Discussion Of St. Joseph Of Cupertino's Supposed Levitation

Dear Byron,

Thanks for sending this article. https://www.csicop.org/si/show/secrets_of_the_flying_friar_did_st._joseph_of_copertino_really_levitate

At the end of the day, I do not know what "was going on" with "boccaperta" ("the gaper" as simpleminded Joseph was nicknamed).

I appreciate the arguments set forth by Joe Nickell which, like most arguments, are plausible.

But they also "come across" a bit like conspiracy thinking which, by nature, focuses on minute details - details which, admittedly, may prove decisively important. 

However, like conspiracists who routinely focus minutiae as if deliberately looking at the molecular make-up of "tree bark" so they don't have to consider the forest, the arguments do not leave me with a clear sense that we now have overarching proof rather than a fresh basket of good "microscopic" theories. (I will also mention that some of the "histories" I have read include "soaring flights" such as an episode where a fellow monk climbed on boccaperta's back and was "flown" to a nearby church tower where a repair was needed.)

A 9/11 parallel...

Any number of 9/11 conspiracists refer to "thermite" as if they were reciting "Hoc est enim corpus meum." (Here again I digress to note that there is a LOT about the 9/11 Official Story that doesn't square neatly with other "facts on the ground.")

Maybe the alleged presence of "thermite" is A Big Deal.

Or maybe not.

In any event, variant "realities" have fervent proponents on both sides, and even scientific reality makes room for statistical outliers that can be "all over the map"... and into terra incognita. "That way monsters lie..."

A fin de cuentas, an overarching dose of skepticism is a very good thing.

In the meantime, I prefer to suspend judgment (as is essential in theater) for the sake of the greater good which is The Story. ("The Greatest Story Ever Told?")

Indeed, it may be true that "the theater" is an alternative reality that is mas o menos as important as supposedly "objective reality" (which can never be separated from the human subjects who contemplate it), and often -- if only from a humanly functional point of view -- "suspended judgment realities" may be more important than the provable impossibility we call "objective reality."

Quien sabe?

Hasta el lunes hombre!

De nuevo, te agradezco el envio.

Paz contigo,

Alan 

On Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 11:01 PM BCH wrote:

https://www.csicop.org/si/show/secrets_of_the_flying_friar_did_st._joseph_of_copertino_really_levitate