ThothWeb - Levitation and Flight in the Ancient World: A Modern Perspective

Levitation and Flight in the Ancient World: A Modern Perspective

Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 (CDT) by Thoth

The idea that in the distant past, ancient civilizations possessed technologies that we lack today is a troubling one for science. Modern society likes to think that today mankind sits at the pinnacle of humanity’s scientific achievement. We tend to make the assumption that technological developments of the past can be stacked neatly like a tower of blocks, with our current paradigms balanced nicely at the peak.

This thinking is based on the fact that early civilizations did not possess a sophisticated level of mechanization. Modern thought dictates that mechanization is the only method of accomplishing the ‘advanced’ engineering skills required to achieve things such as flight and levitation.

To ascertain if levitation and even flight could be possible without the need for complex machinery, we need to study the work of modern day scientific pioneers and the clues left in ancient texts.

Perhaps most importantly, we need to suspend our belief that mechanisation or brute force are the only options available; that maybe there is a third way, a long forgotten method of utilising natural forces to make them work in our favour.

Research in the twentieth century by scientists and inventors such as Tom Danley, Edward Leedskalnin and Viktor Schauberger have made people question if the laws of physics and the forces of nature can be employed to achieve these things without the need for mechanisation. If their research is borne out, then it is quite possible that many ancient civilizations possessed a unique scientific knowledge, a natural science that has been all but lost through time, but that we may be on the verge of rediscovering.

The Evidence written in Stone

The clues to the mystery of just what Earth’s ancient people were capable of, lie in the ancient monuments that are a lasting legacy of many great civilizations. At least six thousand years ago, before even the wheel has been invented, highly complex monuments were constructed using blocks of stone that weighed as much as 800 tonnes apiece. Was it simply a colossal amount of human effort that led to the construction of ancient monuments such as Stonehenge in England, Sacsayhuaman in Peru, Baalbek in the Lebanon and the pyramids of Giza, or was there a secret to their construction? These ancient sites are simply a few of the relics of the past, relics whose construction can’t be fully explained by our current understanding of scientific knowledge in the ancient world.

It is common knowledge that civilizations we consider primitive in terms of their technological accomplishments built structures the dimensions of which would be impractical if not impossible for modern day engineers and architects to replicate – even with our current knowledge of construction techniques. Ancient people often incorporated blocks of stone of staggering dimensions into their architecture when it would have been far easier and quicker to use smaller more manageable blocks. Many of these quarried blocks were well over 100 tonnes apiece and the largest were actually over 1000 tonnes. One reason that has been put forward for the need to use such large stones is that they made the structure more earthquake proof. This is a very plausible theory which indicates an awareness of the forces of the earth that had to be taken into account when constructing ancient buildings. However, using nothing but brute force it would have taken several generations to complete each monument, unless of course the ancients had a method of easily moving the stone blocks used in the construction.

The Trilithons of Baalbek

Baalbek

Regardless of why such big blocks of stone were used, it is an undeniable fact that ancient temples and forts were made from stone blocks so large that most modern cranes would struggle to lift them into place. The best example of this is the three stones that form the Trilithon at Baalbek in modern day Lebanon, which contains the largest stones used in any man-made structure. Each of these massive stones is between 63 and 65 feet in length, around 14 feet high and 12 feet thick. Each stone has an average weight of about 1000 tonnes. An even larger block with an estimated weight of 1200 tonnes lies unfinished in the nearby quarry. Why this stone was abandoned is unknown, but as one end of the stone is still attached to the bedrock it is clear it was still unfinished and that no attempt had been made to lift it, but it had been quarried assuming it could be moved.

Not only are the Trilithon stones of an immense size, the stone blocks that support them are also incredibly large, weighing in at around 450 tons each; highlighting the enormity of the construction effort that was successfully undertaken by these ancient people.

Searching for answers

Baalbek Trilithon

No documented accounts exist of exactly when or how the Baalbek complex was originally built. Current thinking is that ramps would have been used to haul the stones from the quarry to the site and into position, but no evidence has been found to support that explanation and indeed the logistical implications of moving huge numbers of stones of that weight tends to cast doubt on the idea. There are some commentators that argue that nothing but brute strength was used to move these blocks, suggesting that timescales would not have been of importance and that if it took thousands of men a hundred years or more to build a temple that would have been perfectly acceptable at the time. This may be so; however the impact such a re-allocation of manpower would have on the community as a whole, which would have to sustain a vast workforce using primitive farming methods, leads many researchers to question the feasibility of the theory. There had to be an efficient and workable method of construction that did not require our knowledge of mechanization.

If Baalbek was created using some kind of technology to transport its 800 tonne stones, no trace of the methodology remains. This has led many researchers to suggest that acoustic levitation was used in the construction. Acoustic levitation would be an invisible technology that would leave no physical evidence of its use. If the ancient builders of Baalbek did use sound to move their huge blocks into position, the only evidence that might remain would be the retelling of the story in local legend passed down from generation to generation. Sceptics naturally cite a lack of physical evidence as being just the cause to debunk ideas concerning alternative history. However, in the case of acoustic levitation, the absence of evidence isn’t necessarily evidence of absence of the technology existing. Proponents of the levitation theory point out that it should be expected that a technology that would have no environmental impact would not leave physical evidence of it having been used. The fact that are no demonstrable theories or supporting archaeological finds that prove beyond doubt how these monuments were constructed illustrates the dilemma of orthodox archaeology, in that they have no real viable alternative to offer as to who built Baalbek or how it was constructed.

The Phoenician historian, Sanchoniatho, wrote that the god Ouranes, who possessed the power to make stones move on their own, supposedly built Byblos, the first city in Lebanon. This story is of course unsubstantiated, but taken at face value, suggests that a form of levitation may have been used to shift the huge blocks. Sanchoniatho goes on to say that the demi-gods of Byblos possessed "light and other more complete ships". This is an even more controversial statement, certainly suggesting that whoever built Baalbek might have come from another land but also that air travel might have been used. It also seems to parallel an extract from an ancient Egyptian text called ‘A warrior's prayer’ which originates from the old kingdom pre-dynastic period.

“Come oh Osiris great lord of Abydos,
thy heart flies on a safe distance to guide our land to light,
let us follow your boat mighty Osiris the one that flies like the stars
when they come down to earthly grounds and rise again
to make all men and animal linger before the greatness of their magick.”

Sanchoniatho continues that chief among these people was Taautus:

"Who invented the writing of the first letters; him the Egyptians called Thoor, the Alexandrians Thoyth, and the Greeks Hermes."

This is interesting because according to legend, many associate Thoth with the building of the pyramid complex at Giza. As we shall see later, Giza is another engineering marvel that incorporates massive stone blocks and whose construction our engineers still cannot replicate.

The Pyramids of Giza

The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

The pyramids at Giza in Egypt are probably the most famous examples of huge stone monuments whose construction defies current understanding. It would have taken an unbelievable number of people and animals to quarry and then move the stones used in the construction of the pyramid. Orthodox researchers are convinced the pyramids were built using levers, ropes, pulleys, and ramps to move these massive stones into very precise alignments. In the case of the Giza complex, there is archaeological evidence to suggest that several thousand workers were housed near the construction site and that ramps were used on the site, but for what? Archaeologists who support the ramp theory often fail to take into account that hauling stone blocks weighing several tonnes up wooden ramps would have put an intolerable strain on any wooden structure. A wooden ramp might have been suitable for hauling the huge granite blocks and limestone lintels from the Nile river to the site but there is no way they could have been used to raise limestone lintels weighing between 50 and 200 tonnes, two hundred feet in the air and moving them into precise alignment within the pyramid, even today this remains an engineering impossibility. The relieving chamber blocks for example each weigh 70 tones and measure 8 x 2 x 1.5 meters, each block needed to be hoisted 200 feet in the air before being positioned inside the great pyramid.

The presence of a substantial workforce at the pyramid site may have centered around working on the exterior of the pyramids, using the ramps to support people who were working on the limestone façade for example. It is also very likely that this workforce were employed in the construction of the smaller buildings that are also incorporated into the Giza site. Dragging blocks weighing a hundred tones or more up a wooden ramp using people or oxen seems to be an unlikely method of construction.

Moving stones – the legend of how the pyramids were built

Thoth

The Arab historian, Abul Hasan Ali Al-Masudi wrote in the tenth century that according to legend a ‘magical papyrus’ was used to levitate the stone blocks. According to the legend, the papyrus was placed under the stone to be moved and the stone was tapped with the kind of metal rod that Thoth and other Egyptian deities are often pictured as carrying. This created an acoustic resonance and caused the stone to levitate and move along an avenue of metal poles (which would presumably have amplified the resonance). This way the block in question could be guided carefully into position; with the procedure being repeated each time the resonance began to fade.

The construction of the pyramids has fascinated many scholars over the years. In his article titled, “The Gods as Architects”, William Saylor uses the following quote to illustrate how the pyramids were constructed.

“Then said Pharaoh, ‘Where lies the papyrus on which Imhotep wrote the words of power that went to the building of the pyramid for Zoser, yes and for that of Seneferu my father also…The words of power can be found and spoken by none but he-and if he speaks them three great pyramids shall rise at Giza and stand there forever.”

This seems to support the story told to Al-Masudi about a magic papyrus being used to raise the blocks used in the construction of the Giza pyramids.

Tiahuanaco and the Monuments in the Mountains

Puma Punku - Tiahuanaco

Baalbek and Giza are not the only ancient sites that incorporated massive stone blocks in their construction. As mentioned earlier, these amazing sites can be found across the world and in some very surprising places. In the highlands of Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca, sits the enigmatic site of Tiahuanaco. This site was once attributed to the Incas, but is now known to have been a ruin long before the Incas inhabited the area. There is a great deal of geological evidence to suggest it was originally a port city at the edge of Lake Titicaca. The lake has since dropped over 800 feet in depth and its shores have receded about 12 miles.

There, at the pre Incan ruins of Puma Punku, 100 tonne sandstone blocks were used to create a temple, 13,000 feet above sea level, in the Bolivian Andes. In this part of the world the air is so thin that tourists are exhausted just walking by about and the rugged terrain makes normal foot travel difficult. Like with the pyramids of Giza, the temple complex incorporates a series of subterranean chambers, whether this is coincidence or evidence of a further connection between the two sites has yet to be investigated. There is no explanation as to how such heavy blocks were moved using manual labour in those conditions. The most famous architectural feature of the complex, the Gateway of the Sun, was carved from a single block of stone weighing over 15 tons. There is no clear indication of where this particular stone came from or how it was set in place with such precision.

The site also contains a building called the Kalasasaya, thought to have been a temple, whose stone steps are comprised of huge stone blocks some 30 feet in length. There are many blocks in the Tiahuanaco complex that weigh over 100 tons, and which were transported to the site from a quarry some 50 km away.

According to the oral tradition of the Aymara Indians, the current residents of the shores of Titicaca, the whole site at Tiahuanaco was built at the ‘beginning of time’ by the founder-god Viracocha and his followers, who caused the stones to be ‘carried through the air to the sound of a trumpet’. Trumpets and musical instruments in general have been credited with inducing levitation in objects in many cultures, including the Tibetan one.

The research of Olaf Alexanderson and Henry Kjellson in Tibet

Swedish engineer Olaf Alexanderson detailed in the publication, Implosion No. 13, how some vibrations in the audio range will demonstrate to a physicist that a vibrating and condensed sound field can nullify the power of gravitation. Is this scientific knowledge the key to understanding how massive stones were made move and were levitated to accomplish amazing feats of engineering?

In the 1950s, a Swedish engineer named Henry Kjellson documented accounts from two travelers who each separately claimed to have witnessed acoustic levitation firsthand, in his book ‘The Lost Techniques’.

Tibetan Monks

In one account, in 1969, a Swedish man named Dr. Jarl, a graduate of Oxford University in England and member of the English Scientific Society was invited by a former college friend to visit Tibet, where his friend was studying under a senior lama. Because of his longstanding friendship with his Tibetan friend, Dr Jarl was permitted to witness some of the hidden practices that were still taught in the region; traditions that had remained unchanged for many thousands of years. During a visit at a monastery to the southwest of Lhasa, Jarl witnessed a group of monks under tutelage of the lama move a stone that was (according to Jarl) 1.5 meters long, 1 meter high, and 1 meter wide. The stone was moved from a meadow to what appeared to be the opening of a cave over 250 meters above. In fact it wasn’t a cave, but a massive rock wall that the monks had been building.

Kjellerson is quoted as describing how the rocks were made to levitate thus:

“In the middle of the meadow, about 250 metres from the cliff, was a polished slab of rock with a bowl like cavity in the centre. The bowl had a diameter of one metre and a depth of 15 centimetres. A block of stone was manoeuvred into this cavity by Yak oxen. The block was one metre wide and one and one-half metres long. Then 19 musical instruments were set in an arc of 90 degrees at a distance of 63 metres from the stone slab. The radius of 63 metres was measured out accurately. The musical instruments consisted of 13 drums and six trumpets (Ragdons). Eight drums had a cross-section of one metre, and a length of one and one-half metres. Four drums were medium size with a cross-section of 0.7 metre and a length of one metre. The only small drum had a cross-section of 0.2 metres and a length of 0.3 metres. All the trumpets were the same size. They had a length of 3.12 metres and an opening of 0.3 metres.

The big drums and all the trumpets were fixed on mounts, which could be adjusted with staffs in the direction of the slab of stone. The big drums were made of 3 mm thick sheet iron, and had a weight of 150 kg. They were built in five sections. All the drums were open at one end, while the other end had a bottom of metal, on which the monks beat with big leather clubs. Behind each instrument was a row of monks. When the stone was in position the monk behind the small drum gave a signal to start the concert. The small drum had a very sharp sound, and could be heard even with the other instruments making a terrible din. All the monks were singing and chanting a prayer, slowly increasing the tempo of this unbelievable noise. During the first four minutes nothing happened, then as the speed of the drumming, and the noise, increased, the big stone block started to rock and sway, and suddenly it took off into the air with an increasing speed in the direction of the platform in front of the cave hole 250 metres high. After three minutes of ascent, it landed on the platform.”

Although Dr Jarl filmed this event, The English Scientific Society for which Dr Jarl was working allegedly confiscated the two films and declared them classified; as such they have never made their way into the public domain.

In the second account reported by Kjellson, an Austrian named Linauer stated that in the 1930s he was at a remote monastery in northern Tibet where he was shown two strange instruments that could produce weightlessness in stone. The first was a huge gong, 3.5 meters in diameter, made from an alloy of three different metals and which made an extremely low sound when struck.

According to Don Conreaux, a metaphysian and gong master, the essential key to the gong's force of resonance, and its effectiveness, is the complete submersion and saturation of a person or object in layer upon layer of tone-cell multiplication. The universal gong sound is based upon the musical principle that all tones of equal amplitude keep resonating, adding to themselves, to produce cumulative offspring, so to speak. This is a phenomenon unique to gongs

The second instrument was also composed of three different metals; but it was a half-oval shape like a mussel shell, and measured 2 meters long by 1 meter wide, with strings stretched lengthwise over its hollow surface. Linauer was informed that it created an inaudible resonance wave when the gong was struck. The two instruments were used with a pair of large screens, positioned so as to form a triangular configuration. The gong was struck with a large beater to produce a series of brief, low-frequency sound waves; a monk was then able to lift a heavy stone block with just one hand. According to Linauer, the monks told him that this was how their ancestors had built protective walls around Tibet, and that such devices could also disintegrate physical matter.

Other Monuments and Legends of Levitation

Uxmal

One monument with interesting acoustic properties is the Mayan site of Uxmal, which has a 100-foot high pyramid known as the Pyramid of the Magician. Visitors to the site often entertain themselves by clapping at the base of the pyramid to produce a chirping sound much like that of the Quetzalcoatl bird. However, the site also has a legend associated with it that it was built not by the Mayans but by a race of dwarves who could merely whistle and move the stones through the air.

The Greek city of Thebes also has a legend of stones moved through sound. Early Greek historians wrote that the walls of Thebes were built by Amphion, a son of Zeus, who used the sound of his lyre to move the stones through the air. According to myth and legend, the sound of his lyre was irresistible to both rocks and to animals, so that both followed him and his playing. In another tradition it is said that when he played ‘loud and clear on his golden lyre, rocks twice as large as him followed in his footsteps’.

Far away in the South Pacific lies the island of Pohnpei, and the mysterious site of Nan Madol. This city was believed to have been built sometime around 200 BC and was constructed from thousands of huge basalt logs, each of which weighed about 2.5 tons. Archaeologists suggest that the logs would have been floated into place on huge rafts. Interestingly, local Micronesian legends tell how the city was built by the gods Olosopa and Olosipa, who used magic to move the stones through the air.

The Modern Day Pioneers

In modern times, several researchers have examined the possibility of levitation through sound. In particular, the work of John Worrell Keely (1827-1898) is thought to have shed light on the secrets of acoustics and levitation. Keely spent 50 years developing and refining a wide variety of devices that used what he referred to as ‘sympathetic vibratory force’ or ‘etheric force’ to levitate objects, spin large wheels, power engines, and disintegrate rock.

Keely often tried to raise awareness of his research by demonstrating his findings to the scientific community and sought to find a commercial application for his work. One of the reasons he failed to achieve this was that he found that the forces he used had to be attuned to each individual, and results were greatly affected by surroundings. Keely was supposedly able to create the vibrations necessary to make objects move by using a variety of musical instruments, including wind instruments such as trumpets and horns and also stringed instruments such as fiddles, and zithers. If true, then this confirms much of what has already been discussed as to the application of the sounds from certain musical instruments being capable of creating the forces necessary for levitation.

An Austrian scientist and inventor, Viktor Schauberger (1885-1958), also researched the ideas of levitation, and after observing nature and the environment, proposed that along with gravity, a separate force that he named levity, existed. Levity, he theorized controlled the upward movement of gravity, as well as uplift and growth.

Schauberger’s research was based on his studies of the forces of nature. He noted for example how trout living high in the Alps were able to move swiftly upstream, against the flow of gravity as well as leaping up waterfalls over 60 meters high. Time and time again he observed nature challenge our understanding of the laws of physics. He observed that these trout would use a spinning motion to aid them in these leaps, and developed his theory that what he called a ‘levitational force’ was present in nature that flowed in the opposite direction of gravity. Schauberger used his research to develop mechanisms that used this spiraling force to generate energy.

The Ancient Art of Flight – Experiments by the Nazis

Nazi

What makes Schauberger’s work interesting is that through his studies he patented designs that were said to create free energy by harnessing the forces of nature. If that free energy is available to us, then it would have been available to the ancient civilizations who, unhindered by the scientific dogma that surrounds modern society, might have better understood how to utilize the forces of nature than we ourselves do.

An interesting twist to the subject of levitation and flight is that Schauberger’s work was developed extensively by the Nazi party during secret tests to create flying saucers. The Nazi party were of course intent on rediscovering and promoting what they considered to be the invincible Aryan race. There is an uncomfortable irony to the fact that this so-called master race could well have been trying to replicate the lost technology of the ancients to establish a lasting cultural identity of their own.

After the war, Schauberger’s work was officially discontinued, and much of his brilliant research lost – although rumors persist that the Americans continued his work with a high degree of success. The question is of course: could the same technology that Schauberger used have been employed to create flying machines in ancient times? There are a great many ancients texts from a far a field as China and India records that suggest that the ancients did possess the power of flight and that this was achieved with at best, very primitive technology.

The Hindu Vimanas

Vimana

The Rama Empire which existed in India around fifteen thousand years ago was said to contain seven great cities, known in classical Hindu texts as 'The Seven Rishi Cities'. According to ancient Indian texts, the people had flying machines called 'vimanas' which they used as a method of transportation.

In etymology, the word vimana is purportedly derived from vamana: "He who is able at three strides to take measure of the entire earth and heavens."

What is interesting here is that this meaning can be traced back to Egypt, where one of Thoth’s titles was ‘The measurer of the Earth’. So not only is Thoth connected to the monuments of Baalbek, through his title he seems to be connected to the concept of flight between the great cities of ancient India.

Coral Castle

Coral Castle Entrance

Edward Leedskalnin is another 20th century inventor whose work might hold the key to our rediscovering the science behind the art of levitation. Leedskalnin single-handedly constructed his own modern day monument over a thirty year period; he built the magnificent Coral Castle in the American state of Florida. This amazing structure incorporates over 1,100 tons of coral rock, and was built by Leedskalnin single-handedly, without modern lifting tools or machinery.
Leedskalnin claimed to have rediscovered the principles used to build the pyramids but attracted a fair amount of suspicion by refusing to divulge his techniques publicly; although he did write several articles about how he was able to move blocks weighing up to 30 tons with no assistance.

An engineer named Chris Dunn studied the contents of Leedskalnin’s workshop after his death and hypothesized that Leedskalnin had been able to generate a radio signal which caused the coral rock to vibrate at a resonant frequency, allowing him to use magnets to flip the rock’s magnetic field. These findings are borne out by Leedskalnin’s own writings on the subject.

NASA enters the Arena

NASA

More recently, research on acoustic levitation has been carried out by an engineer named Tom Danley, while working with colleagues in a company called Intersonics. Tom’s research has already been successfully tested by NASA.

The following patent was filed in 1991 for a process called “Containerless Processing,” which the application states is a procedure where a material can be melted and solidified again through the use of intense sound. According to the application:

An acoustic levitator includes a pair of opposed sound sources, which have interfering sound waves producing acoustic energy wells in which an object can be levitated. The phase of one sound source may be changed relative to the other in order to move the object along an axis between the sound sources.

An experiment using this technique was flown on two Shuttle missions and successfully melted and solidified ceramic samples from about 1000 deg C to about 1500 deg C. Danley’s research was featured in a film entitled, ‘Mystery of the Sphinx’, which examined the origins of the Sphinx. As part of the film, an experiment demonstrating containerless processing was shot from inside Danley’s lab.

Conclusions

When considered together with the oral traditions and legends about the use of sound to use levitation to move stone, and defy gravity through flight, the research of Danley, Leedskalnin, Keeley, and Schauberger takes on great significance. Their findings offer a possible solution to the age-old question of ‘how did they (the ancient people) build those amazing monuments?’ It is all too easy to dismiss isolated myths or legends, but when sites across the world all share common features such as the incorporation of huge stone blocks of unworkable weight, and common oral traditions of stones being moved by sound, you have to ask why? The answer may well be, that to our early ancestors those huge blocks were a workable size. It’s possible that they had an understanding of the earth’s natural forces that allowed them to do things naturally, that we in our supposedly technologically advanced state require mechanisation to achieve.

The results documented by modern science give credence to the possibility that acoustics could be the key to understanding how some of the world’s greatest monuments were constructed and how through knowledge of ‘levity’ or anti-gravity technology, they even achieved flight. Is it possible that the reason we can’t replicate those feats of engineering today is that we don’t yet truly possess or want to understand the science that makes them possible? For many, it may be easier to consign levitation to the realm of science fiction and ancient flight to the realm of myth and legend, because in doing so it maintains modern man’s place on the apex of the scientific achievement pyramid. Although we might be at the top of the pyramid now, we have to wonder if others have been in the same place already.

Related articles on ThothWeb that offer more information on some of the subjects touched upon in the above:

In the Gallery:

Nazi Flying Saucers – scanned diagrams and photos
The Coral Castle Gallery – Photographs of the site
The Mysteries of Ancient Egypt – Photographs

ThothWeb's Videos:

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