Parents in Oaxaca are being asked to urge children not to play the latest craze in games, the Charlie Charlie Challenge, which also poses a real danger because it involves summoning spirits, a Spanish priest has warned.

Red Cross spokesman Moisés Santiago said during the past three days his organization has been called upon to attend 16 cases of youths suffering a nervous breakdown after playing the game, which has become an international craze.

The game is played by drawing a cross on a piece of paper and labeling the top right and bottom left panels with “yes” and the other two with “no.” One pencil is then placed over the horizontal line and the second is balanced on top of it, following the vertical line.

Some reports say that it’s a Mexican demon that is being invoked when the players start the game by calling, “Charlie, Charlie, can we play?” or “Charlie, Charlie, are you here?” If the pencils move and point to “yes,” Charlie is in the building and ready to play.

Once Charlie’s presence has been confirmed, players can ask any question they like that has a yes or no answer.

Thanks to social media, the game has gone viral. But some youngsters are finding it hard to take, judging by the reaction in Oaxaca this week. “We’ve been attending cases in which children are presenting with nervous breakdowns, hysteria and convulsions and in all cases they were a consequence of playing the game,” said Santiago.

He said parents and teachers should recommend that youngsters avoid the game for the stress it can cause.

Others warn of even worse consequences.

A Spanish priest, José Antonio Fortea, said calling on spirits, which is essentially what the game supposedly entails, might actually work and while the players won’t be possessed by the spirits, they might hang around for a while.

Other spirits could also get involved, says Fortea, and players could suffer “much worse consequences from the demons.”

It appears a Twitter user kicked off the fad by creating the hashtag #CharlieCharlieChallenge, which as of last Monday had been used by over two million people.

Which means that more than two million people are discovering some basic things about physics, such as gravity and balance.

Source: El Universal (sp), Christian Today (en), The Independent (en)