Summon a Mexican Demon!

Recently videos have been going around the Internet depicting the "Charlie Challenge," a practice that allegedly summons a spirit named Charlie. It should be noted that "Charlie" probably isn't a demon in the traditional Christian sense, but it's possible that he might be a real entity of some sort. The "challenge" is based on a game that is apparently common in Mexico involving the use of two pencils as a sort of pendulum-like divination tool that can answer yes/no questions.

The challenge is a cross between "Bloody Mary" and Ouija, and as the name suggests, involves summoning an entity named Charlie.

Here's how it works: Take a piece of paper and draw a single horizontal line and a single vertical line that meet in the center. Put a "YES" in two opposing sections and a "NO" in the other two. Place two pencils across the middle of the drawing in a plus-sign formation, with one balanced atop the other so that it can spin.

Ask aloud, "Charlie, Charlie, are you there?" or "Charlie, Charlie, can we play?" and the top pencil will likely move at some point because of how it's balanced. However, some players believe it's a sign that "Charlie" is in the room and ready to take questions.

What's interesting to me about this is that if this indeed works, it could be used as a pendulum-type divination tool that relies on something other than the ideomotor response. From a scientific standpoint that's potentially huge - if it works. It takes the human variable out of the equation in a way that Ouija boards and pendulums don't. I think it's unlikely that this method only works with "Charlie" unless he's the patron spirit of pencils or something. If it works for one, it should work for others.

I'm familiar with devices like the Egeley Wheel, which appears to spin on its own in response to qigong and other energy work practices, but that device is not really a practical divination method. This pencil method or something derived from it might be. However, before we can go that far with it we need to somehow verify that the "answers" it gives are anything other than random.

While I think the hype around this game is kind of silly, whoever came up with it might be onto something worth investigating. Many of the videos look like the pencils are just moving in response to environmental vibrations, so that would have to be controlled for in some fashion. Also, most just show the pencil moving once and stopping. For this to work in any practical way, it will need to be tested with multiple questions to verify that it can spin both ways in response to them.