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Levitation Party Game

fenix down

New Blood
F
Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
2
I'm sure everyone remembers that game where someone sits in a chair and after 'laying on of hands" are lifted up merely by a couple of people's fingertips. Now I know its nothing supernatural or anything, but I don't understand the physics behind it. All I could find about the explanation of this game on the web was to do with Human Diamagnetism, but the fact most papers were written by the same guy and that they had been adopted by dubious holistic groups made me sceptical.

Could someone explain how it happens please, it seems to me like it should be so obvious but I cant think!
 
I would love to see a person actually lifted by merely "a couple of people's fingertips". I have only seen it with a minimum of 4, usually 5 people doing the lifting. Each uses only 1 or 2 fingers, though, that is true.

How is it done? Get yourself a plastic grocery bag and some tins of food. See how much weight one finger can support. I think you will be surprised by how much it is. Multiply that by 4 or 5, and you have more than enough lifting power to support the size of person usually used in these demonstrations (I bet you will not often see "a couple of people" trying to lift a 300-pound man with just their fingertips).
 
Are you kidding me? When I was a kid, we had heard it was because the weight was being distributed through our fingers, so we were only dealing with a fraction of the force. It might still be wrong, but Human Diamagnetism? That sounds awfully dubious and I need to get to class shortly so I don't have time to research it and the forums will be down by the time I get out.

I say though, that five'll get you ten it's a simple physics thing. I'll go on and try and figure it out and look into it, though.

(Oh, and we called it, "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board." Standard slumber party fare.)
 
I must have had really boring slumber parties, because I don't remember this one. But it is true that each finger would only be responsible for lifting a fraction of the weight, and kids don't weigh too much to begin with. Kinda like the bed of nails - the more nails you use, the less pressure on each, so the less it hurts.
 
By the way fenix, welcome to the forums.

As an aside, do you post elsewhere as 'Crazyman'?

I just recognise the sig (from one of my favorite programmes).
 
I thought it was basically the combined strength of five people but as there wasnt much on the net I wondered if it was a bit more complcated.

@Ashles. Fraid not dude, I'm fenix down pretty much everywhere.
 
The subject lying in air, could be communicating through end nerves, by the the mere signal for need of balance, strengthening thee holders muscles...all the while it remains homeostatic, no synusthesia involved...An old magican trick, set up...but most skeptics would down any ideas beyond basic physcis...
 
The elementalist said:
The subject lying in air, could be communicating through end nerves, by the the mere signal for need of balance, strengthening thee holders muscles...all the while it remains homeostatic, no synusthesia involved...An old magican trick, set up...but most skeptics would down any ideas beyond basic physcis...
Click to expand...

Are you suggesting that... wait, what are you suggesting?
 
His inability to communicate with all those big words is supernatural.
 
Frankly I don't see you communicating any better. Your grammer is just as bad as his and your choice of vocabulary leaves very much to be desired.
 
Except that what c4ts says actually makes sense. Whereas what elementalist is saying is complete nonsense.

But, yeah, you're right, aside from that he isn't communicating any better.
 
I may make grammatical errors, and I may occasionally mispell a word, but I'm not nearly as bad as the Elementalist. At least I can express complete thoughts.
 
c4ts said:
I may make grammatical errors, and I may occasionally mispell a word, but I'm not nearly as bad as the Elementalist. At least I can express complete thoughts.
Click to expand...


Well your thoughts are like...two neurons and your ideas are still adding 2=2....so honsetly...It is probably the fact that my thoughts are harder to explain, seeing I Do read the dictionary everynight...And I do express mt self fairly well...in fact i devoted two weeks to figuring out the best way to express one's self...
 
If it's telepathic, why can't you do it with one finger placed at the center of balance?
 
We used to do this when we were kids. We always had 4 or 5 "lifters" and used 2 fingers from each hand. Since we always lifted another kid I would imagine that we never lifted more than 100 lbs between 20 fingers. That is 5 pounds a finger. Not as exciting when you look at it that way.

LLH
 
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