Talk:Yogic flying

Cleanup Request

I include Pavel Vozenilek's request from 16:38, 7 June 2005:

cleanup requested - the criticism section is messy, the facilities section looks like ad

I'm still sort of ruminating over how to clean things up (and my ruminations can last months). Anyway, jump in if you have an idea.

WpZurp 19:24, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

Well, I got cracking and I think I've cleaned things up. I tried to put some flow on the criticism section.

As for the facilities section, I'm not sure how it looks like its an ad. Such facilities are claimed to exist and exists in several countries. If you can suggest better wording or some way to tone it down, then please take keyboard to article. Personally, I consider these claims comical and a perfect setup for the criticism section to follow. Remember, this nuttiness does leak into the media from time to time.

Also, I removed this part: "the bh?chari-siddhi" until the "?" can be filled in properly (because looks kind of junky). Was used in this line:

the earliest part of levitation, the "perfection of leaping like a frog"

WpZurp 20:05, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

If I understand it correctly "Yogic flying" is term used throughout long time, for millenia, yet the current text looks like being mostly about by group called "Maharishi". There's rather low information on history, on people who claimed this ability, on investigations of this, whether someone had attempted to use it for military purposes, etc.

The article lacks references for the Maharishi claims. The paragraph quoting various people from newspaper article should be trimmed down radically. This is what I meant by cleanup. Pavel Vozenilek 22:52, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

Ok, good points. The quotes are now trimmed. As for your other valid concern, I must raise a points.

First, just search "yogic flying" on google and the top links are for "Maharishi"; his organization even has two google ads when I searched. Add all the links you want to. Anyway, this Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is generally known to some degree; even the The Beatles sought him out. Second, I have only heard of yogic flying as a sideshow in the media so this article; plus, some actual cult activity does appear to be happening under the rubric of "yogic flying". So this article should contain a criticism section. Third, you may want to use the {{expand}} tag because, at least in my opinion, the {{cleanup}} phase is over. If you are so inclined, just remember to include what extra information you believe in needed at Wikipedia:Requests_for_expansion. Also, if you have more knowledge of the history then dive in!

As for the overemphasis on the 'Maharishi', read Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and do some research and make up your own mind. Maybe this guy has hijacked this technique for cultic/conjob purposes or maybe this guy is the leading modern practitioner. You seem more knowledgeable than me so I have to leave that area for you. At the very least, he does have a dominant presence on the web so he should not be entirely cut out of the article. The real issue is whether he is a hijacker or a practitioner/teacher.

WpZurp 00:12, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

Since the cult stuff is handled at the TM wiki, I took it out... and tried to focus the article a bit. Sethie 08:27, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Introduction needs new order. Its poor form to use the abbreviation in the first sentence then explain it in the second sentence. Those should likely be flipped.--Crossmr 04:47, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Done. Askolnick 05:26, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Proposal to delete redundant material

A user copied verbatim large sections from the TM article into this article. This particular section of the TM article has now been moved to a new article on the TM-Sidhi program. A number of points were added to create balance. I now need either to add these points to this article on Yogic Flying or delete some of the material that was copied verbatim and point to the article on the TM-Sidhi program.TimidGuy 22:21, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

As timidguy and i discussed yogic flying is a distinct phenomena associated with the TM siddhi program and we both support a merge. I propose we wait a week or so and see if there are any objections and if not, find an admin to help us merge it (the actual procedure I don't know.) Sethie 23:06, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi folks. I vote for merger. Tanaats 05:17, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, Sethie. Good plan. Maybe Will Beback, since he's helped me several times.TimidGuy 12:55, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

I have seen a Yogic Flying demonstration, and there was no actual flying involved. It's ass hopping. Anybody who can do full lotus can do it - just pop your legs atop one another, and start bouncing. Sukiari 01:12, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree, except that you don't need to do a full lotus, just crossed legs will work. I've done "yogic flying" myself, and I don't think it's "for real" either [1]. However, I'm satisfied that this position is represented in the article by Parks' "parabolic trajectory" quote. Tanaats 05:23, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

My brain just recoils in horror sometimes. But they seem like they're having fun.Sukiari 12:57, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Templates added

I added "main" and "navigation" templates Tanaats 01:28, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

"square root of one percent"

Um, I don't know what was intended by this, but I'm pretty sure it's not the literal meaning of ten percent. Btyner 20:28, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm confused. I don't find a mention of "10 percent". Tanaats 20:58, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Quoth the article:

According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, if just the square root of one percent of the population regularly practices yogic flying together, the entire population will be blessed with the fruits of greater coherence - including reduction in violence, crime, disease, deadly storms, and other destructive natural forces.

I have no idea what the original claim was, but I doubt that it was that ${\sqrt {1\%}}={\sqrt {0.01}}=0.10=10\%$ of the population would be needed. Btyner 21:35, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Wow, I've never done the math. Yes, the claim is "the square root of one percent." To anyone who doesn't do the math (like me for example) it sounds very small. Tanaats 14:15, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Upon closer examination, I believe they don't mean

(the square root of one percent) of the population

as I had originally interpreted it, but instead

the square root of (one percent of the population)

In that case, it is equivalent (and perhaps clearer) to say "ten percent of the square root of the population" Btyner 23:06, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Sheesh, thanks for that brainstorm. I was really puzzled. I always took it mean "calculate the square root of 1% and then multiply the result by the population size". I'm sure that you are right in your more current interpretation. Tanaats 23:28, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe it's the smaller number. The calculated number of Yogic Flyers needed for the U.S. is 1,730 for a population of 300 million.TimidGuy 12:43, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that's the only thing that makes sense. Tanaats 13:39, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

It's the squareroot of (one percent OF the population): ${\sqrt {1\%of1million}}={\sqrt {10,000}}=100$. Sparaig 23:32, 1 February 2007 (UTC)