<P> One explanation for such reports is that the participants are tricking their minds (by way of chanting) into believing that the person being lifted is "light as a feather ." The body still reacts to the command from the brain, but the mind perceives it differently . Five people can easily lift one person when those five people are tricking their minds into thinking that the person is light in weight . </P> <P> Another reason for the apparent success of the levitation is the "self - fulfilling prophecy" concept . The lifters "know" a human being is too heavy to lift with a fingertip, so subconsciously, they may not exert enough effort on the first attempt . After the "ritual," the participants may believe that the body is now supposed to move, or that the ritual itself has given them power, and therefore they exert enough effort to raise the participant off the ground . </P> <P> 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 Bourdeaux, France . Pepys's account of Mr. Brisband's experience reads: </P> <P> He saw four little girls, very young ones, all kneeling, each of them, upon one knee; and one begun the first line, whispering in the ear of the next, and the second to the third, and the third to the fourth, and she to the first . Then the first begun the second line, and so round quite through, and putting each one finger only to a boy that lay flat upon his back on the ground, as if he was dead; at the end of the words, they did with their four fingers raise this boy high as they could reach, and he (Mr. Brisband) being there, and wondering at it, as also being afeared to see it, for they would have had him to have bore a part in saying the words, in the roome of one of the little girles that was so young that they could hardly make her learn to repeat the words, did, for feare there might be some sleight used in it by the boy, or that the boy might be light, call the cook of the house, a very lusty fellow, as Sir G. Carteret's cook, who is very big, and they did raise him in just the same manner . </P>

Where did light as a feather stiff as a board come from