I use it ALL the time. It's easier than having to keep spinach around. It takes a while to master (you have to keep hitting the spacebar rapidly while it lasts) but eventually you can get really good with it and even steer around and impress people on the street :)
I didn't think it'd be that useful, but I'm finding it surprising useful to save time since I tend to be on a lot of multilevel streets and don't want to walk halfway back down the street to find how to get up to a higher level.
I have huge problems with the multi-level areas. My reaction times and coordination are not great, so I am constantly jumping and missing and falling and taking forever to get anywhere. Chakra Phool is my own version of Hell; squishing grapes is nothing. So, if you are good at all the jumping, levitation may not be a big deal, but for me it's a life-saver.
I'm fine at jumping, but combine jumping with lag an you end up missing all the time D: So I imagine it'll be great when I get it for multi level areas as people mentioned.
Personally I find it really useful, after a trip to Ajaya Bliss I'll tend to pop by The Drop and use it to pick up all those lovely coins.
How it works is as a buff with a timer that counts down, while its active you can jump while your still in mid air, so basically to go up you repeated tap the space bar to jump. The moment you stop jumping you start falling at normal rate again.
I hate the meditation tree, myself... nothing against those who have it, but I find it annoying to use and always sell my focusing orbs. However, I am deeeeeply jealous of my friends with Meditation. It is very, very useful. It's not a game-breaker by any means, but it is just endlessly handy, triply so if you're an exploring type.
ok, let's not get crazy here. i know Plexus. Ball is a good friend of mine. levitation, while you definitely have your useful moments, you're no Plexus.
I use levitation rather than finding or growing spinach. Meditative arts is very useful, you no longer rely on food or drink to help your mood, energy or to jump around *and you always gain some XP after meditation*
@Deus: But you still have to rely on food. With meditation 3, you can only meditate about 50 energy at a time (slightly more with focus, but the average is still below 50), and you are capped at like 150% of your total energy (for the day). It is a significant help, to be sure, and it allows you to negate a good chunk of the costs of crafting (since you can't do anything but meditate while you make things, and the energy you get back is usually close to what you spend), BUT when you are level 30 and have 1000 energy, it would take over 10 minutes to fill up, and you can only fill up one and a half times. Eating 5 awesome stews is significantly less painful.
So yes, the meditation line can be useful, but don't oversell it. The returns decrease quite a lot as you level (because it doesn't level with you).
I'd like to add, for those who don't know it, that even when you max out meditation-for-energy for the day, you can still meditate-for-mood and levitate (if you have that skill). Also, the cooldown on the orb for levitation seems to be a lot faster than the cooldown on it for mood or energy.
Short answer: It's not useful. Long answer: you need spinach for speed walking, much higher jumps (in the tower, etc.). It has a cool down period so you can't jump 30 secs and jump again right away. Also it's harder to control than it seems. It could be useful in some situation but not in general. I took Levitation and Snapshooting just for the fun of it. Both of them are almost completely useless.
I use levitation to get to high-up places I would ordinarily need spinach for. It's handy not carrying around spinach all the time: inventory space is precious to me.
I just wish it didn't wreck my space bar so much :( You really have to mash the space bar to get any real use out of levitation. I would prefer a hold space bar to rise and release to fall type of mechanic. In fact, I am going to post that in the ideas forum now.
Eventually you are going to learn all the skills but levitation should not be in anyway be a priority. If you have a garden, grow spinach its is plainly more useful and effcient. I have nothing against the tree or skill you should finish it but the fact is spinach is all in all a better tool. Considering its the fastest growing crop its easy to just stock pile it. That being said who doesn't want to psuedo fly?