The Unsettling World of Bizarre and Disturbing Paranormal Internet Rituals

Rituals of one kind or another have been a part of human existence for as long as humans have walked the planet. From the brutal ritual sacrifices of ancient times to weddings and funerals that continue in the modern age and even everyday rituals such as pouring a cup of tea or coffee each morning upon waking up, we all participate in more ritual practices than many of us perhaps think.

In the modern world, though, especially in the era of the World Wide Web, a new kind of ritual has emerged – internet rituals. Now, it is important to establish right off the bat that the types of rituals we are concerned with here are game or dare-type rituals that began to spread online in forums concerned with the paranormal and urban legends, and NOT the despicable rituals that have taken over certain forums in recent years that are aimed at very young and impressionable minds, often resulting in younger people self-harming or even attempting to take their own lives. We have no time for such things here, and they should be shunned and reported wherever they are found.

The types of Internet rituals we will be exploring here would be, more often than not, at home in any typical B-movie horror flick, the kind of dare-type games that a group of people staying in a cabin in the woods would take part in, often not believing, to begin with, only to be proven all too wrong by the movie’s end. Of course, whether there is any truth to these rituals and whether they work as some insist they do remains by and large open to debate. If there is any truth to some of the claims from those who have played them, though, if only in part, then, just like in the movies, the line between the real world and the paranormal one is much more blurred than we might suspect.

Many of these Internet rituals have origins that can be traced back to the Far East, particularly in such locations as South Korea or Japan, where folklore and urban legends have been blended seamlessly into the digital age. This fascinating but undoubtedly eerie and even ominous subculture has captivated Internet users since the early years of the Super Highway, with those who have an interest in the paranormal or supernatural being particularly susceptible. And for those who opt to take part in these Internet rituals, they perhaps expect a brush with an otherworldly realm as well as an adventure with very real danger.

It is important to note, though, that some of these types of rituals have been around for decades, even centuries, long before the Internet. A good example would be The Bloody Mary Ritual, where a person says the name, “Bloody Mary” 13 times in front of a mirror in a dark room – the result being that the ghost of Mary herself will appear in the mirror right in front of them. It is easy to see that this particular ritual has its origins in folklore, specifically the belief that if a young woman was to walk up a set of stairs carrying a candle and a mirror, they would be able to see a brief glimpse of their future husband’s face (there are also further variations of this specific folklore superstition). It is also easy to see the similarities between The Bloody Mary ritual and the premise of the film Candyman, where saying Candyman’s name five times in front of the mirror will not only allow the person to see him but make Candyman physically appear in the room.

Indeed, this specific ritual is perhaps a good example of how urban legends and the power of the human mind could very well play as much a part as anything else in the power of Internet rituals. You can find plenty of posts in various paranormal and internet dare-type forums from people who claim to have played this game, or know someone who has. Invariably, the accounts almost always end with at least one of the people suddenly claiming they can see a tall man with a hook for a hand suddenly appear in the room. In some cases, the person ends up being sectioned in a local hospital, at least temporarily. Unfortunately, there appear to be no news reports of any such incidents, so we need to treat such accounts with healthy caution.

This might lead us to put forward three possibilities when dealing with Internet rituals and the potential realities of them. On the one hand, and perhaps most likely, a person simply becomes lost in the moment, especially if they are already mentally susceptible to such things for a variety of potential reasons, and the lines between reality and their imagination and the power of suggestion become extremely blurred. On the other, maybe it is a case of the world of the paranormal and supernatural being all too real, and a part of our reality that we have yet to understand. Our third possibility sits somewhere between our first two – that Internet rituals, like the paranormal world as a whole - are a nuanced blend of the power of the human mind and entities that somehow feed from its energy in order to manifest in our realm of existence. With that in mind, then, let’s delve into this fascinating if unsettling world of internet rituals.

Perhaps the best place to start on this potentially disturbing journey is with the Elevator Game, not least as it has, albeit speculative and tentative connections to one of the most mysterious and tragic unexplained deaths of recent times. This game is said to be “very popular” in Korea, where it is thought to have originated, and promises the player the chance to travel to another dimension or realm of existence.

According to the rules of this ritual, the Elevator Game should be played alone and in a building that has at least ten floors, and a very specific set of instructions must be followed. The player must enter the elevator – alone – on the first floor. After entering the elevator, the player should then press “4” which will send the elevator to the fourth floor. Once there, without getting out, the player should press “2”. From the second floor, again, without leaving the elevator, the player should press “6”, and after the sixth, they should select “2”. They continue with the sequence, selecting “10” next and then “5” after reaching the tenth floor. It is at this stage that things begin to turn strange.

After arriving on the fifth floor, the elevator doors will open, and a woman will step inside. However, this woman is not human, and the player should not look at or interact with her in any way. To do so will result in the woman “taking the player away!” Instead, the player should simply press “1”. At this point, the elevator should take you straight to the tenth floor, and when the doors open, you will have succeeded in opening a portal to the other world. If the elevator heads down to the first floor, however, the player has failed to open the portal and must vacate the elevator as soon as it stops, all the while not looking at or speaking to the non-human woman.  

Assuming the ritual has worked, though, and the player arrives at the tenth floor and the open portal, they have a choice to make. They can choose to stay on the elevator, repeatedly pressing “1” until the doors close and they are taken back to the first floor, or they can decide to step outside into this other dimension. If the player chooses the latter, the ominous woman will ask them, “Where are you going?” Once more, the player is to ignore her completely and certainly not respond.

Despite the surreal and outlandish nature of the game, there are some people who claim to have “completed” it and, ultimately, have opened a portal and traveled to another dimension. They claim that this other realm is almost identical to the location where the person is playing the game, but it is in darkness, with only a “red cross” in the distance. Furthermore, you will be completely alone, with “no other living things” there at all.  Of even more concern, the air or atmosphere appears heavier or thicker, and as such, the person can become disorientated extremely quickly and even pass out. Given that you must enter the exact same elevator you arrived in to leave this other realm, this could be very problematic. Compounding matters further, it is said that electrical devices will not work in this other dimension. Perhaps of most concern, though, should a player lose consciousness and faint in this other realm, while they are said to be immediately transported back to their world, the exact location could be anywhere, including locations that could place the player in danger (in the middle of the freeway, for example).

In order to return, as we have mentioned, the player must return to the same elevator from which they departed and then repeat the number sequence in reverse. This time, however, once the player reaches the fifth floor and selects “1”, they must press any other number – as many times as it takes to cancel the ascent and send the elevator back to the first floor. Even at this point, the player is advised to check their surroundings before departing to ensure they have indeed arrived back in their own world.

At this point, we should turn our attention briefly to the tragic death of Elisa Lam, which is, without a doubt, one of the most mysterious deaths of the twenty-first century.

Without going into huge detail, in early January 2013, 21-year-old Canadian Elisa Lam set out to California on what she called on her social media her “West Coast Trip”. She was traveling alone, and it was, for the most part, a journey she made by bus. By January 26th, she had arrived in Los Angeles where she checked into the Cecil Hotel. She had booked to stay for five nights and was due to check out on January 31st. Throughout her travels, she had made daily calls to her parents back in Canada. On this day, though, she failed to do so. It didn’t take her parents long to notify the Los Angeles Police Department of their daughter’s disappearance, and a search was quickly underway.

Ultimately, her naked body was discovered almost three weeks later, on the morning of February 19th, inside one of the water tanks on the hotel’s roof. Her death remained officially unexplained and unsolved for years; the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office later ruled her death to have been accidental, likely as a result of a bipolar episode (Elisa did suffer from bipolar disorder). It was ruled that she had entered the water tower of her own free will and had drowned as a result. It appeared the change of determination was swung by the apparent sudden recollection of a police officer who was at the scene on the morning of the discovery, who had claimed that the heavy-duty lid to the water tower had been shut when they searched it, only now to say he was mistaken and it was, in fact, open when they began their search.

While this official conclusion could very well be accurate, some researchers reject the findings, insisting there are questions that remain unanswered, not least just how she ended up in the water tower in the first place. While we won’t get ourselves bogged down in the many theories surrounding her death or just why there is significant room for doubt around the official findings here, there is one theory, however outlandish, that is of interest to us, however unlikely it might be.  

According to some people over the years, largely driven by now infamous elevator security footage that was released to the public by the Los Angeles Police Department following her disappearance, Elisa could have been playing the Elevator Game, and it could, according to such theories, have led to her tragic death.

The footage in question was released to the public five days before the grim discovery on the rooftop and was the last known confirmed sighting of Elisa. It is clear to anyone watching the video that Elisa is acting extremely strangely, and once more, much of this strange behavior could very well be attributed to Elisa suffering a bipolar episode. However, it is some of Elisa’s specific actions that have raised an eyebrow or two among some researchers into the case. And while they are perhaps tentative, they are interesting nonetheless.

To begin with, Elisa is seen entering the elevator before she begins pressing multiple buttons on the elevator control panel. Despite this, the elevator doors remain open. Perhaps more unsettling, she is clearly looking around her as if she is expecting someone to appear, almost as if she is being followed. In fact, at one point in the video, we can see Elisa acting as if someone unseen to us but not to her has entered the elevator. Not only do her eyes appear to be fixed and focused on something seemingly in front of her, but she begins to back away from it towards the wall of the carriage before sliding along the wall towards the door. At one point, she raises her hands to her ears as if to block something out. As wildly speculative as this is, could this invisible presence that seemingly entered the elevator have been the non-human woman? Did Elisa raise her hands to her ears to block out her voice?

One of the most disturbing parts of the video occurs just after the two-minute mark when Elisa ventures outside of the elevator into the hotel corridor. Not only does she still appear to be looking out for something, but her movements suddenly become agitated and almost unnatural. We can see her arms spread outwards with the palms of her hands facing straight down. To some, it appears as though Elisa is being restrained by an invisible presence. Others have put forward that the agitated movements are the moment of “possession” being captured on camera. Whatever the truth, the video footage, rightly or wrongly, is one of the most morosely fascinating in the public arena.

Although it is unlikely, admittedly, it is easy to see why people might assume Elisa might have been playing the Elevator Game during her stay at the Cecil Hotel. After all, the Cecil Hotel itself has a very dark and haunted history, including several serial killers staying there during their respective killing sprees, and as such, with this apparent excess of paranormal energy already permeating the building, it may have been an ideal place to open a portal to another dimension. There is, though, at least according to some suggestions from people who subscribe to this theory, another detail that could be suggestive of Elisa having played the Elevator Game – the location of her discovery.

We might recall that, according to people who claim to have not only played the Elevator Game but who have made it back alive and well, there is a distinct danger that a person could pass out and become unconscious in this other realm due to the heavy atmosphere. If this should happen, the person is transported back to their own world, but not exactly to the same location they left from – and not always conscious. Some have suggested that Elisa could very well have succeeded in opening the portal that day while playing the Elevator Game but that she lost consciousness in the other realm and was transported into the water tower on the roof of the Cecil Hotel. Whether initially conscious or not, she likely came round soon after, removing her clothes, either so they didn’t weigh her down until she could get out of the water tower or due to hyperthermia, which can trick the mind into believing they are overheating.

As we might imagine, not many people subscribe to such theories, but the fact that Elisa’s actions have been interpreted, at least by some, as her taking part in the Elevator Game only adds to its mystique and appeal, itself another example of how the lines between real life, urban legend, and superstition can sometimes become so blurred they almost cease to exist. Indeed, while I personally do not believe Elisa was playing the Elevator Game, nor do I believe it played a role in her death, it is detailed here to show how such tragic events can become intertwined into an urban legend, which then only strengthens such legends and, ultimately, gives them life. The 2021 Netflix documentary Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel undoubtedly gave new life into interest for the Elevator Game, for example, as did the 2023 movie Elevator Game.

There are plenty of other accounts from people who claim to have performed the ritual and played the Elevator Game. And while we should take these accounts with a healthy pinch of salt, they are strangely interesting, nonetheless. What’s more, a common detail in most of them is the warning by those telling the accounts that people should not play the game, and they themselves regretted doing so.

One online user, who detailed his account anonymously, offered that he had successfully arrived at the tenth floor and, after avoiding speaking or acknowledging the woman-like entity, walked from the elevator to find himself in a long corridor lined with large doors. As expected, he seemed to be completely alone. Then, he began to feel the heaviness of the air and began struggling to take in a deep breath of air. Of more concern, he could see out of the corners of his eyes an “ink-like” energy or lifeforce climbing along the corridor. He turned and ran back to the elevator, performing the rituals in reverse, eventually finding himself back in the real world, or, at least, kind of. The anonymous witness offered that even though he had made it back to the real world, he somehow still felt connected to this other realm, adding that each time he fell asleep, he worried he would wake up in this alternative dimension.

Another online account, interestingly or not, eludes to a very similar outcome of allegedly playing the Elevator Game. According to the account, the young lady, who performed the ritual at an undisclosed building in downtown Atlanta, did so in order to prove to her boyfriend that the Elevator Game wasn’t real. Once at their location, she entered the elevator alone. She performed the floor selections, doing so almost nonchalantly, fully expecting nothing to happen. Then, when she arrived at the fifth floor, the strange woman got onto the elevator. The woman wrote that she “never had an opportunity to not look at her” because she was looking right in her direction when the doors opened and she walked into the carriage.

The witness looked away immediately, but she could recall the woman appeared like a “tiny blond”, “pretty”, with “striking green eyes and freckles!” The young woman, still telling herself that there was nothing at all to it, although decidedly more nervous, pressed button “1” on the control panel several times in an attempt to abort the game and return to the first floor, all the while ensuring she didn’t look in the figure’s direction again. Then, however, the woman started talking to her. She claimed that she had “been in an accident on the fifth floor” and asked the witness for help. The witness ignored her, facing forward. After several moments, the woman suddenly became enraged, throwing a string of profanities at the witness. The woman continued to ignore the outburst, all the while wondering why it was taking so long for the elevator to navigate only five floors.

Then, the profanities suddenly stopped, and a moment later, the woman-like entity began to weep, increasingly so, even wailing at one point. Strangely, and for reasons the witness didn’t understand, she began to feel a sudden rage towards the figure. And the more it cried, the more intense this rage grew. Before she realized what was happening, the witness reached for the woman’s blond hair and repeatedly smashed her head into the elevator wall. She did this again and again until blood began to spatter on the elevator doors. It was at this point that the witness realized the woman’s cries were no longer cries at all – they were cackles of laughter. A sudden cold realization went through the witness. She realized she had acted exactly as this non-human woman had wanted. Moreover, the witness had not only looked at the woman, but she had spoken and interacted with her. Her mind raced.

Then, the “bing” of the elevator brought her to her senses. They were on the first floor. The witness turned toward the woman, noticing with horror that she no longer looked pretty and young but almost demonic. Before she had a chance to move, the figure stepped out of the elevator and blocked the witness’s exit before the doors slid shut, trapping the witness inside. It began to ascend once more. Panicked, the witness began pressing buttons at random in an effort to halt the ascent. After several moments, it came to a stop. The “bing” sounded again, and the elevator doors opened. She looked out nervously, almost letting out a sigh of relief when she could see office workers and people answering phones in offices. She pressed the “1” button, the doors closed, and she progressed down to the first floor without further incident. She didn’t quite know what had happened; she was just relieved to be out of the elevator and out of the building. However, much like our previous anonymous online user, the ominous events were not quite over.

She had returned home and, after telephoning her boyfriend to tell him of her strange experience (he didn’t believe her, incidentally), she went to sleep. When she awoke, however, she found herself standing – fully dressed – in the middle of some kind of office building. She noticed how dim the lights were, and as she peered out of the window, she could see that the sky outside seemed to cast a “crimson sheen” over everything. She suddenly realized she was the only one there, and as she looked outside, she described the landscape as looking like a “dead city”.

It was then that she noticed an elevator ahead of her, with the floor display over the door telling her she was on the tenth floor. She walked towards the elevator and pushed the call button. The elevator arrived, the doors opened, and she stepped inside, pressing the “1” button immediately. When the doors opened, the strange crimson-red light was gone, and she found herself in the normal lobby of the building in which she had played the Elevator Game the previous day.

This happened every morning, with small changes each day. For example, after leaving the hotel lobby each morning, she began to see the young woman she had witnessed in the elevator in various crowds of people watching her. Before she could focus on her, however, she would disappear. Even stranger, after the sixth morning, she found the elevator was no longer working, and she had to take the stairs out of the building. Stranger still, each morning after that, the number of stairs appeared to increase, so much so that it was taking several hours to reach the lobby and leave. What’s more, she continued to see the young, blond woman during the day more and more. The last lines of the witness’s post expressed her fears that one morning, upon waking, she would find herself trapped in the empty building forever, trapped in that other dimension.

Although it is a different game and from a different country, the Bath Game, or Daruma San, has similar consequences to what the player of the Elevator Game in Atlanta experienced in the days that followed. Originating in Japan, the Bath Game is another ritual-like game that is said to result in the eventual manifestation of a ghostly woman.

According to the rules of the game, on the night the player chooses to begin the game, right before they are ready to go to bed, they must fill a bathtub with water, remove their clothes, turn out all the lights, and then step into the bathtub. With their eyes tightly closed, they should then wash their hair, repeating the phrase, “Daruma San Fell Down!” over and over again. It is said that while the person is doing this, an image of a woman standing in a bathtub will enter the player’s mind. They will then see the woman fall and poke out her right eye on one of the rusty taps of the bath. At this point, the player, still with their eyes closed, should ask out loud, “Why did you fall in the bathtub?”

The player must keep their eyes firmly shut, even if they feel a strange presence enter the room. After several moments, still without opening their eyes, the player should climb out of the bathtub and leave the bathroom, closing the door behind them. Once the door is firmly shut, the player can open their eyes. Following this, the player should go straight to bed. Upon waking the next morning, the game will begin immediately.

The player should expect to feel a strange presence close to them. What’s more, they will most likely see a woman with long, tangled, black hair out of the corner of their eye throughout the day. However, much like our Elevator Game player in Atlanta, whenever the player attempts to look at the woman head-on, she will no longer be there. Even more concerning, with each peripheral sighting of this strange woman, she will get that bit closer to the player. Indeed, the aim of the game is to keep as much distance between the player and this menacing-looking woman as possible.

It is said that this female spirit is particularly fond of the dark and water. With this in mind, it is recommended that the player not only stay away from dark spaces and rooms but also any type of running water. There is a command that the player can give to the woman – “Tomare!”, or “Stop!” – which will force her to stop and give the player time to put more distance between them and her. However, the more this command is used, the less amount of time it will stop the woman until it eventually becomes useless.

Whatever happens, the player must end the game before midnight. To do this, the player must have the woman in their sights over their right shoulder. At the same time, they must issue the command, “Kitta!” (or, “I cut you loose!”) while making a chopping motion with their arm. However, if the woman moves out of their sight – which, if she suspects you are about to end the game, she will do – then the command will fail.  

If the woman catches up to the player during the day or if the player fails to issue the Kitta command before midnight, then the player is, in effect, granting this entity permission to “enter their dreams!”

While the rituals themselves are very different, if we accept the Elevator Game player from Atlanta’s account as true and accurate for a moment, it is interesting to note the similarities of some kind of entity entering our world, with the player only seeing them out of the corners of their eyes, and with them disappearing by the time the player turns to face them. Might we suspect that many of these rituals – or, more to the point, the folklore and urban legends they have stemmed from – have some kind of common source or origin?

Plenty of people claim to have tried the Bath Game for themselves. The website livescifi.tv, for example, performed its own experiment with the ritual during a live stream in January 2015. Although it didn’t appear to document any manifestations of strange women with long, tangled hair, it did, interestingly or not, document some interesting Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP).

One player who did experience something rather strange while performing the Bath Game ritual documented their own particularly thought-provoking encounter online, stating that they began filling a bath with water at around 10 pm one evening. Ten minutes later, all the lights had been turned off and the player was in their bathtub ready to begin washing their hair. They shut their eyes and proceeded, calling out the sentence, “Daruma San fell down!” again and again.

To begin with, nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Then, after several minutes, a “clip” appeared in the player’s mind of a “beautiful Asian girl”. This sudden vision caused them to go “completely silent”. They also noticed what appeared to be a “calming song” that sounded similar to “bath sounds” appear in their head at the same time. After a minute or so, the player could see the girl stand in the bath and walk towards the taps. The player continued to watch the subsequent harrowing events in his mind as the young girl suddenly slipped and fell face-first onto the tap. He could see “the gore of her eye completely out of her face” and could hear her “scream of pain”. At this point, the calming music was no longer playing, and all he could hear was the young girl’s cries of pain and screams for help.

Suddenly, the “clip” was gone, and the player had to force themselves to keep their eyes shut. Before getting out of the bath, they called out the second sentence of the ritual, “Why did you fall in the bathtub?” Almost as soon as the words had left their lips, they could feel a “huge presence” behind them. Now, feeling more than a little panicked and still with their eyes tightly shut, they stood in the bath and carefully climbed out. As they were doing so, they understood that this ghostly presence was watching them, just hoping that they would fall and injure themselves in the same way as the young girl in the vision.

By 10:30 p.m., they had left the bathroom and closed the door. Finally able to open their eyes, they made their way to their bedroom and turned in for the night. However, only several hours later, the strange events would begin in full.

At around 3:30 am, as they usually did, the player awoke and ventured into the bathroom in order to get a drink of water. They took a few gulps from the glass and then returned to bed. Barley ten seconds later, though, their mind suddenly filled with visions of Daruma San, and they leaped out of bed. They suddenly realized that the game began as soon as the player opened their eyes, meaning they “had to run!” They dressed as quickly as they could and ran out of the house. Not long after, they thought they could see someone behind them over their shoulder. When they turned around, however, there was no one there. They were under no illusions – what they had seen was Daruma San.

They continued to walk as fast as they could, reaching for their phone and calling their friend, Daniel. Despite the late hour and after several attempts, he picked up. As confused as he was, Daniel invited his friend to his house, where he then agreed to drive him to a local park so that the witness “had a good place to run if Daruma got close”. It was around 4 am when they arrived there. Not long after, both of the young men heard strange noises behind them. When the witness turned around, they saw Daruma San again.

The witness continued in their attempt to put as much distance between himself and this pursuing spirit. By 8 am, with both young men beginning to tire, Daniel began hearing noises behind them once more. This time, when the main witness turned around, Daruma San was standing behind them again. He could now see her full body, and she was much closer. Taking his chance, he viewed the woman over his shoulder and shouted out the “Kitta” command while making the chopping motion with his hand. The manifestation disappeared, and the sense of being followed that had been with him since he awoke in the middle of the night immediately disappeared.

What we should make of the account is open to debate. Perhaps the rather sudden and non-dramatic way that it ends, though, should make us contemplate that it might have been more authentic than many would wish to admit.

Another intriguing Internet ritual, and one that was at one time one of the most popular of such online rituals in the early 2010s, is known as the Three Kings Ritual, and, in a similar way to the Elevator Game, the ritual is said to open a doorway to another dimension – the “Shadowside”, where the player is free to ask questions on anything they seek answers to. However, in an unsettling twist, the answers given to the participant are not forced to be true, meaning the powers providing these answers can choose to trick the player if they wish to. Ultimately, it is down to the participant to determine which answers are accurate and which are false.

Before the game can begin, the player needs to prepare the room, which should be completely empty and completely dark (ideally, a room without windows should be selected; however, if this is not possible, the player just needs to ensure that they cover the windows). Then, the player needs to set up three chairs. The first, which the player will eventually sit in, must face to the north and be positioned in the middle of the other two, which are both facing the middle chair. A mirror should then be placed on each side of the group of chairs so that when the player sits in the middle chair, they can see themselves in their peripheral vision in each mirror. Then, behind the middle chair – referred to in the game as the Throne – the player should place an electric fan and switch it on.

At this point, the player should leave the room, leaving the door wide open. They should then head to their bedroom, where they should leave several candles as well as a lighter or a box of matches near their bedside before setting their alarm for 3:30 am and going to sleep. When the alarm goes off, the player should immediately get out of bed but not turn on any of the lights. They should light one of the candles and head to the room with the chairs and mirrors that have been set up. It is important that the player is sitting in the middle chair no later than 3:33 am. Staring straight ahead into the darkness and without looking directly into the mirrors on either side of them, it is said that any questions they ask will now be answered.

The player must remain seated in the middle chair until exactly 4:44 am and must not let the candle burn out – otherwise, the ritual will end, and the game will be over. The player may feel a presence in the room with them, although they should not physically or verbally interact with this presence. Sometimes, this force will attempt to move the player from the chair during the ritual. If this were to happen – with the player no longer blocking it – the fan would blow out the candle and end the ritual, and ultimately, the presence would vanish.

If any of the following happens – the alarm clock fails to go off at exactly 3:30 am, the player doesn’t make it to the middle chair before 3:33 am if the player finds the door to the room shut, or if the player finds the fan turned off – they must abort the game immediately. To do this, they, and anyone else in the house, must leave the property immediately and not return until after 6 am.  

A similar ritualistic game is the Midnight Game, although it seems to have the potential for a violent conclusion. Unlike many of the other Internet rituals we have examined here, the Midnight Game is said to have its origins in ancient Pagan rituals that were used as harsh punishments for people who disobeyed the gods.

The player needs to undertake some preparation, ensuring they have a candle, a lighter or a box of matches, a pen and paper, a pin, and salt. As midnight approaches, the player needs to ensure they are in front of a wooden door. They then need to write their name on the piece of paper before pricking their finger on the pin and allowing a drop of their blood to fall onto the paper. They should then light the candle before turning off every light in the house. When this is done, the player should place the piece of paper in front of the wooden door and place the candle on top of it. They should then knock on the door a total of 22 times, ensuring that the twenty-second knock sounds out at the exact strike of midnight. They should then open the door, blow out the candle, and then close the door again immediately, after which they should then relight the candle.

The player has now “invited” the Midnight Man into their home and must move about constantly so they are not “caught” by him. Moreover, the player must ensure that the candle remains lit at all times during this three-hour and 33-minute period. If, for any reason, it does go out, the player has only 10 seconds to relight it. Failure to do so will lead to the Midnight Man catching you, with the only course of action left to the player being to surround themselves with a circle of salt and then to remain within that circle until 3:33 am. During this time, the player mustn’t go to sleep and must not turn on any of the lights in their house. It is also imperative that the player does not attempt to leave their house while the game is in progress. And just to add to the pressures of the game, once it has been started, there is no way to abort it.

Once the player reaches 3:33 am, the game is over, and the Midnight Man will immediately disappear from your house. At this point, the player is free to turn on their lights and, essentially, to go about their business as usual.

One specific account documented online is particularly intriguing. The account featured an anonymous player and their friend – who they dubbed “Ryan” in the online report – when they were teenagers sometime around 2012 or 2013 in an unknown location somewhere in America. Finding themselves alone one evening with his mother at his grandparents’ house providing care, the witness telephoned Ryan asking if they wished to play the Midnight Game. He did.

Ultimately, they did all the necessary preparation and performed the ritual, knocking at the stroke of midnight. From there, not taking the game too seriously, they began moving around the darkened house, ensuring their candles stayed lit as they did so. Then, just before 1 am, as the witness raised their candle to look at his watch, it “just went out!” He quickly relit it in less than five seconds, but he was now panicked, not least as he couldn’t think just what had caused the candle to go out so suddenly in the first place. Moments after, Ryan began to hear a strange whispering close by. The two young men decided to move to another room.

By 1:40 am, they had decided to keep moving between what seemed to be the least threatening rooms of the house, the kitchen, and the garage. For a time, things appeared to calm somewhat. However, when they realized they had left the salt they may require for the game in the bedroom, their sense of anxiety rose once more. They made their way to the bedroom as quickly as they could without risking the flames from their candles going out. The witness saw the salt in front of his computer monitor and reached for it. As soon as he touched it, the entire room suddenly went icy cold.

The witness turned around, looking for Ryan, who had been right behind him only moments earlier. Then he saw the glow of his candle coming around the corner of the hallway. It was then, out of the corner of his eye, that he saw the strange, tall figure sitting right in the middle of the bed. The witness immediately ran out of the room into the hallway. As he rounded the corner, he almost bumped into Ryan. His wide eyes told him that Ryan must have seen something untoward also.

For the next hour and a half, they remained on the east side of the house, away from the bedroom where the witness had seen the bizarre figure. Once more, things settled down initially. Then, at around 2:45 am, the witness saw the tall, dark figure again, this time right in front of them near the window. He immediately got up and ran. However, in a bizarre set of circumstances, at that exact time, a portion of the ceiling came crashing down nearby, forcing him to the ground. Much to his surprise, his candle was still lit – but Ryan’s wasn’t. He urged him to relight it, but then noticed that instead of doing so, his friend had grabbed the salt and was creating a circle of it around them. When he had completed it, the witness blew out his candle.

They remained in the circle until 3:33 am, and even then, they remained inside it for several minutes afterward. When they dared to move, they turned on all the lights in the house. The witness, though, claimed to suffer from overly intense nightmares in the days and weeks that followed, as did Ryan. Of more concern, the witness claimed that he suspected the Midnight Man was somehow still with them, just biding his time.   

The fact that the Three Kings game and the Midnight Game need to be played or performed around 3 am is also perhaps of interest. Although there are no solid facts behind this, many in the paranormal world offer that the hours between midnight and 4 am are when paranormal activity appears to be most active, with the hour after 3 am seemingly the most active of all.

There are three possibilities to consider here. Firstly, and perhaps most likely, through the many Hollywood blockbusters and B-movie horror flicks of the later years of the twentieth century, we have been conditioned to treat the hours between midnight and 4 am as the hours when events of a paranormal nature are most likely to occur. Or perhaps it is, for reasons unknown, these hours of the day are genuinely more prone to paranormal occurrences. The third possibility is that we are hardwired to be fearful of these hours from the experiences of our cave-dwelling ancestors. Given humans, generally speaking, are asleep during these hours, they are at their most vulnerable, especially from nocturnal predators. Therefore, we are also perhaps at our most alert to danger, and consequently, this heightened state of mind causes us to pick on things we wouldn’t normally pick up on and perhaps perceive them incorrectly.

Of course, it could very well be the case that the reality of the situation is a combination of all three of those possibilities, a suggestion that once again shows that both the paranormal world and the potential powers of the human mind are yet to be fully understood.

Without a doubt, one of the most unsettling of these Internet rituals is another one that originates from Japan and is known as the Red Man Ritual, not least as it appears no one actually knows how or when this ritual ends. This might suggest, given that there are clear instructions on how to perform the ritual, that either it doesn’t work or, perhaps more terrifying, that it very much does. As its name suggests, the ritual itself is said to summon the manifestation of a “red man”. However, there is no information on who this red man is or where he comes from. Perhaps of more concern, once the ritual has been started, much like the Midnight Game, there is no known way to abort it.

Unlike many of the other rituals we have explored, the Red Man ritual can be played at any time of day, with the only stipulation being that it must be played in a room that is in complete darkness. To prepare for the game, the player should cut out the shape of a man from a piece of paper. Using red lipstick, they should then draw a line down the “back” of the man. On the left side of this line, they should write their name, and on the right, they should write the word Rubeus, the Latin word for “red”.

The paper man should then be placed in between two mirrors that are facing each other. On the mirror to the paper man’s left, again using the red lipstick, the player should draw a pair of eyes. Then, at the following clock positions – 12 O’clock, 2 O’clock, 5 O’clock, 7 O’clock, and 10 O’clock - place a candle around the paper man, with the paper man’s head pointing directly towards the 12 O’clock position and his feet facing towards the 6 O’clock position.

At this point, the player should turn out all of the lights (and if playing during the day, ensure that the windows are completely covered so that the room is in complete darkness). They then must light the candles in the exact following order – 7 O’clock, 12 O’clock, 5 O’clock, 10 O’clock, and 2 O’clock. Using a pair of scissors, the player must then cut the paper man in half up the middle of the torso, placing the left-hand side nearer the left mirror and the right-hand side nearer the right mirror (although they should ensure that the paper man remains within the circle of candles).

The player should sit in front of the circle of candles and the cut-up paper man, close their eyes, and then say the following command five times, “Please come. Please come. I will not move until you come!” Then, in a similar way to how they were lit, the player should blow out each of the candles in the following order – 12 O’clock, 7 O’clock, 10 O’clock, 2 O’clock, and 5 O’clock. Moments after this, the Red Man is said to appear in the room. However, perhaps most chilling of all, no one knows what happens next.

With this potentially grim and ominous end to this ritual, we might wonder if there are any accounts on Internet forums from people who claim to have played it. And, unbelievably or not, there are. One of the most interesting was broadcast on the AmysCrypt YouTube channel, during which they not only captured several strange orbs following the ritual but also captured some interesting EVP, including what appeared to be the word “Pagan”. Considering the apparent Pagan origins of the Midnight Game ritual, we might wonder if the Red Man ritual, despite its origins being in Japan, might have deeper roots that stretch back, perhaps even into pre-history, to some kind of global belief system.

Although there aren’t many accounts from people who have played it to be found online compared to some of the other Internet rituals we have mentioned here, it is still worth our time to look at the Hosting Game (sometimes referred to as “Don’t Look Back”). It is a game that is to be played while alone in the house and is said to allow the player to communicate with spirits from the other side.

Similarly to the Midnight game, this game is ideally played in a room without windows, but as long as the windows are covered so the room is in complete darkness, the ritual will work. This room is known as the hosting room, and it is up to the player concerned which room of the house this should be. Once this room is selected, the player should arm themselves with a pen and paper, a clock or watch (not a digital one or a mobile phone), and three matches and a matchbox to strike them on.

The player should place the pen and paper inside the hosting room, ensuring that the light is left on. They should then go to the furthest room away from the hosting room in their house. Once there, they should state out loud, “I’ll be ready soon!” before turning off any lights or electrical devices or appliances and then heading to the next room and doing the same thing. This should be repeated for every room in the house until the player has arrived back at the hosting room. Once here, they should retrieve the pen and paper and write, “You are invited! A gathering, hosted by (your name), takes place from the (the time) to (the time an hour later). Bring your friends!” The player should then set the alarm to go off in an hour, place the paper on the floor of the room, and walk to the doorway. While facing into the room, the player should then state, “I’m ready – come on in!”

As soon as the player has made this statement, they must turn around immediately and switch off the light. From this point on, they mustn’t turn around or look into the hosting room. Then, with their back to the hosting room, the player should count out loud from one to ten. After this, they should strike the first match. However, it is important to only attempt to strike it once. If, for any reason, it doesn’t light, the player should drop it and move on to the second match. If it does light, the player should call out, “I’m so glad to see you – thank you for coming!” They should then move on to the second match. Once more, say the previous statement after lighting it, dropping it to the floor, and moving on to the third one if it doesn’t light.

Once the third match is lit, the player should then say, “Now everyone is here” before counting out loud once more from one to ten. At this point, they should be able to feel a strange presence around them as spirits enter the hosting room, which the player must keep their back to at all times. If all three matches fail to light on the first attempt, it could mean that a malicious spirit has entered the room, and the player should step forward to the first available light source and switch it on to abort the game. Once the alarm goes off, the player should say out loud, “Thanks for coming! Goodbye!” and then turn on the nearest light.

One thing to be mindful of if playing the Hosting Game is that even though merely turning a light on will end the ritual and abort the game, many who have played it offer that at least some of these spirits remain in the property afterward, and may require a “cleansing” to force them to leave fully. Even more unsettling, some people claim that following performing this ritual, they can no longer enter darkened rooms in their respective properties, feeling a disturbing presence there until the light is switched on.

Indeed, this ritual, like all of the others we have delved into here, gives us a lot to think about. One thing would appear to be certain – the interest in Internet rituals and the dark side of both the paranormal and the real world is widespread and deeply held. Does this suggest that the world is much more of a mysterious place than many would like to think it is and that the realms of the paranormal and the supernatural are more of a reality than we are told?

Or does it illustrate the deep psychological impact that participating in supernatural rituals – whether they are real or imagined – can have on individuals? A combination of belief in such things with the fear and paranoia generated by these experiences, while only temporary for most, can be long-lasting, perhaps even life-altering for some. Indeed, as we have touched on earlier, such experiences can lead to a distinct blurring of the line between reality and the imagined.

The creator of one of the platforms that hosted accounts of the Three Kings game, r/threekings, who goes by the name of FableForge, offered in an interview in 2020, “The real world is not enough for many of us. We want to believe there is more out there”, adding that “many think the world would be better if magic was real, even if it’s hidden behind silly rituals and contraptions!”

As another online user stated in a well-known discussion forum, “The cultural perception of such things are real, but not the entities themselves!” There is arguably a lot of truth to such statements. However, as we discussed in our article asking if all paranormal events were somehow connected, how much does that cultural perception transform into something not just perceived but physically manifested?

If we recall the experiments conducted by livescifi.tv with the Bath Game, while they didn’t manage to get the entity in question to manifest (at least not to the best of our knowledge), they did capture some quite remarkable EVPs. Could it be that these ritualistic practices, designed to allow these otherworldly entities to manifest in our realm, did result in the livescifi.tv crew capturing evidence of their presence, but because they perhaps didn’t necessarily believe the entity would manifest, it didn’t. Put another way, part of the energy these entities rely on to physically manifest in our world perhaps resides in our individual belief in them.

Could the power of perception cause an entity to manifest here in the real world? Do these speculative entities use the power of our emotions and beliefs (perception!) to strengthen themselves in order to take form? Perhaps this is what is meant about opening portals – maybe they are not physical portals as we might imagine, but simply portals that allow an energy form to exist in our realm of existence instead of its own; an energy form that both feeds and feeds off our life force.

With this in mind, perhaps another detail that resonates not only among many of the Internet rituals we have explored here but also among other entities from the world of the paranormal and urban legend is the apparent “invite” of the participant to the otherworldly entity that eventually manifests. This, of course, is remarkably similar to legends of vampires, black-eyed children, and, to a much lesser extent, even poltergeists – that only through some kind of invitation or permission can they enter a property or a space. Once more, this is another detail that suggests that many aspects of these Internet rituals could connect to the realm and realities of the paranormal.

Ultimately, as unlikely as it might seem, perhaps by studying some of these Internet rituals - not just the rituals themselves and their consequences but also their roots and origins - we might begin to get a better handle on the murky paranormal world that surrounds each and every one of us, as well as how we perceive and shape that world.