"Light as a feather" - real magic or mind trick

Yep it can work... we played it as kids too. We actually levitated or
lifted the person from laying on the floor with only our fingers under
parts of their body. It was usually about 5 of us.

One time we lifted them to a point that we were almost standing and our
concentration was broken and the person fell to the floor and hurt
their knee.

We did this many times. I believe it can work if you set your mind to
it. Mind over Matter. LoA. so on so forth.

I did some reading to see where this little ritual originated
and it appears they say the 17 century during the plague
outbreak. A man witnessed 4 very young girls kneeling
over a young boy who had passed from the plague and
they were chanting with their fingers under his body
and lifted him. It makes me wonder how the little
girls knew to do this, where did they learn it.

Was this some ancient ritual or practice done to move
a persons soul over into the spiritual world ? & it
carried down for generations. Or was it some
old form of a "witchcraft" ritual ?


I tried doing a quick
search after reading this thread but couldn't
really find any further information on it aside
from the account of the 17th century and the
plague.

Off to work I go for now... but maybe I will
read up for more info later when I have a chance.

:-)
leolady

reply to post by leolady


We had the wooden chair one but the bottom of the chair legs were higher than the top of our nose (nose bridge) when the caller got a bit scared and had us put him down.

reply to post by MerkabaMeditation


We did this and the person lifted almost hit the ceiling - we had to catch him on the way down. Their is a technique in Aikido called weight underside makes throwing stronger - and makes you firmly attached to the ground. The stiff as a board would be the opposite of this, the tension in your body makes you easy to lift (and throw)

I remember some people saw a variation of this magic trick performed on TV and attempted it at school. When I first saw it, I thought it was BS and they were putting on an act. Then I tried it myself and was quite blown away by the results.

In our version, 4 of us attempted to pick up somebody using only our pinky fingers - 2 pinkies under the arms and 2 under the legs of the person. At first it felt impossible and it really hurt. After doing the hand motions above the head, we tried again and it was as though we were assisted by some strong metaphysical force and got the person quite high in the air.

Until this day, I am not satisfied with mainstream explanations suggesting it is just "power of suggestion" or "concentrating on lifting together the second time". I am not saying the ritual is unequivocally paranormal but there is something more to it than modern science can explain.

reply to post by MerkabaMeditation


OP you made quite a good thread and happens to be one of the many topics I'm interested in but although very controversial to some.

The whole mind over matter is actually very real but it requires a person to be in a certain state of mind, a philosophy, or way of life I don't know or however you want to word it. I do believe in because even Jesus himself was able to perform miracles.

Jesus said, he is the way - every action he makes, wisdom he teaches is all the result of who he is and that is exactly how he wants humanity to be not because it's his way but because it's the RIGHT way.

Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ who strengths me.

I do believe it really comes down to what state of mind you're in.

Jon Jones - current Light Heavy Weight Champion in the UFC right now holds Philippians 4:13 on his chest and yet he remains undefeated, you can almost tell that this fighter is humble but at times he is also arrogant so I don't always expect him to fight at his best, but I sometimes wonder if he found bliss through the same sort of philosophy of that that Christ teaches and it must be genuine.

There's another famous fighter, Bruce Lee who once said 'The less effort you put in, the more powerful you will become' and we all know how great of a fighter Bruce Lee was for a man of his size.

Just take a moment and think about how closely related 'Light like a feather' and 'Less effort you put in' really are. Because truth is everybody has access to the same inner wisdom the only problem is - you need to slip through that narrow path Jesus talks about in order to see it, the narrow path to Heaven which many people will not find. It was never meant to be easy, just as it was never meant to be easy to explain the inter-workings of the Universes especially wisdom which is something that has to be earned.

So this is my opinion on the magical theory behind this little trick.

First of all it's a group intention experiment. To perform magic, all you need is focused attention. We have a limited amount of attention which is emitting from us like light from a light bulb. Not very strong in any one direction. But if you condense all that light into one laser beam, it becomes much more powerful.

Magic then is concentrating your attention into laser like focus, which is why the wand is so strongly associated with magic. Only problem is, most of our attention is tied up in ego centric BS, which leaves very little left over to channel for magical work. Group intention overcomes this lack of resources on the part of the individuals by combining their total available awareness on one focal point. The novelty of the whole situation also helps draw and hold attention.

Raw attention gets filtered through archetypes. Attention is like a liquid, and archetypes are the container which holds that liquid. Attention conforms to the shape of your personal archetypes and flows along their associative pathways . By repeating stuff like "light as a feather, stiff as a board" over and over like a mantra, you are locking the spot your attention is pouring into.

Wasn't there some military unit that was trained to think "I am the wind in the grass" when they are trying to be sneaky? It's the same principle. Or how wearing a labcoat made people perform left brained tasks better in the following experiment. gizmodo.com...

The purpose of meditation is to train yourself to hold your attention still on one thing. You can switch up what that one thing is, much like playing a Pokemon card.

reply to post by MerkabaMeditation


It works alright.

I did it when I was 8 or 9 yrs of age with friends except we called it as light as a feather and stiff as a board while the one being levitated lies flat on their back. After doing a visualization (story) about the one being lifted dying in an accident..car wreck etc.

We say As stiff as a board and light as a feather "lift" with 2 fingers under the person and our eyes closed.

We did it on the largest person and it worked. How did i know it worked? I peeked and she was floating.

reply to post by MerkabaMeditation


I can remember doing this when i was young, probably why i have always been interested in the power of the mind

reply to post by luciddream
Try that with a 50lb sacks of potatoes, but stuff one with plastic wrap!
And watch hilarity ensue when one tosses a 50lb sack of taters (plastic wrap sack) to someone casually walking by!

And another variation of this lifting trick one can try by oneself.
Stand in a doorway and use your arms to force the backs (opposite palm) of your hands, arms straight, into the doorframe for
about a minute, then leave the doorframe and be amazed about your arms!