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Lifting people with 2 fingers


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Ok, this was told to me by a friend who claims to have done it, never heard of it before so I thought I would toss this out there. She did this when she was a teenager and has since forgotten the exact procedure for pulling this off so, the basics of it are as follows...

1 person will lay on the floor face up.

6 other people will stand around this person

each standing person will turn around a number of time and chant a certain phrase

then each person will bend down, and using only the index/middle fingers from each hand,

will lift this person as though they were almost weightless.

has anyone heard of such a thing? :mellow:

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yeah, ive heard of it. I read an article that says it's a human magnetic field :/ but i seriously doubt that. i think its just that the equal lifting power of six people is greater than the object's weight.

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Yeh have done this a few times and had it done to me, it does work. It's just a combination of group energy and perfect timing.

Makes you wonder if this is a method that used in the old days for moving large things with only man power to rely on lol

You should try it!

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"Light as a feather, stiff as a board. One of my teachers used to do it in his social science class untill the school board put a stop to it.

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I actually thought this was a pretty well known thing. I've never done it myself, but I was definately aware of it.

Anvil, I never thought about it before, but you just might be on to something - like solving the "big mystery" of how the Egyptians built the pyramids lol. :tu:

Wouldn't it kind of have the same theory as gathering people for Ouiji? All the focused energy causing an object to move. Granted, even a small person weighs a WHOLE lot more than a (argh, I forgot what it's called, the pointer thingy lol), but it's still an interesting thought. :yes:

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I did this many a time in School Days.

It works with 4-6 people.

I always thought the key part was that the people who were the 'lifters' had to hold their hands above their head for about a minute before the lift.

Then all at once everyone would lower their hands at the same time and lift with 2 fingers.

I heard the trick was the sudden rush of blood through everyones arms at the same time caused the extra power.

The holding the arms in the air bit did seem to make the difference after trying before and after and whitnessing the difference.

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I just spent ten minutes searching the web for a sensible approach to the "Light as a feather, stiff as a board" party game. I could find none. There was just vague discussions on forums, matter of fact definitions of the game, even a step by step "how to". There were also a few "white witch" sites that seemed to promote it as true evidence of the existence of magic.

I have seen this trick done a few times back in school, but I'll just put this thought forward. What's so unusual about 6 people being able to pick up one person?

(If an 80 kg person appears to weigh less than 80/6 = 13 kg, I think the key word is "appears".)

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Anvil, I never thought about it before, but you just might be on to something - like solving the "big mystery" of how the Egyptians built the pyramids lol.

wow :huh: LOL

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How many people does it usually take to be able to do it, i.e. what's the minimum number? Does it make any difference if the person being raised is heavy or light, or does weight make no difference?

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My father-in-law taught us this trick, he says it was really popular in the 70's although i have never come across anyone else who has heard of it. Here is how he taught it to us:

five particpants

one sits in a chair (this is the subject)

four people who will perform the act stand in a circle

they place their hands on top of each other, in a circular fashion. (i.e. the first person places their right (or left) hand out, then the second person places their right hand on top if it, then the third persons right hand, then the fourth persons right hand, the the first person places their second hand on top- etc until all eight hand are on top of eachother.)

You hold your hands on top of eachother until they get warm (about 20 seconds) you can say "light as a feather, stiff as a board" for your own amusement if you wish.

The placing your hands together palm down, with your two pointer fingers extended, the four participants place their hands underneath the subjects stinky armpits and knee pits. you then proceed to effortlessly lift the person from the chair.

its fun.

and we also discussed the possible applications of such a (phenomena?) not really sure what to say about it. i would have thought it was a bunch of hooey, but it seems kinda real.

Edited by sourpatchkid
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  • 2 weeks later...

I am curious now, I think I'm going to try it. :D I'll try both ways, sounds really cool.

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Alot of well known people claim that it works. Are there any natural theories as to HOW it works? And how exactly is it done? I want to try it out...

Edited by Zero of Deism
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It is actually possible. But its a mind over matter thing. And u need ur fingers in the right places to support them making them easier to lift.

I have done it before with 5 people lifting the person on a CHAIR. It took use a number of times but when we did it. They felt wait less. And the chant works to. If its the chant that is magical or mind over matter who cares. It works.

Edited by virusdeath0
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Ive had that done to me so many times xD

I think its a mind over matter thing.. if you think you can lift them then you will beable to. I tried it once with four people trying to lift me using only thier little fingers, it worked and i got about a foot off the ground.

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What's so unusual about 6 people being able to pick up one person?

Hm, yes?

It would be interesting to try it, unfortunately, I haven't got enough friends :rolleyes:

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  • 3 months later...

Yes, we did this as kids usually at sleepovers. Here's what we did;

one girl would lay face up with usually 3 girls on each side and one at the head. The girl at the head would start the chants and each girl would repeat it all the way around. This in and of itself was nearly impossible, as when you have a bunch of 12 and 13 year old girls at a sleepover usually one or two woud get the giggles breaking the magic. If memory serves the chants went something like this:

"She was in an accident"

"She died"

"She is light as a feather"

"She is stiff as a borad"

"We can lift her"

I do believe we actually did it once or twice.

We also tried it with the person sitting in a chair and I do remember that working!

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Yep, I've done light as a feather stiff as a board. When you do it you don't feel like you're lifting any weight at all, the person feels like they weigh .01 pounds. I've also read about a similar thing to induce astral projection, it is stretching instead of lifting though.

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It amazes me how many people are continually fooled by this parlor trick. Take an average man, weighing say 180 pounds. Divide that by 6. Each person has to only bear an average load of 30 pounds, a weight even a child could easily handle. It's wierd when you're actually doing it, because it feels like you're manipulating a full-grown adult with just a finger or two, but it's just physics.

The reason they instruct the subject to be "stiff as a board" is to facilitate the distribution of the load to all the lifting people. Otherwise the weight tends to shift to 1 or 2 people, and the trick fails. The chanting or various other rituals simply distracts everyone from what's really going on, and facilitates a coordinated operation from 6 or so random people.

I'm not saying that true levitation is not possible, but in this case it's just an illusion of physics.

Edited by Akidenko
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I've heard of this parlor trick. My friends and I tried it when we were children.

We never were able to get it to work.

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Ok, this was told to me by a friend who claims to have done it, never heard of it before so I thought I would toss this out there. She did this when she was a teenager and has since forgotten the exact procedure for pulling this off so, the basics of it are as follows...

1 person will lay on the floor face up.

6 other people will stand around this person

each standing person will turn around a number of time and chant a certain phrase

then each person will bend down, and using only the index/middle fingers from each hand,

will lift this person as though they were almost weightless.

has anyone heard of such a thing? :mellow:

:ph34r: I have participated in a slightly different version of this, when I was a teenager. The "subject" sits in a chair. The 4 lifters stand around close to the subject. Maybe there was a chant, but I don't remember what it was. Each of the lifters would say the chant and put one hand on top of the head of the subject, and so on around the the circle until everyone had both hands in the stack on the subject's head. At that point, we would reach down and lift the subject right over the chair, with two fingers under the armpit, and two fingers under the knees. It was effortless.

:devil: We used to do that at MYF parties for back-sliding Methodists.

~~Cebrakon the Areopagite

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