Chris Patten, evidently, is not familiar with Hong Kong's yogic fliers. Asked yesterday by a radio phone-in caller representing 10,000 members of the Hong Kong Foundation of the Science of Creative Intelligence about building 'collective consciousness', the Governor latched on to words he liked the sound of - 'peaceful' and 'orderly' - and used them as an excuse for his usual discussion about how good local people are at demonstrations.
Which is a shame, as it would have been far more entertaining to hear his views on saving the world through telepathy and how good his levitation is.
The yogic fliers do, indeed, fly. Not content with the simple stuff of meditating in a lotus position while hovering a foot above the ground, their levitation olympics - honest, they do hold them - involve zooming, skipping and sliding through 200- and 400-metre obstacle and slalem courses. Like Aladdin on his magic carpet in the Walt Disney film, but these guys don't need the carpet.
Of course, we're talking about the top echelons, or sidhis, of transcendental meditation. TM teacher Vandana Chan Man-yin of the Hong Kong foundation said that when you begin, you just learn to meditate. The hovering bit comes after a few months.
The trick is learning to let your mind float free in deep relaxation for up to 20 minutes, twice a day. In more advanced stages, it involves establishing 'perfect mind-body co-ordination' to reach 'pure consciousness'. When you get there, the flying just happens. The result is more energy, better IQ and generally better health.
Companies and individuals that practise transcendental meditation claim to have improved concentration and work output. And certainly Ms Chan and other friendly 'vedic' teachers at the foundation's calm villa in a peaceful Sai Kung village seem admirable people, giving off an air of everlasting patience and love of the good in us all.
The foundation and the global Maharishi Vedic University - which teaches vedic science - are the brainchild of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the gentle-looking guy with beard and sweeping locks whom older readers may remember as The Beatles' guru in India.