Observations placeholder
Sister Maria Villani - I knew that I was raised some distance above the earth, my whole body being suspended for a considerable space of time
Identifier
024208
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Friar Herbert Thurston was a Catholic priest, a member of the Jesuit order and an historian. He wrote extensively on Catholic mysticism and psychic phenomena and was a member of the Society for Psychical Research. He was also widely read on this subject. He is described as ‘an honest skeptic’., and once said ‘the role of Devil’s advocate is a thankless one and does not make for popularity’.
I believe this to be an out of body experience not levitation, but I have placed levitation in the observation in case I am wrong.
A description of the experience
Friar Herbert Thurston - The Physical Phenomenon of Mysticism
Suor Maria Villani, a famous Dominican nun in the seventeenth century, herself a candidate for beatification:
On one occasion [she informs her director] when I was in my cell I was conscious of a new experience. I felt myself seized and ravished out of my senses, and that so powerfully that I found myself lifted up completely by the very soles of my feet, just as the magnet draws up a fragment of iron, but with a gentleness that was marvellous and most delightful. At first I felt much fear, but afterwards I remained in the greatest possible contentment and joy of spirit. Though I was quite beside myself (benche stavo.fuora di me), still, in spite of that, I knew that I was raised some distance above the earth, my whole body being suspended for a considerable space of time. Down to last Christmas eve (1618) this happened to me on five different occasions.