Talk:Light as a feather, stiff as a board

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This text has been copy/pasted from http://www.castleofspirits.com/levitation.html.

The copyvio introducing edit has now been reverted. Thanks for the alert. — Laura Scudder ☎ 21:08, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This work

Does? Vitriol 21:39, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

...Is that even English? I believe you mean to ask "Does this work?" in the section title, and ask in your direct message, "Well, does it?" - At least, that's what I'd say, it certainly makes more sense to read. Oh, and um... I'm wondering if it works, too. - MasterXiam 16:48, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I've done it once before at a slumber party, but that was long ago. There couldn't have been that many of us doing it, though. — Laura Scudder ☎ 03:56, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tried this. Nothing psychological about it

It really is just a matter of physics. The weight is distributed among the lifters, making each lifter feel that the volunteer is light (will discuss this in a while). This may actually be an explanation for Ouija boards.

Anyway, the article was vague on the form and placement of the hands. You clasp your hands as if in prayer, the point both index fingers outwards (just the way we mime holding a gun with two hands). The number of people who can lift the volunteer is from 4 to 6 (explained later).

The volunteer sits on a stool or the edge of a chair or low table. The lifters stand on either side of the volunteer. They place their bunched-up index fingers in the following places: two under the volunteer's folded knees (one on each side, remember), two under the volunteer's armpits, and two in the area under the buttocks. At a signal, they *gently* lift the volunteer.

After we did this a couple of times with all the mumbo jumbo (we didn't do any chant, but instead we did some breathing exercises and someone spoke a few "hypnotic" words), we decided to do an experiment. We repeated it without the mumbo jumbo and it still worked (which showed that no hypnotism was needed).

Still unsatisfied (we were a bunch of science students in college!), we did variations. We asked people who have not seen the trick to do it (and they did it without the mumbo jumbo preparations we did. Result? It still worked.

Then we tried another variation. We asked ourselves, what would be the minimum number of lifters who could lift the volunteer? We removed two people -- the ones supporting the buttocks. And that still worked. We tried less than four but the volunteer got heavier. So we concluded four is optimal (but a bit awkward). The supports for 4 lifters would be under the armpits and knees. HTH. Rubencanlas (talk) 14:05, 29 January 2008 (UTC)