Phantom Hands (indoor game)

Players: 2 or more; Lamp Keeper
Materials: Hooded desk lamp

More of a trick than a game, Phantom Hands will still amuse your friends, if not spook them out of their wits. It’s a great stunt for a Halloween Party.

This trick works by fooling the eyes into seeing something that isn’t really there through the effect of retinal afterimage. You’ve probably already experienced something like it when a flashbulb popped in your face.

Choose one player to be the Lamp Keeper. The lamp itself should be of the metal-hooded variety, easily switched on and off, and with a good strong light that the Lamp Keeper can direct downward.

For the trick to work, you’ll need to darken the room completely; so choose a place in the room near a light switch. Players sit in a tight circle on the floor. Each player places one hand in the center of the circle so that the hands pile up. The Lamp Keeper places the lamp directly over the hands without blocking any player’s view of the hands.

When everyone sits comfortably, the Lamp Keeper gets up and switches off the room light. He instructs everyone to sit quietly and keep their hands very still. The silent sitting continues for at least 2 minutes so that players’ eyes adjust to the darkness.

The Lamp Keeper then instructs the players to look down in the general direction of the piled hands. He flashes the light for no more than a second, revealing the hands. He then tells the players to slowly remove their hands from the circle but to keep their eyes fixed to where they saw the hands.

If these instructions have been followed carefully, each player will “see” a perfect photographic image of the pile of hands appearing before him in the darkness. The image will be a ghostly blue or pink. Invite the players to carefully move their real hands to touch the phantom hands. Creepy!

Collected from The Little Giant Book of Kids’ Games by Glen Vecchione