The Ghost In My Machine

Stories of the Strange and Unusual

The Most Dangerous Games: The Telephone Game

by

Previously: The Playing Card Game. 

The Telephone Game is less about calling a spirit to talk to them, and more about… well, it’s kind of like prank calling a spirit: If your efforts are successful and something picks up on the other end, you’re meant to hang up immediately, rather than to speak or ask questions. There isn’t really a winning condition and there’s no prize, so the only reason I can think to play this one is for the thrill, the bragging rights, or because you like to tempt fate.

An old, black rotary telephone

It’s curious to me that so many ghost stories center around technology. From EVPs to spirit photography, it’s frequently said that otherworldly beings find it easier to communicate through technological means. I can’t help but wonder if it’s because science has often seemed so inscrutable, particularly to laypeople; what’s perceived as a voice in the static could very well just be interference from an unknown source. The lack of knowing, I think, is what encourages these interpretations.

[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]

Then again, though, maybe there’s more to it all than meets the eye or ear.

As always, play at your own risk.

Players:

  • One principal.

Requirements:

  • A flashlight.
  • Salt.
  • A power object.
  • A building with a landline telephone.
  • In that building, a bathroom with a door that locks and a functioning toilet.
  • A cell phone.

Instructions:

Making The Preparations:

  1. Begin after midnight.
  2. Clear the building of any other people or living creatures.
  3. Turn off all the lights in the building.
  4. Gather your supplies. Take them to the bathroom.
  5. Scatter salt outside the door to the bathroom.
  6. Enter the bathroom. Close and lock the door behind you. Keep your power object close by.

Making The Call:

  1. Turn on the flashlight. Shine it on the water in the bowl of the toilet.
  2. Focus your gaze on the surface of the water.
  3. Keeping the light shining and your focus on the water, use the cell phone to call the building’s landline.
  4. Let the phone ring.
    • If Condition A occurs — that is, the call drops or gets cut off: Try again immediately.
    • If Condition B occurs — that is, nothing happens: The ritual has not been successful. Try again another time. Proceed to Closing The Line, Step 1.
    • If Condition C occurs — that is, you notice a change in the water or hear a noise from inside the house: DO NOT PROCEED. Hang up immediately. Locate the source(s) of the interruption(s) and scatter salt around them: If the water changed, scatter salt around the toilet; if you heard a noise, identify where it came from and scatter salt there; etc.
    • If Condition D occurs — that is, the call is answered: The ritual has been successful. Hang up immediately. Proceed to Closing The Line, Step 1.

Closing The Line:

  1. Turn on the bathroom lights.
  2. Exit the bathroom.
  3. Turn on the building lights.
  4. Scatter salt around the landline telephone. If you have more than one phone in the house, scatter salt around each one.
  5. Henceforth, be careful when you answer the phone.

Additional Notes:

The power object is meant primarily as a passive form of protection: That is, it is not a guaranteed preventative, but it may help to limit the reach of anything… untoward. An object which is significant to you is recommended. Further information is available here, here, and here.

This ritual is not meant to be used to speak with a spirit. If this is what you are after, try The Shoebox Telephone or The Answer Man instead.

Concerning Conditions C And D:

If the ritual results in either of these outcomes, it is not recommended that you perform it again.

No one likes to be woken up or prank called over and over again.

The Telephone Game: FAQ.

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[Photo via PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay]

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