I think it has to do with belief, more than anything else. It's one of those things that's "physically possible," like the 4-minute mile, and once you believe you can, you can. Like walking on hot coals, you just have to have the right technique, and believe that you can.

I am reminded of a story Wayne Dyer told In the Power of Intention special on PBS. Wayne said that he asked his son to hold an organic banana in one hand and see if he could stop his father from pushing his arm down; he could. Then he said he got his son to hold a "rap CD" instead of a banana and see if he could overpower his father; he couldn't. He claimed that the "negative energy" from the rap CD actually weakened his son so that his son couldn't overpower him.

Levitation like this would be easy enough to test. All you need are four bathroom scales for each of the lifters to stand on during the levitation. Then, have one or more additional people note the weight registered by each of the scales during the session. If the combined weight registered by the scales is less than the combined weight of all of the people and the chair (if the chair is included in the levitation), then true levitation actually took place.

If you perform this test, it is important that the weight measurement be done at the moment in the levitation when the person being levitated is motionless, i.e. not moving either up or down. Otherwise, acceleration effects will skew the weight measurement.

I have watched the videos and have to say this is really like the advanced levels (above black belt usually) of martial arts. You can have the weight of the mountain or the weight of a feather, I can't say whether this works with scales or not.

I will say this: the feather weight is for high air stuff and fast movement that seems faster than possible and the heavy mountain weight is for staying in place grounded while those fighting you seem to bounce off you to the floor constantly.

The person being levitated is thinking I will be levitated I will be weightless, the counting helps this part as the mind accepts this concept more with anticipation of a reaction and thus creates feather weight in an indirect unconscious way.

There is an added bonus here not only the center person's thought but the other four have the same feather weight thought therefor helping create this experience of reality.

Yes with the power of our own thought we can do the same thing with two people, one on each side lifting us by our arms and fists. In that situation we chose to become heavy or light and when we are ready tell them to try lifting.

There was a children's book that taught the power of thought, but I can't remember which book, the character got into trouble and was told to think thin as a pin, or light as a feather in the book

I think it shows the power of meditation and focus. I've seem this done two ways. One is to put your hands over the other persons head without touching, the other is to count breaths in unison together to 12. These need to be done without any of the participents saying anything. They goal is the same.. with the breathing, the mind is cleared and focus is on keeping breathing together with the others. With the hands, you have to focus on an order of the hands and not touching the other hand. Either way, there is a ritual involved that helps clear the mind. The person sitting in the chair is also affected by this.

I've heard it said that the seated person inadvertanly stiffens their body making them easier to lift.. This is subconscious, but being both the seated and the lifter, I can tell you that there was no effort to change the body. To have this effect, you would have to make a real effort, and even if trying to stiffen your body out as hard as you can, you cannot be lifted without the ritual. Therfore, I do believe the power is with the lifters.

Now where does this power come from? I think this shows the power of being in synch/rhythm/focus with each other. Whether it's focus, teamwork, or some mystical energy field, I think it does show the power of meditation, even if no real energy power exists, it's a strong statment of clearing our mind focusing our thoughts, and working together. You see this in forms of marial arts as well. I think it's a strong case that brute strength is not the only way to resolve issues.

Hello:) Sorry I don’t know the accurate ‘science facts’ I only know what I believe to be possibly accurate! I thought it was because of everyone focusing intently on the same one thing, which is for the person to move up in the air and its the power of those thoughts and also the feelings and thoughts of the person being lifted. Perhaps it’s moving the space between the molecules of the person, or the actual molecules. Either way, it’s as you say; it works unless people are scared or not interested. Then again, perhaps they are feigning disinterest as they are scared in case it does work! I always felt that far more exciting than what the ‘lifters’ had to say about their experience when it works, is what the ‘lifted’ person has to say about it, that’s always reeeely interesting. I am sure that someone will come along with a far more factual explanation than I.

Did you ever hear of a very old similar comedy/entertainment stage show routine? As far as I can remember the woman was known as Resistor [not sure of spelling] and people would come on the stage and try to pick her up, they would, but then she would do something with the power of her mind [!!] and they couldn’t keep hold of her; they perceived her as too heavy. It might have been a ‘staged’ stage show, I only heard about it once and that was many years ago and I don’t have the details but its one of those things that sticks in your mind and it stuck. That seemed to me like the above but in reverse.

I was introducing newbies to this party game some years ago after some time of participating with the lifters I went for some refreshments. When I came back a little later, there were 4 kids, 10 - 12 years old, actually lifting up the largest man at the party (something I never did :) ).

I could not believe my eyes. That was when I really started to think that there was more to it than the power of positive thinking.

I do believe one the sides of our bodies have a positive charge one side and negative the other... maybe this has something to do with things ?

There is one other thing - everyone should take off all metallic things. It is reason of failure every time.

In party levitation the active forces involved are mind energy and related subtle electromagnetic fields ... electromagnetism describes the relationship between electricity and magnetism ... they are interdependent, a changing electric field generates a magnetic field and a changing magnetic field generates an electric field ... light, electricity and magnetism are manifestations of the same polarized energy and rapidly move back and forth (oscillating between two poles), however the energy in this case is so subtle that it can only be perceived by the visible effects that it produces.

here's a video on levitation ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K78t2-W2jag&feature=related

Nithyananda teaches spiritual enlightenment and expanded consciousness by restoring subtle energy life forces within the body, notice the bell ringing used to increase and transport the subtle energies ... one of the by-products of his teachings is levitation, other phenomena are feelings of lightness, heaviness, expansion and contraction of the physical body ... here is what Nithyananda says ;

http://www.nithyananda.org/article/levitation-really-possible-us

Here is my interpretation of Nithyananda's explication ;

Prana corresponds to life force, chi, universal energy etc. and the five energies of prana correspont to the five elements fire, water, air, earth and metal ... the samana air process is described as breathing through the skin ... the air in this case is the substance that exists in between physical matter, the void of space, the void between the nuclei and electrons of molecules of all matter ... that is why Nithyananda speaks of "breathing through the skin" because the tissue skin is a void sparsely populated with nuclei and electrons, as is all matter at the atomic level.

He mentions the samana air process of energy penetrating through the top of the head and exiting out the ten toes and fingers ... this energy corresponds to the vertically descending cosmic/telluric subtle electromagnetic forces as used during reiki for example. Balancing the samana is bringing into equilibrium the vertical descending cosmic/telluric and the vertical ascending telluric/cosmic energies.

He also mentions four phenomena that are felt; light, heavy, expanded and shrunk ... these correspond perfectly to an expansion of consciousness ... becoming conscious of a void ... pulling all the atoms of the body into a tiny compact heavy mass is shrinking (heavy and shrunk) and expanding the body to a huge size becoming light with the atoms of the body sparsely separated (light and expanded).

Here is a video of an african shaman performing levitation ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW6pVFOpE6Q

The aim of this method is only levitation and is based on "magically" controlling the five elements within a virtual cone of power ... fire (hot circular base creating a rising heat strengthened by nightfall, cooler ambient air) ... earth (the shaman draws a circle by walking round in circles and dominating the earth within the circle) ... water (the shamans physical body) ... air(respiration and the rising hot air effect) ... metal(fluid thought energy). The assistant drummers literally drum up energy to increase the effect ... the cone of power often used in magic is formed, the base of the cone being the circle of fire and as the man rises so the virtual cone elongates, the summit of the cone just above the head, notice the spread out position of the hands and feet allowing easier control and flow of the subtle vertical cosmic/telluric energies ... cones have similar qualities to pyramids that is they pull down energy to increase the energy within the cone and all things in it ... the complex and energized shaman ritual clearly shows that a lot of other energies besides the pyramid energy is needed to produce the phenomenon of levitation ... in particular the participant should be as free of blockages as possible, in this case he can be compared to acting as a temporary superconductor ... the shaman puts a great deal of personal effort to produce this phenomenon is rapidly exhausted.

I believe this is how Uri Geller works ... as a temporary human superconductor of subtle energy (and surely lots of other people).

Pyramids gather energy and transfer it to anything that is inside it ... in party levitation it is the physical presence of the four men that form the chassis of a virtual pyramid which energizes the man to be lifted working together with mind power and related subtle energy fields ( the auras of the participants if you prefer) to create a phenomenon of temporary weightlessness.

As we can see from all these demonstrations mind energy is an essential ingredient, and an open mind is needed to participate ... as Stingray so rightly points out if someone is not really participating this can block the process ... it can also be consciously blocked by anyone if they so wish.

Have fun :)