Lifting people with 2 fingers

[BlueZone]

I did it numerous times. It works and it's very weird. When I did it, there was a little ceremony we did before hand. When we did it, we sat in a circle and went through a ritual similar to the one described by mimi61.

The person at the head would say something and the lifters in the circle would repeat it one by one. The sequence was [assuming you're lifting a guy]:

"He looks sick".

"He is sick"

"He looks dead"

"He is dead"

"He looks as stiff as a board"

"He is as stiff as a board"

"On the count of three we will lift him to heaven"

The leader counted "one, two, three..." and we would effortlessly lift the body, which would remain stiff as a board. It was really weird, but I did it many times and it worked.

[Mystique33]

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?

I never heard of lifting people with two fingers using six people and chanting a phrase but my friend and I can lift her mother up from a chair with no problem if we lay one hand on top of each others hand and push down on the hands up and down and say 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 quickly and then lift. Her mother weighs 170 pounds but she was weightless when we did that procedure.

[Four Winds]

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.

I have to agree with this opinion. Also, since each person is only responsible for 30 puounds and they use two hands that is only 15 pounds that each arm has to support.

[trickyhomunculi]

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!

Same here but I dont think it ever worked..

[Opus Magnus]

I've done it with 4 people lifting before on a person I'm guessing weighed somewhere around 150-160 pounds. It did not feel like I was lifting 40 lbs. Remember we were doing this with only two fingers and the other three lifters were teenage girls who weren't strong at all. None of us felt like we were lifting hardly any weight at all, not nearly 40 lbs.

When the girls started giggling is when the weight started to kick in and the person laying down kinda flopped back down on the floor.

Edited January 29, 2007 by Opus Magnus

[Lotus Flower]

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

Think I might try that on myself

Only joking, cos if it worked, I would probably have a cardiac arrest through shock LOL. Don't think my bravery stretches that far.

[lozadrial]

We did this heaps when I was a teenager and it worked every single time - whether we were concentrating or not. And we did it with only two people lifting not 4 or 6. First we tried to lift the person with one finger under their knee and one under their armpit, and obviously couldn't. Then we put our hands over their head for a couple of seconds then tried to lift them again and they really were extremely light. Once I was lifted so high and so fast that they literally threw me into the roof. We could never understand how it worked though, because we never really took it too seriously.

[ssjtin]

It's a fun trick to do. Has something to do with blood flow I guess.

[Insight]

Simple science. I did this trick on my mother with four of my friends when I was a kid. I read the trick from a book put out by KLUTZ PRESS called, "Kid Shenanigans". When five different fingers lift a 100 pound woman, it only takes 20 pounds of force for each finger. The technique I used was to have my mom stand up, with fingers under her feet, her elbows, and one under her chin (Whilst standing on a chain). With a little effort and coordination, the lift is easily completed. Try it! All you have to do is calculate how many pounds you can lift with your finger, then divide the weight of your friend by that number, then get that numbers of people as needed to put out an equal lifting force of the person's weight.

Edited January 31, 2007 by Insight

[nohands]

i dont get it....

can anybody post a more accurate step...

so that i can try it with right formula

hehehe

[Lotus Flower]

I wonder if it could be done with heavy objects too? It would be handy if you could, especially if someone was trapped by a girder or car.

(Wish I had thought of it when I had to move my washing machine, it took three attempts and three cigarettes to get it out of the back door!)

[ssjtin]

It doesn' allow you to lift things heavier than you already can. It spreads the weight of the object your'e lifting. Also, my guess is because the blood has left your arms, when the blood rushes back you don't feel the exertion of power needed to lift the object.

[Purplos]

I can just see a bunch of ancient Egyptians huddling around a big block of stone with their hands in the air chanting "Light as a feather, stiff as a board."

[AlienDan]

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.

That's true. The weight of the liftee is just being devided up among the lifters. Stupid, people who can't see that and think it's magic or w.e. It's just common logic. lol

[proflashrtist]

Um.. not sure about this.. havent you ever seen that movie with the chicks who think they are witches.. and do that whole ceremony in highschool.. the craft? hmm nah

[ssjtin]

What does that have to do withanything?

[Tooth_and_Claw]

Heard of it but never tried it.

me 2

[srilyk]

Actually this works on a much more simple principle...

Try this - go stand in a doorway with your hands hanging down by your side. Keep your arms straight, and extend them to the sides so the back of your hands are pushing against the door frame. Push out as hard as you can for 60 seconds. Step out of the doorway and relax.

If you stop thinking about your arms, they will begin to raise. I've actually had them "float" all the way up above my head before.

The trick is in the muscles - when you're pressing out, you are exerting certain muscles and relaxing the others. Your arms can't go anywhere in the door (it works with people holding the arms in, really it doesn't matter what's holding them, so long as the arms are close to the side. The closer the better), but once you step out and relax, your arms say "wait a minute, I was relaxed (the 60 seconds gets you used to/relaxed with those muscles flexed) when my muscles were like this, let's go!" and your arms "mysteriously" float.

The same thing would be if you all put your hands on top of each other - the combined weight of your arms would make it close to the weight of your subject. So your arms are used to holding up that weight, and when you quickly lift them - no difference!

Then you can throw someone to the roof

[Rocsen]

Hi, This has nothing to do with blood flow! We did this today by just walking around the person 5 times. And then we could lift him off the chair. We tried lifting the person prior to walking around 5 times, and it did not work! It felt impossible! This has to be group focused energy / mind over matter

Edited August 15, 2007 by Rocsen

[Haj01]

Its nothing paranormal at all. It's Adrenaline. You can do almost anythink with adrenaline. Once my friend got angry and lifted his car onto two wheels with one hand with ease.

[camlax]

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...

There really is no mystery to this. Try this, go to the gym take your middle and ring fingers around a chin-up bar and see if you can hang and hold your own weight by them. Bet ya you can (unless you are very overweight).

Those two fingers can bear much more weight then you think, the lifting power comes from your arms all the fingers have to do is be able to bear the weight. Now divide this weight by 6 people. When I was young, this was a popular thing at boy scout camps doing trust exercises. There is no magic to it, just simple physics.

[camlax]

Actually this works on a much more simple principle...

Try this - go stand in a doorway with your hands hanging down by your side. Keep your arms straight, and extend them to the sides so the back of your hands are pushing against the door frame. Push out as hard as you can for 60 seconds. Step out of the doorway and relax.

If you stop thinking about your arms, they will begin to raise. I've actually had them "float" all the way up above my head before.

The trick is in the muscles - when you're pressing out, you are exerting certain muscles and relaxing the others. Your arms can't go anywhere in the door (it works with people holding the arms in, really it doesn't matter what's holding them, so long as the arms are close to the side. The closer the better), but once you step out and relax, your arms say "wait a minute, I was relaxed (the 60 seconds gets you used to/relaxed with those muscles flexed) when my muscles were like this, let's go!" and your arms "mysteriously" float.

The same thing would be if you all put your hands on top of each other - the combined weight of your arms would make it close to the weight of your subject. So your arms are used to holding up that weight, and when you quickly lift them - no difference!

Then you can throw someone to the roof

Same thing occurs when you have a cast on your arm for a long period of time.

[malago0]

i read about this happening in a book one time

[Rocsen]

Its nothing paranormal at all. It's Adrenaline. You can do almost anythink with adrenaline. Once my friend got angry and lifted his car onto two wheels with one hand with ease.

But this doesn't work on dead objects. Only people. If it was adrenalin, it would work lifting anything. I know what it feels to be pumped with adrenalin, and I had none. In fact I didn't think it would work. We also didn't say anything like some do 'light as a feather etc'

Also, even when you are pumped with adrenalin, your muscles would feel it afterward. I felt nothing on my arms, as if I lifted a brick. We lifted 30kg's each with our fingers.

[Rocsen]

There really is no mystery to this. Try this, go to the gym take your middle and ring fingers around a chin-up bar and see if you can hang and hold your own weight by them. Bet ya you can (unless you are very overweight).

Those two fingers can bear much more weight then you think, the lifting power comes from your arms all the fingers have to do is be able to bear the weight. Now divide this weight by 6 people. When I was young, this was a popular thing at boy scout camps doing trust exercises. There is no magic to it, just simple physics.

Ok, next time you in the gym, lift 30kg's with your 2 fingers and see how it goes ok? And don't curl your fingers around the bar, 2 index fingers pointing straight. Then put in underneath the bar. Now lift that to shoulder height, straight up. That is how much we lifted each, no effort, it felt like I was lifting the weight of 2 bricks. And also, it did not work prior to walking around the chair 5 times. We really tried and could barely lift the person.

Edited August 16, 2007 by Rocsen