Woman Claims Every Millennial Did This "Door Magic Trick" and It’s Serving Serious Nostalgia

There's a millennial magic trick that apparently everyone born between 1981-1996 has tried at some point in their lives and all you need is a doorway and a pair of arms to do it.

The TikTok account for the Ladies & Tangents Podcasts (@ladiesandtangents) wanted to remind Millennials of this trick as well as show younger generations what they may have missed out on.

They demonstrated the trick in a post titled "Millennial Magic" that's garnered a staggering 2.5 million views and delivered a swift jolt of nostalgia to tons of people who saw their clip.

"I'm going to show you a magic trick, okay?" a woman wearing a green hoodie says to the camera. Someone off-screen agrees before Green Hoodie Woman (GHW) continues to explain the trick: "You don't remember this and I don't know how because I feel like every millennial did this."

GHW is flabbergasted that the woman she is speaking to who is recording the TikTok doesn't recall the trick she is about to show viewers, insisting that this is a millennial magic trick staple that tons of folks participated in, but some seemingly just can't remember.

GHW continued with her prelude to the trick: "So millennials this is for you and this is also for Gen Z because I don't think they've done this and they need to, all right?"

GHW then begins to stand in the middle of a doorway, widening her stance and clenching her fists to the side so that they are flush with the doorway and pressing up against the sill. "You're gonna stand with your hands in the door. And you're gonna do it for like 30 seconds, you're gonna press as hard as you can."

This portion of the trick is imperative, according to GHW (at this point this "trick" might be flooding back to your memory, if it's not, then just keep reading. But if it does and you want to re-live the magic, what're you waiting for? Go and try it right now!)

"Against the door," she reiterates to the other woman in the video, stressing that folks need to be pressing their arms against the doorway intensely.

"It's actually way harder now as an adult," GHW quips while standing in the doorway and stressing her arms to press against the sill on both sides.

She looks down and then begins to laugh, "I don't know how long it's been," she tells her friend off camera after a few seconds of attempting to push her arms out to her side while standing in the doorway.

"Definitely not 30 seconds," the camera op says, chuckling, before the video jumps a few seconds forward, presumably to a time that's closer to the end of the half-minute stretch she needs to hit in order for the trick to work.

Finally: it's time, and GHW delineates the next steps folks must try: "So now all you're gonna do, is you're gonna step out of the door and you're gonna watch my arms lift..."

"Without your consent," the person off camera says, completing her thought.

GHW then steps out of the doorway, after a second or two, her arms begin to "magically" raise into the air and a look of wonder and awe paints her face.

"Is it really working?" the woman off camera asks as GHW, who replies that she swears "to God" that it works.

Next up is the incredulous camera woman who tries the trick out herself in the doorway. She pushes her arms against the doorway as well, receiving coaching from GHW: "You're just pushing," she says.

"Why does it hurt?" the camera woman in the doorway asks as GHW laughs, repeating that she doesn't remember it hurting as much when she performed the trick as a child.

"And then when I come off of it...?" the camera woman asks, looking for instruction on how to successfully perform the raised-arm-against-your-will magic trick.

"All right, do you think you're about ready?" GHW asks her friend, who breathes in and then begins to step out of the doorway. The same look of wonderment takes over her face as her arms begin to splay out to her sides. She screams in disbelief as the two laugh about the trick.

"Ew!" she says, shaking her owns out, seemingly not liking the sensation. "Isn't that so weird?" GHW asks before the clip ultimately cuts out

Several commenters referred to the trick by a common name: "light as a feather, stiff as a board." However there was one TikToker who spoke of the phenomenon in scientific terms: "Kohnstamm phenomenon - involuntary contraction of muscle after prolonged voluntary contraction of muscle"

According to the National Library of Medicine, "the Kohnstamm phenomenon refers to the observation that if one pushes the arm hard outwards against a fixed surface for about 30 s, and then moves away from the surface and relaxes, an involuntary movement of the arm occurs, accompanied by a feeling of lightness."

Or, in preferred TV-shows-that-millennials-were-obsessed-with-speak: "yeah, science b----!"