While I was in the movement, I heard five definite firsthand accounts of people who witnessed or experienced phenomena which they perceived as a supernatural suspension, or flying in mid-air. On another occasion I witnessed this kind of phenomena myself.
I had the job of helping to catch people who fell over after they had been prayed for in a certain service, and I was standing only a few yards from a particular incident. It was a woman who had come forward to receive prayer with laying on of hands and she was affected by the anointing to an unusual extent. She fell over backwards as soon as the preacher’s hand came within a foot or so from her head. The two persons on either side of her were pushed over, seemingly by the same power surge. They were certainly not touched by anyone.
Just as I expected the woman in the middle to crash quite violently backwards onto the floor, she was stopped as by an invisible power in the air less than a foot from the ground. The two persons on either side were also suspended in the air, seemingly by the same power. After the soft stop in the air, all three persons were pulled back toward the preacher, still without touching the ground. It looked as though the preacher held a very powerful magnet which he could vary in direction and strength. Still without touching the ground, the three people were swung back and forth a couple of times in the air. The whole mid-air phenomenon lasted about five seconds, and then the woman in the middle fell to the ground with violent bodily convulsions.
Several people observed this taking place. A young woman who had previously been rather sceptical about our activities was now impressed by the display of power she had witnessed. It never occurred to her that this power might not be the power of God. I myself was thoroughly convinced that I had witnessed a manifestation of the power of God, and so was the preacher, as far as I could gather. My impression was that the power behind this phenomenon was just more of the same kind of power which made people fall over in what I considered to be the ordinary fashion.
I have later been informed that the person who was in the centre of this incident was also involved in other unusual activities. In some of the spiritual exercises, people were deliberately made to float in the air, leave their bodies, and travel in the spiritual realm. At a distance, some preachers would release “the power of God” over people in order to make them move, jump up and down or collapse on the floor. Some of the preachers even attempted to set spiritual powers in motion to try to cause the death of certain persons who were especially critical of the Faith movement.
I am well aware that many people would find it hard to believe that such phenomena actually have taken place. Mass hallucination, sophisticated conjuring tricks or optical illusions are alternative ways of explaining it. However, I would not be truthful if I said that I believed in any of these alternative explanations. I am convinced that what I witnessed actually happened. What we can all learn from this, is that intense experiences can captivate people to such a degree that they cease to question the things they were previously sceptical about.
There are very few occurrences in the Bible, where the power of God lifts a person up from the ground. One example is when the prophet Ezekiel met God (Ezekiel 3:12-15). Although it may occur in a Biblical setting, it seems to have happened only on a few very special occasions. In the Bible, it is God who in His sovereignty lifts someone from the ground for His own purposes. It is never a meaningless demonstration of power, and it is not something Christians should seek after.
Levitation is well-known within Spiritualism, and it is commonly described in Spiritualist literature and experience. In Spiritualism, as well as in other forms of occultism, levitation may be just a demonstration of occult power. It is something people can seek and something they can learn how to practise. In occultism, people may be taught how to control these phenomena, and that is something a Christian who lives in dependence on the Almighty God would never do.
If levitation occurs in an occult setting, it is wise for a Christian to beware. In cases where people are practising how to float in the air, it is not likely to be God who is at work. Personally, I am convinced that the levitation I witnessed was not caused by the power of God, but rather by occult powers.
