RAMPAGING ‘CHARLIE’

Demonic Game Plays Havoc In Region.

JUST when you thought the internet couldn’t get any crazier, a new craze which is said to invoke a demonic spirit is gaining momentum at a frightening pace and is now being practiced by St. Lucian youth.

The Charlie Challenge is a “game” similar to the Ouija Board where players use two pencils to summon a spirit to help them solve issues or answer numerous questions.

Teachers at a number of local schools have reportedly held special assemblies warning students of the game.

There have also been numerous reports of children as young as seven attempting to invoke the alleged spirit.

Principal Jillian Elliott of the Carmen Rene Memorial School confirmed to THE VOICE yesterday she had taken steps to warn her students about playing the games. She added: “We held an assembly and told the children that they are strictly forbidden to play the game on the school premises. In fact I don’t even want them to mention the word Charlie”.

She added that the Chief Education Officer Marcus Edwards had sent out a memo to all schools advising them to outlaw this game on school premises.”

Reports via social media and word of mouth have even claimed that at least one local primary school is facing the problem of children refusing to step back into a classroom where the game was played. Reports are that there were flickering lights and windows and doors that would open and shut on their own.

Whilst there has been no solid evidence of the truth to the claims, parents in St. Lucia are now being warned to speak with their children about the possible dangers of dabbling with this kind of ritualistic game as the possibilities, should one believe in the paranormal, could be dangerous.

For the challenge, two pencils are placed one on top of the other to form a cross. The pencils in turn are laid on a piece of paper with the words “Yes”, “No”, “Maybe” and whatever else desired by the players including names, amounts of money etc.

Once the pencils are properly balanced off and are perfectly still, the words “Charlie, Charlie are you here? Charlie, Charlie can we play?” are chanted and according to numerous reports and video evidence, an unknown force is believed to move the top pencil to its desired answer.

The identity of “Charlie” is under immense speculation with reports claiming that he is a Mexican demon to others claiming that he is the spirit of a little boy who killed himself.

As expected, there has also been a lot of skepticism debunking the challenge and putting it all down to gravity. The claim is that the pencils can be seen moving due to the pull of gravity on the eraser end of the pencil which is heavier than the point end, thus causing it to move.

The VOICE understands that the game is now rampant in schools in St Vincent and a number of schools have been shut as a result.

Up to yesterday, several Caribbean countries were reporting that school children have been rushed to hospital after playing the “demonic” game.

.In Antigua and Barbuda, emergency medical services were kept busy after a group of students attending the Jennings Secondary School fainted and had to be rushed to hospital after allegedly playing the game

“Children started fainting and having seizures. Children were fainting while walking home, and some of them were trying to jump out the bus,” one student told the Antigua Observer newspaper.

Barbados school teachers have also warned their students from engaging in the game, while in Trinidad and Tobago, the president of the National Parent/Teacher Association, ZenaRamatali warned against playing the game which has been trending globally over the last few days.

“It is a very serious situation right now,” she said, adding that the game taking root locally is an indication of the dangers of the Internet.

Ramatali said children must be taught what is good and what is evil and that clearly the Charlie Charlie Challenge is an evil game.

“We have to teach them that this is not something that they want to dabble in,” she said.

“Children should be supervised at all times. What happens is that they are unsupervised at break time and lunch time and the devil is actually finding work for them,” she added.

BY VOICE Reporters