I am not encouraging anyone to do this and in fact no one should. This, obviously, is VERY DANGEROUS and could result in serious injury to your friend. Who knows what the long term effects are as well.

My snake. Dante. Who is around 3 1/2 feet enjoys climbing around sometimes when I hold him. The other day I had him on my left arm and held out my right to encourage him to stretch out to reach it. When he made it I close my hand around him and began to pull him off my left arm gently to set him back down on the floor. His back crackled over a few inches of his back. Immediately I stopped and just held him. Fearing I broke his back or something. He immediately relaxed and held still. Very content. A few minutes passed and he began moving again. A few days latter I tried this. Holding him in the same fashion and not really squeezing with my hands, just supporting, I began to draw my hands (slide them) down him in opposite directions starting relatively from the middle. With about as much pressure as it takes to lift five sheets of paper his back started to crackle and I popped the majority of his back. Again this did not bother him at all and in fact he seemed very much to enjoy himself and was very lively and happy after it was done and he had relaxed for a bit.

What does anyone think? Is this healthy? Dante seemed very pleased with the whole thing. Obviously after that initial experiment I haven't tried it again.