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I Require A RATIONAL Explanation for Levitation

Confused Skeptic

New Blood
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Nov 19, 2010
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I've witnessed it, multiple times (and no, I wasn't on acid).
And I'm not talking about any magician's trick here....
It wasn't like floating 6 inches off the ground.

Me, and and others were ALL levitated, by a girl,
-multiple times- on separate occasions,
at least 4 feet off the ground.


Details:


This was when I was a kid, probably around 10, back in Pakistan. The kid who lived next to my grandfather's house had an older sister that used to do this to us (secretly). We would sit in a circle around and one person would lie on the ground with pillows on the floor.

She would silently say some "prayer" to herself (but we all thought it was "black magic") and then everyone would say "light as a feather, stiff as a board" 3 times. Then we would lift the person gently off the ground, with only our index and middle fingers, until our arms would reach higher then our shoulders.

Then we would open our eyes and look at the person floating in mid air, but then they would immediately become heavy and fall. The girl said that it was because we would lose concentration.

I would always keep my eyes open when we were supposed to have them closed.And I saw people (including MYSELF) be lifted. The feeling wasn't of "zero-gravity" (I know that's an invalid term) or weightlessness. I still felt completely normal, but I was just rising and then floating off the ground, in mid-air! All I felt on my body were the touch of everyone's fingers, and even those very lightly. They weren't even pushing! When I used to be one of the people who was lifting others, it just felt as if the person's body would suddenly become "light as a feather" and "stiff as a board"...

A couple of years later, I saw a movie called "The Craft" and they did the same thing (kinda). I also saw the same thing done in another old movie from the 80s. But in these movies, it was just a case of "concentration"... But it never used to work unless that girl said a "prayer". It almost felt as if she was communicating to someone/something...


Okay now... if you think i'm making this up, then.... whatever. I'm not here to impress/convince anyone. I'm here to seek a RATIONAL explanation for my EMPIRICAL observations. This is what I saw and experienced myself, and I was NOT alone. There is ZERO possibility that this was some type of a trick. There were no props, it was the girl's bedroom.

Another crucial detail: this ONLY ever worked when she did it with us. I have tried to do this with many people many times, and it has -never- worked. Only she could do it.

For the past decade and a half I've had many ideas about what the hell to make of that experience... and I'm still at a loss for an actual explanation. I am NOT looking for a "paranormal" explanation either. I don't want this to be a "paranormal" anything.

In fact, this is the only reason I joined this forum. I just want someone/anyone to give me something to solve this puzzle! It's been screwing with my head since I was a kid!
 
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Hi. How many people do you recall being involved in lifting the kid off the ground?

It seems to me that a fairly small group of children could lift another child this way, so long as the lifted kid helped by remaining rigid.
 
The number is irrelevant for two reasons:

#1: We could never manage to do this by ourselves. If it was simply a case of dividing the weight around, then one girl wouldn't make a difference. But we could never lift anyone with just our index+middle fingers without her sitting at the head of the person and "praying".

#2: We would not -feel- any physical force being applied when she used to be with us. All other times it would be impossible to even lift the person a foot off the ground. We had to stress our fingers to the limit (and it got painful). When she was there, it would be effortless.


But to answer your question, the lowest number of us was probably around 4-5 (plus her) and on the high side probably around 7-8. It was just the neighborhood kids from the street. We all knew each other. But she was someone we very rarely used to see. She was a very quiet girl who never used to come out an play (she was older then us too).

The last time (as I remember) we convinced her to do this, it didn't work. But I think she wanted it to fail that time. I think she just wanted to avoid us bugging her to do it every time we saw her. Also, I think her parents didn't know about it, and she was afraid of them finding out.
 
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I'm really not seeing anything magical in 4-5 kids being able to lift another kid.
 
The explanation is so simple I'm surprised you haven't stumbled across it yourself. It isn't difficult to lift a person in this way when their weight is equally distributed by the people doing the lifting. However, I would question the accuracy of your memory that you lifted the person above your shoulders - I doubt if that's possible.

This game is an old one, dating back at least to the middle ages. I remember playing it at parties when I was a kid.

ETA: Ooops, other people got there first! Did this girl tell you that it wouldn't work without her participation? If so the power of suggestion could have been at work!

Why don't you try this with a group of friends and see what happens?
 
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Just go to youtube and type in "Light as a feather stiff as a board" and you'll see dozens of videos of people doing this. I don't know why you could only accomplish this with your friend, because these people don't seem to have any problem on youtube.

Ward
 
If this was real, why do you think she had to complicate things and ritualize them, with you all having to sit in a circle and close your eyes at points? These details are all intended to distract and confuse. There would be no point to them if she could actually make people float. You have made up your mind already it seems by proclaiming this was not a trick of any kind. It's either a trick, or she has magical powers. What do you expect to happen here, someone is going to detail for you the ability to make someone float and tell you how it happens?
 
I'm in china right now and youtube is banned
So I can't really check what these people are doing.

We used to lift each other -above our shoulders-
-WITHOUT- feeling any pressure on our fingers.

As soon as everyone would open their eyes, the person
would suddenly become heavy and fall.

Question: What caused the sudden change in weight?
 
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The answer to this is : this is a party trick based on weight repartition, and rigidity.

When I was younger I used to do it a lot.

Google for "party trick levitation" you'll find a few explanation (avoid the first link usually woo).
 
I have read of this in inexpensive children's magic (trick) books since I was about 8 years old, although I've never tried it out. Five people lift up another using just one finger each, in the appropriate places.

It is, in fact, a magic trick achieved by dividing the person's weight in such a way that it doesn't seem too heavy to anyone. It was explained in the books like it's been explained here.

It's a much more convincing effect than I thought! I should try it out.
 
Okay, if its a case of weight distribution alone, then we were tricked.
And maybe my memory is playing tricks on me as well...

(I actually hope that's the case)

Next time I'm in an appropriate environment, I will try again
and fiddle around with positioning of people around the person.
 
My Dad showed me this trick years ago, Nothing new, nothing magical. Just a plain old party trick.
If you feel the need to explain a trick like this to yourself, I suggest beginning with the mundane, not the fantasitical. It saves a lot of time and minimises woo infiltration of the Brain.
 
I remember participating in this one at a party in my early twenties. When it was time to concentrate on being lifted, I went into full-relax mode instead. They were rather annoyed with me, but I thought it was pretty damn funny.
 
I also used to do this at parties when I was a kid, although there was something else we would chant.

As others have said, it is nothing magical - just weight evenly distributed among a number of people.

Just think of how much a kid weighs and divide it by the number of kids sitting around. Then try to lift that much weight.
 
Confused Skeptic said:
Okay, if its a case of weight distribution alone, then we were tricked.
And maybe my memory is playing tricks on me as well...

(I actually hope that's the case)

Next time I'm in an appropriate environment, I will try again
and fiddle around with positioning of people around the person.
Click to expand...


Try this variation. Once everyone is placed in circle around the person don't touch the person.
 
Confused Skeptic said:
And maybe my memory is playing tricks on me as well...

(I actually hope that's the case)
Click to expand...

You've hit the nail on the head!

Memory is fallible, and confidence in the accuracy of a memory is no indication of how accurate it actually is.

I have a clear memory of making a train set disappear when I was a child. Never happened.

The key point is that, although many people have clear memories of miraculous things happening, no one can point to an example of it happening today.. All we have are anecdotes.
 
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