The Physics of "Miracles"

I believe in miracles. To me it is a miracle when hate turns to love, anger to forgiveness. I would love to see water turned to wine, but I am happy with feeling an ordinary breath turn to elixir when I breathe in with gratitude. And existence itself is miracle enough. The fact that the Earth exists, and the Sun, and the ocean, are wondrous to me.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and some other yoga and meditation texts speak of what we would consider miracles – levitating, walking through walls, flying through space, telepathy. Basically the kinds of powers that cartoon superheros have.

There is no need to postulate miracles when everyday life is itself a wonder.

Here is a wonderful essay by David Willey on the physics behind apparent miracles, such as walking on broken glass, dipping your finger in molten metal, lying on a bed of nails and picking up a glowing hot piece of tile.

"David Willey is a physics instructor at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, a member of the board of the Pennsylvania Science Teachers Association, and one of the current world record holders for the longest firewalk. His traveling physics show has been seen by about 50,000 students and he is the "resident mad scientist" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His Web site home page may be found at www.pitt.edu/~dwilley/bio.html. "

The Physics Behind Four Amazing Demonstrations

Here is the physics theory behind four dramatic demonstrations-

walking on broken glass,
dipping one's fingers in molten lead,
breaking a concrete block over someone lying between beds of nails,
and picking up an orange-hot piece of silica tile.

Link to the Committee for Scientific Exploration of the Paranormal.

And link to an article about how David Willey walks on fire.


The prepared fire pit begins to burn down.



Skeptical Inquirer managing editor Ben Radford dares the wrath of the fire pit at the Center for Inquiry

All of this shows the challenge of scientifically verifying meditation. We need to know what happens naturally before we can say something is supernatural.

Meditation DOES have fantastically good results, very often, especially when a person chances across a form of meditation that matches their individual nature.

Fabulous Spoof of an Antidepressant Ad:

http://www.panexa.com/