A 'preternatural'
child's game to be played at a
slumber party with five participants. One child is chosen as the one to be '
the feather' and they lie east - west on the floor. It is their job to
relax, with their hands across their chest,
morticia style, eyes closed. The remaining four children take up positions to the
north, south, east and west, kneeling on the floor with the index and middle fingers slipped under the child lying on the floor. The child in the north position
facilitates the exercise. This facilitator massages the
temples of the child lying down and tells the story of their life and their '
death'. Once this story is complete, the child at the north position slips their fingers under the shoulders of the
prostrate child and begins to chant 'light as a feather, stiff as a board'. The rest of the 'lifters' also join in on the
chanting until the child at the north adds '
one, two, three' when they feel the time is
right... at this point, the four kneeling children attempt to raise the 'feather' up above their heads using only the two fingers of each hand. The child is raised to the
utter amazement of the participants, and this usually
freaks everybody out.
As a child I played this often with my
best friend, Katy. Most of the time, I was the one telling the story, and she was the one being lifted. A few times I was the one dying... Once I recall opening my eyes and being inches from the ceiling and being utterly stunned. My friends were holding me up with just their
fingertips and we just couldn't explain it. Is it
diamagnetism?I think this was, generally speaking, a
girl's slumber party game...