How Levitation and Out of Body Experiences Work

A Look at the Spiritualist View of Psychic Phenomena

Dec 22, 2008

Psychic phenomena such as levitation, out of body experiences and direct voice can be understood through means of mediumship.

Mediumship – as practiced in the Spiritualist religion – helps us gain understanding of psychic phenomena such as levitation, out of body experiences and direct voice by stimulating an interest in how they work.

Levitation

According to An Encyclopedia of Psychic Science, levitation is the “rising of physical objects…or human beings into the air, contrary to the law of gravitation and without visible agency.” It’s classified as one of the easier physical phenomena to produce.

Levitation isn’t new and it’s not just Spiritualists who’ve experienced and demonstrated it. Reports of it can be found as early as the first century, although the most famous example was in 1716 when Nancy Wesley was lifted high above her bed several times in succession. D.D. Home was one of Spiritualism’s well-known levitators, his first one was documented on Aug. 8, 1852.

How Does Levitation Occur?

Spiritualism teaches that spirit entities – those who were once living but have passed on to the spirit side of life – can act on matter in a way that nullifies the law of gravity. One explanation is that they do this by using ectoplasm as a way of lifting the medium into the air, or by extracting “ponderous matter” from the medium’s body, making them lighter than air, and thus able to float.

Out of Body Experiences

Another phenomena that’s been studied by scientists and Spiritualists alike is out of body experiences. An out of body experience, or OOBE, is the experience of existing -- consciously and independently -- outside of the physical body. An OOBE can either be spontaneous or induced and is often also called astral projection or traveling clairvoyance.

OOBEs are universal – they can happen to anyone, anywhere, no matter when or where they live or what they believe. An OOBE can also lead to experiencing other phenomena, such as extra sensory perception (ESP), and they tend to be very emotionally freeing.

Having an Out of Body Experience

What is it like to have an out of body experience? Usually, a person becomes aware of floating above their body. They then become aware of their etheric body, which is a replica of their physical body that often wears familiar clothes. It might all seem like a dream, but a person having an OOBE realizes upon reflection that they are functioning in a normal state of consciousness with all their mental faculties intact. And then they find out that simply by thinking of a place or person, they are suddenly there.

The experience is usually short – from 30 seconds to 30 minutes – but it almost always leaves a deep spiritual-intellectual impact on the individual. After all, once you’ve experienced existence as a consciousness outside your physical body, how can you not believe that there is life after death? Many OOBEs occur during near-death experiences.

Direct Voice Phenomena

Direct voice is another Spiritualist phenomena studied by science. Different from clairaudience – which is often only heard by the medium with their subconscious, “inner” ear – direct voice is an audible physical phenomena that’s heard by many people at once and produced without any visible means.

It is thought to be produced through the use of ectoplasm that is drawn from the medium by spirit entities and made into a voice box for them to speak through. This ectoplasm voice box allows spirits to use their etheric bodies to make sounds audible to the physical human ear.

The real phenomenon in direct voice, however, isn’t the production of sound. It is the meaning of the messages that are delivered – those are of prime importance as they can be deeply meaningful and cannot be faked.

Fordor, Nandor, An Encyclopedia of Psychic Science, Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1966.

Mitchell, Edgar, Ed., Psychic Explorations, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1974.

Rogo, D. Scott, Exploring Psychic Phenomena, Wheaton, Illinois: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1976.

The copyright of the article How Levitation and Out of Body Experiences Work in Psychic Abilities is owned by Joanna Bartlett-Gustina. Permission to republish How Levitation and Out of Body Experiences Work in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.