"Light as a feather, stiff as a board" is a phrase associated with a popular paranormal or supernatural game played by young people, especially at sleepovers or parties. The game involves a group of participants attempting to levitate or raise one person using only their fingertips while repeatedly chanting the phrase "Light as a feather, stiff as a board".
Here's how the game is typically played:
- A participant lies flat on their back on the floor.
- The other participants gather around the person on the floor in a circle.
- They all place their fingertips or hands under the person on the floor.
- The participants chant the phrase "Light as a feather, stiff as a board" repeatedly, often in a sing-song manner.
- As they chant, they focus on the person on the floor becoming lighter and more buoyant.
- The goal is for the person on the floor to seem to levitate or rise slightly off the ground, supported only by the fingertips of the others.
The ritual is a ubiquitous classic of teen slumber parties; particularly, though not exclusively, for girls, and forever immortalised in a film … The Craft in the 1990s.
But where does it come from?
The earliest known reference to it can be found in The Diary of Samuel Pepys. In his entry for 31 July 1665, Pepys recounts a story told to him by one Mr. Brisband, “a good scholar and sober man”, when the two were “speaking of enchantments and spells”. Pepys writes:
“[Brisband] 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 began 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 as high as they could reach.”
Of course, “Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board” isn't true levitation. It’s simple physics. It works when each member of the group is lifting at the exact same time, distributing the weight equally. A human body might seem like a heavy thing to lift with two fingers apiece, even if you have four people lifting; but, as it happens, fingers are pretty strong. That said, all the coordination in the world isn’t going to get your friend to stay up in the air of her own accord like Rochelle does in The Craft.
The levitation ritual described by Brisband was especially popular during times of plague outbreak, which makes a certain kind of sense. 1665, the year of Pepys’ diary entry, was also the year of the Great Plague in London. If children are suddenly surrounded by death, it’s no surprise that it would sneak into their games.
As hypothesised by Elizabeth Temple in her 2020 Literary Hub article: "To us, the game might feel spooky, but for them, it could have been existentially reassuring: look, our friend is dead, but we can make her rise again."
Story Idea: Melanie Giuffré
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References
wikihow.com/Play-Light-as-a-Feather
blog.donders.ru.nl
lithub.com/the-secret-history-of-light-as-a-feather-stiff-as-a-board
Images
1. Light as a Feather
2. Portrait of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) by
3 & 4. Video: How to Play Light as a Feather, WikiHow
5. Video Clip: Light As a Feather, Stiff As a Board, The Craft, 1996
