saint Teresa of Avila (1518-82) described raptures in which her body was lifted from the ground, and Saint Joseph of Copertino (1603-63), called the Flying Friar, was believed to have flown in the air 70 times in 17 years, the most spectacular occasion being when he helped workmen erect a Calvary cross 11 meters (36 feet) high by flying upward and lifting it into place “as if it were a straw.”
Throughout the ages, witches, who were believed to be possessed by the devil, were thought to have the ability to fly on broomsticks by the application of flying ointment to their bodies, but nobody now takes this claim seriously. In the early 20th century, it was occasionally reported that Indian fakirs had performed an amazing feat called the Indian rope trick. A fakir’s young assistant was said to have climbed up a rope that remained in the air without any visible means of support, and then on a sign from the fakir, the young lad had disappeared from view. As these reports were always second- or thirdhand, the British Magic Circle in 1919 offered a large sum of money for anyone who would perform the trick under controlled conditions. There were no takers, and it is now thought that reports of such happenings were hearsay and that the rope trick may never have existed.