You might like this pretty fun parlor trick that seems to knock a person off their feet without touching them. This article explains how it is done.
One day when it was just me and Las Vegas Tai Chi Teacher Mike Felkoff standing in his house, Mike asked me if I wanted to experience a version of the no-touch, no contact, touchless throw or strike that some people dismiss as a parlor trick.
I thought that it would be pretty cool to experience it, so I said yes.
I am sharing it for you here, because, on some level, it may have actually worked as it was supposed to.
I fell backward onto a couch, without being touched, without any physical contact.
Disclaimer: This is only one way to do it. There are other ways besides this, and I’m sure there are some that I don’t know about. This is informational only. Please stay safe, read, and follow all the disclaimers.
So here is exactly what my teacher Mike Felkoff did, and how it may have worked.
Table of Contents
Finding A Nice, Soft, And Safe Place To Land For No Touch, Touchless, No Contact Throws And Strikes.
First, the teacher and I looked around the room to find someplace that would be soft enough to land on, if I were to fall back onto it.
There was a nice soft couch there which he had me stand in front of.
Though I don’t remember for sure, he may have asked me if I thought it would be soft enough to land on.
We checked, double-checked, and together we imagined various angles of me flying through the air, falling backward onto it, to make sure all would be safe and comfortable if I was to fall backward and land back onto it. That built some response potential.
By That Point, I Had Already Imagined Falling Backwards Onto The Sofa In My Mind.
And I was still standing there.
I had run through it, imagined it, envisioned it.
And was still standing there.
So even at this point, I was mentally prepared to fall backward onto the couch.
If I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have still been standing there, in front of that couch after all those mental rehearsals.
So that shows a pretty good level of cooperation with the idea of getting tossed backward.
I don’t remember if he actually had me do a test fall first just to make sure it was soft enough and comfortable enough to land on, but he might have.
If he had, for sure that would have been an excellent way to further build response potential.
That is because people are more likely to do things and move in ways that they know are comfortable, and that they are used to, especially if they know that they won’t get hurt, or if they know that it will feel pretty good.
So what my Las Vegas Tai Chi teacher did next was to have me stand with my heels and calves backed right up against the couch, so that there was literally no place to go, no way to scramble with my feet if I was to lose balance.
People Use Movement To Solve Pressure.
In a previous article, I used the example of someone walking toward you on the wrong side of the sidewalk to explain that when something or someone is walking right at you it can create a feeling of physical pressure that can actually be felt building and changing within the body, even when they are some distance from you.
And, that feeling of pressure can be neutralized by movement.
I explained how you may feel this pressure, even without them touching you.
People use movement to solve this type of pressure.
Whether it is changing where they walk, or the way they walk, deep breathing, or some other method.
Even just moving out of the way, or changing position so as to let it go past.
So neutralizing this type of pressure usually involves moving.
I Had Nowhere Else To Go.
Because I was pre-positioned with my calves back against the couch, it took away most of these other avenues of neutralization.
I kind of had nowhere else to go, except backward onto the soft, comfortable couch.
When people can’t respond in the way that they are used to, such as by moving, they will rely on whatever other remaining avenues of neutralization they may have.
For this example, the best remaining option for me was to just move out of the way backward and fall onto the couch.
If I had been pre-positioned in front of a fire, sharp glass, or a vat of acid, I would have neutralized that much, much earlier, by running out of there as fast as I could.
And actually, never would have agreed to stand there, with my back to it, to begin with.
But because standing there and falling back onto the couch would be about as comfortable as signing up for a massage, I was ready to see if it would work.
So, for the no-touch, touchless, no contact throw or strike, I was pre-positioned right on the edge.
I wasn’t teetering but was positioned in such a way that with the tiniest backward lean I would fall backward.
It was as easy for me to fall back onto the comfortable couch, as it was for me to stand there.
This made it possible for the technique to be so slight and subtle as to allow for what my touchless throw teacher did next.
How To Use Kung Fu To Sell No Touch, Touchless, No Contact Throws, And Strikes.
Teacher Mike Felkoff then got into a way impressive-looking kung fu posture, did a great looking kung fu deep breathing type of energy wind up, and then came right, steadily, squarely at me with his approaching hand, in such a way that if I didn’t neutralize it and move, I would get pushed right over.
And sure enough, I felt the pressure of wanting to avoid it, but could do nothing except fall back onto the couch.
Without even being touched.
So whatever I did to try to neutralize it at that time resulted in me falling backward onto the couch.
And all this happened without any physical contact.
It Would Have Looked Pretty Cool Viewed From The Outside.
Maybe it was the power of suggestion, hypnosis, or simple physics.
Maybe I had had just enough of my own element of belief in there, to tip the scales.
Whatever it was, there I had been, one moment standing with my heels and calves right back against the sofa;
And a moment or two later, there I was, sitting on the soft, comfortable sofa.
I had been moved off my place without being touched.
Here is the link to that related post about Why people feel the pressure they do when walking toward someone on a sidewalk, and how to neutralize it.