Levitation as a party trick - explaination how this works?

Question

I read this on of all things a genealogy (grrr) forum.

"When I was at Ragdale Hall last weekend we had a talk from a brilliant speaker , Adrian Hunt , who does Reflexology and other treatments. He spoke about Auras and showed us how to lift a lady of 8st using only our fingers , there were 4 of us -2 lifting under her arm and 2 at her knees , we lifted her several feet off the chair with no effort --it was magic !!!.....

We all rubbed our hands together to make a heat, then put them on top of the lady`s head one on top of each other not touching . Then someone counted to 20 , we clasped our hands with 2 index fingers in front and put them under the lady`s knees and armpits then just lifted up . The heat creates a bubble which helps her to rise "

Any ideas how best to say "bollocks" in a polite way?

Guessing it works because the load is shared?

Quite a few other people claimed to have done something similar at school too.

Answer 1

Stage 1: The person to be lifted ( choose a fairly heavy person ) should be relaxed but upright on a firm chair. Feet should be  on the floor and  their hands on their lap. The four assistants should stand two on each side of the person, one by each shoulder and one by each knee. Each assistant should make fists with both hands, then extend the two forefingers and touch them together, gently but firmly the two assistants standing by the shoulders, place their extended forefingers under the seated persons right or left armpit. The other two assistants place their forefinger under the seated persons left or right knee

The person to be lifted thinks "down" and imagines him or herself to be sinking into the chair. In this position, the four assistants should try to lift the person.

Stage 2: The assistants should now place their palms on top of the seated persons knee or shoulder and together, exert a steady downwards force. While they are doing this someone counts out loud from one to twenty. On the count of nineteen, the four assistants quickly take their former positions with extended forefingers under the armpit or knee. On the count of twenty, they try again to lift the person. The seated person should think"up" and imagine himself or herself rising into the air.

If these instructions are followed carefully, the person will soar straight up into the air on the forefingers of the assistants.

Answer 2

The kind of levitation that you describe is not a trick and it does not depend on hot air. The force that we can exert through the lengths of our fingers is quite a bit higher than across our fingers and we are not so able to sense the amount of force in the first case because it doesn't cause us the same amount of strain or pain.

What is wrong with bollocks in polite society? Perhaps it is applied to abuse somebodys previous words, with which you disagree? Then you should say that in your opinion the matter is completely false, but of course it takes longer to say and is a lot less effective due to the lack of emotion. To say that the matter is nonsense is also possible but similarly it carries less punch.

Answer 3

I don't know..but I know that my son was raised up off his bed several inches one time ..and it was no "party trick".