Submitted by LOGOS - Overseer on
"... Once a man has flown in the air, he can never be quite the same man again." - Reynard Beck... August, 1890 during a press conference.
In the 1986 film "The Boy Who Could Fly," actor Jay Underwood portrayed an autistic teen who unbeknownst to everyone except the girl next door could literally fly at will... no gadgetry involved. Over the centuries, there have been a few theorists who for one reason or another believe that one day all men would be able to fly at will. Presented here is the case of Reynard Beck an ordinary American farmer who according to history did in fact fly.
Reynard Beck was a common farmer who lived in Dexter, Missouri. He and his elder brother Samuel worked a small farm near the Mississippi River for their widowed mother. Times were tough and the family had hardship making ends meet. On a June morning in 1884, Reynard woke from sleep as usual to the smell of his mother's fine cooking. As he sat up and was about to get up from bed, the 200 pound man found himself slowly floating up towards the ceiling of his room. At first he thought he was dreaming but quickly realized that he would be straddling the ceiling forever if he did not try to get down. He managed to press the soles of his bare feet against the ceiling pushing hard and propelling himself downward so he could grab the headboard and touch the mattress. Next he managed to grab a chair and clutch it to his chest which gave him enough grounding to make it over to a dresser. There he found a leather belt he used for fishing that had enough lead weights attached to it to keep his feet on the ground. Reynard was a superstitious individual and believing that this might be the work of the devil he put a loose shirt on over the belt and said nothing.
Later that evening while alone in his room he experimented with his weightlessness with the same results. Suddenly his brother Sam came into the room and watching the spectacle, figured Reynard was doing "tricks." When it became apparent that it was no trick, Sam convinced his mother and brother that there was a great potential to make money out of Reynard's new gift. The two men decided to go on the road with their new exhibit they named "The Floating Wonder."
The act was very popular with thousands of people standing in awe as Reynard undid his belt and made his way steadily up through the air until he reached the roof of the canvas tent and then remained there suspended while he held onto a support frame. Skeptics, scientists, doctors, and even hired hooligans and a reporter from the Kansas Star tried to expose Reynard as a fraud over the years but none were successful - if anything all the attempts did was to prove that Reynard had a strange gift. He was a "gravity resistant man."
After six years of road shows, the Beck brothers had netted over one million dollars and then suddenly in 1890, they announced that they were closing down the exhibition and returning to their farm in Dexter. Rumors stated that Reynard had suddenly lost his ability to defy gravity but the real truth never became known. Reynard became a recluse saddened by the loss of his privacy. In September, 1890, more rumors spread that Reynard had taken off his belt and flown up to sky and certain death from asphyxiation. Newshounds flooded the Beck farm where the only thing they found was a teary-eyed Mrs. Beck being comforted by her son Sam. The only thing they would say was that Reynard had been missing for three days and that his weighted belt had been found abandoned in a field near the Tennessee border.
Reynard Beck was never seen again and the questions regarding whether the Floating Wonder was a grand hoax or a super human will never be answered.
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