You bring up a very good point when you wrote;
> a plank of wood will provide the illusion with a low view angle.
A sand bar or a plank, from the correct viewing angle and being viewed by
an awed, 'want to believe' group of people, might well account for it.
There are however, numerous reports of people floating or flying in the
air...particularly St. Joseph of Cupertino who frequently flew in the
presence of many people, including kings and 'natural philosophers' of
the day. Usually the person was in a condition of 'religious ecstasy'.
I have a document I wrote long ago that is somewhere on an old Apple III
(Dan, just shoot me, it's all I had at the time) that I used for lecture
material. It compiled many reports of organic and inorganic levitation,
long before Tampere/Schnurer. Have to see if I can exract that from the
hard drive....there were a lot of cool files on that computer, back in
the 80's...gee, all of a sudden I feel old....
-- Jerry W. Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science" Voice : (214) 324-8741 / FAX : (214) 324-3501 KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 - Mesquite - Republic of Texas - 75187