Light as a feather, stiff as a board is a game played by children at slumber parties.[1] The phrase has also become established in popular culture as a reference to a levitation trick, and has been referred to in various media accounts. In performing magic this effect is known as abnormal lift.[2]
One participant lies flat on the floor, facing upwards. The others space themselves around that person, each placing one or two fingertips underneath the participant's limbs. The person closest to the head commonly begins by saying something like "She's looking ill", which is repeated several times, and followed by, "she's looking worse", which is also repeated several times. The general direction of the call-and-repeat describes how the person is looking worse and worse, followed by saying "she is dying", and, finally, "she is dead".
Variations of the spoken part of the game occur. In a common, modern version, the person being lifted is told a story about their death and asked to imagine it happening to them. This is intended to unsettle the participants, and to convince them that something may have changed making it easier to lift the person than before.
All versions of the game end with the phrase "light as a feather, stiff as a board" chanted by those standing around the "dead" player as they attempt to lift their companion's body using only their fingertips. Some versions omit the story entirely and only the "light as a feather..." chant is used. After these repetitions, the person being lifted is described by the group as having become lighter or even entirely weightless.
Another variation of the game takes place with one person seated in a chair. Four volunteers agree to stand around the sitter, two on the sitter's left side and the other two on their right. Each of the four places two fingers under each corner of the chair's seat and the four together will attempt to lift the chair and sitter, which generally fails. The volunteers will then perform some small ritual, usually involving rubbing their hands together or circling the chair in various direction (counter-clockwise, walking backwards, etc.) After this ritual, the volunteers hold their hands over the sitter's head to "transfer" energy into the sitter, which will presumably make them weightless. The lifters then retry lifting the sitter the same way as before. Also, it can be that the lifters lift the person sitting in the chair; doing the rest of the ritual as so, but holding at the four main points of the body (under the knees on each side and under the shoulders).
The key to the trick is timing: each of the lifters must apply the lifting force at the same moment. When this is done, the weight of the subject is divided equally between each lifter, requiring each person to contribute only 12- of lift, to raise a 50- person.[3]
If the trick is performed without synchronising the lift, it will fail: as participants attempt to lift at slightly different times, they are instead performing a series of lifts by smaller groups, resulting in a much heavier weight per person. This fact may be used as a deliberate form of misdirection from the person explaining the trick, first asking the group to "go ahead, try to lift" to show that it cannot be done, and then asking them to try again on the count of three, where it succeeds.[3]
Some people who remember performing the trick as a child will have exaggerated their memory of the effect, recalling the performance as lifting the subject effortlessly into the air for some time, when in reality they would only have lifted them for a moment.[3]
The oldest known account of levitation play comes from the diary of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703), a British naval administrator. Pepys’s account of levitation play comes from a conversation with a friend of his, Mr. Brisband, who claimed to have seen four little girls playing light as a feather, stiff as a board in Bordeaux, France. Pepys’s account of Mr. Brisband’s experience reads:
Pepys also spoke of the chant that accompanied this performance.
The next recording of the game being played comes from The Magician’s Own Book (1857). This account differs from that of Pepys, as it is a direct account of the game being played. Also, this account focuses on a different version of the game than the version played by the girls in Samuel Pepys’ account. In this account, the heaviest man at a party in Venice, Italy, sits in a chair, and is unable to be lifted by six other persons, initially. However, after coordinated hand-clapping and synchronized inhalations and exhalations, the man in the chair is able to be lifted on the forefingers of the six lifters.[4]
The phenomenon has been observed into modern times, often being described as a form of spiritualism or seance and considered anathema by some religious groups. It is widely considered a simple spooky party game along the lines of Bloody Mary and the telling of ghost stories.
The game appears in the 1996 film The Craft, which follows the story of four high school students as they familiarize themselves with witchcraft and various arcane experiments—one of which is light as a feather, stiff as a board. In the movie, the four young women are seen performing the version of the game described in Samuel Pepys’ diary, which involves one participant lying down, while the others kneel around her. The teenagers chant “Light as a feather, stiff as a board,” several times before lifting the participant into the air. In the movie, special effects are used to show the person levitating above the hands of the lifters.
The game appears in the South Park episode "Marjorine", where Butters Stotch declares the other South Park Elementary girls, including Wendy Testaburger, "witches" for playing the game at a slumber party. Butters, as Marjorine, initially mistakes this for the girls "lezzing out".