Scary games gain more popularity during Halloween and 'Charlie Charlie Challenge' might just be the most popular spirit-invoking game this year.
Though it has been months since "Charlie Charlie Challenge" trended on social media, the game invoking a spirit is reportedly still the craze in some parts of the world.
According to IOL, school administrators in Cape Town, South Africa have been concerned about some students' obsession over the game a few months ago.
"We had reports of children placing spells on teachers to die," Prince George Primary's Principal, Lameez Rabbaney, previously said.
"I had two Grade 1 pupils in my class and they were so frightened because they were forced to play the game and this is a form of bullying," the Principal continued. "We want to say that in our code of conduct, that's called intimidation and bullying."
As a response, Prince George Primary has called in religious leaders as well as exorcists to speak to the children. All students involved in playing "Charlie Charlie Challenge" will also receive counseling.
MTV previously reported that the "Charlie Charlie Challenge" purportedly has ancient traditional origins. In fact, the ritual allegedly has rules of conduct that must be observed by believers so that the "demon portal" to the place where the ritual was performed wouldn't be left wide open forever.
Rules reportedly include chanting "Charlie, Charlie can we stop" before ending the ritual and dropping all the pencils once done.
The ritual experience reportedly varies. "Some kids have talked about strange things happening after playing this game, like seeing shadows or hearing a child's laughter. Others didn't experience anything at all," Gina Verrastro writes in her article in Pencils.com.
But what does scientists have to say about the "Charlie Charlie Challenge?" Talking about Ouija which is somehow similar to #CharlieCharlieChallenge in the sense that it both summons spirits, Dr. Chris French, professor of psychology and anomalistic psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, explains the psychology behind such ritual.
"...You've got the whole social context. It's usually a group of people, and everyone has a slight influence ... Once the idea has been implanted there, there's almost a readiness to happen," French previously told Smithsonian.com.
