The Man Who Could Fly: St. Joseph of Copertino and the Mystery of Levitation

by Michael Grosso

Overview

St. Joseph of Copertino began having mystical visions at the age of seven, but it was not until he began practicing his faith as a Franciscan priest that he realized the full potential of his mind’s power over his body—he was able to levitate. Throughout his priesthood St. Joseph became famous for frequent levitations that were observed on hundreds of occasions and by thousands of witnesses, including many skeptics. Michael Grosso delves into the biography of the saint to explore the many strange phenomena that surrounded his life and develops potential physical explanations for some of the most astounding manifestations of his religious ecstasy. Grosso draws upon contemporary explorations into cognition, the relationship between the human mind and body, and the scientifically recorded effects of meditation and other transcendent practices to reveal the implications of St. Joseph’s experiences and abilities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442256729
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/14/2015
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Michael Grosso has taught humanities and philosophy at Marymount Manhattan College, City University of New York, and New Jersey City University. He is affiliated with the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, is on the Board of Directors of the American Philosophical Practitioner’s Association, and is a past editor of the journal for that association. His published books include The Final Choice: Playing the Survival Game (1985); Frontiers of the Soul: Exploring Psychic Evolution (1992), The Millennium Myth: Love and Death at the End of Time (1995), Soulmaking: Uncommon Paths to Self-Understanding (1997), and Experiencing the Next World Now (2004).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Chronology xi

Introduction 1

Part I The Man and his Marvels 13

1 Life and Times 15

2 A New Force 37

3 The Case for Joseph's Levitations 69

4 A Complement of Talents 91

5 The Mystic 111

Part II Steps Toward Understanding 129

6 Reconnoitering Explanations 131

7 Joseph as Performance Artist 153

8 Speculations on the Physics of Levitation 171

Part III Concluding Reflections 189

9 The Parapsychology of Religion: A New Science of Spirit? 191

Appendix 219

References 223

Index 239

About the Author 251

Editorial Reviews

12/07/2015
Grosso, an independent scholar and member of the board of directors of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association, canvasses the spiritual awakenings of St. Joseph of Copertino, the 17th-century Italian friar who was purportedly able to levitate. After an introduction that grounds St. Joseph's miraculous feats in contemporary arguments against strict scientific, materialist views on reality—particularly the work of philosopher Paul Feyerabend—Grosso guides readers through St. Joseph's private and public life, dedicating ample space to the saint's troubled childhood. He details the many primary accounts of supernatural events that seemingly encircled St. Joseph: levitation, psychokinesis, poltergeists, inedia (being able to live without food), and materialization of objects. He asks whether, how, and why these events could have actually happened. Readers who are interested in the mystery surrounding historical figures who have been shunned by the church will discover tidbits of fascinating information regarding this oft-suffering soul. Grosso's work is thorough but tedious at times, with excessive discourse about other individuals that, in the end, detracts from the bizarre story of St. Joseph's life. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

The Man Who Could Fly is a story of considerable interest to parapsychologists, and one which Grosso tells very well indeed, with the attention to relevant detail one expects from a well-informed philosopher.

Journal of the Society for Psychical Research

The Man Who Could Fly is a thrilling examination of our evolving understanding of consciousness and human abilities. Michael Grosso inverts the conventional dogma that matter makes mind by showing that mind shapes matter. Beautifully written and tightly reasoned, this book is a potent antidote to the suffocating, deadening effects of the materialist ideology of our time. The Man Who Could Fly is one of the most important explorations of consciousness thus far in the twenty-first century.

Larry Dossey

Grosso’s enthralling study immerses us in the strange world of a levitating, seventeenth-century mystic, but does much more too. Above all, it invites us to question present-day assumptions about the dependence of mind on brain and, ultimately, the nature of reality.

Paul Marshall

A miracle, to quote St. Augustine,'does not occur contrary to nature, but contrary to what we know of nature.' So what happens when a miracle occurs, repeatedly, what can it tell us about the nature of the nature we inhabit and, more importantly perhaps, about its meaning? This is the subject of Michael Grosso’s searching, beautifully written and challenging book.... The Man Who Could Fly is not only an exemplary case study of a levitating saint but an agenda both for further research, search and reconfiguration of what it might mean to be human in a universe the knowledge of which remains enticingly and enjoyably uncertain, open and inviting.

Network Review

Provocatively, happily, Michael Grosso’s elegant book on the ecstasies and flights of Joseph does not leave the reader with an easy escape from the conclusion that St. Joseph of Copertino really was ‘the man who could fly.’

Jeffrey J Kripal