Levitating Lotus Position

When seated in the Lotus Position, a character may levitate to demonstrate that he or she is meditating particularly profoundly. The Levitating Lotus Position is also used as to show that a character is displaying his or her Psychic Powers, intensely concentrating, healing, or is just especially calm.

Levitating while in the Lotus Position may also be a sign that a character is powerful or that he or she is far from normal.

Bonus Points if they start chanting "Ohm..."

See also Meditation Powerup. Compare Chunky Updraft and Love Floats for other uses of levitation.

Examples of Levitating Lotus Position include:

Anime & Manga

  • Saint Seiya
    • Virgo Shaka awaits for the intruders to the House of Virgo in a Levitating Lotus Position. No surprise here for someone thinking he's the reincarnation of Buddha. Bonus points for keeping the pose while wearing the Gold Cloth armor of the Gold Saints.
    • Krishna Chrysaor of Poseidon's Marine Shoguns does the same thing when Shiryu destroys his spear, and he's forced to use his chakra instead.
  • In Sazan Eyes, this is the default position for Kelarla (a Cute Monster Girl) whenever she appears, floating above the ground.
  • Fist of the North Star: Ken's rage Toki's "face breaking fist of compassion" attack has him sitting in this position, floating, while using his arms to direct the waves that break his opponents face. Compassionately. The dramatic after-picture has him the same way, but arms in his lap.


Comic Books

  • Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen does the levitating version of the Lotus Position while creating his fortress on Mars.
  • Used by Doctor Strange for purposes of study, meditation, and sometimes Astral Projection.
  • Jean Grey of X-Men, being both telepathic and telekinetic, can do the lotus and float.
  • Leonard of Leonard Le Genie encounters an entire squadron (yes, flying in squadron formation) of Tibetan monks flying like this. One even shouts mayday because he has a leg cramp, meaning he can't get the landing gear out.
  • In BPRD, Liz talks to a Shangri La monk while he's in the lotus position three feet off the ground.
  • R. Crumb's Mr. Natural actually shows some mystical powers by levitating in the lotus position and travelling to the city that way—of course he's tracking down disciple Flakey Foont, who owes him money.


Films -- Animation

  • Gali has a similar pose to this while meditating in the first Bionicle movie, managing to levitate despite not having psychic powers of any sort, except for telepathy between herself and Takua.
  • Master Oogway of Kung Fu Panda also does the levitating lotus pose.
  • The Hermit Guru in the Animated Adaptation of Soul Music. In the book it just says he's sitting under a tree (quite possibly a Bodhi tree) with his legs crossed.
  • In Aladdin, Genie's conjured parade for "Prince Ali" includes "forty fakirs" demonstrating this technique.

Films -- Live-Action

  • The Golden Child. The title character's astrally projected image does this when it appears to Chandler Jarrell.
  • Tom "The Astronaut" of the far future in The Fountain does this upon the climax, when he comes to his personal realization of the ultimate truth of life and death. He climbs out of his bubble-like spaceship (while still enveloped in a smaller, person-sized bubble) and assumes the lotus position in order to meet Xibalba head on. In the midst of his catharsis, he suddenly appears to the priest guarding the Tree of Life, who is awed by his presence.
  • Subverted in God of Cookery when it is revealed that The character has actually left the ground thanks to the security guards who are in the process of carrying him out.


Literature

  • In the Doctor Who New Adventures novel Sky Pirates!, there's a scene where the Doctor's companion finds him "sitting in a lotus and ... levitating three feet off the deck -- something he swore blind that he could only do occasionally and with concentrated mental effort, but which Benny had lately come to suspect was the result of being so engrossed he simply forgot to stay on the ground." (They're in a pocket universe with weird physics, which may or may not explain it.)
  • Jake spies Mike Callahan doing this in one of the original Callahans Crosstime Saloon short stories. It is one of the first indications that there is a lot more to Mike Callahan than meets the eye.
  • In the Dragaera novels, Daymar the Hawklord tends to do this whenever he appears via teleportation, or is simply staying still for a while. Lampshaded in Iorich, in which Vlad wonders why Daymar bothers with a feat that's not especially impressive in a society of sorcerers.


Live-Action TV


Puppet Shows

  • There's a video on the official web site of The Muppets showing what the character Animal does on his days off. One of the things he does is meditate in the levitating lotus position. The video also includes the "Ohm..." element: Animal's meditation chant is "Wooooomaaaaan..."


Video Games

  • Dhalsim of Street Fighter performs a levitation in the Lotus Position as one of his Victory Poses, and during his Yoga Teleport.
  • Ly from Rayman 2 does the floating variation of the Lotus Position.
  • The Sims: Meditating long enough also allows a Sim to levitate.
  • The lotus pose and lotus-with-levitation are stock poses in City of Heroes.
  • Lord Vivec in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind does it.
  • The Wizard class has this as an Idle Animation in Gauntlet (1985 video game): Dark Legacy.
  • Two of Gene's god roulette moves in God Hand has him regain health in a floating lotus position, Zen Revival and Enlightenment, which heal 30% and 100%, respectively.
  • The Pokémon Meditite is depicted doing this whenever you encounter one in the wild.
  • In Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic, you adopt this position when you regain your health by using up some of your chi.
  • Pitfall Harry Jr. in Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure does this as his ultimate Idle Animation, also with levitation.
  • Max levitates in this pose in Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 4 after discovering his Magic Feather, which is even more difficult to do with rabbit feet.
  • Otani Yoshitsugu from Sengoku Basara. Granted, he's actually sitting on a palanquin that levitates due to his sorcery.
  • The Nali randomly do that in the original Unreal and Return to Na-Pali.
  • Certain NPCs in Golden Sun can be seen learning how to do this.
  • There's a mini-game in Wii Fit where you sit very still on the controller pad. If you sit still enough long enough, your on-screen character starts doing this.


Web Comics


Western Animation

  • The DCAU's future Green Lantern of the Batman Beyond time (also in Justice League Unlimited) flies around this way.
  • In China IL, Steve and Ronald Reagan do this after being in stopped time for the equivalent of 100 years.
  • Raven, from the Teen Titans animated series. In the one instance she is showing doing so, Starfire is also capable of sitting lotus and floating. Justified: Starfire can fly.
  • Shirley the Loon from Tiny Toon Adventures does this with levitating as part of her psychic powers.
  • Likewise the Wally Llama on Animaniacs, who tries to escape the Warners by essentially floating away like this. They then catch up to him via the same method.
  • Antauri in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! is shown levitating in this position a couple of times, including for a brief while in the opening credits.
  • On Jimmy Two-Shoes, Jimmy does this with levitation when growing a tomato for his Dagwood Sandwich.
  • In The Mighty B!, "Dang It Feels Good To Be A Gamester", Bessie hits this sort of zone, where she becomes telekinetic but only for the final level of this video game. She does a floating lotus during this period, then gently drops back down to the floor of the Hive and comes out of the state.
  • The animated[1] Spirou and Fantasio has two such characters who make several appearances: One is a Magical Aborigine capable of astral projection, and who must tie himself to a rock to avoid flying too high. The other is an Indian scientist who's always about a metre from the ground, possibly even when sleeping.


Real Life

  • Several practitioners of Transcendental Meditation have claimed to be able to levitate while in the Lotus position, and there are even photographs showing them in midair in this pose. However, when investigated by the likes of James Randi, it has so far turned out that these claimants merely know how to bounce while in Lotus position, and have somebody take a photograph while in mid-bounce.
  • Self proclaimed ninja Ashida Kim has filmed a video where he does this quite unconvincingly.
  1. ↑ Well, they may be in the comics too, but they're more prominent in the animated version, if only because there is much less material
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