MISTER MYSTERY RESPONDS

It just occurs. The danger lies in not realizing that it’s occurring. We may recall the case of the yogi Swami Virukananda, who did not realize his meteoric rise until he had to go to the toilet. Earth was a small blue planet down there, and he panicked. He waved his arms frantically, unaware that in outer space one floats. But he knew nothing of outer space. He still believed that the Earth was flat and that the stars were the luminous tips of the incense sticks of the saints. By the way, where were the saints? Ah, there was one coming ... But the saint didn’t stop; moreover, he almost collided with Swami Virukananda. That infuriated him and he started yelling at the saint. Then he realized that it was not really a saint, but a rock the size of a saint. (He knew the size of saints because in his youth he had worked in a workshop for making saints bathing suits.) A levitating rock? That was completely impossible. (He knew this because in his youth he had tried to make a rock levitate, ...

I dare to assure that levitation is the most frequent. I usually carry stones in my pocket just in case. Because you never know when it can happen. It happened to me during my sister's wedding. I was engrossed in my own thinking when, all of a sudden, the wedding was taking place down below me… and, well, there was some excitement and a great deal of noise. My sister hasn't forgiven me yet. I don't know why people don’t believe this is something unintended. Anyway, if you are prone to levitate, you can't get so engrossed in your own thinking without it being a dangerous thing. Because you never know when you’re going to have a lofty thought. Although I shouldn't say it, I usually have high thinking, and the truth is that it’s quite embarrassing. For example, when you are having tea in the company of high-minded people, and without taking your eyes off the newspaper, you leave the cup on the saucer. Or when you're shaking hands with someone. Before you know it, y...

When Marie Lloyd, the so called “Queen of the Music Hall", unexpectedly showed up at 221B, Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes already knew what was the case that she was going to place in his hands. The “Thames” of the previous day had echoed the news under the title "The floating singer." So the first thing Holmes did when Mrs. Hudson announced her visit, was to close the windows to prevent Mrs Lloyd from floating out of the apartment. However, Mrs Lloyd’s account of the facts showed us that it had been an unnecessary precaution. Mrs Lloyd's spontaneous buoyancy was limited to the “Canterbury Music Hall" located in Lambeth and only while she was on stage. It had all started three days before, when during her performance she began to float aimlessly in the air. She did not want to interrupt her performance but, upon completion, she complained angrily to Mr Villiers, Canterbury Hall's manager, claiming that she had a reputation as a singer and could not afford to...

I am asked if I know that, among the devotees of the Jewish movement known as Hasidism, there were rabbis who performed supernatural feats. And I say: Yes, not only do I know it well, but I'm going to tell you about it a story that I have just invented and that consequently has not been related until now. The scene is Liadi, a small Russian town with a large jewish population, namely a shtetl. And its protagonists are Eleazar of Liadi and Elior of Vilna. Eleazar of Liadi was a Hasidic Rabbi (a “pious” rabbi), while Elior of Vilna was a Misnagdim Rabbi (an “opponent” rabbi), that is to say, a staunch opponent of the pious rabbis. The Hasidic rabbis worked miracles. The Misnagdim rabbis not only do not worked miracles, but they were often unable to find the bathroom when they go visit people. In the second half of the 19th century, Rabbi Elior of Vilna had become the scourge of the miracle-workers rabbis. He had imposed on himself the task of unmasking the frauds that, according to...

A nice summer morning during breakfast, Gurney proposed to the junior members of the Society for Psychical Research to spend the day at the zoo. Everyone agreed except Roger Davenport, who does not know if he will have enough courage to face that challenge. Gurney reassures him that the animals are caged. But it turns out that what scares Davenport are precisely the cages, since when he was a child he was locked up by accident in the chicken shed. In the end they manage to convince him. For a researcher of the paranormal, facing situations out of the ordinary, however normal, give him a sense of unease. That's why as soon as they entered the London Zoo, Roger Davenport and his colleagues began to see paranormal phenomena everywhere. Cavendish, who remained ecstatic contemplating the neck of the giraffe, proclaimed that such unusual elongation would be a good topic of study. As a man of the world who had had occasion to see exotic animals in their own habitat, Gurney explained him ...

Because of levitation, we lost our uncle Noah a year ago. It is not that he died but that he ascended to heaven like the prophet Elijah if the comparison is allowed. As usual, the family was gathered around the shabbat table at my sister Greta's house. Levitation is a common phenomenon on such occasions, I do not know why. Rabbi Weizman states that it is due to the combination of the extraordinary saintliness of the members of our family. My cousin David thinks differently: according to him, the cause is the secret combination of spices that Greta uses for the cholent. The fact is that a year ago, on that sacred day, the window of the room was left open. We were all so engrossed in a heated discussion about the dietary benefits of reading the Mishna that we did not realize that old Noah had fallen asleep and had begun to levitate. When we realized, it was too late: uncle Noah was coming out the window. We all rushed to his aid, but when we reached the window, uncle Noah was alrea...