Several students at a north Trinidad secondary school received the fright of their lives while engaging in a game which is the latest Internet craze called "Charlie Charlie."
While playing the game at the school, some of the students claimed that chairs levitated off the ground causing a panic and they scampered for safety.
Local videos are popping up over social Web sites showing students chanting and playing the game while even some are making fun of it.
The game starts with children playing the "Charlie Charlie" challenge of writing "yes" and "no" on a sheet of paper and crossing two pencils.
The ritual is said to be a Mexican ritual.
The challenge has gone viral over the Internet and YouTube with a number of teenagers posting videos of themselves engaging in the Ouija-board like practice.
Some of the children reported hearing eerie voices or seeing strange things. Others warned children to stay away from the challenge.
Lana Boodoo-Maharaj, founder of Stop the Bullying and a mother of
three, urged parents to monitor their children.
"Its real and I urge adults and children not to try it. Parents must not let their children do it, invoking a spirit," she said.
Boodoo-Maharaj said several children at her son's school played the game and chairs started to levitate.
"The principal held an emergency meeting with the children and asked them not to play the game again that it is black magic. My children know better than to play that. It is not a game," she said.
Another student attending another school said: "It's some 'jumbie' thing like a Ouija board."
Another concerned parent told the T&T Guardian: "I not playing that one. There is good and there is bad. I going to inform my children not to play that before I have to thump them."
Form of rebellion
Psychiatrist Dr Varma Deyalsingh said it was a phase that teenagers and children go through when they seek the dark side.
"We already have the Ouija board phenomena and it seems it made an impact and it died out. There is always a need for children and adults to experiment the dark side," he said.
He said vampires, werewolves and supernatural interests were a phase they tended to go through.
"This Charlie game seems to be another avenue in seeking the dark side and a form of rebellion," he said.
Explaining the chairs that levitated, Deyalsingh said: "There was some mass hysteria. Their illusion feeds onto one another.
"We had it in south where in some Schools a chair was rising up. The danger is a phase but some are obsessed and investigate Satanic worship. It could be harmful."
Anglican Bishop Claude Berkley said many adults were concerned about the game.
"I know there is an anxiety about it and there are many adults concerned about the effects on the children and at this stage I would advise caution and read up on it more so we can come to an informed position."
Berkley said he heard other clergymen warning of the game.
"I would like to join the chorus of caution and from where it comes and learn about it before we continue and become entrapped in a scheme and take away our independence on something whose source we don't know where it comes from," he added.
