Transvection (flying)
Transvection is the supernatural act of levitating, floating or more specifically flying through the air. While levitation and magical flight can equate to acts of stage magic or astral projection through the use of psychoactive entheogens, transvection usually refers to the experience of bodily movement in defiance of gravitational laws.
Witches in medieval Europe were frequently depicted flying up chimneys and in the air by means of broomsticks, various wild animals, or even during acts of sexual intercourse; however the consensus of modern Neo-Pagans[citation needed] is that these images remotely alluded to the practice of entheogen use, either for folk shamanic purposes surviving from the stone age, or perhaps even as a form of recreational drug use.
Flying saints and Hindu and Buddhist mystical practitioners known as Siddhis and Iddhis are known for acts of spontaneous levitation, reported during times of intense or particular religious or meditative devotion.[citation needed] Though this is not to be confused with Indian street performers, famous for climbing ropes that go nowhere and other kinds of stage magic adapted to street performance.
In the 1986 film The Boy Who Could Fly, the main character is an orphaned, autistic transvective.
References
- http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-603256/transvection
- Strange Histories by Darren Oldrige (ch. 6, "Werewolves and Flying Witches")
- The Complete Book of Magic and Witchcraft by Kathering Paulsen
- The Complete Book of Yogic Flying by Craig Pearson
- Long-Range Casimir Forces: Theory and Recent Experiments on Atomic Systems (Finite Systems and Multiparticle Dynamics) by Frank S. Levin and David A. Micha