CREATIVE IDEAS WANTED

I'm posting this request on this thread,(and NOT on CHIT-CHAT),because I know this is where "THOSE WHO KNOW" go.I'm hosting a Halloween party for kids 10 or 11 years old.As part of the festivities,we are going to do a fake seance.We want to manifest some ghostly phenomena,and we're going to use some black light.We have some ideas,but I thought I'd see what kind of genius ideas ATS members have.We have a limited budget,but we do work in professional theatre and production,so we do have access to some things that the average person doesn't.REMEMBER,THESE ARE CHILDREN-I don't want to scar them for life,I want to give them a good fright.I want these gaffs to be realistic.I have a space about 12'X10'-a nice,little space where I will have a table with 6 or 7 kids.I will have black duvatine drops to work with. I also have a vaulted ceiling to work with,so gaffs that require some headroom are good. I wish I had something to give in return for the ideas,but,alas I'm just a new member who's looking for ideas from those who feel like sharing. I'm also interested in recipes for the party that are disgusting looking,but tasty.
I want to thank you in advance for your help, and you have my gratitude.I'd like to thank you all for helping me scare the crap out of these kids!!!!(ALL IN GOOD FUN. NO CHILDREN WILL BE EATEN DURING THIS PRODUCTION......this time.....)

hmm....this sounds fun and interesting, so let me give you some ideas. First of all if I may ask how many people (not including yourself) are going to help you with this?

first:
make sure that all the parents are "cool" with the idea... some people i know in the bible belt would start freakin out ....
get a tesla coil (or cheap decoration version) and use it as a "spirit sensor" to be turned on secretly when the "spirit arrives" a little fan hidden somewhere might give the appropriate "draft" that always accompanies this.
a nice beginning with a oujia board might get the kids in the mood.

i used to know a coven that did something similiar for one of the kids and their freinds, the parents all wigged and came and got there kids away from the " evil doers". remember, some sheeple are crazy with seriousness

Exposing children to black arts is a bad, even if its only fake, you may also have a tirade of angry parents after you for demonising their little angels. You're giving them a bad example by showing black arts can be fun, i implore you NOT to do this for their sakes.

its best to stick with the spaghetti brains and grape eyeballs.

My view was somewhere between those of LazarusTheLong and Nerdling, what they have already said.

Heaps of parents will allow 11-12 year olds to watch gore and splatter filled Hollywood rubbish with plenty of occult elements to boot. The recent parade of witchcraft and occult TV shows pitched at an age group just a little older is more evidence of the pervasiveness of this theme.

If the aim is to show that a seance can be faked, and to show afterwards that it was fake, I still think this age group might be a little young in their development.

Magnets are obviously useful for manifesting movements on the table.

Carefully lighting some old photos of departed old people in a corner has an interesting subliminal effect.

Fanning in cold air is also important.

But I wouldn't do any of it for kids, myself.

I would recommend you opt for the old-fashioned haunted house theme.

The children will go home and discuss with there parents what they experienced (which is the right thing to do) not all may agree with your idea of good clean fun.

You could probably get away with having someone crawl out of a makeshift TV if you did it that way, but if the theme is a s�ance and you did the same thing, you
would probably get letters.

As mentioned, one of the most important things is the atmosphere. A good advice is to use scary and atmospheric music. I could recommend some artists for you...

Elend - Elend is extremely dark and at times scary music. It�s a dark gothic form of Darkwave performed with classical compositions. Great parts of organ and violin, with opera vocals and depressive chants. Some songs also have desperate screaming vocals that are supposed to symbolise Lucifer (Elend has a three cd series released on Holy Records, where they tell the tale of Lucifer�s fall from heaven). Some of Elend�s music might scare children. The most recent Elend album, released earlier this year doesn�t have the desperate screaming vocals� so it�s probably more appropriate for children.

Skepticism - This is dark funeral Doom Metal. Slow, heavy and simple riffs in the background, accompanied by scary organ and dark growls. Might also scare children, but would really make a good atmosphere... not as good as Elend though.

Nirnaeth - Also Darkwave music, much as Elend, but with a more epic feel. Nirnaeth also use guitar solos in the vein og Era from time to time.

Limbonic Art - Now, Limbonic art is basically Black Metal, so the kids might feel that the music make more noise than atmosphere... but the band got some #ing GREAT horror compositions as intros on their first album... Moon In The Scorpio.
�.

You should also use a lot of candles. Candles create a great atmosphere. And try to use a lot of black and dark colours� Don�t let pink, purple and blue object lie around to # up the evil atmosphere, hehe.

I used to turn several rooms in our house into horror scenes when I was a kid, hehe. I used to pour red colour essence over my sister�s dolls and hang them by their neck from the ceiling. I also used dead branches from the forest to make things look grim (remember to collect them from the ground� don�t hurt the forest by breaking them of living trees). I also used a lot of barbwire� but I guess that�s out of the question in your chase, hehe.

Well, that all the advice I have for now... I'll post again if I suddently get a good idea. Hehe, love things like this

#1:We are talking to parents about the whole thing first.
#2:We are only inviting children we know whom we feel can handle this.
#3:We are going to reveal at the end that it was all done with tricks.
#4:We are not going to use a Ouija board,so as not to promote the use of such an item.Think "Turn of the Century" Spiritualism,not "House of 1000 Corpses".-
We're going 'Old School'-you know-fun-not gore.
#5:I'm talking more like magic tricks and gaffs,not "pretending" to call up every demon Lovecraft listed.
#666(couldn't resist):We know better than to traumatize kids,or to promote "Black Magic".It's going to be a lot of theatre with a few good gaffs.I want to recreate some of that old stuff Houdini was fond of exposing.

#3:We are going to reveal at the end that it was all done with tricks.

Ah, no... you can't do that to a child, hehe. I know that if I had attanded something as exiting as this as a child, I would have been so disappointed if someone told me it was just trics afterwards, hehe. It would be like Santa... only 10,000 times worse.

It's of course ok to tell them it was just trics if some of them get really scared though.

*15,15*
HAHA Halloween!!
Being a Christian, I don't "celebrate" Halloween, but I still used to dress up.
If you want good effects, get someone to pose as a Necromancer with pyrokinesis.
It's quite simple...

Get 70% Isopropyl alchohol and mix with water 1 part per 1 part. 35% alchohol does not work.
With this solution, you may light anything, I mean ANYTHING on fire and it will not burn. I lit my hand on fire and through alchohol soaked tennis balls that were on fire.
Great trick.

Cheap too, but practice first, if you use the wrong solution you get burned...
As for Houdini, I never was a good escape artist, sorry.

Cheers,
- Tass *40*

but mind you any entities that stay in the physical realm to contact you have to be demons...

and i dont think that is what you want to play around with...

yet that is the day of pumpkin worship in a state supposedly founded on christian ideals...

if you try it will be, yet why try and not just be...

The best advice I can offer is just say no to candy corn.

Have to go with Nerdling on this one....especially where the Ouija board is concerned!

There's a number of good haunted house sites with explainations on how to make some fairly simple "spooks." I tend to like the 'mysteriously appearing eyes' sorts of things.

Good sound effects are fun (throw in something like Scooby Doo to make it silly and reassure them.) In addition, you can do some divinations (predicting the future) with M&Ms ... pick a bag of M&Ms (one of the halloween sized ones), and the number of red ones in there shows the number of times you'll get kissed (this will produce a BIG 'eEEEEeeeeeeeEEEEWWWWW!') in the next year, the number of blue ones shows the number of wishes that will come true (and so forth. Make up stuff.)

(by the way, I read Tarot cards at a haunted house (commercial one) and this M&M divination is something I'm working on.)

And then there's the About.Com pages. About is annoying, but there's decent links:
familycrafts.about.com...

What the frock is a FAKE seance?????? I have never heard such a thing.

First things first. Make a cute little haunted house for the kiddies. Peel the skin off grapes for eyeballs. Spaghetti for brains etc etc.

Second, FORGET THE "FAKE" SEANCE. Unless you TRUELY know what you are doing, do not do it. Fake or not, a seance is a seance, and with children of that age, I would not for one second recommend this. If you manage to bring something through that follows one of these kids home, how are you going to live with yourself???

All it takes is an invitation (invocation) to bring a spirit through. No rituals fake or otherwise need practiced. If you practice this, even if fake, you muct know how to control it.

****Soapbox off*****