They aren’t flying; it’s camera tricks, and the mantra just makes people feel calm and a bit dazed.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, the transcendental meditators have an advanced siddhi course where they learn to fly, as they call it. I have seen photographs of them hovering above the ground. How they do it?
You go to the photographic department here and learn a little bit about trick photography -- and there is nothing more in it. Krishna Bharti, Champa, they will be of immense help to you. Or if you want really a crazy man then go to Sarjano; he will teach you trick photography. It is all trick photography, nothing else -- no SIDDHI, no flying, nothing else. But stupid people become very much interested in such sheer nonsense. If transcendental meditators can fly, what is the need for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to have an airplane? There is no need at all! We have met -- I have met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi just by accident. I was having a camp in Pahalgam in Kashmir and he was also having a camp in Pahalgam. His disciples became very much interested and they wanted me to come to them and to talk to them,…
Beloved Osho, you often talked about psychoanalysis and related therapies. Would you please comment on more recent developments like fritz perls' gestalt therapy and -- the latest fashion -- voice dialogue? Can these therapies help a person who is already meditating to see himself and his games more clearly?
He was continually asked, "Give a public demonstration of your levitation" -- and he could not. A case was brought in the Supreme Court of America by seven of his own disciples, who had been working hard on levitation and found that it was absolute nonsense -- they were just hopping! So they had brought a case against him, demanding ninety million dollars. He has been cheating the whole world, and he has accumulated tremendous money. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi dropped that idea because he could not give a public demonstration. He came with a new idea, and this new idea is yogic flying -- even greater. And what is the purpose of yogic flying? -- if one person can learn to fly, then ninety-nine persons in the world will become meditative and silent and peaceful. A big business, because it means for five billion people to become peaceful -- no…
Osho, I understand you said the other day in the lecture that jesus did not walk on water and there are no miracles as such. But by practicing the samyama on patanjali's udana sutra, is not man able to do this? Please comment.
He says those who get lost in miracles are lost in a jungle. Certainly there are powers within you, hidden powers within you, which you are not aware of. And when you start going deeper into meditation those hidden powers start manifesting themselves, and there is every possibility you will be tempted by those powers. There is nothing miraculous about them; they are as natural as any other law. We just don't understand the law underlying them, hence we call them miracles. For example, if you meditate, soon you will realize the fact that you can read other people's thoughts. Now it will look like a miracle: before the person has asked the question you can answer him. And he will be surprised, and you will be worshipped as a great saint. But you are being very stupid, because somehow you have got rid of your own ideas, now you…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS THE TRANSCENDENTAL? Meditation is just the opposite. It is awakening. It is becoming fully aware of your body, of your mind. And you have simply to be watchful. You don't have to repeat anything, because repetition means you have fallen into identifying with the thought process. Chanting is also a thought process. Repeating a mantra or a name of God -- Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, it doesn't matter. You can simply count from one to a hundred and back again, from a hundred to ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety-seven, then go back. Go up, go down. Just climb the whole ladder up to a hundred and again come down. Four or five times you will be able to do it and then you will fall asleep. But the whole night you will have to do that, climbing up, coming down, climbing up, coming down.
Osho, the other day you said that some people are born buddhist. I must be one of them, because I always feel deeply in tune when you speak on buddha or ikkyu. This is my natural climate. But I remember that I also felt like that when you were speaking on jesus, yoga, tao, sufism... Please help me to find out which is my true nature.
SUGEETA, you are a natural Rajneesh freak. The last question I HEAR SO MANY STORIES ABOUT YOU, ALL CONTRADICTING EACH OTHER. EVEN ABOUT YOUR PHILOSOPHY, NO TWO DISCIPLES OF YOURS SEEM TO AGREE. WHY IS IT SO? I HAVE NO PHILOSOPHY AT ALL. So how can my disciples agree on anything? I have no dogma, no creed. My assertions are not philosophic, but poetic. My assertions are not about the truth, they are only devices to help you awake. For one disciple I create one device, for another another. How can they agree? They will agree only when both have become awakened; their awakening will be the agreement. But when two persons are awakened they have nothing to say. They may laugh -- their laughters may agree. Or they may cry out of joy -- their tears may agree. But statements can't agree. You must be new here. Don't be…