Paramahansa Yogananda describes these things in his book, An Autobiography of a Yogi. As a boy in India, he was sent to regular English schools and then ashrams after school and in the summers. Each ashram had a head yogi and a different school of thought on enlightenment.
Many of these yogis had what we call a “hook” or gimmick to popularize his ashram. One could levitate, another was impossible to pick up on film, and so on. He describes these schools as essentially teaching the same things, but he felt the yogis had debased themselves and cheapened the discipline with what he termed as “parlor tricks”. He never claims that these stunts were impossible, or that the yogis were fakes, but he firmly states that the tricks had nothing at all to do with attaining any sort of enlightenment. He stated that it was just the opposite.
So, go figure.
I tend to go with P. Yogananda on this.
No. I’ve never actually levitated, that I know of, and I photograph rather well. I have reaped peace of mind and balance through meditation and am a great believer in the healing aspects of certain yoga breathing techniques.
But I’ve experienced no magic.