Can we believe eyewitnesses… did this 17th century monk levitate? |313|

Dr. Michael Grosso’s extensive research of historical records suggests St. Joseph’s levitation was real.

photo by: UCAN Spirituality

Today we welcome Dr. Michael Grosso to Skepiko, Dr. Grosso is an independent scholar with a longtime association with the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia. He’s one of the coauthors of the fantastic Irreducible Mind, as well as several other fascinating books about the science of human consciousness including his latest: The Man Who Could Fly: St. Joseph of Copertino and the Mystery of Levitation

In this interview Dr. Grosso talks about the substantial historical evidence for physical levitation including what he found scouring many original accounts written in Italian during the 17th century.

He also talks about why, despite the historical evidence, accounts like those of Saint Joseph have gone out of fashion and have been eclipsed by the more reproducible miracles of science and its implicit creed of materialism which casts suspicion on everything mystical.

Alex Tsakiris: And these aren’t Chris Angel’s six inches off the ground, one foot down, leave the other one up…

Michael Grosso: The documents show that Joseph frequently levitated while he was saying mass, just hovering a couple of inches off the ground. I think the most spectacular case I came across was on a Christmas Eve when he dragged in a bunch of shepherds who had their drums and musical instruments. He got them to make merry and he got so carried away he levitated half way up to the peak of the tower of the church. So that may’ve been as much as 31 or 51 feet. I’m not sure exactly. Doesn’t matter. It was high.

… So it’s interesting that the religious as well as the scientific orthodoxies are very reluctant to handle and confront phenomena that they don’t understand, and they cannot control.

Alex Tsakiris: There’s a practical reason for that too. Because it’s a complete reflection of us–of who we are. We’re uncomfortable with it. We like our own trains to run on time. We don’t like to think that miracles happen and the consensus reality that we share with everyone is really just another option in terms of how everything works.

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Alex Tsakiris: And these aren’t Chris Angel’s six inches off the ground, one foot down, leave the other one up…

Michael Grosso: The documents show that Joseph frequently levitated while he was saying mass, just hovering a couple of inches off the ground. I think the most spectacular case I came across was on a Christmas Eve when he dragged in a bunch of shepherds who had their drums and musical instruments. He got them to make merry and he got so carried away he levitated half way up to the peak of the tower of the church. So that may’ve been as much as 31 or 51 feet. I’m not sure exactly. Doesn’t matter. It was high.

… So it’s interesting that the religious as well as the scientific orthodoxies are very reluctant to handle and confront phenomena that they don’t understand, and they cannot control.

Alex Tsakiris: There’s a practical reason for that too. Because it’s a complete reflection of us–of who we are. We’re uncomfortable with it. We like our own trains to run on time. We don’t like to think that miracles happen and the consensus reality that we share with everyone is really just another option in terms of how everything works.

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music by: P C III