Fakir Magic : is the type of magic associated with Indian fakirs. Some of the more well known feats performed by these fakirs include: charming deadly snakes in large baskets with musical instruments, lying near-naked on a bed of sharp nails without incurring any injuries, levitation and the infamous Indian rope trick.
According to Dr. Karl P.N. Schuker in his book The Unexplained, a professor called Larry D. Kirkpatrick, a physicist at Montana State University duplicated the lying on a bed of nails trick in an experiment. This was to find out how, and if, it was actually possible to do. Whilst lying on his bed of nails he even permitted a well-built American football player to sit on his chest.
The experiment was possibly less about 'debunking' fakir magic, but a lesson in the relationship between weight distribution and pressure, i.e. the greater the number of nails that supported his body, the smaller the amount of pressure exerted by his body's weight on each nail (this number is directly proportional to the weight of the person lying on them), the amount of pressure that the body exerts on any given nail is not great enough to puncture the skin.
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