This Paranormal Life - #229 Can Humans LEVITATE?

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Mankind has always shared one dream - to fly like a bird. Sadly medical science has deemed this ‘impossible’. But what if, instead of flight, we could settle for levitation? The art and science of hovering mere inches off the ground. Many have tried but few have succeeded. On today’s investigation Rory and Kit get to the bottom of whether it’s truly possible. BUY OFFICIAL TPL MERCHwww.thisparanormallife.com/store The David Blaine levitation videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6CNvFnlPL0 Patreonpatreon.com/ThisParanormalLife YouTubeyoutube.com/thisparanormallife Twittertwitter.com/ThisParaLife Instagraminstagram.com/thisparanormallife Secret Society Facebook Pagewww.facebook.com/groups/thisparanormallife/Research by Amy GrisdaleIntro music: www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens if you ask a genie for infinite wishes? How can you tell which pipes take you to Super Mario World and which just take you to the sewers? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello and welcome back to This Paranormal Life. This is the weekly comedy podcast wherein every Tuesday, myself, Kit Greer-Mulvena and this guy Rory Powers across from me, every week we investigate a different paranormal tale and get to the bottom of whether it's truly paranormal or not. How are you doing today, Rory? I'm doing great. I'm doing fantastic.

Ready to tackle the world of the paranormal head on like we do every week. Last week there was a bit of dilly-dallying, a bit of chit-chat before the podcast. And I want to apologize right now on my behalf. We pride ourselves on being a show that gets right to the point. The heart of the matter instantly. We lost sight of ourselves. We lost sight of who we are as investigators, as podcasters. So I want to just apologize, just frankly. This is a public apology.

That's very big of you. Yeah. And that is why I am going to just just scoot right through straight in let's get jump right in the story recap of like my holiday last week so i was i was away last kit was on holiday and um yeah just want everyone to know had a great time uh the food was good the beaches were beautiful i was in the south of france cool and our story today begins uh so we the story began we got into the airport no no no no no no the paranormal story that we're going to investigate today oh right like you said oh we gotta get right i'll just speed it right um but an interesting thing did

happen on the way back from the hospital to the hotel okay which i'll just which i'll say as fast as i possibly can saying it faster isn't going to fix the problem the fact you're saying it at all is the problem so i think i think if we want to if we want to curve some of these bad reviews on itunes i think we should blast through i feel like the people want to know it though i don't know if they do because a couple people made it pretty clear they didn't want to know so i think if we could move okay you're not going to get to hear the story about the crap place so it wasn't that exciting right it was just a place that i talk in the podcast about how much i love love crepes and

how much i was looking forward to eating a crap in france i don't think you've ever mentioned crepes once on this podcast you just don't listen to me fine maybe there's time at the end i could tell the story about the crap i guess we'll see i guess we'll see yeah sure you know what yeah let's dive into the story right now and if if anyone's still listening by the end, you can tell the crap story. All right. Stick around, everyone. Today, we are going to southern India. It was June 6th, 1936, the date of a much anticipated yogi exhibition.

The bear? Picnic as far as the eye could see. What's a yogi? A yogi is a master of yoga. Oh, right. I didn't know that, actually. That's really interesting. Hundreds of people had come from miles around

to see the incredible powers displayed by these religious men who dedicated their lives to the act of extreme meditation. Very cool. Very cool. That type of yoga we do over here, that's just like one type of yoga.

There's a bunch of different types of yoga. Right. You could do like yoga of the f***ing mind, man. I think I've mentioned it on the podcast before. I have famously installed and deleted the Calm app on my iPhone several times because I try and fast forward through the meditation sections to try and speed learn it. Which is a very bad attitude to have if you want to try meditation for the first time. Yeah, awful. Yeah, it's not good.

So it hasn't worked for me yet, but I'm excited to maybe learn a little today and become a yogi myself. I wouldn't count on it. These yogis are basically the religious version of the Harlem Globetrotters. This is a show for all the family. religious version of the Harlem Globetrotters. This is a show for all the family. And on that day, one particular guru managed to perform something quite spectacular indeed. Yogi Subaya Pulava was lying on the ground wrapped in white robes in a state of deep meditation. He was a gaunt, wiry man with long wild hair and a gloriously long mustache. He had a walking stick with an evil looking doll sitting at the base.

As the time approached midday and the sun was directly overhead, the yogi's performance began. His assistants erected a small makeshift tent around him and poured water around the blankets in a neat ring. Wow. He decreed one single and quite odd request. Nobody wearing shoes of leather soles may enter this circle.

Okay, that's a little weird. As more than 150 people watched, the tent was pulled away to reveal his body still lying horizontally, except it was more than a meter off the ground. Whoa! The gathered crowd were blown away. How is he doing that? What on earth's going on? It's a miracle. He remained afloat for four solid minutes in a deep trance. Among the witnesses was a photographer for the Illustrated London News named P.Y. Plunkett. He walked all around the floating man, snapping pictures from every angle. In his article, he wrote,

After almost five minutes in the air, he was still lying out flat. His aides eventually wandered up and put the thin canvas up once again. Plunkett described what he saw. I could see, through the thin wall of the tent, Subaya still suspended in the air. After about a minute, he appeared to sway, and then very slowly began to descend, still in a horizontal position. Evidently, we were not meant to see this part of the performance, or it would all have been

done in the open. It took him a whole five minutes to reach the ground, at which point his assistants asked for volunteers from the crowd to come forward. Come see if you can bend his legs! They're gonna fight him now? A great number

of the throng stepped up, but as much as they tried his limbs were completely stiff yogi pulava was in such a deep trance he was a borderline tin man it is quite alarming to imagine this crowd of rowdy children and adults trying to break this poor old man's leg he's knocked out cold something so funny about hey you think that levitation was cool try and break his legs he's rock hard this is insane he couldn't be roused by anything besides a bucket of cold water which his assistants doused on him once the crowd were done trying to unlock his joints right they rubbed his body all over for several minutes before he finally came around and regained the use of his arms and legs. Rory, as far as I can see, this is the earliest example

of human levitation with physical evidence. Would you like to see a photograph of this miraculous feat? Yeah, there's a photograph? Yeah, from this journalist who snapped it. Wow. Okay. Yeah, folks, we're seeing there's a man here, white robes, who appears to be hovering horizontally, almost like he's asleep in the air. He's posing like he's asleep. His only point of contact with the ground

is his staff that seems to be almost the only reason why he isn't floating off in the breeze. Right. It's almost as if, yeah, it's like the staff is holding him down to earth somewhat. Yeah, yeah. That's really interesting. I mean, it's pretty cool to think that this guy is so good at yoga that he learned to levitate. Because I don't really necessarily see those two things crossing over. Usually if people are really good at yoga, they can tie themselves into a f***ing pretzel.

Or, I don't know, eat french fries with their feet. I don't know. Not fly. That's like saying, yeah, did you hear about that weightlifter who got so strong he could teleport it's like well how did that happen because those two aren't necessarily related i don't know bro if you could bench 293 you would know uh he could squat father time and stop the rotation of the earth uh yeah it's pretty wild i agree it's almost as if yeah you've proved yourself and then some

kind of uh god came down and said i i see you game recognizes game i grant you the power to float uh yeah and this comes back to like i said that there is different forms of yoga you know i don't know off the top of my head uh i i want to say that the yoga you do down at your local gym um you know with all the middle-aged ladies in lycra um i think that's hatha yoga i want to say then you got like uh bhakti yoga which i think is devotional yoga which is like you don't there's nothing physical about it it's all about you devote yourself to your your guru or your god of choice the rabbit hole is deep here i don't claim to know anywhere near enough about the yoga have you ever tried yoga before yeah i've tried the hot one oh right it's

hard as shit is am i right in saying that hot yoga is just yoga done in extreme temperatures that there's as far as i know right so it's just they crank the thermostat so it's a very toasty room and that process just helps you sweat out toxins in your body it's like doing difficult yoga poses in a sauna have you tried yoga uh i've only ever tried it when i've uh blown my back out lifting things wrong okay and then uh i'll watch a five minute youtube video where someone teaches me a stretch. Yoga with Adrienne or something. Yeah, some bullshit like that. I make things infinitely worse by twisting awkwardly on a mat. You try and sue the yoga teacher on YouTube.

So that's the only ever time I've tried it before. I think, to be fair, that's probably a pretty common experience. Like on my holiday, I mentioned briefly that i ended up in the hospital and i won't get into it because rory is seems to be not keen to hear the story just so we can just stay on topic that would be good i will get to it uh you can have one you can choose the hospital story or the creps that's all i'm saying because we don't have time for them i'm gonna have to go off piece and go crep how could the crep story be more interesting i refuse to believe that if you have to choose one story, it's the Krebs.

It doesn't matter. We'll find out at the end. I swear to f***ing God, it better be worth it. I basically, I like hurt my wrist and it's like a recurring injury and I had to go to the hospital for it. That's when I start praying to every God of every different creed on earth to heal my poor wrist, promising that if they can make my wrist better, I'll do yoga every single day and I'll rehab and I'll do anything it takes. I'll drink a acai bowl every single

morning, noon and night. If it would give me the power of my wrist back. Of course, two days later, my wrist works fine. I go back to eating Doritos and drinking beer. Of course. Yeah. But I think about it sometimes. I think about going back to yoga. We all think about it sometimes. And who knows? Maybe this podcast will inspire people to make back to yoga. We all think about it sometimes. And who knows? Maybe this podcast will inspire people to make the plunge. We can't guarantee you will be able to levitate. Or maybe we can. I guess we'll find out.

Okay. I admit it, Rory. Yoga pilava was a fraud. It's worrying how easily you said that. Because I wasn't needling you or anything for you to admit that. I had to get it off my chest. Oh, geez. I didn't even ask about the lie it was bearing down on me too hard it's gonna be a short episode this week folks behind the scenes neither of us spoke for about four seconds and then kit just said that i didn't

even say a word i locked eyes and said okay i admit it. This is something you can see street performers doing all around the world. It's still kind of cool and impressive. Basically, it was pretty convenient that Yogi Pallava was holding onto his cane on account of it was connected to a very heavy metal base on the floor covered up by all the blankets. In retrospect, they're probably weighing down the blankets with water as well. As you can see in this photo, Roy, I'm sure you've seen this kind of sight before. I'm showing Roy a street performer in the UK.

Stick is connected to the base plate and it goes up through the performer's sleeve, loops around the body and attaches to a small platform that they sit on. And it makes it look like they're levitating. Yes, I didn't want to come at this case too negatively. I wanted to be open-minded and optimistic, but I have seen a man dressed as Yoda at Leicester Square hovering 10 feet in the air, also holding a cane. Is it this guy? It's exactly that guy, yeah. It might be the same person. So, yes, I have seen the feet performed before. I'm going to say, though, pretty impressive, even if not paranormal. I mean, I'll say that one where it looks like a bit like Yoda.

That's less impressive than the one we saw Yogi Pulaver do. It did look like he was floating. Yeah, it really did. It was quite convincing. But crucially, Rory, not all cases of people defying gravity use this fraudulent method. Reports of levitation go back millennia and are deeply entwined with religious practices. They use a various number of fraudulent methods. One of the most famous cases of all time was a Catholic mystic called St. Joseph of Cupertino.

He was born in 1603 in a stable in Apulia, Italy. He became a monk, and despite having basically no education whatsoever, he was considered a wise man and had some pretty unbelievable abilities too. He reportedly used to fast for 40 days straight seven times a year so wait a minute what so 77 of the year he wasn't eating okay i mean if that's true alone that could explain how he's levitating he was just light, gravity wasn't working anymore. Yeah, that is, I don't even know. Is that physically possible? 70% of the time, I don't eat any time. He apparently could communicate freely with animals

and he was able to use healing powers on people. Do you think any of those things are possible as a result of his fasting? Or do you think he was already maybe a kind of mystic powerful person before the fasting and that was why he could talk to animals i mean i feel like being malnourished is not going to enhance any sort of ability maybe he could communicate with the vultures that were circling overhead because he knew he was almost dead yeah if i i'm not going to assume i can do i don't know i can compete at olympic level high jumping competitions because i only ate one chicken nugget all of december i'm gonna maybe think that i shouldn't perform any physical

abilities we're kind of seeing a recurring theme here that people do something really weird and extreme, dedicate their entire lives to something and then claim that that's why they can do this other awesome thing that seems to have no correlation. I was starting to think this guy was just like on a farm with his friends and he was so starved that he was just looking at animals and being like, anyone else hear that cow talking to me? It's like, you need to eat something. You need to eat now. You can just hear the blood pumping in your own head. You're so skeletal and thin, but it's hard to disprove these things because he's like, yeah, bro, if you didn't eat for 77% of the year, you could talk to animals. It's like,

well, I'm not going to try. Yeah. I'll never know. That's a really good point. Yeah. You can kind of just force people to admit that they will never know because you didn't want to call your bluff. So, you know, you're like the old man in the prestige who pretends to be really old

and frail so that he can achieve these amazing feats of strength. They live a lifestyle that makes them seem powerful and mystical, whether that actually has a bearing on the effect or not. Yeah, yeah. It's said that he dedicated more than 20 years practicing his levitation, perfecting it through intense spiritual practice. He would have visions that caused him to enter a catatonic state. When they came on, he would drop whatever he was holding. And nothing could rouse him from this statue-like state, not even being stuck with pins or being burned by the other monks.

Why were they trying that? Why would they try that? Put him in bed. Care for him. Try and rouse him with smelling salts don't burn him pins why do monks have pins he's not even happy slapping him in the cock could rise him from this stasis so why would you try that he's in a f***ing coma and the other monks are like lazy saint joseph never wants to do any work around the

monastery. Like his nose is bleeding. He's absolutely out of it. This is like taking a coma patient to a doctor and the doctor's like, have you tried flicking them in the nuts? It's like, no, no, not yet, doctor. All right. Nothing. Nothing yet. What about slapping him about a little bit? No, we haven't tried any of these things. We're honestly hoping you would have better ideas. When St. Joseph was 27 years old, he was part of a procession through the streets of his little Italian town. When, without warning, he, quote,

suddenly soared into the sky where he remained hovering over the crowd. He would apparently start floating during mass so much that he was banned from conducting church services. It said he once uncontrollably started levitating several feet in the air in front of the Pope. It is so weird to ban someone from a church because they're levitating too much. It's a miracle that that is happening. That is like banning an angel from your church service because you're like, listen, dude, I'd love to have you here, but you're too bright. You're blinding the people beside you. The dude behind you can't see because of the halo. So you got to leave Mr. Angel St. Paul. You have to leave the church. There's something so funny

and kind of childlike about his lack of control over the abilities. It's a bit like the way when you're a teenager, your biggest worry is like getting a boner in the classroom. You don't know what to do with your newfound abilities and you have no control. I want to make it very clear. If you keep getting boners in church, you should absolutely leave. That would be a valid reason that would be a valid reason i'm gonna go ahead and assume as well the process of levitation isn't a discrete one it's not that he's like oh oh shit oh shit he's like holding on to the bench right i like to think just halfway through you know um he will raise you up on eagles wings raise you oh oh he's like a helium balloon bouncing off the roof

why does the church have ceiling fans guys freaking put it in my mind with that raise your up on eagles wing shit uh fair enough that he was banned from i think weird to be banned from church altogether but he was banned from conducting services which is i be banned from church altogether, but he was banned from conducting services, which is, I think, fair. It's a bit distracting if you're trying to preach the gospel and midway you start flying.

Especially if you're not the priest, then everyone's going to be like, I know that you do prayers as well. I might go talk to the flying man. So thank you, Father, for telling us that there's a bake sale on sunday but that man is levitating like goku and i want to ask him for forgiveness i might start praying to that mother because i think he might be god even jesus didn't do that in the books

it's not canon uh speaking of not that i want to circle things back to my holiday, which is pretty awesome. All right. We thought we would check out the local cathedral in town. And I thought it was pretty cool that Jesus had a surfboard. Why is there a surfboard in that church? I mean, he could walk on water. So why wouldn't he be able to surf it too also you know it was a funny bit so thank you for showing me the picture but as i said one

holiday story and let's keep it to the creps no no the one story is the creps no so no more stories until the end until the end and then you can do whatever story wild no no at the end you can tell one story 19 to 25 minute story it's really fine it'll fit it'll just like the scooching right at the end okay well there's a lot of crepes and friends so that's actually not enough to warrant a 20 minute story not enough to warrant a 20 minute story so yeah and again just to reiterate uh we will be talking about his holiday at the end of the podcast i'm so sorry to everyone for rambling too much in recent episodes. Totally my bad.

Totally my bad. I didn't stop Rory whenever he started just yapping on about his day or whatever. No. I really should have kept an eye on that. You're rambling now about rambling. So I think if we just... He just gets excited. He just gets excited.

Yeah, I do. I'm sorry. And you do. So let's... I don't think so. Zip, zip, zip, zip, zip. Bro, I'm like Michael Jordan. i'm so zoned in on this game that is the all right all right we're already talking for minutes now about something that

isn't the case so yeah thanks for that me yeah it said that saint joseph's powers to levitate were a result of the pure ecstasy he felt during his worship that's yes what i'm saying jizz noises oh probably uh which does make sense because it keeps happening in church he doesn't levitate based on how good his laundry smells it's uh oh right it's a spiritual spiritual love of the lord um okay so don't say jizz noises next time time. Well, now I wish I hadn't said. Spiritual excitement, we'll call it. And pretty fittingly, he was canonized 100 years after his death and was made patron saint of aviation and astronauts. So there you go.

Wait, did you say the saint of astronauts? Yeah, the patron saint of astronauts. What year is this? Astronauts didn't exist? I did say it was 100 years after the 1600s. It doesn't really add up, but... You're the patron saint of moon men. No one knows what that means.

But maybe even more weirdly than the whole story of St. Joseph is that he's far from the only Catholic saint famous for being able to fly. The famous saint, Padre Pio, claimed he could do it. When one of his congregation asked what it was like to walk on air, he replied, I can assure you, my child, it's just like walking on the floor. Oh, okay. Maybe it does feel like that.

Maybe it's just walking on some sort of invisible solid. Who knows? I thought it was a pretty interesting... It's realistic. Yeah. I mean, pretty ballsy question to ask your priest, your father that anyway. Ironically, the other person who probably gets asked that a lot is Michael Jordan. Right, yeah.

He can basically fly. There was also St. Gerard Maiella, who only lived to the age of 29, but managed to pack in a ridiculous number of miracles into his short life. He claims to have pulled off some of the same miracles of Christ himself, from multiplying bread loaves to raising a young boy from the dead. But he could also do some shit that Jesus didn't do. For example, he could float in the air. When people popped in to visit him, they'd find him hovering around the ceiling.

Wow. I mean, maybe Jesus could do that, but he just wasn't showy about it. Yeah, exactly. This is the thing. It's rude to say because Jesus had to keep a low profile, I seem to remember. Right. He was like a wanted guy. And pretty much all of his miracles were to facilitate the needs of the needy. It was like, y'all, don't you need more food?

Here's how I can make it. I need to get from a to b to prove to my followers that i am a magic i'm gonna walk on water you know it never the occasion never arose where he needed to f***ing boost around like iron man right yeah he was never just like guys check this out and like opened a beer with his eyes. You know, he didn't need to do, he wasn't a showy man. He was humble famously. I mean, he was a carpenter, right? You would have think if he,

Jesus probably could have done that with his laser eyes if he really wanted to, but it's still, he's just carving shit. He would have been a good welder with those laser eyes. St. Gerd almost seemed ashamed of his gift though. Once he was bouncing around the rafters for so long, he was holding up a dinner, and he told one of the other priests, Please do not wait for me. I do not wish to inconvenience you.

Reports vary, but there's been testimony that Maella could travel more than a mile by levitation and could frequently be seen, quote, floating up like a feather caught in the wind. I don't know what to say to that. I mean, I appreciate that this is tricky, but what do you think it means that there are several canonized saints and religious people throughout history, not only clearly in the Hindu faith or the Eastern traditions, but also in, you know, the traditions that we've grown up in. They just didn't mention that at school.

Yeah. It's pretty bizarre. I think I would have had, I definitely would have been more incentivized to learn about the Bible and religion if I'd known that there was a possibility that I could fly towards the end. Even if that wasn't true, they should have told me that. I feel like there's still time for me. I mean, Jesus, you're over the hill, absolutely past it. But me, I'm still in my 20s for, what, three more days or something? These guys didn't start floating until they were like 29. What years did you say this was? It varies a lot, to be fair. St. Joseph was the 1600s, but Padre Pio was the late 1800s. It's pretty remarkable to have these stories where

this isn't a one-off anymore. It's almost becoming an inconvenience to these people, how much they're flying. Yeah. Which is quite interesting. It's not, you know, sometimes we've heard these wild stories, but it's just an instance. It's a moment where someone claims that they witnessed this. The whole town is watching this dude fly like a kite across the city. He was holding up a dinner. It's like a very- Because he's just floating in the sky. Real weird thing to happen. Yeah. So, I mean, it's kind of wild that this isn't more documented or made to be a bigger

thing than it is, if true. Yeah, that's true. Unfortunately, like I said, it is a little long ago to have video evidence. But yeah, you would hope for something a little more concrete. Yeah. Rory, you might have guessed by now from all the stories we've heard so far that levitation is pretty much inextricable from religion.

There doesn't seem to be anyone levitating that isn't a kind of guru, priest, or god. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact, one of the many miracles that the Buddha performed was levitating cross-legged across a stream. The sight was so impressive that he managed to convert a zealous Hindu priest to convert to Buddhism on the spot. Do you think this link with religion is partially down to the understandings of heaven and hell? with religion is partially down to the understandings of like heaven and hell so you know if you're a saint if you're a religious man if you're a good person you have the power of levitation and if you're a bad man i don't know you can crawl on the ground like a snake you're

so right like the devil was a snake whereas angels they've even got wings pretty much birds yeah pretty interesting it's like they get yeah flight privileges it's like if you're a bad person you're on a no-fly list according to god right if you're a good person you're allowed to get your pilot charter your own flights i love it that's interesting but crucially there are plenty of other examples of non-religious people but but let's say mediums, being able to achieve levitation. For example, the psychic Colin Evans used to perform his levitation act to rooms full of paying audience members, but he could only achieve it when the room was completely pitch black. The only glimpse that onlookers got of his flight was when his stagehand would take a flash photograph and you would see him floating in the air. What's this guy's name?

Colin Evans. How are you a psychic with the name Colin Evans? How is he not like the great Mysterio or something? Colin Evans is an accountant. At least the great Colin. Yeah, the great Collini. Sure. I don't know. Even more famously was Daniel Douglas Holm, a Scottish medium who lived in the 1800s. He was famous for his ability to make objects and himself float. Wow, other objects too. He could

reach a variety of heights during hundreds of public seances. It would begin with a gentle ascent of six inches with a slow descent. But soon he was able to float out of a third-story window and back into the room through another window, an act that was verified by multiple witnesses. Oh my god. Although I will say that one of the most famous witnesses who claimed that he really did this was Arthur Conan Doyle. And I don't know if you remember, but he featured in our fairies episode.

He did. Yeah. He's a believer. Let's say that. People might not remember. He's the writer of Sherlock Holmes. of Sherlock Holmes and he upon seeing one fraudulent image of some

fairies he dedicated his life to believing in fairies and writing about them and he you can imagine he lost his shit when he saw this guy float out a window. Yeah yeah I'll be honest it turns out there was just a ledge outside the window that the

guy walked out onto and it was so dark outside you couldn't really see the ledge oh that's really how this happened but roy all of these anecdotes hearing of not just religious men but just regular people seemingly psychics being able to levitate made me think what if i can do it what if i can learn these uh ancient secrets of yoga to levitate for myself i mean it'd be pretty impressive to be fair well that's exactly what i've done and i didn't have to spend millions of years uh learning these ancient yogic tricks i managed to learn it on my coffee break. So you're saying you have learned it? Read it and weep, bitch. Alright, I have to get

in the right mindset. Alright, Kit's standing up on the floor of the podcast now. There's some heavy breathing. He's kind of standing in a T-pose. He's got his feet together. He's breathing in and out at a steady pace.

Now he's I think he's gonna pass out All right, oh shit, I mean that looks pretty good All right, hey, I'm not gonna lie. I don't know what tomfoolery just happened there but from my perspective it genuinely looked like you were hovering inches off the ground from the perspective of a mortal fool okay i'm not a yogic master like me of course because i did levitate rory did you yeah is it there's nothing else you want to disclose about that process other than i'm the man for doing it that's what i want to disclose

uh thoughts that can't be the evidence in your case you screaming and moaning and breathing and lifting, let your legs up off the ground. You said it yourself. I levitated, didn't I? I said you appeared, you appeared to levitate. If anything, this is almost, this is almost damaging to your case because it showed how anyone, despite how bad and uneducated and mean hearted they are, can appear to levitate in front of someone else are you describing me i don't know what to say i don't know what to say the um the man we could start there why would that be the thing that you want to prove from all of this i thought that i could recover this train wreck of an investigation by proving

to you that levitation is real but i thought it was really cool it's like a kid's party trick all right that's quite enough like something that some kid doesn't have like other kids have like personalities and shit and and that could be something you could do to like impress people now you've got something as well. You can make it look like you're floating. I can make it that I am floating. I can make it that I am floating. All right.

I admit it. I come clean. I can't keep a secret from Rory at all. Again, very little needling needed to happen for him to come clean. I think this is the fourth time on the podcast you've come clean without me having to say much at all. The pressure,

the guilt, it just gets to me. It's basically getting to the point where you're like, well, if you think that's so crazy, then how was it scientifically proven in 2001 that humans can levitate in a paper written for the New York Times? And I'm like, really? All right, I come clean.

I made it up. I didn't even say anything. You got me. You gave me the third degree of the f***ing Spanish Inquisition. How was I supposed to just lie to your face? What I did is called the Balducci trick. You basically just stand at 45 degrees to whoever is watching and stand up on one tippy toe. Yeah.

And it looks a little bit like you're levitating. And the noises help as well. The pageantry of it all. Granted, I am not very good at it i didn't really seem to pull the wool over rory's eyes for long but um people like david blaine have been making a career out of this for a long time yeah yeah maybe something's a little bit more complex than standing on his tippy toes no he literally does that he does that exact one. F*** off. No way. Okay, we're watching a video of him.

I don't know if I could. You know what? I was once able to do a levitation, but I got sick out of my mind. Let me try this. Stay right there. Don't move. Let me just try this. Stay right there.

I don't know if I'll be able to get off, man. It's kind of hard to. Ready? These people are blown away by the trick. One guy is just on the floor holding his mouth. Someone looks like... David Blaine is now vomiting in the street. Wait, that was f***ed though. That one was real! That one was real! Not such a trick now, is it Rory?

This is hilarious because I- you just told me it was a trick. And I watched you do the trick and now I'm watching him do it and I'm like no it's he's he's levitating no that's that's a hundred percent real I don't know I don't know what trick he's doing but it's not yours there's no way that that is yours there is no way David would do a lot in common he's got a special boot or something he sees things the way I do and David, we do a lot in common. He's got a special boot or something. He sees things the way I do. He really does. You are a con man and he is an actual wizard.

That's the difference. You should have just showed me that video. You shouldn't have tried to do it yourself because I'm on board now. A hundred percent. Levitation is a hundred percent real. What's the name of this video so people can watch it for themselves? Check it out on YouTube. This one's just called Levitation-David Blaine, and it's on David Blaine's official channel. It's got 2.8 million views at the time of watching.

It's funny to think that, you know, he's just doing it to all these strangers on the street. These groups are watching it happen. And I like to think that, you know, they're all laughing, having a good time. Just being like crazy. This is insane. And there's one person in the group that is so, is genuinely rattled by it that he goes home that night and he's like, no, I'm going to quit my job. I'm going to, nothing's real anymore. He's like, I'm going to go to the mountains, become a monk. I can fly. Are you kidding me? It's over. Nothing makes sense anymore. Rory, I hate to blow your mind with such a video and then crassly ask you to sum the whole episode up in as simple a solution as a yes, it's paranormal or no, it's not paranormal. But

talking about what we have today, going back and looking at some of the famous saints our history claimed to have been able to levitate right through to the modern day and legends of the magic and TV world, like me, being able to levitate right here in the studio. What do you make of all that? I love this story. I love it a lot more than I even thought that I would before. I think we maybe talked about it on a bonus episode of the podcast, which is available on patreon.com. A very early bonus episode, might I add. But we talked about a sensation that, even when we mentioned it on the bonus episode,

shocked a lot of people because they didn't realize that they also had these memories. Oh, yeah. But it's a group of people who very vividly remember floating as a child oh yeah like floating down the stairs floating down the stairs floating in your rooms uh whether it was dreams about it or genuine memories that you have of being a child and being able to float i see a lot of similarities there as one of those children who can vaguely remember at some point in my life being able to float. Watching these videos and hearing these stories is ridiculously cool because you're like, damn, maybe these guys have mastered it.

Maybe these guys have cracked it as babies, as close to a little angel as you can get. You're straight out of heaven. So you still got some of your angel abilities. So maybe you're just floating around in the middle of the night, but these guys have mastered it and been able to control it in some form. I usually would be a lot more dismissive about the people who claim that they have been able to perfect an art throughout many, many years. But I recently saw a video on the internet of a man who shoves sawdust into his mouth and controls his breathing to the point where he can start to breathe fire. Wow. Yeah. Now there is, I guess, a tiny bit more logic to that where, okay, maybe he is, he's obviously

using the sawdust, makes a breathing point, controls his breathing and the temperature of his breath to ignite the sawdust and turn it into fire. It's still pretty wild. He's still a dragon boy. After seeing that, I'm like, all right, maybe there is something to this 30 years of dedication towards one physical activity. Yeah. As we said, it's pretty naive of me to say a human being can't do these things when a human being who only eats twice a year says, I can fly. Who the knows?

Maybe you can if you only do these wild things. Who the knows? Maybe you can if you only do these wild things. It's like I said on an earlier podcast, we don't know the limits of human capabilities because maybe there's some GTA-esque cheat code we can do in real life that unlocks flight and infinite lives. And I choose to believe that man will one day be able to dunk from the half-court line. Right, like Space Jam with an extendo arm. So it's an interesting story. I guess the only problem is, is a lot of the monks and spiritualists and people who do these incredible challenges, the feats that they're able to pull off can exist in the natural world. The dude who breathed fire, I know he didn't just breathe fire

by sheer will. He had the ingredients and the chemical reaction, whereas levitating in the sky uncontrollably at random intervals defies logic and physics. It is paranormal, truly paranormal. Hey, I got a lot of sympathy for what you just said. We've talked many times. I love the idea of it's just too cynical to think that we know everything is possible just because we've been alive for Jesus a couple of decades. Yeah. Given the quarter million years that humans have been around. I mean, my only frame of reference is I've dedicated my life to being a podcaster and I suck***ing suck at it. So I don't know, maybe in 30 or 40 years of dedication to that craft, I'll be able to either host a really good podcast or

levitate. I'm not quite sure which one yet. Honestly, if I could levitate, I'll happily be a shit podcaster until the end of time. Unfortunately, what we're butting up against here is that the only video proof the only physical evidence we have is of a confirmed magician trickster david blaine levitating on camera yeah and not the supposedly real saints of yore like padre pio floating and so without physical evidence we just can't say it is paranormal and that's why it's got to be a no today yeah it's going to be a no from me as well which is a real shame that was a great story a great case um and it's interesting to walk away with the thought that if david blaine existed in medieval times he would be a god he would be a he would rule. I know Earth has never had one ruler, but it would be him because peasants around the world would drop on their knees at the sight of him levitating four inches off of a cobblestone road.

We're lucky that he has a taste for showbiz and that he didn't apply those skills to war and politics. and that he didn't apply those skills to war and politics. It's good he has a taste of show business and not blood. Because if he had a taste for blood and could convince a nation that he is immortal, then we have a big problem here. We have a very big problem. And that concludes it. As you say, a bittersweet ending

to a delicious investigation into all things levitation. Thank you to Amy Grisdale for researching that one. I can't believe I levitated on my own podcast and it didn't even garner a yes. Jesus, Rory, we must be in a rut. Pretty convenient that the one week you tell me halfway through, I forgot to start the video cameras is the week that you claim

that you have levitated on the podcast no you see full disclosure everyone full disclosure halfway through the pod i was issue i started fixing the camera halfway through the podcast and kit leans over and says don't bother i never hit record so it's quite a coincidence fake news it's quite a coincidence that now people are gonna be like where's the levitation footage let me see the footage of him it happening i should have at least maybe we'll you know maybe i'll record it on my iphone there's no way again i will not do it again not on the camera but what i will tell on camera is my crap story all right of course my recent holiday in france and i've been uh i was really in autopilot getting to the end of that podcast

barely listening to what you were saying to just okayilot getting through the end of that podcast barely listening to what you were saying to just okay race through to the end of the story uh so i could just tell you what i think people really came here to hear if you're still listening uh thank you for listening to the podcast as promised uh this is the story that i told kit that he was allowed to tell at the end of the podcast now you had a couple options because you mentioned that you fell and injured yourself and had to go to hospital i think you mentioned being in prison at one point briefly yeah before i started recording and you also mentioned the creps this crep place or something so yeah you have some options to choose from there was other stuff too but in and around that i did eventually get to to the Sorte France. And, you know, I love a crepe, and I talk about it here on the show, and we all love pancakes.

Never once, never once, I think, have you mentioned crepes or pancakes. And they do the best ones in France. So, like, that was, it was just an all-time kind of dream for me to get down there and just order one of those things. Okay. I get down there, and then I go up and I order, and go i'm super hungry so i'm looking i'm taking my time looking at the menu and i so far this is so my french is so bad and this in this time they barely speak english so it's like it's a real f***ing it's hard to get one too so i'm like okay uh bonjour mademoiselle wrong it. It's a man immediately. Okay.

Anglais, s'il vous plaît. And they go, we speak English. It's fine. I go, oh, fair enough. So that whole bit was irrelevant. That whole section didn't matter because they spoke English. Crepe with sugar and lemon, s'il vous plaît. They speak English.

You don't have to eat. He actually was English, yeah. And I order and I get it and it smells absolutely fantastic. And I turn around and I sit down at this beautiful terrace. It's overlooking the ocean. Okay. I take the first bite of the crepe and I hear this voice to my left and they say, boy, that looks good. And I turn around and it's William Shatner.

There's no way that what? That's right. And the story was worth waiting for. Wasn't it Rory? Because the reveal was worth it. Now I feel it was worth, I feel like one hour podcast. I feel bad now.

Cause I put you on blast a little bit. I didn't realize that Shatner was going to make an appearance. I want to apologize. Actually. That's my fault. That was my fault. Mentioning that at the start would have been a cool, like fun way to introduce the podcast we could have made shatner references all the way through the episode it would have been really fun i think i told you to shut the

up and i said no one cares about your holiday or something at the you know i had a crazy week as well i had a crazy week as well man so don't well we have time it's the end of the episode let's dive into like just like one anecdote you have any like fun anecdotes the shatner thing is overshadowed everything to be honest it's gonna anything i i anything i say is gonna seem weird and like like i didn't have a good time no way like i don't know i think it's just gonna like it's gonna it's gonna feel like i don't have a real life if i say some of the shit I got up to on the weekend. Because you went to France, you had this adventure, and you met William Shatner, and you had the

Crip and everything. And it's just not quite as exciting. I promise you, whatever you're going to say will be equally as entertaining and interesting for the listeners as my weekend. Okay. I found a loose sausage at the back of my refrigerator. And then so that like started your day, but like what? No.

And like what? That was most of it. It was quite far back. So it had sort of frozen into the machine. Right, right. And did you like, you thought it was like a fresh one? Did you like put it in a sandwich and then like, did you like give it to someone or something?

No, I set the fridge to defrost and I put it in the bin afterwards. But, but, but I mean, you know whatever whatever right it was still yeah yeah yeah no i shouldn't have said it i shouldn't have said no no way no people want to people want to listen to the episode this is what the people listen all the way through and they want to hear they want to hear about us when they get to the end of the episode so um great story i had my story where i met william shatner um on a clifftop in the south of france yeah uh and then you two different two different um tempos of story you know you got to have you got to have the sausage story to kind of emphasize how wild the shatner story was. You know, you met a celebrity while out on vacation

and I found a freaking wiener jammed in the back of my my refrigerator. So it's hard to say like who had the crazier weekend. No, it is easy. It is easy to say, but

we don't have to. But who had the better story story maybe the sausage guy is that so weird maybe the sausage guy who knows because like it's like oh everyone has a celebrity story i met a celebrity i met a celebrity here have you met like a single celebrity i met a frat versed at the back of my refrigerator. That was an appearance enough. That took me by surprise. Sorry, I'm getting worked up a little bit here. Just thinking, I'm getting stressed thinking back to how wild that weekend was, frankly. So, woo!

Two crazy stories from two crazy guys. I can see how that would be, you know, like a lot. It was. I didn't have to take the bins out for like a couple of days. So this sausage was just sitting there in the bin for ages, defrosting to the point where it was like, I don't know, should I eat it? Yeah, you didn't eat the crazy old sausage. No.

That'd be so f***ed, wouldn't it? If I ate the sausage in the end. Yeah, man. All right. Of? I ate the sausage in the end. Yeah, man. All right, of course I ate the sausage! What? Of course! I'm not just gonna let it go to waste! You let the old, shriveled, defrosted sausage sit in your bin for how long?

A couple days! A couple days, but it was out of direct sunlight, and I'm not gonna waste the thing. I use every part of the animal. It's not a plant. It doesn't matter if it's in direct sunlight or not oh i know i shouldn't have told the sausage story you should have told us you ate the sausage i i take it back you had the crazier weekend i'll give you that yeah because i meant to say um when i was rushed to the hospital with food poisoning i met david hasselhoff there's no way there is yeah um in hindsight i probably

could have left out the sausage shit the bin shit eating the sausage and the food poisoning and the explosive diarrhea did i mention i didn't mention that yet cut that out but i met david hasselhoff as well in the in the room so two big weekends guess, from two crazy people. We should talk about our personal lives more often, to be honest. Maybe, maybe this personal life, we can call it a spinoff podcast. We just talk about our weeks. I love it. Like I say, I hope you enjoyed this investigation into levitation.

If you just can't get enough of this paranormal life and every time you run out of episodes, you feel like you need to be wheeled to the emergency room, shitting and pissing everywhere like Rory this weekend. All right. I didn't say pissing. Patreon is coming to the rescue, much like David Hasselhoff in Baywatch. Thank you. Oh, nice. With 40 plus full length bonus episodes available for just $5 per month. You can get access to all of them at once.

Per month. You can get access to all of them at once. But maybe even more importantly, over at thisparanormallife.com, we have a merch store where you can get This Paranormal Life merchandise, such as t-shirts. And excitingly, we get to announce today that we have a new design!

Whoa! Ladies and gentlemen of the podcast, how would you like to officially join the ranks of the Galactic Twelve? But Rory, it's impossible. No it isn't, Kit. Because for the first time ever, you can pick

up your official Galactic Twelve t-shirt at the This Paranormal Life merch store! Holy shit! That's right, we're talking an official brand and logo of the Galactic 12 available on two different colored t-shirts. And it's there right now in the merch store.

What colors are they? I don't remember. Black, I think, is one of them. And a pretty cool blue. That's awesome, man. All right. There's another cool shirt update as well. That's right.

A few people have been enjoying our Chompy's shirt design on the store, but had maybe just not been vibing with the white colorway. Not everyone likes white t-shirts. So we're delighted to offer it from today in black too. We know a lot of people just like love wearing black t-shirts. So you can rock that official Chompy's swag in black in style this autumn and winter. So Kit kit you're saying right now there's three new shirts available on the this paranormal life merch store believe it bitch wow aggressive chill um cool and how would i find these t-shirts and purchase them over at www.thisparanormallife.com and click on the store. Right. And are they available to ship worldwide? We have two different stores. So there's a really cool Easter egg in it,

which is the print on the shirt actually includes some of the alleged Ibn language that was recorded when this whole event took place. Even check out the shirt design just to see some of that Ibn language thrown in there. Definitely.

But we hope you love it. So check out those shirts on our merch store. Check out patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life to get bonus episodes and remember to check back in next tuesday for a brand new paranormal tale you