This is something I've been doing a lot of research on. It's at the point where I know they are real. Not just from my own personal experience, but the scientific research of parapsychologists like Dean Radin; physicists like Russell Targ; and studies published on the CIA's own website. It's extremely convincing. I haven't seen explicit evidence for every single siddhi, but given the fact how many are already proven to be true (including mind-bending ones like telekinesis), I'd argue the Yoga Sutras is at the very least a pretty credible text and should be of serious consideration.

With that said, though, apparently people who actually reach enlightenment typically don't publicly demonstrate such powers because it gets in the way of their pursuit of enlightenment. This is something I personally disagree with, I believe both should be pursued. I imagine there's probably at least some people here who think the same.

What I want to know if there is anyone here who actually knows someone who has mastered at least some of them, or knows someone who has and seen it firsthand. And ideally, if anyone here has done so themselves, maybe even be my informal teacher to give tips along the way. I'm currently following a serious meditation practice using The Mind Illuminated (and probably Daniel Ingram's books afterwards). I've been making good progress and expect to reach TMI stage 10 sometime this year. It would be handy to meet other people who are not only seriously interested in enlightenment, but mastering the siddhis as well.

Not only that, it's a bit confusing because if you look at the yoga sutras for instance, it basically says these abilities naturally develop merely from attaining a state of intense concentration (IIRC the word used was samadhi). It says once you have this, then you can do other stuff, e.g because you're in a state of nonduality if I looked at you, I'd be able to dissolve the boundaries between us and therefore telepathically communicate. But exactly how to do that, I don't know. I have never found a practical guide that tells you how to do it step-by-step, a lot of it is very wishy washy, which is especially frustrating if you're a more logical/left-brained individual.

I already consider myself highly developed in this area and continue to develop, so I'm not worried. Also, one of the main reasons I'm interested is to serve others (not just myself).

 But psychic development should only be pursued by people of high moral development and for the purpose of helping others not for selfish or egotistical reasons or for material gain. It should be considered part of spiritual development in the highest sense of the term.

 But I also don't understand why it's a problem if you want to do it for yourself, too. So what if you wanted to manifest money, for instance? The fact is we live in a slavery system and if I can do something like win the lottery, it means I never have to work again and can spend the rest of my time doing what I want (including my serving my purpose, which is to help humanity). Who is to say what is moral and what is not in this regard? It's completely subjective and I think a lot of people confuse morality with their own dogma and beliefs. I'm also not here to justify myself and my intentions, since I already know they are good, I merely want information on how to do it.

This thread makes me despair that people will just meditate and get to the end of suffering. Merely not suffering anymore isn't amazing enough, there's got to be some kind of mind reading or flying or whatever, too.

James Randi has, for decades, been offering large sums of money to anyone to demonstrate anything paranormal under testable conditions, but I guess they stopped with that in 2015. Too bad.

The million dollar prize has not been won because it is simply not a good way to demonstrate paranormal powers. The million dollar challenge requires that the applicant has to beat 1 million to one odds. Setting such a high barrier for success makes sense if you are risking a one million dollar prize. However, 1 million to one odds are much higher than the scientific standard of proof so this challenge is not necessarily the best or fairest way to determine if paranormal abilities are genuine. Designing a test that is fair to both the applicant and the challenger requires sophisticated knowledge of statistics (How many trials would be needed for a psychic to have a 95% confidence level that they could beat million to one odds if their accuracy was 75%?) Most psychics don't have the understanding of statistics necessary to look out for their own interests and therefore most applicants will not be able to demand a protocol that gives them a fair chance of winning. This is the most likely reason no one has won the prize.
Furthermore, most applicants who know about Randi or understand the details of the challenge would be reluctant to spend the time, effort and expense of applying because they would not trust it to be a fair test or have confidence that they would be judged fairly or rewarded fairly if they succeeded.

• Randi supposedly has said, "I always have an out. (Fate, October 1981)", and "I am a charlatan, a liar, a thief and a fake altogether." (This is reported to have been said on PM Magazine, on July 1st, 1982.) Applicants for the prize have legitimate reasons not to trust Randi. An interview in Will Stoor's book The Heretics quotes Randi in making several deceptive statements.

• The prize is in bonds but Randi won't say when the bonds mature or who issued the bonds so no one knows what the prize really is. Why won't he say what the prize really is? Applicants are legitimately afraid the prize is some sort of worthless trick.

• The applicant has to pay for their own travel expenses involved in attempting the prize. Why would they do that when they have good reasons not to trust Randi and they don't know what the prize really is?

• Randi has a history of making mean spirited statements. He has been forced to retract statements in the past. However, applicants have to sign an agreement not to sue Randi even if he makes makes misleading, defamatory, slanderous, or libelous statements about the psychic.

• The applicants for Randi's prize have to prove themselves to a very high statistical standard far beyond the level that is generally considered proof in science experiments. An experiment could be designed to satisfy this standard with fewer than ten trials. However, a psychic, depending on their rate of accuracy, might need hundreds of trials to have a fair chance of obtaining such an unlikely result1. Most psychics won't realize this because they don't have the necessary expertise in science or statistics and this may be the primary reason no applicant has ever won the prize. One scientist who did apply for the prize never heard back from Randi.

Why would anyone be willing to spend their time and money to try to win the challenge when they don't trust Randi, or believe that the challenge is fair, or that the prize is real?

The challenge is not really serious. Most applicants who understand the details would be reluctant to spend the time, effort and expense of applying because they would not trust it to be a fair test or have confidence that they would be judged fairly or rewarded fairly if they succeeded. The most likely reason no one has won is because most applicants do not have the expertise in statistics needed to demand a protocol that will give them a fair chance of winning. The prize is a publicity stunt designed to give materialist pseudoskeptics a one liner: "Why has no one won the prize?!?!" The correct answer is: ... Because it is not a good way to measure paranormal powers and anyone who understands the situation would have very good reasons not to apply.

It is sadly ironic that so many of Randi's followers, who pride themselves on their critical thinking skills, are fooled into thinking this prize is a legitimate test of paranormal phenomena. There are many independent forms of empirical evidence for ESP and the afterlife. The entire movement of pseudoskeptics is based on misdirection. Randi's followers believe they are helping to protect people from fraud, but in fact they themselves are victims of many deceptions perpertrated by the leaders of the pseudoskeptic movement. I discuss this in greater detail on my web page on Skeptical Misdirection.

...

1) In an experiment to measure psychic ability, there are three numbers that need to be considered:

- The first number represents the confidence that the outcome is not due to chance. The million dollar challenge requires the psychic perform at a level that would occur by chance only once in a million times.

- The second number is the rate of accuracy of the psychic's abilities. For example, a psychic might have an accuracy of 75% in some task where the probability of being correct by chance is only 50%.

- The third number is the number of trials which are needed to give the psychic a high level of confidence that they would win the prize given their rate of accuracy.

In order to achieve the required confidence that the psychic's performance is not due to chance, the challenge could require two tests of ten or fewer trials. However, the psychic might not be able to pass such a test if they are not 100% accurate. But, if the psychic is given a sufficient number of trials, they may demonstrate a success rate that, while not 100% accurate, still cannot be explained by chance at the level of confidence demanded by the challenge.

In order for the psychic to have a 95% confidence level that they could beat million to one odds if their accuracy was 75%, they might need over 100 trials. Most psychics are not well enough versed in statistics to know how to measure their rate of accuracy or how to calculate the number of trials they need to have a good chance of winning the prize.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RSEXvHURYU

John Chang was a Niegong master living in Java.  Two brothers traveling around there & making a documentary (not looking for spirituality) about it discovered him accidentally.  Ian Baker (in his Guru Viking interview) also talks about meeting John & experiencing his siddhis directly.  Kosta Danoas saw the Ring of Fire docu (where that YouTube clip is from) & sought out tutelage with John & wrote Magus of Java.  I list all of these disparate references to help build the case that the powers in the video, up to & including putting a pencil thru a table & setting the newspaper on fire, are not faked.

The easiest way to start experiencing psychic experiences is to learn how to remember your dreams and keep a dream log and you are likely to find frequent precognitive dreams. There is a book, "An Experiment With Time" by J W Dunne (it's out of copyright so you can download a copy free from the internet) which explains how to do this and says most people will record precognitive dreams.. I tried it and it worked for me.

If you are interested in scientific studies that show paranomal powers you can find them here:
http://www.deanradin.com/evidence/evidence.htm

This is something I've been doing a lot of research on. It's at the point where I know they are real. Not just from my own personal experience, but the scientific research of parapsychologists like Dean Radin; physicists like Russell Targ; and studies published on the CIA's own website. It's extremely convincing. I haven't seen explicit evidence for every single siddhi, but given the fact how many are already proven to be true (including mind-bending ones like telekinesis), I'd argue the Yoga Sutras is at the very least a pretty credible text and should be of serious consideration.

With that said, though, apparently people who actually reach enlightenment typically don't publicly demonstrate such powers because it gets in the way of their pursuit of enlightenment. This is something I personally disagree with, I believe both should be pursued. I imagine there's probably at least some people here who think the same.

What I want to know if there is anyone here who actually knows someone who has mastered at least some of them, or knows someone who has and seen it firsthand. And ideally, if anyone here has done so themselves, maybe even be my informal teacher to give tips along the way. I'm currently following a serious meditation practice using The Mind Illuminated (and probably Daniel Ingram's books afterwards). I've been making good progress and expect to reach TMI stage 10 sometime this year. It would be handy to meet other people who are not only seriously interested in enlightenment, but mastering the siddhis as well.

Altogether there were about 50 people in the hall. So I made a vow: ‘Today may the power of sacred objects come and help me because there’s a rumor going around, concerning the relics of the Buddha, that I’m tricking and deceiving the people. With news like this, there’s no one I can turn to unless the deva and sacred objects can help me. Otherwise Buddhism is in for derision and contempt.’ At the time, Chao Khun Ariyagunadhara was sitting in front of the major Buddha image. All the other monks had left, because it was so late.

I then had everyone sit in meditation and added, ‘Whoever doesn’t believe, just sit still and watch.’ After a moment or so, I had the feeling that sacred objects had come and were circling all around, so I ordered everyone to open their eyes, and told Nai Prasong. ‘Open your eyes and look at me. I’m going to stand up.’ I then stood up and shook out my robes and sitting cloth for him to see, at the same time thinking, ‘May the devas help me so that he won’t be able to hold our religion in contempt.’ Then I said in a loud voice, ‘Relics of the Buddha have come. People sitting right in front of me will receive them. But when you open your eyes, don’t move a muscle. I myself won’t move.’

As soon as I had finished speaking there was the ping of something small falling on the floor of the hall. A woman got up to pounce on it, but it sprang from her grasp and came near to where I was sitting. Another person came running after it, but I ordered him to stop. Finally the object came to rest in front of the teacher, so I told her, ‘It’s yours. Nai Prasong, watch carefully.’ The teacher picked it up: It was a setting from a ring, very finely done—an object that had once been offered in worship to the Buddha’s relics.

In the end, no fewer than ten people received relics of the Buddha that night. All the people there had their eyes wide open and the place was well lit. Just before daybreak, Nai Phae came to me, clutching in his fist a set of relics that he then gave to me, saying he had received them the night before. I turned them all over to Wat Supat.