The act of rising into the air and floating in apparent defiance of gravity.
Holiness is often associated with the ability to ascend toward the sky. Ascension is not really the same as flying. Even devils would like to be able to fly. Saints don't really fly to heaven; they lift off gradually and float to their divine destination. Perhaps because spiritual beings are allegedly masters over their bodies, they are able to overcome gravity without the use of booster rockets. Perhaps because they want the world to see them in their glory, they take their bodies with them and discard them upon arrival at the pearly gates. In any case, levitation is seen by many as a sign of spiritual blessedness. There are people who will sit cross-legged in the lotus position, hopping up and down on their butts for hours, who will claim they are floating. I don't see any spiritual value in butt-hopping myself, and it seems a primitive and self-destructive way of exercise or transportation. And, if I came to work one day and thought I saw the president of my college levitating over the observatory, I would rather assume I was hallucinating or that it was a trick than that His Excellency had become His Blessedness!
See entry on transcendental meditation.
further reading
Randi, James. Flim-Flam! (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books,1982), chapter 5, "The Giggling Guru: A Matter of Levity".