In most forms of this trick, it goes like this:
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First attempt to lift. Nothing happens, and it seems impossible. The person is too heavy to lift.
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The ‘ritual’ is performed, which may involve putting the hands or fingers somewhere else (eg on the person’s head) and chanting something or counting down. On a given cue, this is followed by…
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Second attempt. This time the lift is successful and the person rises into the air.
It seems as if the ‘ritual’ had some effect or made a difference. So what’s going on?
Well, there’s nothing much to explain about the actual lifting. With the hands or the fingers placed in suitable ‘lifting’ positions around the body, four people can lift just about anyone (except the very heaviest or most obese). You can do the math (as several Dopers have shown) and when you divide the weight among the lifters, there’s really nothing exceptional or unusual about it. Of course, most of us most of the time don’t really know much about what we can and cannot lift, until we try. So it’s easy to just imagine that something weird and wonderful must be happening.
The interesting part is why, in most cases, the first attempt fails. There are lots of possible reasons that might have something to do with it. When the first attempt is made, people are either conditioned to expect that it will fail, or they just assume it won’t. Also, they tend not to try that hard. The first effort is usually un-coordinated and a little clumsy. And remember, it only takes one person to ‘fail’ and the whole lift will fail.
For the second attempt, people are conditioned to expect that it will work (because of the ‘ritual’). They make a more co-ordinated attempt (because the ritual involves a precise cue as to when to start lifting). They are more motivated and they try harder (because otherwise there’s no pay off or climax, and no fun). Also, it is usually the case that the transition from the ‘ritual’ position to the second lift involves some momentum, which helps the lift to work.
Some or all of these factors may be in play, and they explain the difference between the first attempt (no lift, no success, no fun) and the second one (lift and success and fun).
You or someone you know may wants to embrace the hypothesis that the ritual has something to do with it, or somehow affects the heaviness of the person. Well, a good way to examine a hypothesis is to try and break it. See if using different words or a different procedure will still work, provided everyone believes it is the RIGHT procedure, and providing it still confers the benefits of improving focus, co-ordination and motivation. Try devising a version where the person is standing on a set of scales all the time, so that you can see if his weight actually changes. See if you can get the first attempt to succeed, provided you take care to get favourable conditions of focus, belief, expectation, motivation and co-ordination, even without the ritual.
