A contactless slide guide or magnetic bearing for guiding an elevator vertically along a hoistway rail has one or more electromagnet actuators spring-mounted within a yoke attached to the elevator car at a corner thereof. The positioning of the electromagnets within the yoke is such that they are positioned extremely close to the surface of the rail so as to form a magnetic bearing having a gap of just a few millimeters, and which is controlled in a position feedback control loop to keep the gap constant. The contactless slide guide may be used for low-rise buildings with a rigid connection between the yoke and the elevator, or may be used in conjunction with an active suspension system more typically used in mid- to high-rise buildings. The active suspension system may be used, for example, in conjunction with a pendulum car suspended within the elevator frame to which contactless slide guides are attached at the top and bottom. The active suspension is controlled with a feedback control system that is completely separate from the position control loops used to control the individual contactless slide guides.