I first heard stories of the Charlie, Charlie game in the year 2015 while I was staying at the Takutu Hotel in Lethem, Region 9. A student of the St. Ignatius Secondary School was talking about it. She said that students would place two pencils in the form of a cross on top of a piece of paper with alternate sides of the paper bearing the words “yes,” and “no.” The students would try to summon an allegedly evil spirt by the name of “Charlie.” They would say something like, “Charlie, Charlie, are you there?” or “Charlie, Charlie, can we play?” or something similar.
The pencil would sometimes move and point to the word “yes” to the loud uproar and playful yet frightful screams of the students who would be amazed that they were heard and responded to by a being from the world beyond.
This game is not unique to the country of Guyana, however: it has been reported on by media all across the world – many of which labeled it demonic. Some skeptics on the other hand, dismissed the whole business as “child’s play,” or “nonsense.” A 2015 article by Time.com called the game “a fun thing,” and encouraged people to film the scenario and post the results “for viral fun.” Some international publications asserted that the pencils moved not because of the intervention of some demon from the other world, but “because of gravity, a gush of wind, or awkward positioning of the pencils.” They say that because one pencil is rested squarely on another, the chances of it moving are great.
We will examine evidence in this article, however, that suggests that the movement of the pencil is unlikely to be a matter of gravity, wind, awkward positioning, or any such “coincidences,” and you will see a video so shocking that one viewer commented that the students must have pulled off a hoax by tying an invisible thread to the pencil and pulled it.
The following video was sent in to this publication on the 18th of September, 2023 by a fan of the Guyana, South America publication, via our Facebook Page. It shows students indulging in the allegedly demonic Charlie Charlie game in a school in Guyana which we will choose not to name.
The video posted above was sent in to this publication by a student of a school in Guyana where the game was being played. The student told this publication that the game is dangerous and the evil spirit sometimes “hits students with force,” or “boxes” them.
The origin of the Charlie Charlie game is not clear to me at this point. Some students said it crossed over from a Spanish version in Mexico and that Charlie is a Mexican ghost. According to one student, Charlie was a victim of a car accident in Mexico who later committed suicide and whose ghost roams the world. Some sources on the internet suggest that a similar version of the game was traced back to the year 2008. The game became prevalent in the English speaking world in the year 2015.
It is also not clear to me why students play this game in the first place, or what they are trying to achieve by playing it. Evidently, it started as a matter of curiosity in Guyanese schools and was perpetuated through “viral trends.” Apparently, children see videos of other kids doing something and they too want to do it – not knowing or caring too much about the possible dangers of doing so. The materials used – pencil and paper – suggest that whoever (or whatever) created the game likely had school students as their intended target.
One student of St. Ignatius Secondary School in Region 9 told this publication that she remembers seeing students playing the game in the year 2017 while she was a student of that school. She said that as a result of playing the Charlie Charlie game, three students became possessed. The possessed students “kept knocking themselves on the wall or table until they became unconscious.” The teachers had to take the affected students to the hospital. Our student reporter suggested that that was the beginning of episodes of demonic possession in St. Ignatius Secondary. However, to the best of my knowledge, paranormal activities at St. Ignatius Secondary had been reported long before 2017.
So, what do you know, or what is your take on the Charlie Charlie game? Tell us in the comments!
When you play with fire you will get burn.