Indian rope trick

plural Indian rope tricks

1. A magic trick said to have been performed in and around India during the 19th century, involving the climbing of a rope that appears to rise unsupported into the air.

   1 more example

   I asked him if he thought they had any occult or medicinal way of prolonging life or preserving youth, and he said they were supposed to have a great deal of very curious knowledge about such things, but he suspected that if you came to look into it, it was rather like the Indian rope trick - always something that somebody else had seen.

   1933, James Hilton, Lost Horizon, published 1973, page 180

   Synonyms: rope trick