Human Flight

Current investigations into the possibility of unassisted human flight have developed from information received through dreams and a daily practice in the body arts of yoga and Tai Chi. The first of the dreams that is relevant to this discussion suggests that in order to fly it is necessary for the feet to have a kind of energetic conversation with the ground. The 'speaking' aspect of this conversation involves sending energy (which might also be described as 'prana' or 'chi' depending on the tradition) through the base of the feet toward the ground, while the 'listening' aspect involves developing a sensitivity toward the way the ground responds to the energy emanating from the base of the foot.

For practitioners of the body arts already adept at moving chi or prana around their bodies, the speaking aspect is generally relatively easy to master. The listening required to become air-born is, however, somewhat more difficult. It requires an expansion of the body practice to develop a far greater degree of sensitivity in the soles of the feet, an area of the body often neglected in our hand-centric society. As this sensitivity develops we witness the parallel development of a more profound understanding of the nature of the energetic connection between the ground and the feet.

When we adopt the conventional mode of moving around on the surface of the planet - a mode which we refer to as 'walking' - we are implicitly accepting the dictates of gravity. This acceptance is reflected by the feet adopting what, for the moment, we will call a passive-energetic-state. The energy flowing through the feet in such a state is wholly under the influence of the active ground force which we know as gravity, (as sensitivity develops such active/passive distinctions become less relevant, but for the moment they are useful in describing the phenomenon).

In the passive-energetic-state prana, (or chi), moves through the legs in a way which is roughly analogous to the flow of blood. Assisted by gravity in the standing position, blood will move to the base of the feet with relative ease; however its journey back to the heart will generally be more difficult. During longer periods of time spent standing the accumulation of blood in our feet and legs can cause pain. While it's useful to compare prana to blood flow there are some important differences. Rather that accumulating in the feet and legs in the standing position prana leaks out through the base of the feet and in energetic terms the pain we feel in our feet, (a pain which might also be associated with blood flow) can be traced to a consistent loss of energy through the sole of the foot while it is in its passive-energetic-state. In this instance the active ground force draws the prana out through the base of the foot.

At this point it is useful to introduce what in the yogic tradition is called a 'bandha' (which can be translated as 'lock'), and with it introduce what might be seen as one of a number of 'apparent contradictions' that are central to the development of the sensitivity required for unassisted human flight. Earlier in this text it was suggested that in order to fly we must send "energy through the base of the feet toward the ground" with this movement of energy seen as the 'speaking' component of a conversation between the feet and the ground. While this is true, the sole of the foot must first be 'locked' in order to prevent the prana being drawn out through the base of the feet by the active ground force. This energy 'lock' or 'seal' fosters the sort of control necessary for it to be released, or perhaps more correctly, expanded, in a meaningful and articulate way which then, in turn, facilitates the dialogue between the ground and the feet.

So whereas previously this dialogue was conceived of as the sending energy through the feet to the ground we now arrive at a more subtle conception of the process, whereby the energy is first contained by the bandha, and it is then this container which expands and enters into the 'conversation' with the ground. At this point it is important to note that while the extremities of the physical body provided us with an initial picture of the boundaries within which prana may move such boundaries do not correspond to the layers of skin which we might consider to be the limits of our physical presence. Rather the body is merely the starting point in developing a consciousness of prana as a force that moves through all matter.

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