Indian Levitation Trick Revealed

The carpet covers a metal plate. A steel rod runs through the cane. The steel rod bends, and runs up the yogi's sleeve. The rod bends down once more, and attaches to a tiny metal seat. The whole design leverages in on itself, so the steel plate covered by the small carpet does not need to be anchored to the ground in any way. This is the exact same design that has been used for hundreds of years, meaning levitation has always been faked.

That's what I was suggesting, but what material could be used to support that weight?

Ryan S, most likely his cane is bolted to a metal plate underneath the rug, and then runs up through a hole in the rug. The plate is probably slightly smaller than the rug, and would be more than enough to support him. He could set this up on any hard surface without anchoring it.

The sad thing is that some 'holy men' have made billions of dollars duping gullible people with such stagecraft.

Just wondering if you noticed that the yogi in the picture is doing his thing above a brick ground, and his cane is apparently separated from it by a carpet. It doesn't look like he has 'anchored' his cane in the cement, but maybe he has. It seems a little more unlikely in this case, so I would surmise that maybe that isn't really a carpet and maybe his cane isn't really detached from the carpet. So the whole apparatus acts like a spring. Maybe the "carpet" is some kind of load-bearing material, though it looks quite light to bear his weight.